Chocolate Heaven!

When I look at my daughter my heart swells. I think about how I can’t wait to see her grow up, watch who she becomes and see her own little family happen.  This thought is always matched by the fact that in order to do so, I must take good care of myself!  Because of this, I have been on a bit of a healthy lifestyle change kick. NOT a diet. I don’t believe in those. I am just focusing on eating foods that fuel my body, going more natural, portion controlling and just being aware of what I am putting in my body.

My arch nemesis….

is my evil sweet tooth! Low and behold, late at night my body starts to crave those sweets. When you want chocolate there just isn’t really any good replacement that will do.  This is exactly the scenario that played out last night. Dinner had been eaten, chores had been done. I was sitting down relaxing when a massive chocolate craving hit me out of the blue! I NEEDED something chocloately, but I didn’t want to put a damper on all the effort I had been making towards my health.

Pull out the cookbooks!

Cory recently purchased some great cookbooks for me, one of which is called “Comfort Food Lite”. It is amazing and chock full of delicious low fat/low cal dinner and dessert ideas.  I quickly flipped through ravenously searching for a healthy chocolate treat.  Low and behold….I found one!  It was very quick to mix up and only needed 25 minutes of baking time. When it was done, Cory and I both dug in and…YUMMMMMM! Rich, gooey, amazingly chocolately goodness!  The recipe actually makes 10 servings so we have plenty in the fridge for any other chocolate cravings that may sneak up on me this week. This would also be a lovely treat for a holiday or dinner party!  After enjoying it so much I feel like I just HAVE to share this amazing recipe.

Warm Chocolate Melting Cups (recipe below picture)

sorry about the bad picture quality. I needed to dive in to my delicious dessert...no time for fancy photos! ;)

You Need:

• 10   4 oz ramekins or small oven proof single serve dishes. (my ramekins were more like 6 oz and they worked just fine too.)
• 1- 1/4 cups sugar (divided)
• 1/2 cup baking cocoa
• 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups water
• 3/4 cup plus one tablespoon semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon brewed coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg white

Directions:

1. in a small saucepan, combine 3/4 cup sugar, cocoa, flour and salt. gradually stir in water. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in chocolate chips, coffee and vanilla until smooth. transfer to a large bowl.
2. In another bowl, beat eggs and egg white until slightly thickened. Gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, beating until thick and lemon-colored. Vfold into chocolate mixture.
3. Transfer to ten 4oz ramekins coated with cooking spray. place ramekins in a baking pan; add 1 inch of boiling water to pan. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or just until centers are set. Garnish with fruit and/or whipped cream if desired. (or eat plain which is what I did and it was amaaaazing!)

Nutritional Info:

1 serving= 131 calories, 1 gram of fat, only a trace of saturated fat, 42 mg cholesterol, 49 mg sodium, 29g carbs, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein.  Diabetic exchange: 2 starch.

seriously! try it and let me know what you think!