Say What?! Chocolate Cake....Yes, Chocolate Cake

Originally this recipe comes with a delicious sour cream chocolate frosting which is toooo die for. But when it's made with splenda, it's entirely too sweet. The cake on it's own is fantastic, and I would strongly recommend pairing it with some fat-free vanilla ice cream (or even better, frozen yogurt). Also, if you wanna be a little bad, melt some dark chocolate and drizzle some over the top to make this dessert decedent.

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of flour (I used Whole Wheat flour and found no difference)
- 3/4 cup of sugar substitute
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- 3 tbsp of dutch cocoa powder
- 1 egg (I use a low calorie egg substitute)
- 1 cup of sour skim milk
To sour milk, add one tbsp of white vinegar
- 1/4 cup of canola oil
- 1 tsp of vanilla

Prep
1. Pre-heat oven 350F. Mix all ingredients together until smooth.
2. Pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes until tooth pick comes out clean.

If you wanted a white cake which pairs amazingly with fruit and low-fat whipped cream, omit the cocoa powder.

Bar Food: "I can believe it's not delivery, it's delicious" Pizza

This is the closest I could get to easing that pizza craving you'll get once and awhile, the trick is think healthy, and skipping some cheese will help to.

What you need:

- A recipe for whole wheat pizza dough, or even better, a whole wheat pita

- Homemade spaghetti sauce (one with tons of vegetables, and if they're chunky just puree it)

- Low-fat/Non-Fat mozzarella cheese

- Cooked chicken breast, without the skin

- Your favourite pizza vegetable toppings

The prep:

- If you haven't already, cook your chicken breast in the oven 350F for 45min-1 hour. Make sure you load it up with your favourite herbs and spices. The chicken should be juicey!

- Make up your pizza dough for a bit more authentic taste, but remember there's yeast, sugar in dough. A quick alternative is using a whole wheat pita, or even philo dough.

- Get out your frozen spaghetti sauce! Homemade are healthy and low-sodium options to what you would normally buy in the store. Puree it to a smooth paste and kids won't know the difference. If you happen to have extra lean beef in the sauce it will definitely add flavour to your pizza.

Get cooking:

- Once your have your crust ready, spread the sauce to the edge. Put on your chicken and then garnish with your vegetables, I love red onions, peppers and broccoli. Top with a sprinkle of cheese (or leave it off even) and you've got yourself a tasty pizza!

Oh God....Halloween

So we've done this diet for about 4-5 weeks and I'm happy to report that Adam and I have each lost a noticable 10 lbs each. There's still a long way to go, but both of us are quite happy with this progress. Now we're definately looking for a gym and trying to work a schedule so we can lose even more weight.

So some bad news, did you know those mini caramilk bars are so good? My husband, his friend and I gorge on what was left of those tasty candies. Hopefully we'll jump back from that fiasco! We had some friends over a few nights ago and cheated a bit, putting some goat's cheese and prochuttio with some chicken, but with the rest of the meal being beets, carrots and sweet potatoes, I would say it was generally healthy.

I also went out with a college friend for fajitas and a beer (or two) and I felt guilty coming home after we shared a cheesecake dessert. I think this is why I'm eager to go to the gym again, because I know nights are going to come up where you're going to want to have that beer, or dessert and going to the gym will help ease the guilt of a cheat or two.

Cheers, Danielle

Bar Food: "You'd Think It Was Chicken Wings" Wrap

We got some bad news in the middle of last week and both Adam and I wanted to reach for the phone and dial up our favourite pizza place and get an x-large of everything. I didn't want to feel bad and then guilty over our moment of food weakness so I came up with some "bar food" inspired meals which will definitely keep your waistline in check.

"You'd Think It Was Chicken Wings" Wrap

Ingredients

Chicken breasts (one per person)
Your favourite chicken seasonings
Whole-wheat wraps
Wrap toppings (lettuce, red onions etc)

The sauce:

• 2 tbsp of margarine



• Hot Sauce



• Garlic Powder



• Salt and Pepper

Preparation

Season your breasts with your favourite herbs and spices. I use oregano and rosemary with a little bit of garlic powder. Don't go too light on the flavour, you really want those flavours to match the buffalo sauce. Bake as you usually would, 350 for 1 hour works for me.

Tip: Buy skinless, bone in chicken if you can. They are usually cheaper and cooking with the bones adds a ton of flavour. If you get skin on chicken, bake with it on to add even more flavour, just remember to take it off before serving!

Once your chicken is cooked, slice it up into strips and put aside. Take you margarine and melt it in the microwave. Add as much hot sauce as you can to it until its to your liking. Spice it up with some pepper and garlic powder. This is the original wing sauce you find in bars. Toss your chicken into the sauce and mix it all up so every piece of chicken is coated.

Get your wraps out and stuff with some lettuce and red onions. Add your chicken and maybe some fat-free sour cream or even a little crumbled blue cheese and you'll never crave wings again!

Where have you been?!

I weighed myself week three and 5 pounds were gone! Yay!

Okay, so I've been M.I.A this week because we've just moved into our new home, so I was ultra busy. Luckily I was able to stay on track, except for yesterday (I'll explain in a bit).

I came up with some replacement "bar favourites" which will totally blow your mind! You won't even think about gorge on wings, pizzas or burgers again knowing these recipes!

Adam and I have also found some great ways to eat outside the home and stay within your G.I diet and not feel like your missing out.

Fancy Coffee Trick

I love lattes and flavoured coffees. They have three problems: Loaded with Caffeine. Loaded with sugar.Expensive. My trick is buy your decaf coffee and ask for a small flavour shot (most coffee shops offer them). Trust me, I had a butter rum one last week and my coffee tasted amazing, no sugar substitute needed! Also, a lot of places offer soymilk if you ask and since it's so sweet it would make your coffee taste like the ones you love, or at least pretty close.

Okay, so I bet you want to know about the exception. We moved yesterday and as a peace offering to our friends we ordered pizza. After a long day of moving, we grabbed a slice. It wasn't even good and I felt sick all night. My stomach was quizzy and I just felt blah. I was actually craving a bowl of bran cereal to wash down the icky feeling!

It's amazing what only 3 weeks of eating healthy will do to your body. Both Adam and I agree, we'll pass on the pizza next time!

Cheers,

Danielle

Weddings: A diets worst nightmare.

Last night good friends of my husband and I had beautiful wedding. The ceremony was perfect and our little baby (dressed better then either Adam or myself) didn't make a peep.

Both Adam and I thought over the meal coming about us and assured each other that we wouldn't stray from our eating plan. We also knew the table would have wine and we wouldn't even need to go to the bar.

After the ceremony we were off to the reception. It was 2 hours cocktails. It was open bar.

Oh no.

Luckily, the stag and doe's night (and the morning after) memories automatically limited my drinking consumption considerably. A tequila shot, two mixed drinks and a beer did me fine. I can't speak up for my other half since in a drunken state of mine (and his bestfriends cheering him on) decided to try all the draft beers available.

After cocktails, it was dinner time. The salad was good and I just hoped the vinaigrette was fat free. Then came perogies...the absolute worst thing someone trying to eat better should have. Adam scarfed them down, as did I, but one thing stuck in my mine:

Rick Gallop makes a point that if your going to do something bad, or cheat make sure it's damned good. The best example is coffee. Coffee is a diuretic and it burns a lot of energy, making you want to eat more, so he suggests greatly limiting the quantity you drink. In exchange he point out, if your only going to have coffee a few times a week, splurge and get amazing coffee.

So as I ate those potato dumplings I thought to myself, that even though these are tasty, I've had better. The bride makes amazing perogies and these were catered frozen ones. I guess I felt if I was going to eat something that bad, it should be amazing and worth it. The bun was better then them.

The rest of the dinner was fine and the cake was good. After this dinner I felt a bit guilty about the drinking, but if I see a pound or two extra on the scale I'll know why.

After the night was done, I found I had some tips to avoid a diet-gone-bad situation:
1. Bring an amount of cash for a bar, and that's it. I think my husbands down fall was that he had our debt card. If we only have 20$, then we could only drink 20$ of beer.
2.Fill up on veggies as appetizers, which is something I did. Stay away from the dip.
3. Stand your ground. Your great uncle pushes that beer/drink, say no and mean it.
4. Leave early. Make anexcuse (or actually have one, my sister-law had to get home to her kids). You avoid that lull in the night where you have nothing to do but drink. It cuts you off.

My advice, if you do drink and maybe drink a bit too much, understand what it's going to do to your weight. If you see an extra pound or two, don't give up! Realise that it's the repercussion of drinking and move on.

Danielle

Week 2 Update

I had my first coffee since we began this morning and it was heaven. So these past two weeks have been an up-down rollercoaster. I cheated once at a Stag and Doe and had a few beers (okay, I was singing Rockette karaoke by the end of the night). Other then that, eating healthy hasn't been an issue. In fact, my husband and I have been having fun thinking outside the box and experimenting with new meals.

Lunch has become victimized. Lots of soup and open faced sandwiches. Also, we've already ran out of the stocked fridge of vegetables. We have a lot of meat left, but we're down to a cucumber and a questionable head of lettuce. Next shop we'll definitely have to double up on the vegetables.

I have not put my current weight. At the beginning of week 2, I hadn't lost anything. No weight, not even an inch. Adam, lost an inch and no weight change. This was a definite let down. I almost quit, but honestly, from eating healthier I felt great. Much more energy and I just felt cleaner. So I stuck with it. Today (day four of week 2) I hopped on the scale and I definitely lost some weight! Week 3 I'll put down the results.

I guess that's just some advice, even if in the first week you don't get the promised 1-3lbs loss, please stick with it! I guarantee by week 3 you'll see some results!

Danielle