true love

I love chocolate! There I said it, I admit it freely. If there is one food on the planet that I never tire of it's chocolate. I don't really like candy, cookies or cakes, they are okay but chocolate, I truly enjoy. 

So how bad is chocolate really. I remember hearing as a teenager that chocolate gave you zits, which is either untrue or I am now immune to this side-effect because I eat chocolate as often as possible and don't have acne.

It often has a lot of calories for the size of the enjoyment. The bag of Hershey chocolate chips I have in the freezer says that a smidgen 1 Tbsp of chips has 70 calories. It doesn't sound like much until you think about how many chocolate chips are in a tablespoon. I checked, there are about 20. Not a lot when you get a nagging craving for chocolate.

The truth is that chocolate is good for you. Cocoa contains flavonoids which have been shown to prevent heart disease and cancer. However, many of the chocolate products

like candy bars or hot chocolate have been adulterated with alkali (Dutch chocolate) or toms of fats and sugars to boost the flavor and richness. To really get the antioxidant benefits of chocolate you need to choose dark chocolate with a higher cocoa level. And forget about Milk or white chocolate, these don't have the same effect on the body and they are much higher in fat and calories.

Here are a few links to articles that discuss the benefits of dark chocolate:

Is Chocolate Good For You?

Dark Chocolate is Healthy Chocolate

Chocolate Can Do Good Things for Your Heart, Skin and Brains

Remember, even though chocolate has some pretty great health benefit, everything in moderation, especially during the upcoming holidays which always seem to involve a lot of chocolate.

enjoy!

martha

new annex addition

I've posted an update to the Snack Pack Annex   (CLICK HERE) that I started last month. This month has information about stretching, focusing on Self Myofascial Release (SMR). 

If you aren't familiar with SMR then I recommend that you definitely check it out. It is an aspect of flexibility training which can really take you help you in your fitness training or general exercise.

It is a form of soft tissue therapy that incorporates self massage using a foam roller. The process involves a gentle application of pressure to adhesions or "knots" and applying the pressure for a minimum of 20 to 30 seconds. This will stimulate neural activity which will help restore the body to optimum functioning.

SMR can be used pre-warm up or as part of your cool-down.

more later...

martha

weekend round up and recipe

I had a nice run this morning, managed to fit in the Warriors and Goddesses workout and played some basketball with my son. 

This week should be pretty hectic, it's getting closer to the holidays so there is a lot happening of course. This also means lots of eating yummy foods which are totally NOT on the regular diet list and this brings us to today's recipe. 

I will tell you right now this is not a healthy treat if by healthy you mean low in fat. It is made with whole ingredients and by whole I mean BUTTER! No margarine or oil here, I guess you could try to make substitutions but really who wants to do that. 

So here it is, a delicious holiday cookie from Vegetarian Times.

Pistachio-Cherry Sandwich Cookie

1.5 cups shelled pistachios

2 sticks butter, unsalted, softened

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tbs. lemon juice

3 cups al purpose flour

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

.5 tsp. baking powder

.25 tsp. salt

1.25 cups cherry preserves

1. Process pistachios in food processor until finely ground, about 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugar in food processor until fluffy. add egg, lemon juice and pulse until combined. Scrape down sides. Add pistachios, flour, lemon zest, baking powder and salt. Pulse until dough clumps together, about 15 seconds. Divide dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic and put in refrigerator for an hour or until firm.

3. Preheat oven to 350. Roll out 1 disk on lightly floured parchment until about 1/8 of an inch think. **Transfer parchment with dough to a cookie sheet and place into freezer for about 5 minutes to firm up.

4. Cut out cookies with a 2 inch cutter and place onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Place cookies 1 inch apart. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden. Transfer to wire rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

5. Spread ***1 tsp. preserves on to half of cookies and top with remaining cookies.

NOTES

** I skipped the step of putting the dough in the freezer, my freezer simply isn't big enough. I chilled the dough as disks for about 1.5 hours and worked quickly to roll it and cut it, so it's really up to you if you want to skip this step.

*** I used less than an entire teaspoon of preserves per cookie. I also used just a tiny bit of water to thin the preserves before I filled the cookies.

enjoy!

martha

p.s. Camille, you should be getting some of these tomorrow so watch out!