A Little Indulgence Can Help You Stay On Your Diet
A Little Indulgence Can Help You Stay On Your Diet
One of the ways to maintain a healthy diet over the long haul is to treat yourself consistently to a few small indulgences. A few bites of something rich and delicious goes a long way toward staving off binge eating and feeling deprived.
The trick is to enjoy a FEW bites and to make sure your indulgences do not contain foods that may harm your health.
For people with peanut allergies, Sunbutter is a perfect peanut butter alternative; it tastes delicious, is completely nut free (including tree nuts) and can be used in all the same ways that peanut butter can be used. With one-third less saturated fat than peanut butter and 27 percent of a day's recommended allowance of vitamin E in one serving, it fits well into a healthy lifestyle and diet.
Cut these Sunflower Chocolate Squares into small pieces and enjoy when you need a little bit of luxury to keep you on track with your healthy diet.
Sunflower Chocolate Squares
Ingredients
1 - 11.5 ounce bag of bittersweet chocolate chips
cup creamy Sunbutter
cup whole milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
1 cup heavy cream
Optional garnishes - shaved dark or white chocolate, roasted and salted sunflower seeds
Directions
Put the chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave for 2 - 3 minutes on high power, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Alternatively you can melt the chocolate in a heatproof pan over a pan of simmering water making sure the bottom of the pan does not touch the water. Put the melted chocolate in the bowl of a stand-mixer along with the Sunbutter and vanilla.
Bring the milk and salt to a boil and add half of the milk to the chocolate and Sunbutter. Blend on low speed to combine. Add the remaining milk and blend until smooth on low speed. Increase the speed to high and whip for 5 minutes or until the mixture has cooled.
In a clean bowl with clean beaters, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Take about a quarter of the cream and mix with the chocolate Sunbutter mixture. Fold in the remaining cream until no longer streaky. Scrape the mixture into an 8 inch square baking pan and refrigerate for 4 hours. Garnish as desired.