SF Chocolate Syrup / Weekly Recap

Hello Everyone and Happy Saturday to you!!

Today is another fun Saturday!  What I like about fun Saturday is the recipes.  I try to come up with something fun, something sweet and something creative that I think you will like.  Today’s recipe is one I found while googling for chocolate recipes.  I saw this and thought, hey why haven’t I done this before?  So today I bring you Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup!

I found this recipe on diyNatural website and I just had to give a try and I am sooooooo glad I did!  This my friends will satisfy any chocolate craving you have.  Need chocolate?  Grab a spoonful!  After all it’s guilt-free!  Not only is guilt-free it takes less than 10 minutes to make!  Pure chocolate bliss in a matter of minutes!!  Yes please!!!

The recipe only contains a few ingredients  which are cocoa powder, water, sugar, vanilla, salt and baking soda.  That’s it!!  For the sugar part I used NuNaturals Presweet Tagatose, so for me it’s sugar free!  Yah!!  But the recipe is still pretty low in calories with regular sugar!  I’ve tested this recipe with NuNaturals and Granulated Sugar and I liked the results from both of them.  You can’t tell the difference.

When I made the syrup, it measured out to 1 1/3 cups, but when I added the baking soda to it and let it cool, it thicken up and made 1 3/4 cups.  More chocolate, I’ll take it!!!  The reason for the baking soda is so the sugar doesn’t crystallize while being in the refrigerator.  A couple days later the chocolate syrup was even more smooth and silky.  I’m telling you, I had to hold myself back from drinking the stuff.  I think I’m on another chocolate kick!!  Your probably thinking, why not just buy syrup?  Well I happen to have a bottle of Hershey’s regular Chocolate Syrup in my fridge and so I decided to take a peek at the label to see what is on it!  Shock is on it!!  Look at the first few ingredients!

Look at the first two ingredients!  High Fructose Corn Syrup and Corn Syrup.  Did you know that back 30 years ago is when they introduced High Fructose Corn Syrup to us and that is when we started to become an over weight nation?  I think it’s the worse kind of sugar there is?  I’d rather take granulated sugar over High Fructose Corn Syrup anytime.  But for fun I did my nutritional information for you so you can see the difference and than you may want to make your own chocolate syrup, even with granulated sugar.  Here are the comparisons for you.

Hershey’s regualr chocolate syrup:  Calories per two tablespoons:   100,  Fat:  0,  Cholesterol:  0,  Sodium:  15,  Carbs:  24,  Fiber:  1,  Sugar:  20,  Protein:  <1

Homemade Syrup with Granulated Sugar:  Calories per two tablespoons:   60,  Fat:  0,  Cholesterol:  0,  Sodium:  35.8  Carbs:  16,  Fiber:  1,  Sugar:  14,  Protein:  .06

Homemade Chocolate Syrup with NuNaturals:  Calories per two tablespoons:   26.5,  Fat:  .03,  Cholesterol:  0,  Sodium:  35,  Carbs:  15.4,  Fiber:  1.1,  Sugar:  0,  Protein:  .06

Look at the difference even with real sugar, almost half the calories, less carbs, less sugar and made with ingredients you can pronounce!  I’m telling you, make your own syrup!  You’ll love it!!!  Look at what I made with mine and it only came to 147 calories with everything!!

This is my hot fudge Sunday!  I took one cup plain greek yogurt, 1/4 tsp. stevia and a pinch of vanilla extract.  Mixed together and placed in a freezer safe container and froze it for 1 1/2 hours.  Mix it up, add chopped strawberries, 1 1/2 tbsp. chocolate syrup and a 2 tbsp. of Fat Free Redi Whip Whip Cream.  147 calories!  It was huge and filling!  I have had this 3 nights in a row for my dessert!!  Only 20 carbs and 23 grams of protein!!  This is the ultimate Sundae!!

Since it’s the weekend, and I am sure you have 10 minutes to spare, whip up a batch of chocolate syrup!  I am just sure you will love it as much as I do.!!  Now time for some fun things.  Let’s talk nuts!

My recipe for my Pistachio Pancakes made Shape Magazines 10 Healthy Nut Recipes!  Woohoo!!  I thought that was so cool.   Besides my green pancakes, they have some other great recipes you may want to check out.  Very Creative ones!

Speaking of Pancakes.  I remade my Strawberry Shortcake Pancakes this week.  I made them a tad healthier and I retook my pictures.  They are one of my favorite pancakes of all times and the pictures are horrible.  My goal is to re-make, re-take photos of recipes on my blog.  The first year, the pictures are just embarrassing.  It makes me sad because the recipes I think are good, but then you see a picture of yellow pancakes or green chicken you think I wouldn’t want to make that, so my goal is to re-make at least one recipe a week so I can re-take the pictures and update the recipe if need be.  Just check out my before and after pictures.  Though the after isn’t great, since I messed up the settings on my camera.  lol  You win some, you lose some!

Now for some fun links:

Here is one I found from Rodale about sweeteners the top 5 bad ones and the top 5 good ones.  I figured since we were talking about sugar earlier, I would share this link for you so you can see what top 5 natural sugars are good for you!

If your a Macaroni and Cheese fan, here is a link from HuffPost Taste, taste test for frozen macaroni dishes.  Ummm, #1 and #2 are from my favorite store!  Picture is from Huffington Post.

Here is a link about Preventing Food Binging.  Honestly this is something I have to deal with myself.  I have the tenancy to over indulge when I’m not hungry and only do it when I’m bored.  I know this is an issue for a lot of people, like me, so I am sharing this link with you.

I may have showed you chocolate syrup, but here is the best chocolate of all!!

Now it’s time for this week’s weekly recap.

Sunday:  Berry Taco’s – #SundaySupper - I love this dish, it’s simple, easy and chock full of my favorite Spring berries!  I am so excited for berry season!  I go crazy and buy strawberries by the case!  Ohhh, I can’t wait!!

Monday:  Post Workout Smoothie - I couldn’t come up with a name for this smoothie, so I decided to name it Berry Orange Smoothie.   I love this smoothie and it was one of those wing it recipes.  Sometimes those are the best ones!  Funny thing is, I took the picture in horrible light, took a few snaps and oddly enough the picture made it to TasteSpotting.  When you work hard to take a good shot, it gets turned down, but a rush, rush one make it!  Crazy!

Tuesday:  Are they the Best Burger Buns? - Yes they are!  I have made a ton of different kinds of burger buns at home and never had good results.  I found this recipe of King Arthur Flour and I am glad I did.  They are super easy to make and perfect for first time yeast bread makers!!  Give it a try.  One of my readers, Jeannette (Hi Jeannette!) left a comment and she said she made them with whole wheat flour and they turned out!  I’m trying it that way next!!

Wednesday:  Strawberry and Avocado Salad with Strawberry Balsamic Dressing - I have made this salad about 5 times since I posted it!  I have had it for lunches everyday for work and even once for dinner.  I love it and haven’t gotten sick of it.  It’s light, refreshing, and oh so good!!

Thursday:  Spicy Breaded Sweet Potato Fries – I am so happy I came up with this recipe.  I love a nice crispy french fry and even better that it is baked!  I swear I could just eat these for dinner, and I’m talking about a HUGE plate of them.  If your a sweet potato fry person, then you must try this recipe!!

Friday:  Mini Blueberry Orange Muffins – I love these little guys!  My Husband has been taking them in for work and I have been popping a few here and there for a light snack!  They are light, fluffy and loaded with blueberries.  My Husband said they taste like blueberries, well silly they are blueberry muffins.  Silly man!!

I wanted to let you know that Mamavation is having a virtual 5 k run on Saturday, March 30th.  It’s the same 5k that I have been working my booty off for the past 2 weeks of training and guess what, the rules changed and now you can join me!    You can walk or run, the main goal is to just keep moving.  And guess what?  There are prizes.  I would love it if you joined me, and then after you do your run or walk, let me know about it.  I’m going to try my best, but I am not a runner even though I have been training.  My goal is to do it in 35 minutes.  That’s a lot of time, but I don’t want to set my goals to high and set myself up for disappointment,  so come join me and the Mamavation group for the virtual 5k.  Bring some friends, burn some calories and have fun!!  You can go to Mamavation for more information and to sign up.  Just click my MAMAVATION badge below!

Well my Friends, I am sure you are tired of reading, and I am off to Zumba class today.  I am so happy I found a class to go to with other people.  See, I do all of my workouts at home and the only companionship I have while working out are my dogs!  So it’s nice to get out with others and feel good about myself when I’m done!

Have a great rest of the weekend and stayed tuned for tomorrow for a wonderful little sweet treat!

Toodles,

Jennifer

P.S.  This weeks craving is the California Chicken Sandwich.   I LOVE this sandwich and haven’t had it in forever!  I think I need to change that!!