Super Simple Chocolate Sauce Recipe (3 ingredients, 30 seconds to make) + Ways to Relieve Stress + Tips on How to Transition Plant-Based + Another Helpful Podcast
Makes 4 drizzle servings.
We use Hu Baking Gems which come in a bag you can reuse indefinitely.
With full honesty, chocolate is a concession in this house that sets my hyper-scientific/empathetic nerves to full rattle. Why? Cocoa may be beneficial to your microbiome and its polyphenols are powerful antioxidants, but as you can see above: its environmental impact is ranked higher than dairy and pigs (<—though that metric is based on “chocolate” as a whole —meaning milk-chocolate and all its bovine-associated environmental harm is included— and unlike cow-breastmilk/pig-flesh: dark chocolate isn’t going to give you cancer, cardiovascular disease, hormonal diseases, and the emotional weight of putting an animal through suffering so you can needlessly fill yourself with disease.)
We’re an always-growing-forward (and simultaneously reducing what is harmful) sort of family, and abruptly taking all cocoa out of this house (after removing all animal products <— which have a bigger environmental, nutritional, compassionate impact) would have been too much of a wallop for the souls I was pulling toward plant-based whole-foods, so we now approach cocoa through a lens of: it cannot have animal products, it must be kindly cultivated, it shouldn’t have refined sugars, it cannot have palm oil, aim for organic, and it can’t be an all-the-time treat (<—this is another reason why berry bread, sweet cinnamon overnight oats, nutbutterscotch bites, and the crust bars are always handy to balance out the aching sweet-tooth pining for the chocolate gluttony of old).
Prior to this familial food change, I ate a staggering amount of Snickers Bars (and peanut butter cups), I consumed milk chocolate ad nauseum (and to the point I was getting lumps in my breasts from that milk), and I used to make a decadent chocolate sauce out of sweetened-chips and coconut oil. All of those items tasted scrumptious at the onset, and then generally lead to my blood sugar crashing and ended with me laid up on a couch kvetching about how tired I was. (<—I haven’t felt that way ONCE since shifting toward plant-based whole-foods.)
Last week we were having a see-how-good-plant-based-foods-can-be dinner with friends (spoiler: it was a success), I wanted to make something extra special for dessert (and thought the berry bread could use something to jazz it up if we were going to be having hearty/flavorful picnic plates of Mexican awesomeness), so I test-kitchened a new-and-improved version of our old chocolate sauce.
This new recipe is AMAZING: it is ready in 30 seconds, it requires 3 ingredients and a microwave, it makes 4 drizzle servings (from just 1/8 a cup of chips!), and it’s healthier than the old version…but should still be consumed in moderation.
Working on transitioning down the plant-based path and looking for a delicious dessert option that is better than the animal-product dense alternatives? This sauce has you covered. Throw it on one of the many fiber-filled options I mentioned above, and you’ll be having yourself a food-loving Hobbit dance party.
Continue for: our super simple chocolate sauce recipe (3 ingredients, no refined sugar); the nutritional benefits of dark chocolate; tips for relieving stress; some helpful hints on how to transition to plant-based feasting; another really helpful/illuminating podcast (a Grandfather who’s working through his first month of transitioning plant-based <—ie really helpful for you souls who are just starting out); how Ian reminds me of the nutritional guide in that interview because he’s been sparking up the health of many of his coworkers; plus 3 whole days of examples of what this plant-based (MOSTLY) whole-food :-) family is feasting on & and the heart-fluttering ways we keep active via Lifestyle Medicine guidelines (<— dance breaks with my cub all day, every day).
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
Ingredients needed: dark chocolate chips, vegetable oil of choice, salt.
Add 1/8 cp chocolate chips to a small microwave safe bowl, add in 1tsp oil, pinch of salt.
Microwave for 30 seconds.
Stir.
Enjoy. :-)
That pic in the top right corner is how they look when they come out. Stir it well and see if they completely melt. You may look at it and think, “It needs another 30 seconds” but often they are done after a little stirring, because the oil continues to melt them as you are stir.
Voila! <3
A little goes a long way. This is 1/4 of the batch and it looks like this berry bread is swimming in it.
Shared Dessert (between Q and me): berry bread, cashew cream, and banana.
From “Fiber Fueled” by Dr Will Bulsiewicz
While wrestling with how to even write about chocolate, I found several great articles and this lovely research paper titled “Environmental impacts of chocolate production and consumption in the UK” (<—I had no idea that the UK eats so much more chocolate than us! UK is the 4th biggest consumer of chocolate, and the United States is currently listed as only 19th! Knowing how much chocolate everyone-I-know eats, it blew my mind to consider how much that translates with UK consumption.)
After that study, I found this great article from Popular Science, which states:
Chocolate producers contribute to climate change by buying milk produced by methane-belching cows and by buying cocoa beans from regions where growers are razing forests to clear farmland.
Chocolate's raw materials, including milk powder, cocoa derivatives, sugar and palm oil, and its packaging are major environmental villains. Cocoa, sugar and, in particular, palm oil production are driving deforestation. The production of milk powder also is very carbon-intensive, largely because dairy cows generate a lot of methane while producing milk. For this reason, milk chocolate is more environmentally harmful than dark chocolate.
So what is an environmentally conscientious chocolate aficionado to do? “The key is to be moderate in consumption, like with anything else,” Adisa Azapagic said. “It’s better to avoid chocolates that have large amounts of packaging. Typically, Easter eggs and those for Mother’s Day will be over-packaged, as they are selling you the ‘attractive’ packaging, rather than the product in it.
Also, she said, stick to dark chocolate, rather than milk. It will be good for your health, too. Dark chocolate has less sugar than milk chocolate, and eating too much sugar contributes to obesity and other problems. Dark also has been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce bad cholesterol and lessen inflammation, all of which contribute to heart disease.”
Want some research that is going to make you feel better about eating chocolate? (All this knowledge is like doing a do-si-do, eh? WELCOME TO WHIRLWIND THAT IS MY BRAIN! :-D)
“Many health benefits have been attributed to cocoa and its potent antioxidant functions. These include lowering cholesterol, slowing down cognitive decline, and keeping the heart healthy.”
“The friendly bacteria in our guts can gobble up cocoa powder and turn it into compounds known to help the heart, food scientists from Louisiana State University reported Tuesday at the American Chemical Society meeting in Dallas. The critters also convert the cocoa powder into molecules that reduce inflammation.”
“Cocoa is good for your heart because of fermentation by gut bacteria, creating anti-inflammatory compounds that improve blood vessel function.”
“Cocoa is rich in plant chemicals called flavanols that may help to protect the heart. Dark chocolate contains up to 2-3 times more flavanol-rich cocoa solids than milk chocolate. Flavanols have been shown to support the production of nitric oxide (NO) in the endolethium (the inner cell lining of blood vessels) that helps to relax the blood vessels and improve blood flow, thereby lowering blood pressure. [1,2] Flavanols in chocolate can increase insulin sensitivity in short term studies; in the long run this could reduce risk of diabetes. [3,4]”
“Various studies show that dark chocolate and cocoa contain a significant amount of polyphenols, mainly flavonols , . Its consumption leads to an increase in bioactive nitric oxide (NO) lowering blood pressure (BP) . They also improve insulin sensitivity , , decrease total plasma cholesterol, in particular very low density cholesterol (LDL), modulate cell apoptosis at the endothelial level, improve cytokine balance and vascular inflammation.”
What are polyphenols? “Polyphenols are micronutrients that we get through certain plant-based foods. They’re packed with antioxidants and potential health benefits. It’s thought that polyphenols can improve or help treat digestion issues, weight management difficulties, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease, and cardiovascular diseases.”
“Conclusively, in the light of the above considerations, cocoa and dark chocolate-based diet may be beneficial in aged people for improvement of the neuro–cardiovascular connectivity.”
So, in essence: be conscious of your actions, make decisions that are as planetary-kind as possible, and If you’re gonna scratch the itch of chocolate love, aim for chocolate that has been sustainably farmed, and make sure it is without refined sugars (Hu uses unrefined coconut sugar), animal products, or palm oil. The first two are harmful to your microbiome (and thus your whole health), and the latter two are terrible for the environment.
Whew! Grab your partner, do-si-do. :-)
Plant-Based Kiddo Breakfast (with the kid who now wants to be in most of these photos): whole-grain/sprouted bread with peanut butter, apple sauce, apples, and watermelon.
After breakfast dancing. <3
Lunch: purple grits*, quick-pickled cabbage, swiss chard, avocado, cashew queso, golden balsamic tomatoes, and green onions.
*Tried grits in an Instapot for the first time ever, and Boy Howdy was that a time saver!
Cappello Brownies (made a batch of these Sat and it’ll carry us through this week because we eat small squares), mango, cashew cream, and unsweetened coconut.
Post-Lunch Dancing. <3
Making a salt-dough volcano with Grandma.
Baking Soda + Vinegar + Salt Dough Volcano made with Grandma.
The joy in his childhood makes my heart flutter.
The rarely pictured, often grunting like a surly sailor Wicket.
13 years ago we got her from the Oswego County Animal Shelter in the hope that she’d be a good companion for Malaprop (<—who was perpetually lamenting that we were both working multiple jobs and could never be home to snuggle her), and Malaprop promptly let us know that another cat was not at all what she had in mind, and Wicket instead attached herself to Ian like a tumbleweed moon.
She’s one of Q’s favorite things in this world, and despite the nuisance of cleaning up her fuzzy detritus, I hope we have many more years of this sweet/cranky cat.
Family Feasting: cornbread sliders with caramelized onion and Beyond Breakfast Sausage Patties (<—Ian invention), roasted red potatoes, and salads with: swiss chard, lettuce, squash, golden balsamic tomatoes, kraut, kalamata olives, and dressed with the leftover balsamic juice from the tomatoes.
Transitioning? There are a LOT of plant-based meat options out there, and you can do fun things like breakfast sausage sliders. :-)
You’ll eventually get to a place where these are rare (like how we eat them now: about once a month, if not longer); but when we were first transitioning to a plant-based diet, Ian was relying on Beyond Sausages with every meal to fit the niche of meat-love. These have all the flavor of regular meat (I actually think they are better), and they have less of an environmental impact, but they have more saturated fat than you want to be eating daily (hence why we are no longer eating them daily…and why no one should be eating animal products daily either.)
Nightly Reading
Plant-Based Kiddo Breakfast: a super small one because he slept in and lunch was going to be early due to a Board of Education meeting.
Last piece of the whole-grain/sprouted bread with peanut butter and half an apple.
When your awesome friend (thanks, Crystal!) has given you some plant-based whole-food cheese-sauce and you have a noon Zoom forum for the re-opening of your district school (<—you’re on the Board of Education), so you make an easy-breezy plant-based lunch to feed your son before said meeting.
Lunch: cashew mac and cheese, swiss chard, balsamic tomatoes, and green onions.
Dessert (shared with Q): Cappello Brownies, mango, strawberry, cashew cream, and almond butter.
When you finish with your meeting and your son runs into tell you excitedly that he’s discovered, “A baby broccoli and two grasshoppers mating!”
“Can I pllllllllease eat this tomato?” <—Thank goodness this kid gets excited about fresh produce. It was a journey to get him off the sugar-train, and we’ll go over that at a later date.
When the family movie night had been Twister and it bleeds into your kid’s summer homeschooling inspiration. :-D
What’s a flerken? It’s something he saw in Captain Marvel years ago and popped back into his consciousness this week.
“It’s Captain Marvel trying to get a whole bunch of tesseracts away from a flerken, and Nick Fury is holding a flerken, and there are flerkens popping out all over the place!”
Family Feasting: roasted red potatoes, and bowls with: purple grits, quick-pickled cabbage, swiss chard, squash, yellow bell pepper, golden balsamic tomatoes, and green onions.
Nightly Reading
From “Undo It” by Dr Dean Ornish and Anne Ornish
We live in a realm where we are continuously bombarded by stress, and I am finding the techniques above vastly essential is tempering down my “THE WORLD NEEDS US TO WAKE UP!” mental wail and recenter me to now, advocacy, and peace.
I take stretching breaks allllllll through my day, I’m pausing more times than I can count to take a DEEP breath, I’ll sneak in moments all through the day to focus on that breath for several minute spans (working on making this longer and longer as the days pass), and I end every night with meditation.
If you are stressed (this day-and-age I’m not sure how anyone isn’t), give these techniques a try and for the love of goodness PLEASE go buy “Undo It”. It’s written by one of the world’s leading cardiologist and his deeply empathetic/intelligent/writing-wonder wife, and it’ll better your whole life.
Q - “I love it when breakfast involves steam. I could look at it all day, it’s just so pretty!” <3
Plant-Based Kiddo Breakfast: whole oats & chia, topped with homemade apple sauce, watermelon, golden flax, and a little peanut butter.
Why not bacon?
Well, aside from the cancer and cardiovascular disease it’s giving you, that cured stomach flesh comes from the belly of a deeply empathetic animal. This is actually the screenshot of what was a video of a pig making the most heartbreaking crying nose while nose-pushing, and then laying his head sadly on his mate.
Maybe eat the stuff that isn’t ruining the environment, filling you with preventable disease, and comes with the emotions/compassion/heart, and intelligence proven to be higher than the dog that you may love like your own blood.
There are tastier, kinder, more compassionate options.
Get all the harm/destruction out of your life and you may find your days bursting with love and forward movement.
I was painting, we had the Cappello Background/Foreground mix on (can be found on Spotify) and this sweet soul stood up from his desk, held out his hand like the lead in some movie, and said, “Mama, can I please have this dance?” <3
Prepping for Taco/Tostada Tuesday
I’m betting we’ve all heard about “Meatless Mondays'“ at this point, and an easy next step is shifting toward animal-product-free Taco Tuesdays.
I covered in my “Why you want to avoid animal products, and how to shift toward plant-based whole-foods” essay some simple tips on how to transition:
I started intuitively, and with small steps: by swapping out animal-product ingredients with healthier alternatives in meals I already loved to eat. It is untenable if you just leap right into the fire, you need to actually enjoy what you’re eating and know that it’ll be something you can come back to.
I did a lot of googling. :-) I’ve mostly kept our entire menu the same, it just orbits around a different protein and is full of way more beneficial fiber. If I need to find a substitution, I simply look online.
For example:
instead of putting milk in our coffee, we started adding deliciously-creamy oatmilk
I still made curry, I just made it with more vegetables and maybe a member of the legume family
I made stir fry with extra vegetables, topped it with peanut sauce, or ate it with a protein-dense grain like quinoa
instead of eggs I started making us oatmeal
did mushroom gravy, instead of muscle/organ gravy
instead of ice cream I started making smoothies or nice cream
if I was going to make tacos I used plant-based meat or beans
The list goes on and could do in any vector.
We’re going to touch on that part about tacos.
If you go make a pot of my Cappello Chili, and you save yourself a few cups, and you put that delicious elixir on a taco, I PROMISE you will not miss meat one speck. It is savory, it is salty, it is scrumptious, it fits every umami niche that you want from a pile of ground up cow flesh. Best part? You’re not harming the environment or needlessly killing an animal, you’re not ingesting any of its harmful bacteria, and you’ll have no choline hitting your system, converting into TMAO and ruining your (and your kin’s) cardiovascular systems.
While you’re at it, whip up a batch of our cashew queso and I equally promise you that you won’t be missing the cow breastmilk. And this is coming from someone who used to SWEAR that I could not live without the secretions of a cow. TRUST ME. It covers all the tangy saltiness of cow-breastmilk-cheese and even tastes better because it is already in sauce consistency so it gets into every nook….yet doesn’t leave you feeling bloated, inflamed, and marching you toward prostate cancer, diabetes, hormonal diseases, and cardiovascular disease.
You get allllllll of the delicious taste, you still get Taco Night, and you gather none of the harm. You end up feeling BETTER after one of these meals, not floating off in a gaseous sludge to wail about how tired and full you feel. (<—BEEN THERE)
Quill’s Plate: forever requesting that only one of them have queso, so that he can enjoy it all the more.
Our ingredients are the same, with the exception that I eat mine on hard-shells like a big, messy tostada (that is half-salad) and then just eat it with a fork.
What’s on here (and on Q’s)? Cappello Chili, cashew queso, lettuce, green onions, quick-picked cabbage, shaved corn-on-the-cob, and Crystal Hot Sauce.
Dessert (shared with Q): Cappello Brownies, mango, strawberry, and cherry.
Compelled to start moving forward because all these meals look as good as they taste?
Here are some resources:
“Plant-Based Primer: The Beginner’s Guide to a Plant-Based Diet”
“Whole-Foods, Plant-Based Diet: A Detailed Beginner's Guide”
“The Step-by-Step Guide to Finally Making a Plant-Based Diet Last”
How to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes through a Plant-Based Whole-Foods Diet
How Not To Die, by Dr. Michael Greger
Undo It, by Dr Dean Ornish
Your Body In Balance, Dr Neal Barnard
Watch the Forks Over Knives documentary
Watch the Game Changers documentary
Watch the What the Health? documentary
Or go back to any of my resource posts. There are feasts of great podcasts.
My afternoon before.
After. <3 (With Q over there working on summer schooling because I was both painting and instructing him at the same time.)
What’s it dragging itself toward? “The biggest plate of pancakes that has ever existed! And it’s oozing fresh berry sauce and maple syrup!”
“It’s a Flerken who is also part-man in the sky, on his spaceship; and he’s watching a man who just won a race on a graboid. And in the stands is a man with a peg-leg, with his pet octopus and pet scorpion.”
Dinner for 2 (because poor Ian was still outside scraping paint): roasted potatoes, fresh corn-on-the-cob, and salads with: black rice, romaine, orange bell pepper, golden balsamic tomatoes, kraut, kalamata olives, green onions, and Q’s Sesame Dressing.
“Look, Mama! I may a robot scorpion!” <—What Q was doing while I cleaned up for the night.
Another topic that will get fleshed out at a later date: the TV is rarely on in this house. Unless we are sitting down to watch something with him (which is what Q and I do for a treat over lunch), he is crafting something, drawing something, playing outside, or talking our ears off.
While I’m working on house projects (whether that be cooking, painting, or chores) I’m either listening to music or podcasts, and I had two new great podcasts for you to listen to, but for whatever reason the July 28th Exam Room Podcast interview with Dr. Kim Williams (<—president emeritus of the American College of Cardiology) is no where to be found online (just on Spotify). So if you have the chance: hop on over to Spotify; but if you want to listen to a brilliant interview with him that’ll open up your whole mind and make you realize it’s actually your “civic duty” to start eating plant-based (<—to save yourself from the preventable diseases that are crippling our health care system) go listen to this great interview titled “The Food We Eat Is Killing Us”.
However, this “Exam Room” interview with Vince Bodiford and Kamatni Rawlins is available online, and it is also very inspiring. Vince is a grandfather who is just starting out on a plant-based path in an effort to be around to see his grandkids grow up. For all of you who are thinking “How the heck do I start? Is it too late for me?!” this is a great one to listen to. Also remember that I didn’t start out plant-based, I had a long road myself.
“Like many of us, Vince had become frustrated by his weight and finally reached a breaking point. In his time of need, he reached out to Kimatni for help. Together they offer an authentic glimpse into the real life experience of someone attempting to break a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits and wean themselves off meat and dairy. Eating a “perfect” vegan diet doesn’t happen overnight for most people, including Vince. But with Kimatni’s help, he is determined to get there!
Follow along as we learn about his first month fueled by plants!
Plus, Chuck and Dr. Vanita Rahman discuss a new law in Mexico that would treat the sale of junk food and chips to minors just like cigarettes. It would be illegal for anyone to buy them until they’re 18 years old!
Plus, Dr. Rahman answers your questions as we open the Doctor’s Mailbag.
What foods cause acne?
Are low-fat diets beneficial for kidney stones?
Is stevia a good replacement for regular sugar?
Is eliminating sugar the only way to stop cravings for sweets? “
What I loved most about this particular interview was how much Kamatni reminded me of Ian. I focus on my own numbers when I’m listing out souls who have woken up to the health/environmental imperatives of plant-based feasting; but what never gets mentioned is that Ian has his own small movement of shifted souls. Just like Kamatni, his coworkers started noticing how different his meals looked from theirs, how much energy he had, how much strength and vitality he exudes, and they started to ask him questions and pointers on how they could tap into the same health. Ian sends links, Ian buys books, Ian buys documentaries for folks, he’s sending out information in his free-time because he has a big heart and wants to help as many souls as he can; and the souls who are following his advice end up feeling better just like everyone does when they transition to plant-based whole-foods!
He doesn’t like fuss or light to be shown on him, but y’all should know he’s in the background saving lives. <3
LOVE <3
There is so much work to do on this house (and in this world), Ian and I are often ships sailing in separate, yet parallel paths (like the card I made for him in the picture below), but there are moments through a day where we all get back on the same wavelength and reconnect, and the best one is usually right before bed: when these two burn steam by doing their acrobatics, family hugs are had by all, and then we drift again so Ian can go eat a super late dinner and I can read our cub to sleep.
Parent’s Day Cards that were kismetly similar: Ian expressing that I am our anchor, and me illuminating that that year felt like we were ships in the night.
Nightly Reading
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
