March = No Chocolate & Writing About it...

Check out my post on CollegeCandy.com! (And no, that's not a picture of me! Haha!) They have a fabulous website and I am lucky enough to be writing 4 articles for them this month. The unlucky part - I'm giving up chocolate for March to write these! Check 'em out every Saturday this month. :)

Don't Feel Guilty About Eating Dark Chocolate!

Dark chocolate is one of my favorite things to indulge in. When I found out that it actually had health benefits, I said “More please!”. Now with the after Valentine's Day sales, you can find some at a great price!

Some “Dark” History

Chocolate history in general goes right back to dark chocolate, which was the first chocolate ever made. It goes back at least 3,000 years. It began as a bitter drink from the tropical areas of Central and South America. It was used by the Mayans and Aztecs as a ceremonial and medicinal drink and was often drank by the elite.

Next the Spanish discovered the drink and added sugar or honey and served the drink hot (perhaps the first hot chocolate?). Chocolate was considered a luxury and only for the rich. During the 19th century, milk was added to chocolate and this version became more popular than the dark chocolate that had always been around.

In the late 20th century into the 21st century, dark chocolate has been making a comeback, especially with all the health benefits that were uncovered.

Yummy Health Benefits

Dark chocolate contains an antioxidant called epicatechin that has proven health benefits. Dark chocolate has been shown to:

• Decrease High Blood Pressure
• Increase blood flow and prevent damage from strokes
• Inhibit cancer growth
• Lower cholesterol
• stimulate endorphin production, which gives a feeling of pleasure
• contain serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant
• contain theobromine, caffeine and other substances which are stimulants

You can get all these benefits by eating just three squares a day! Also avoid eating with milk. Sure, it tastes great, but it has been shown to prevent these great antioxidants from being absorbed in your body when you eat it with milk.

Some Delicious Options

Now that you’re craving some dark chocolate, what kind should you buy? Some of my favorite brands that have delicious options for dark chocolate are:

• Dove Promises in Dark Chocolate (the wrappers have uplifting sayings on them!) or Dark Chocolate covered Dove ice cream bars
• Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate squares with flavors such as toffee, espresso, and seat salt
• Hershey Special Dark Chocolate bars or chocolate kisses
• Godiva Dark Chocolate pearls with mint, a box of Dark Chocolate truffles, Dark Chocolate covered pretzels, and many more
• Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate truffles with flavors such as orange and coffee

You can find all these options at your local grocery store or Target. You can also look for dark chocolate cupcakes, cakes, muffins or even make your own with dark chocolate chips!

Check out Dark-chocolate-life for more information.

See my original post on ASKinyourface.com.

Look What I Made!

I made some of these chocolate covered pretzels yesterday with a Valentine's mold. A little late, I know, but they didn't come in the mail until Valentine's Day! I used a chocolate "pen" to fill in the letters then melted pink colored chocolate. I thought they came out really cute and I'll probably make some more for Easter (now I can research cute Easter-y molds!).

These are great gifts too! I gave some to my neighbors, my lovely internship boss, my parents and my boyfriend's family. They were pretty fun to make too on my day off! :)

Here's a how-to because I tried to make them without knowing really what I was doing and it was a total disaster! I'm talking burnt chocolate, microwave smoking out of control, and me getting super frustrated that I wasted money on chocolate that I had to ultimately throw away. My mom gave me a few tips and bought more chocolate and I tried again the next day. Luckily it was successful and fun! Here are my tips...

1. Go to your local cake shop or a place like Joann's. They have tons of cute molds to use that have a space for the pretzels. Also buy small pieces of chocolate (it comes in small discs in many colors!) and a "candy writer", which is basically chocolate in a tube you can squeeze out and use to write or color in small spaces. Don't forget to buy some pretzel rods too.
2. Put the "candy writer" in hot water to melt it. Once it is ready to use, you simply squeeze it in the mold where you want the color.
3. You can melt the chocolate in the microwave, but I found it more effective to use the stove top and a double boiler. Fill the bottom part with water and then put heat on low. Place the chocolate in the top part and be sure no water gets in there. Keep stirring and the chocolate will melt into yummy goodness.
4. Once the chocolate is ready, just pour it in the mold! It is okay to get some on the sides because it will just pop off.
5. Place it in the fridge and roll chocolate on the ends of a pretzel rod. Then stick the pretzels in the slots in the mold.
6. In about 10 minutes, they should be ready to pop out!

Have you ever made anything similar? Tell me about it!

Free Chocolate? Yes, Please!

I love Valentine's Day and not just because I have a boy to celebrate with. I love the idea of a holiday dedicated to love and being there for the great people in your life. While this holiday has definitely been commercialized, there are still good things that come out of this. Namely, chocolate! I found this great chocolate shop in Birmingham, MI. Not only do they make their own delicious chocolate treats, they use molds to make the cutest looking chocolates.

Check out their Facebook page because for every 50 members they get - they are starting at 250 - they will choose a fan to give away free chocolate to! "Like" them and tell your friends for more information and a chance to win some goodies!