The Sweeter Side

I know I don't have to say what day it is ... but, I'm gonna!!

Yahoo!! I hope yours has been as good as mine!! Speaking of good ...

It was a Rest Day around here which is the perfect time to share some of my favorite, new indulgences! It's like this: The whole new-way-of-eating thing Aaron and I embarked upon stripped as much sugar out of our intakes as possible. And, while that's a good thing for health, let's be real: We still wanted some treats! Aaron in particular has a desire for sweet (that's why he married me, right? hahahaha), so once I got a strong handle on the whole THM thing, I did further exploring and experimenting to find things that were both sweet and good. That combo can be tricky because messing around with sugar substitutes/sweeteners can be a disaster in taste. Fortunately, we've found sweeteners we really like that work great with the following, delicious treats!

Let's start with the recent National Ice Cream Day indulgence situation! That day was just this past Wednesday (If you missed it, go ahead and indulge now; I heard from someone that it's actual National Ice Cream Month, and, I've not tried to verify that, so just go with it.), and it was the very day our new ice cream maker arrived on our doorstep. Remember this?

Well, that night, it produced this!

We started tame with some vanilla ...

And, I turned my portion of that into this:

... then I added a tablespoon of natural peanut butter and a few
pieces of dark chocolate (85%) for a moose tracks nod. SO good!

And, tonight, we made this:

"Brownie Batter" ice cream ... ohhh, yeahhh ...

The ice cream maker is sensational! It's a Cuisinart 1.5-quart capacity that whips up your ice cream in about 20 minutes! Extra bonus: No ice and salt required. It rocks. It's small and easy to use, so we've put it to good use already with ice cream recipes I found here. If you check them out, know that the staples of the recipes include your sweetener of choice (you convert your choice from the author's), unsweetened almond milk, whipping cream and -- this was my shocker -- cottage cheese! A good whirl in a blender puts all of your ingredients together before going into the ice cream machine! In 20 minutes, you're tummy is going to be smiling!

Aaron came home from work the day after having made the ice cream letting me know he thought about the ice cream all day long. That whole way-to-a-man's-heart and all ...!

Now, if you're craving something from the oven, I have a good one for you:

Ingredients include almond flour, sweetener, shredded coconut and dark chocolate (85%), and it definitely satisfies the warm-out-of-the-oven itch!! It's written to be baked in a skillet in the oven, but I opted for a stoneware pan in the toaster oven. Is your mouth watering yet? Hop on over to this site, and get the recipe for the Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie!

Finally. This one might be my favorite because it's the most unexpected. Ready?

BAM.

Your eyes do not deceive you. It's a single-serve chocolate cake. (For perspective, the cake is 4" across and about an inch and a half tall.) Have I ever mentioned how much I love chocolate cake? (I think that's one of the few things on here I've never discussed ...) Anyway, when I stumbled upon a recipe for chocolate cake that comes in at 80 calories* and no fat per serving, I was, like, sign me up!

This particular recipe calls for both oat fiber (which I ordered from the THM website, but it does exist elsewhere) and coconut flour, but, you might remember we all find coconut flour to be disgusting. So, I just used oat fiber in its place, and it's wonderful.

* The swap of oat fiber for the coconut flour is what brought my calorie count down from the original recipe. Using coconut flour, by my calculation, the single-serve cake would be 180 calories. That's still a huge bargain for delicious chocolate cake, I just couldn't choke it down if it were in there. Of course, that would take the calorie count down to zero, then, wouldn't it ...!

The recipe is written for these to be microwaved or baked, so I baked it in the toaster oven. Perfection. Interested? You should be if you're a chocolate cake fan! Check out the recipe here! The recipe is called Chocolate Cake Master Mix; you mix a couple of batches of the dry at the same time, then you get the wet measurements for the single serving. NICE!

I wanted to share some of the sweeter side of life here because we all crave it sometimes, don't we?! How fantastic to find these sites that have so many great options all of which, in the long run, support my running endeavors. I TOTALLY WIN!

Ahhh ... just reviewing all of this kind of makes me full. Keep in mind we had the chocolate ice cream after dinner tonight, so these are all triggering my full tummy. If my tank were empty, well, I'd be in the kitchen right about now whipping something up!

I love how very (VERY) surprised both Aaron and I have been at how many great foods we've found, all the while returning to physically feeling so much better! I guess if I feel that good, I should be ready to bounce right out of bed tomorrow morning to run, right? Don't count on that; it's likely to already be in the 80s and humid when Pit Crew #2 and I head out! We'll be taking it slow, but we will go! I'm looking forward to the time with her!

Start your Saturday off just the way you want (and make yourself a little something sweet to wrap it up, just sayin' ...), and I'll see you after the morning run!