Monthly Archives: February 2012
Chocolate Yogurt Ice
February 15, 2012
Yogurt is widely used across the globe nowadays, and we know all too well that it's a renowned health food. It derived its name from the Turkish word "yogurur", meaning "long life".
Research has it that a cup of plain yogurt, which is around 240 mg, purportedly contains 140 calories. Not so bad for a tasty treat, eh?
More to these, regular consumption of yogurt is said to have several health benefits, and among those is that it aids in better absorption of the nutrients you get from other food.
It is a highly nutritious food on its own, containing numerous health benefits that include protein, calcium, riboflavin, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12.
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Valentine’s Day Chocolate
February 14, 2012
Valentine's Day is many things to different people. It can be a shot at new beginnings, rekindling old flames, or a chance to show your special someone how you feel about them. To others, it can be a cold splash of reminder that they are alone on a supposedly lovey-dovey day. No matter what your expectations and reservations about Valentine's Day are, you cannot deny the fact that chocolate is a staple during Valentine's Day.
From the time of the Aztecs, chocolate has always been an effective gift. For a reason not fully known to man, it is, by some means, a magical way to say "I love you." Chocolate is a lot more than just food. A quote from Patrick Skene Catling, the author of the children's book entitled The Chocolate Touch, even says "Other things are just food. But chocolate's chocolate." True enough, even the scientific name of the tree which chocolate has been derived from, Theobroma cacao, translated from Greek, means "food of the gods."
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Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips
February 13, 2012
Jelly Belly makes chocolate coated jelly beans called Chocolate Dips, and they are addicting!
Never before had it crossed my mind, while eating a jelly bean, that it might taste better wrapped in chocolate. And, yet, here I am munching on Very Cherry flavored Chocolate Dips and I can't stop. The whole bag is gone, and so is my shapely waist. 🙂
These jelly beans weren't just grabbed off the line and thrown under a chocolate curtain. The jelly beans have definitely been altered because there is no hard sugar shell. The bean has been panned (rolled around in a revolving drum while being sprayed with a thin chocolate coating) with the chocolate covering the gooey jelly bean center.
The dark chocolate coating is a real chocolate made with cocoa butter. The chocolate by itself lacks a strong chocolatey flavor. Nonetheless, it is chocolatey enough! Besides, you don't want to melt away the coating first. Instead, chew up the combination together to get the full enjoyment of fruit and chocolate. The texture is perfect.
I thought the cherry Jelly Bellies was evenly balanced, neither the chocolate nor the cherry overpowering the other.
In addition to cherry, there are orange, raspberry, coconut, strawberry, and mint flavors.
To me, jelly beans are really sweet, too sweet, and I can eat only a few. The best thing about the chocolate dips is that the sweetness is toned down and a pretty authentic flavor replaces it.
The six flavors of dips get an OMG! declaration from me.
Chocolate Cake With Breakfast
February 10, 2012
If cake doesn't work for you, maybe you can get your hand down the chocolate cookie jar? If you'd like a scoop of chocolate ice cream, go ahead and suit yourself.
If perhaps that appears to be ridiculous, I’ll let you in on some new findings from the researchers at Tel Aviv University. They found out that incorporating dessert together with a well-balanced 600-calorie breakfast, which has proteins and carbohydrates, enables those on a diet to drop some pounds and maintain it over the long haul.
Researchers sorted 193 clinically obese, non-diabetic adults into two groups. The groups were given practically the same low-carbohydrate diets of 1,400 calories each day for women and 1,600 calories a day for men. However, one group had been provided with a low-carbohydrate 300-calorie breakfast and the other had been supplied with a 600-calorie breakfast which was loaded with protein and carbohydrates, and constantly came with a dessert.
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Chocolate And Stearic Acid
February 9, 2012
Suffice it to say, chocolate is all the rage this time of the year since it's already Valentine’s Day next week. Chocolates have always had a track record of being a delectable treat yet considered as a no-no food, especially with the figure-conscious. In the present day, studies have revealed that chocolate turns out to have a handful of nutritional benefits and is not conclusively a food taboo.
Regardless of the fact that chocolate contains saturated fat, scientific studies indicate that consumption of chocolate does not have any influence on the level of cholesterol in your blood. This is possible for the reason that not every saturated fat is the same. The fat found in chocolate is derived from cocoa butter, the natural fat present in cocoa beans.
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Snickers Pie
February 8, 2012
If you're expecting some friends or family members to come over to your house, and you happen to be clueless about what to serve for dessert, fret not. Snickers Pie can come to your rescue.
It consists of Snickers candy bars which, apparently, were invented by Frank Mars in 1930. He allegedly put in some chocolate to an already existing snack, and then named it after one of his family's favorite horses. This candy bar is basically composed of roasted peanuts and caramel mixture on top of a bar of nougat, all covered in milk chocolate. Just a bit of trivia; each Snickers bar is said to contain approximately 16 peanuts.
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Southern Ocean County’s Chocolate Week
February 7, 2012
If you plan on heading to southern Ocean County (in the Long Beach Island region of New Jersey) within February 11 to February 20, 2012, and happen to love chocolate, then you're in for a treat.
Southern Ocean County's Chocolate Week, which is taking place on the dates mentioned above, was developed with that premise, according to Lori Pepenella who is the destination marketing manager for the Southern Ocean County Chamber of Commerce.
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So Sweet Chocolate and Ice Sculpture Festival
February 3, 2012
Valentine's Day is just around the corner and several events are already planned out in celebration of the love season, one of which is the 10th annual Salem's So Sweet Chocolate and Ice Sculpture Festival happening on February 10-14.
Chocolate tasting and over fifteen sparkling and humongous ice sculptures are expected in the city center of Salem. Ice Sculpture Themes include the SSU Viking, a crystal snowflake, a single-room room school house, TinTin and Snowy, a dragon, Marilyn Monroe, and the Salem Witch. Huge discounts, along with free chocolate are also to be expected from a lot of many business establishments downtown.
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Authentic Mexican Hot Chocolate
February 2, 2012
Chocolate, a native to Mexico, has been a staple there for centuries already. Initially, they enjoyed chocolate as a drink. They made variations og chocolate by incorporating different flavors and ingredients such as honey, spices, and nuts, among many others. The chocolate beverages they made did not have a sweet taste to them. Nevertheless, it was well-loved by the Aztec and Mayan royalty.
The Aztecs were whipping up and enjoying their hot chocolate drinks when the Spaniards arrived. They took the cacao beans along with them as they headed home, and started enhancing the flavors by adding milk and sugar. You can trace the roots of the hot chocolate drink recipe back to that. Shortly thereafter, chocolate became all the rage in European royal places. Special china pots and cups were produced, intended only for drinking hot chocolate. Nowadays, such kitchenware are considered as collectors’ items and can sell for a fortune if they come in a complete set.
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Chocolate Carrot Cake
February 1, 2012
Plain chocolate cake is downright delicious, but at times, it can become such a bore. (Did I really say that?) And what better way to give it more oomph than putting in additional ingredients. Case in point: carrots.
One of the most sought-after nutritional benefits you can get from carrots is the beta-carotene that gets converted into vitamin A, helpful for eyesight. But aside from that, carrots have been proven to lower the levels of cholesterol in the system and also aid in combating heart attacks and cancer.
However, there are people who just aren't big fans of carrots, or vegetables, for that matter. If you're one of them, fret not because the carrot-y taste is not gonna outstand the chocolaty taste. Instead, the carrot will just enhance the overall flavor of the chocolate cake.
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