A Chocolate Lover's Dream : )

This year our office decided to celebrate employee birthdays by giving each other a cake on our special day!  To make the tradition fair we each drew a name from a hat, and on that person's birthday are responsible for providing them with a cake.  I was so excited about this because I love to bake, and just so happened to draw the name of one of the doctors with a known love for chocolate.

I've made some delicious chocolate cakes before and like trying new recipes, my favorite so far being a flour-less spicy chocolate cake.  In preparation for the celebration I questioned Dr. G about his favorite cake, and was admittedly a little disappointed when he replied that a simple milk chocolate cake with chocolate or white icing would suite his fancy.  Where's the fun in that?!?

With his birthday  approaching on Tuesday,  I got down to business Monday night to find a great recipe and  bake him the best chocolate cake ever... And that's just what I did : )  (After some consideration to a healthy low-fat recipe, I opted to splurge and use a regular recipe that would be healthy for the soul ; ) rather than experiment with a recipe that could possibly be a let down.)  Leave it to Google to provide spot on results- the second listing was a recipe for "The Best Chocolate Cake Ever!"   It moist-chocolate-deliciousness and was devoured by 2 pm!

1 box devil’s food cake mix
1 small pkg Jello instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla (I omitted this b/c I didn't have any on hand)
2 cups mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a very large bowl, mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be thick. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into cake pan of choice (I normally use two 9-inch pie pans). For cooking time, I use the cooking times on the back of the devil’s food cake box as a guide and usually add 10 mins to whatever it says. Then I do the toothpick check, and if it’s not done, I check on it every 5 mins after that. It usually takes around 45 mins for two, 9-inch pie pans.

Read More http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dessert/the-best-chocolate-cake.html#ixzz1KD2zSxJ5

I'm a bit of a habitual eater...

I haven't posted in a while in fear that the meals I eat are so similar they won't appeal to my readers.  In the past few weeks I've continued to take pics of my meals with the intention of posting as soon as I found time, but when I sat down to make the post realized that all of the meals are so similar!  (I was also deterred because of the quality of the pics- they're all taken from my phone and definitely do not meet my creative standards)

As mentioned before, I only cook for myself and therefore have an abundance of the same ingredients.  Instead of making one large meal and eating the same left overs day after day, I split the ingredients and make different meals with them throughout the week.  One night I may have the vegetables mixed with hummus and the next with salsa, or my wrap may be filled with egg white on Monday and turkey on Tue.  (Saturday and Sunday are usually filled with enough variety to satisfy my splurge cravings until the next weekend.)

While I enjoy the meals, I have little faith that the average person/family would be content with such similar meals.  My new goal is to find easy, healthy recipes that appeal to a variety of palates, and will satisfy day to day cravings for everyone!

4/3/11 Mixed Veggies with Newman's Own Peach Salsa



4/4/11 Grilled Chicken on an English Muffin with Sauteed Mushrooms, Onions, and Spicy Mustard, side of Mixed Veggies and                   Peach Salsa



4/16/11  Banana Oatmeal Pancakes Topped with Peaches and Honey  (The dish on the side is a recipe in progress, I'll update you                 on it soon!)



4/16/11 Mini Garlic Lover's Hummus Wrap, Baked Sweet Potato with Peach Salsa on the Side, Toasted Brussel Sprouts and Chic                    Peas



4/17/11  Lite Italian Flat Out Wrap Stuffed with Garlic Lover's Hummus, Turkey, Grape Tomatos, and Lettuce, Toasted Brussel                       Sprouts with Spicy Mustard as a Side



4/19/11  See the above but subtract the turkey and add egg white and toasted brussels in the wrap.  Sweet Potato with Cinnamon                     on the Side.

4/20/11 Turkey and Tomato Lettuce Wrap with Spicy Brown Mustard, Sweet Potato, and Mixed Veggies with Newman's Own                         Black Bean and Corn Salsa



A frequent favorite is to mix cooked bulgar wheat, garlic hummus, grape tomatoes, and whatever assortment of steamed veggies I have available at the time.  Pop it in the microwave and enjoy for a quick and easy lunch.

My First Half Marathon... Mission Accomplished!!!

This past Sunday I completed my first half-marathon... the Flying Pirate on the Outer Banks of N.C.  Yay!!!  It was an amazing experience, and I plan to post details and pics soon : )

Sweet as Sugar : )

When you hear the word sugar, does it have a negative connotation?  For many, it does...  But it doesn't have to!  With all of the negativity surrounding sugar because of it's ability to cause health problems such as diabetes, obesity, and tooth decay, it has earned a pretty bad rep.  While these things are undoubtedly real issues related to sugar intake, that doesn't mean we have to cut it out of our diet completely.

With all of the differences of opinion about including sugar in your diet, I thought I'd share some info to help clear up the rumors...

The Good:

1.  Sugar is natural!  It's comes from sugar cane, which is actually a species of grass.  Natural is a plus.

2.  It is used by our body as fuel and provides energy.

3.  It is included in the food guide pyramid as allowable in your daily diet.

4.  Sugars are found naturally in many fruits and vegetables.

The Bad:

Added sugars- this is where we get into trouble.  The sugars found in many food products have been added for flavoring.  Added sugars are also often found in foods with high calorie and fat contents.  Thus, consuming sugar may not be the primary issue- it's consuming large amounts of sugar accompanied by unhealthy fats.  Cookies, cakes, soft drinks, crackers, and the majority of processed, packaged foods have added sugars added that provide little to no nutrients... in other words, empty calories.  The whole point of eating is to provide our bodies with the nutrients needed.  As mentioned previously sugars are needed to provide us with energy and fuel, but only in moderation and in addition to other healthy sources of energy such as lean protein.

The key to including sugar in your diet is to do so in moderation.

• Try to balance your intake of natural sugars by choosing veggies and fruits with moderate sugar content, or compensating those of high sugar content with another that has little to none.


• Consume added sugars sparingly.  We have an allotted amount of discretionary calories for our daily intake.  This means we have a certain amount of calories to consume as we please once our nutrient caloric needs have been fulfilled.  Check out this article  for a great explanation of discretionary calories http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/discretionary_calories.html

To become more aware of the added sugars you consume, I have included the following list containing some of the many ways sugar may be named in an ingredients list...

• Brown sugar


• Corn sweetener


• Corn syrup


• Sugar molecules ending in “ose” (dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, sucrose)


• High-fructose corn syrup


• Fruit juice concentrates


• Honey


• Invert sugar


• Malt sugar


• Molasses


• Raw sugar


• Sugar


• Syrup

Food For Thought!

1 tsp of sugar = about 4 g and 16 cal

Lets say we drink a 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew...

The nutrition label lists the sugar content of this drink to be 31 g of sugar per 8 oz.

 A 20 oz bottle contains 2.5 servings.

2.5 x 31 = 77.5

Therefore you consume 77.5 g of sugar per 20 oz bottle.

Now convert this number to teaspoons using the conversion above...

77.5/4 =  19.375

A 20 oz bottle of Mountain Dew contains nearly 20 tsps of sugar!!!  Wow!  That's definitely food for thought!