A Chocolate Kind of Day

Some days I find myself craving the same thing over and over again at every single meal. Today was one such day when I (sort of accidentally) started my day with chocolate and then things got out of hand ...

ultimately it lead to an insatiable urge to bake something that involved CHOCOLATE.

No oven? No problem!

A toaster oven works just as well at satisfying all your baking needs!

I saw Janetha make this on her blog and knew I wanted to give it a whirl since I had almost all the ingredients on hand ...

behold ... easy Chocolate Pumpkin Protein Bread!



3/4 cup egg white
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2 scoops chocolate protein powder
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 TBSP splenda
1 TBSP flaxseed meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract



1. Mix dry ingredients together.
2. Stir in pumpkin
3. Stir in remaining wet ingredients
4. Bake in a greased cake pan for 25 minutes at 350F
5. Perfect easy Chocolate Pumpkin Bread!



Top with anything you would top bread with. I used margarine and blueberry jelly.



While it's more on the bread side, the pumpkin makes this loaf moist and cakey. The best part is the stats! The above recipe yields 4 large servings at only 140 calories and 13g of protein per serving. It's perfect for a no-guilt snack. I actually cut my loaf into 8 servings (70cal, 6.5g protein each) so you definitely get whatever bang you want for your buck. My landlady loooved it and the next time I make this I will add in some chopped pecans and raisins for an extra kick.

Now let's rewind to how this chocolate obsession began ...

it all started with a bowl of cereal innocently enough at 7am.

The mixins' were of usual suspect: chopped pear, kashi honey sunshine, bran psylliums, almond milk ...



but then I thought I should boost up the protein content of this bowl a bit and added in some chocolate protein powder with the milk. Brought me back to when I was 12 and loved any cereal that turned my milk into CHOCOLATE milk!!



So on my way to work I stopped in to London Drugs and picked up a few things ...

like these chocolate almond biscottis which I had with my morning coffee. (and lunch coffee, and afternoon coffee ...)




And this Lindt Sea Salt chocolate which I only wanted a nibble off but ended up eating 2 huge squares of! I've never had Sea Salt chocolate before but often heard great things about it and now I finally understand why. It's unexplainable, you just have to try it out for yourself! (and I'm not sharing mine ...)



Lunch was the remains of cottage cheese with a cup of pumpkin and pumpkin granola.



So filling, nutritious and easy to eat at the office. No smell, no sound, just lots and lots of taste.



Dinner was the remains of a tub of greek yogurt with some chopped pear and CHOCOLATE granola with dark chocolate chips. (also picked up this morning)



I wonder if this is a hormonal thing? But I will never condone any craving that leads to the creation of delicious bread/cake/pastries ... now I better brush my teeth so the remainder of that loaf may live to see the weekend.