Hey all,
Thank you so much for all of the tips about my cake-in-a-jar dilemma!! After some serious contemplation and fretting (should I do a marbled cake? a yellow cake? neopolitan?), I decided to make my best friend’s yummy Chocolate Kahlua Cake! Ron and I have had this cake before, and we both LOVED it. Why not make it in a jar? I will layer the cake in a jar with spiced/spiked whipped cream, and top it off with chocolate chips or sprinkles. Yum! I even bought ribbon to tie around each jar. I will do a post on this soon!
In other news, today Ron and I began house-sitting for a professor (yes, she lent us her condo for three weeks—we love her!), which meant we went on a grocery store run to stock up. We stopped at one of our favorite grocery stores, Trader Joe’s, and oh my my, I found one of my top five favorite crackers of all time!
Raisin Rosemary Crisps from Trader Joe’s
These crackers are crisp with a sweet, nutty flavor from raisins, flaxseeds and sunflowers seeds. The rosemary also adds a hint of herb. Plus, you can have 12 crackers for 90 calories, and they are made with 6-7 ingredients—no weird preservatives or ingredients I’ve never heard of. Wheat flour! Raisins! Seeds! Salt and pepper! Yay for Trader Joe’s making such a fun, healthy snack. I had these today for lunch with goat cheese and carrots. Mmmmm.
When I was at the store, I also picked up ingredients to make my own instant cocoa mix! I’ve gotten in the habit of drinking Ron’s cocoa mix at his house, and it’s full of sugar! No bueno. I know I can buy pre-packaged “diet” instant cocoa mix at the store to remedy this problem, but I also love the idea of making an instant mix out of mostly stevia, which is a sugar substitute I prefer using over Splenda.
Some of my ingredients for today! I keep my Stevia in this old-fashioned “Snowflake sugar” tin. Fun, right?
I also like being able to control what goes into the cocoa mix and the flavor of it! I went online and found a great sugar-free, fat free homemade mix at “Honey, I shrank myself!” blog. However, I wanted more of a mocha flavor with deeper chocolate notes, cinnamon, and added marshmallows (because I had some on hand). Well, then, looks like I’m making my own recipe for this one!
To make my sugar free, fat free instant Mocha Cocoa Mix, I used instant decaf coffee, instant fat free, sugar free vanilla pudding, dark coca powder, nonfat dry milk, cinnamon, and mini marshmallows.
my mix in a jar!
Because of all the fat free and sugar free ingredients, this mix made with hot water comes out to only 50 calories per 2 tbsp serving! Wooo! However, I’m going to make my cocoa with half water and half lowfat milk to boost the creaminess factor, which makes it around 100 calories per cup. (I just don’t love non-fat milk. I think it tastes too watery!) I’m also thinking about next time making this mix with a scant amount of brown sugar. (Brown sugar + coffee= a happy BB!) By the way, if you’re looking for a great, 150 calorie low sugar dessert, have a cup of this cocoa with biscotti! I love biscotti because you can find great low sugar kinds that are really delicious! And they’re lovely paired with Mocha Cocoa. Anyway, I’m off to curl up with my mug of goodness! Enjoy!
