Eating towards a goal

A month in and it is also time to double down on the commitments we have all made for the New Year. For me promising to keep my office organized, folding the laundry the day it is done, and stop using the dryer as a dresser are not huge life changing undertakings but they make life at home a bit easier. For many keeping to that New Year new-you-diet is a bit more admirable than my folding the underwear and putting in the dresser in the bedroom.

In our home keeping to a “program” is not really an issue as I am the gatekeeper of all things bought and consumed, and you could say I am a tad militant (tad!) about what comes in. While I am the local food police I am not without a heart. And, since my husband proclaimed he wanted to get back to spinning everyday and shed some holiday cookie weight, fueling his body with clean, supportive foods became the parameters by which I made our meal – and was I was more then happy to oblige. I will confess that the majority of what we eat fulfills what he exactly needs. Really, what I was being told was sugary treats need to be kept a bay since he has no will power around a chocolate cake, pints of ice cream or any dessert item for that matter. I am no fool, and know if all things indulgent got cut off cold turkey the side doors of his car would be stuffed with crumbled up M&M wrappers, and I just cannot have that. Better I make truffles for him to quell that rising feed-me-sugar cry. I prefer to know the quality and hopefully quantity wont go awry. In truth diets don’t work a shift in consumption does and finding old pleasure in the new.

Chocolate Bark

6 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate

1-teaspoon rose water

1/4-cup chopped almonds

2-cup puffed rice or millet

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate with the rose water over a double boiler that is on a medium flame.

Line a 9-inch cake pan with plastic wrap so that it hangs over the sides.

Once the chocolate has melted remove from the double boiler, and thoroughly mix in the nuts and puffed rice to completely combine.

Push the chocolate mixture into the cake pan, and gently spread it out so that it is even and smooth. Refrigerate the chocolate from an hour so that is re-hardens.

Remove for the cake pan, and break into pieces.