Healthy diet

Chocolate Helps You Beat Winter Blues

Ex-sinful chocolate helps you beat winter blues. Experience the delectable taste of these chocolate treats with the peace of mind that comes from knowing chocolate has turned into all natural goodness, especially if it is dark, as long as you don't over do it.

Ex-Sinful Chocolate Helps You Beat Winter Blues

While very active people could have chocolate without any fear, it was a luxury sedentary people could ill afford. Luxury is the word; chocolate has always been considered a luxury for the palate and it had a certain air of wickedness. Not any more, according to the latest research, a daily dose of chocolate could also help to prevent heart disease if the chocolate is dark. A daily dose of chocolate could help people lift their mood when cold, depressed, or extremely tired, as long as the portion is adjusted to suit their level of activity and weight.

Experience the delectable taste of these chocolate treats with the peace of mind that comes from knowing chocolate has turned into all natural goodness, especially if it is dark, as long as you don't over do it.

Coffee flavored chocolate cream

This chocolate cream puts a delicious end to any meal. Garnish with fresh mint leaves, fan shaped strawberries, canned tangerine segments, chopped toasted nuts, or whipped cream.

3 egg yolks
6 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs cornstarch
3 oz dark chocolate, about half a tablet of the cooking sort
1 Tbs cocoa powder, level
3/4 c milk
1 cup pound cake, crumbled
6 Tbs coffee

Distribute the crumbled cake between 6 glass ramekins and pour 1 Tbs coffee on top of the cake. Let it soak while you prepare the rest. In a sauce pan, mix cocoa powder with a little milk, stirring to prevent lumps. Slowly, add rest of milk, coffee and chocolate pieces. Mix well and heat up to the boiling point, but don't let it boil.

In another pan, beat egg yolks with sugar in another bowl. Add cornstarch and mix. Drip the hot chocolate and milk mixture on top of the eggs. Start cooking on low heat. Cook gently, whisking continuously. When the cream begins to thicken, take it off the heat and whisk vigorously for a couple of minutes. Return to the heat and cook a few minutes more, don't stop the whisk, again up to the boiling point. Turn off the heat, and keep stirring 2-3 minutes more. Pour the cream on top of the coffee soaked cake. Let it cool down. Garnish and serve.

Servings: 6

Cooking Tips

Heat the cream up to the boiling point, but don't let it boil. Take it off the heat source before it happens.
Use very low heat. To prevent the taste of un-cooked cornstarch, try the cream just when it starts to thicken and try it again later, when it has cooked for 2-3 minutes. You will notice the difference.
For coffee chocolate cream with a twist, try to use coffee liquor instead of coffee or a mix of both.

Easy chocolate almond cookies recipe

No baking in this chocolate almond cookies recipe, and very suitable to let the kids cook with you.

3 oz slivered almonds, great if you find them organic ones
4 oz organic corn flakes
10 oz organic chocolate to cover

Toast the slivered almond in a fry pan -no need to add any cooking oil- for a couple of minutes. Mix them with corn flakes. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Let it cool down and thicken and then melt again. Mix the melted chocolate with the almonds and corn flakes.

Layer baking parchment on top of a tray, set a 3 in ring on top. Fill the ring with 2 Tbs of the mix, pressing down slightly to shape it. Repeat until you have 12 cookies. Let it cool down. It will take about 2 hours at room temperature.

Servings: 6

Cooking Tips

If you don't have a weight at hand, 3 oz slivered almonds are about 3 Tbs, heaped - 4 oz cornflakes are 3-4 cups, depending on the brand - 10 oz chocolate are about 21/2 cups, grated.
Make three batches, one with dark chocolate, one using milk chocolate and a third using white chocolate. A real treat!

Visit All Foods Natural's cookbook for full details, at the desserts section you will find the recipes for easy chocolate and almond cookies and the coffee flavored chocolate cream including all nutritional details.

Why We Crave Chocolate

Have you ever heard someone say that they just have to have chocolate at certain times? Maybe they are stressed or wanting something sweet. The first food they reach for is made of chocolate. There is a reason and a good one (besides loving it intensely).

In recent years, chocolate has been studied as more than just a satisfying dessert fare. Researchers have found that chocolate also has health benefits. Eating dark chocolate can help reduce cholesterol and high blood pressure.

You don’t need much. About an ounce of chocolate a day will help you receive these benefits without packing on the pounds. And, this is best accomplished with dark chocolate. It contains the highest percentage of cocoa. This is where the benefits derive – the cocoa bean.

The cocoa bean contains antioxidants. The specific one is a flavonoid called flavonol. As we know, antioxidants do wonders for the body. They combat the signs of aging on the inside so we look and live better on the outside.

The Conundrum

Cravings usually begin in the brain. Whether real or imaginary, self or chemically induced, they are a fact of life. That’s our story anyway and we’re sticking to it. Chocolate does contain substances that mimic the effects of endorphins. Those are the “feel good” substances that we get from sexual contact and also exercise.

Since the cocoa bean is the source of the antioxidants and other beneficial compounds, it would stand to reason that eating a purer chocolate would fuel cravings right? Actually the opposite is true. Eating darker chocolate has been shown to reduce cravings. While it is chocolate, darker chocolate is less sweet than the candy bar variety we usually eat. It takes less to fill us up and keep us satisfied.

With milk chocolate, there are other ingredients added. You have sugar, milk, added fats and other little odds and ends. It can be theorized that we are addicted to the sugar and fat instead of the chocolate itself. It’s just a coincidence that when combined with chocolate, these other things have a wonderful taste that we can’t seem to get enough of.

The chocolate that people eat to satisfy their cravings is indeed milk chocolate or other varieties that have a low percentage of cocoa solids in them. That could also be another reason why our beautiful craving leaves us wider around the middle. But, that’s another story.

So, why do we crave chocolate? Experts say it has nothing to do with chocolate itself physiologically. We see chocolate advertised for most major holidays in some form or fashion so our brains say different.

More About Chocolate

When you look for something rewarding and deeply satisfying, chocolate jumps to first line. It is also easy to be creative with chocolate. Find here everything we know at All Foods Natural about chocolate.

Chocolate, food of the goods
Is eating chocolate healthy?
Chocolate and raw or organic foods.