Two Healthy Faves: Book News and Vegan Chocolate

Liesel's wearing socks with sandals! Hee!

Thanks to my aunt who is disabled and watched The Sound of Music on permanent repeat, I grew up addicted to the Von Trapps and their be-curtained antics. My favorite song to belt at the top of my lungs was always "My Favorite Things." (Lie: My secret favorite was the "High on the hill was a lonely goatherd" one - sampled crazily by Gwen Stefani - because I love to yodel but I couldn't admit to that in public.) For the longest time though, I thought the lyrics were "When the dawn bites, when the beet stings..." I didn't know what kind of crazy world those German kids (who, oddly, had no accent even though many of the other main characters did - I wonder how the director decided which Germans should have accents? Only the bad ones? Perhaps that is why young Rolf dumps Liesel so unceremoniously.) lived in but boy howdy did I want a sweet little sundress with matching kerchief made out of green '70's patterned drapes. The whole hiding-in-a-graveyard scene was pretty awesome too.

ANYHOW.

Two of my favorite things combined to make today pretty darn awesome, no graveyards or drapery dresses needed!

1. My book! Everything for The Great Fitness Experiment Book (Year 1) is at long last signed, sealed and delivered! Without getting into all the gory details, it has been quite the harrowing process and sending off the finished manuscript was one of the coolest moments of my life - hopefully soon to be usurped by that moment when I first hold the actual book in my hand. I don't have the exact pub date yet but it will be soon!

2. Vegan chocolate might have saved my life. You will recall that I was feeling all bitter and deprived after being forced back into veganism by my adorable-yet-dairy-intolerant Jelly Bean. When to my rescue came Averie of Love Veggies And Yoga. She informed me that not only can you make vegan chocolate, but it is incredibly easy! Here's what you do:
1. Melt 1 Tbsp of coconut oil in the microwave.
2. Stir in 2 tsp powdered sugar (Averie uses agave syrup because she eats "high raw" vegan - not sure what the "high" means but lots of vegans don't eat conventional sugar due to it being processed through animal bone char. Me being a forced vegan, I don't care about the bone char so I use the sugar because it seems to give it a more authentic texture.
3. Stir in 2 Tbsp cocoa powder.
4. Pour into a saran wrap lined bowl and freeze.

That's it!! In 10 minutes you have real honest-to-goodness (still loaded with 14 grams of fat and sugar) chocolate! It's DELISH. I even added rice krispies to mine today. I made my own Crunch Bar, y'all!! Tomorrow I'm going to add flaked coconut and roasted almonds to make my own Almond Joy. I may never go back to traditional chocolate again! Averie's site has tons of yummy healthy recipes - go check them out!

Sadly, my attempts at making my own coconut ice cream have not been as successful. Probably because I don't have an ice cream maker. Oh well, my mistakes were still pretty tasty. Even if I had to chip them off with an ice pick.

What is your favorite thing today? Anyone else have a favorite mis-heard song lyric that you sang wrong for years?