Eat Cake

You can skip the ice cream and forget about frosting. This cake stands on its own and needs no assistance from anything!

My son Boo is trying to kill me. Okay, well maybe it would be more accurate to say he is trying to kill my diet. 

I was determined to not eat any sugary concoctions for a couple more weeks but I caved!

And it is all Boo's fault. If he wasn't such a master baker I might have been able to stick with my goal.

But the combination of homemade chocolate cake and my son's flashing dimples and his query, "You are going to try some of my cake, aren't you mom?"-well, it was all a little too much for me.

More like, a lot too much for me.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I am sharing the love.

Yum. It is so good!

Dark Chocolate Cake

2 cups boiling water

1 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder ( or just use regular cocoa)

2 3/4 cup flour ( we really do use 1/2 white wheat and 1/2 white flour)

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter (softened)

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa and whisk until smooth. Let cool. Sift together flour, soda, powder, and salt and set aside. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time, then stir in vanilla. Add cocoa mixture alternately with flour mixture. Spread in pan. Bake for 30- 45 minutes checking with a toothpick in the center for doneness. You do not want the toothpick to be a gooey mess but you also do not want it to come out totally clean because the cake will be dry. When masterfully done, this cake is a little dense but moist and melts in your mouth.

Now back to my regularly scheduled abstinence from sugar.

Chocolate Coconut Goodness

Did you read My Sad Sugar Story yesterday? Well, just in case you were wondering I still do periodically go off sugar. It is a lesson in self-restraint and actually just makes me feel better all the way around.

Now is  one of those times.

In my non-sugar state I set a few rules for myself. I can eat desserts but they can only be sweetened with 100% juices, agave nectar, stevia, dates, or pure maple syrup, etc. 

I got this recipe from my awesome sister Heather. You should check out her food blog: Real Mom Health Nut

Macaroons

3 cups unsweetened coconut flakes

1 1/2 cup cocoa

1/3 cup coconut oil (solid state)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbl vanilla

about 1 cup maple syrup

stir together all ingredients

shape into tablespoon size balls

place on dehydrator screen at 115 degrees for 10 to 24 hours. 

They are done when they are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside

My dehydrator does not have a way to select temperature. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that it belongs to my mother and is 30 years old. I just turn it on and it starts. I dehydrated these cookies for about 12-14 hours. They were perfect.

I am in love. So is my husband. Gigi likes them too she says. Most of the kids not so much since they are not huge coconut fans. This is a problem because I need lots of people to partake of these so I don't stuff myself. I will have to win them over somehow!

Something New

Food Ophelia is a year old now and I think I am ready for something new!

I have started a blog that I have wanted to do for awhile now but didn't have the guts.

Basically it is still me but not narrowed to food.

I will be writing about everything from food to autism, exercise to homeschooling, my faith, and being the crazy mother of 8 kids.

I would love it if you would join me. You can find me at:


the philosophies of jen

If you like my new blog, I would love it if you would become a "follower" , link me on your blog, facebook, etc and generally let people know about it.

As for Food Ophelia she will hang around for awhile as I make the transition. I will be moving all my recipes and some of my posts over to my new blog in time. I will probably be double posting recipes here and on my philosophies blog in the meantime.

Frozen Yogurt Pie ( and a crust recipe too)

This time I was lazy and used a pre-made graham cracker crust I had hiding in the pantry. But the pie itself is so good we weren't swayed from partaking.

So this is what we ate while watching The Biggest Loser last week. Ironic, I know. Somehow we always find ourselves eating during our once a week pilgrimage to the tube. Luckily, we have a big family so this delicious concoction was gone in about 10.5 seconds and everyone only got one piece.

My sister in law calls this pie "High Octane". It is pretty rich but a frequent request by immediate and extended family alike. It takes about two minutes to put together -no joke. Just be patient while it freezes for a few hours.



Frozen Yogurt Pie

1 package cream cheese, softened
1 cup of plain yogurt (we love Mountain High, Cascade Fresh, and Stoneyfield Farms))
1/4 -1/2 cup honey, depending on your own taste buds
1/4 cup of dry milk powder*


Beat the cream cheese and yogurt together until well blended. Beat in honey and milk. Pour into a graham cracker crust, cover, and freeze for at least 4 hours. Serve after thawing for just a few minutes. Top it with some yummy frozen fruit right out of the bag. We prefer blueberries.

If you do not want to use those yucky pre-made crusts you can try the recipe below. I have made this before and it is really down home and yummy. It is way easier to just go to the health food store and get yourself some all natural graham crackers. But if you are super motivated you can actually make your own graham crackers. It is not too hard and my kids all like them. Unfortunately the crackers are gone in about 2 seconds because I have so many kids. So in an effort to not spend ALL my time in the kitchen, graham crackers are something I buy on occasion at the health food store unless I really need some and don't feel like driving two hours to pick some up.


Graham Cracker Crust

2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs (all -natural or homemade)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 c dry milk powder*
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup melted butter
1 T molasses or honey

Mix together first 4 ingredients. Stir in melted butter. Then add molasses and mix well. Press firmly over bottom of greased pie plate. Bake at 300 for 10 minutes. Cool before filling.

Now you are wondering how I make graham crackers, right? Well, I will be posting that recipe some time next week so stay tuned.


*There is evidence that milk powder has stuff in it that is not too good for you. In recipes where you are reconstituting the milk, just use regular milk or a milk substitute (like almond or coconut milk) to substitute. In the case of the above recipes the milk is not being reconstituted so you need to use some other powder to substitute (such as coconut powder) or you can take a chance and just omit it altogether.

Before Picture

This is my before picture. Before I gained 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years.

Now I have to lose 25 pounds to reach my goal weight.

Good job Jen!

Were all those Chocolate truffles from Costco worth it?!!

Hmmmm....

I'm thinking..

Okay, no. They were not.

Now, what took me 4 weeks to gain will take me months to lose. And then I can start attacking that last 15 pounds that keeps hanging on.

If I had any sort of self control I could have eaten 1 or 2 truffles (and caramel popcorn and Russian Tea Cakes and dark chocolate everything......) and not gained the weight....

....the weight which is making me uncomfortable and tired. The weight that is making it harder to run. The weight that is making it harder to breathe.