ChocolateBet: February 12, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:

2 servings
Whole Foods
Truffled Roasted Walnuts
(ate with salad plate - sliced orange, avocado, beet, carrot, with lemon vinagrette dressing)
Very Good +; I enjoyed the bright colors and flavors together
Wt.: ~ 2 oz. (~56.5 g.)/7 oz. (200 g.) in box of choc walnuts (~8 oz. for total salad plate)
Calories: 340 cals. for choc. walnuts; ~ 650 for total salad plate + walnuts
Cost: $7.99 for total package of choc. walnuts
Purchased from: Whole Foods, in Los Altos, CA

Day #7 of chocolate and vegetable theme week. This colorful salad plate was my favorite of the week. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of it to post here. Yes, I realize that many of you are relieved to see the back of chocolate and veggie week.

Note: I will continue to eat chocolates every day or the next week or two, but I'll be out and will have to retroactively post entries when I have Internet access again later this month. Apologies for what looks like missed entries for the next week or so.

ChocolateBet: February 11, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
1 pouch/packet of sauce
Les Desserts Chocolate Sauce
(used as "fondue" for dried green peas from Japan)
Very Good - better than you'd think!
Wt.: 1 pouch (1.75 oz.(50 g.)/4 pouches (7 oz. (200g.) in box
Calories: 120 calories in 1 pouch chocolate sauce (+100 cals for peas)
Cost: $? (Alas, the receipt for the sauce is missing.)
Purchased from: ? (Green Peas were purchased from Daiso store in Mountain View, CA)

Yes, this is Day #6 of Chocolate and Vegetable week. Think of chocolate-covered nuts. They're good, right? I realize the veggie theme week is not as popular as, say, chocolate and brandy week, or chocolate and coffee or tea theme week. Once again, we're doing strange things in the name of chocolate; some work, others don't. I'd definitely make the chocolate carrot and zucchini cake again. And this combination of velvety chocolate and crunchy nut-like peas wasn't bad either.

ChocolateBet: February 10, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
1 individual serving packet
Jay Robb Enterprises Inc.
Chocolate Whey Protein (powder)
(blended with frozen broccoli, green beans, green peas, water, to make a green veggie shake)
Good + - Very Good - this tasted nice and healthy
Wt.: 1.06 oz. (30 grams) in packet of chocolate whey protein powder (plus veggies)
Calories: 110 calories in 1 packet chocolate whey powder (plus another 90 cals for veggies)
Cost: $2.99 for 1 packet chocolate whey protein powder
Purchased from: Whole Foods, in Los Altos, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of chocolate and vegetable theme week. I know I lost some of you here. Just in case you all thought I ate nothing but unhealthy sugar-filled chocolate 24 x 7, I make vanilla versions of these veggie blender shakes once or twice a week.

My apologies to Jay Robb for the reflections on the scanned image of your package. This happens when packaging and labels are shiny.

Digression: My two cats love the vanilla frozen vegetable shakes. (I don't feed them the chocolate version of this shake as dogs and cats apparently are not able to handle/metabolize chocolate well.) The cats used to sprint out of the kitchen when I turned on the blender, due to the loud noise. But, now that they know what I'm making, they run into the kitchen, to beg for a little taste of green shake in their food dish. Who knew?

ChocolateBet: February 9, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
~ 1 Tablespoon
Whole Foods - El Rey
Venezuelan Cocoa Nibs
(with mixed greens - salad)
1.) The nibs were Very Good by themselves; 2.) They were Good with salad - the combination was a bit bitter, but this could have been due to the salad greens.
Wt.: ~ .5 oz. (14 g.)/4.16 oz. (117.7g.) ttl container
Calories: ~ 50 calories for nibs; ~ 300 calories for whole salad.
Cost: $3.38 for whole container
Purchased from: Whole Foods in Los Altos, CA

Today is Day #4 of chocolate and vegetables theme week. Well, I think an avocado and citrus fruit salad with cocoa nibs would have been more tasty than just semi-bitter salad greens with semi-bitter nibs. I'll try that next time. Now I'm going to try the nibs in a hot cocoa/latte drink for dessert.

ChocolateBet: February 8, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
1 teaspoon
McCormick (Gourmet Collection - Blends)
Cocoa Chile Blend
(used on/with some roasted eggplant and tomato)
Very Good
Wt.: ~ .3 oz. (8.5 g.)/2 oz. (56 grams) in total jar
Calories: ~ 30 calories (estimate) in 1 teaspoon (~335 cals. in eggplant dish)
Cost: $4.99 for entire 2 oz. jar
Purchased from: Safeway, in Palo Alto, CA

Today is day #3 of chocolate & vegetable week on the blog.

For dinner I made some roasted eggplant and one tomato (one each) with a dash of lemon juice - and about a teaspoon of this cocoa chile seasoning. (My apologies for the low-res scanned image of the jar (above right).) This spice blend is a mix of cocoa powder, chipotle pepper, sugar, and paprika. It was quite tasty.

ChocolateBet: February 7, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
~ 1 oz. (in 2 srvgs of cake)
Enjoy Life Natural Brands, LLC
semi-sweet chocolate chips (gluten-free)
(used in homemade, gluten-free chocolate carrot cake recipe)
Very Good
Wt.: ~ 1 oz. (28.3 g.) of choc. in 2 srvgs of choc. carrot cake/5 oz. (142 g.) in carrot cake recipe/10 oz. (283 g.) in total bag of choc. chips.
Calories: ~400 calories in 2 servings of cake (~ 150 calories of that = choc chips)
Cost: $ (looking for receipt for chocolate chips)
Purchased from: Chocolate chips were bought at Whole Foods, in Palo Alto, CA (+ other carrots and other ingredients from Safeway stores)

Welcome to Day #2 of chocolate and veggie week on my blog. Today's treat was chocolate carrot cake (with chopped walnuts and a little coconut added). See, not so bad. Who said chocolate and vegetables together sounded gross? Not so.

ChocolateBet: February 6, 2009

Chocolate of the Day:
3 servings
Trader Joe's
Dark Chocolate Edamame (Dark chocolate covered soybeans)
Very Good
Wt.: ~4.24 oz. (120 grams)/10 oz. (284 g.) in total container
Calories: ~600 calories in 3 servings
Cost: $3.29
Purchased from: Trader Joe's store in Mountain View, CA

These chocolate edamame weren't bad. Welcome to the first day of chocolate and veggie week on my blog. You would think finding chocolate and vegetable combos would be difficult, but I'm finding more possibilities in this area than you might think.