Chocolate Eclair Cake

This post has nothing to do with pescetarianism, vegetarianism or veganism... it's main target is dessertism. My wonderful husband forwarded me this recipe today while he was at work and asked me to make it. As per my last post, I had planned on a full out cook-and-bake-o-rama for the weekend.  I did the protein / 'power' bars done yesterday (post / review to come), but plans changed, when somehow, late last night, I started not feeling very well; still not really sure what is/was going on with me. As of about 2 pm, though, I felt much improved and told Dan that if wanted to bring home the needed ingredients, that I would make this for him.

I posted the below photo on my personal Facebook page and it received several comments and interest, so I thought I would share the recipe. This originated from one of Dan's co-workers and edited just a bit below for easy of preparation and explanation.   It was really easy to do and very, very good!

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Chocolate Eclair Cake


1 cup water
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup all purposes flour
4 large eggs

2 pkgs (3.4 oz) Vanilla Instant Pudding
4 cups whole milk (to make pudding)
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese (softened)
1 pkg (8 oz) Cool Whip topping

⅓ cup Hershey's Chocolate Syrup (for drizzling - more or less as desired)


Pre-heat over to 400°
Grease a 15x10x1 inch jelly roll pan

Pastry before topping

In a medium sauce pan, bring water and butter to a boil.  Once butter is completely melted, turn heat to low.


Add flour and stir continuously until mixture forms into dough ball.  Remove from heat.  Add eggs, one at a time and mix thoroughly until combined with dough.  Spread dough out evenly on greased pan.  Bake at 400° for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.  Pastry will appear lumpy or bubbly. Cool completely.

Close-up of layers

While pastry cools, prepare the pudding as per package directions.  Using an electric hand mixer, beat in the softened cream cheese until completely combined with the pudding.  Spread pudding mixture evenly onto pastry.  Stir the Cool Whip topping and then spread over the pudding.  Finish by drizzling chocolate syrup over the top.


Allow to set / cool for approximately 30 minutes in the refrigerator before serving.

Enjoy!

(side note:  I'm wondering if this might not be even just a little bit more amazing with French Vanilla pudding, or adding a tiny bit of vanilla extract into the pastry.... hmmm.. maybe next time.)

Resources from the Humane Society

The internet is filled what all the information one could ever need.  Obviously, I've used it at great lengths to review information and data regarding pescetarian, vegetarian, vegan and other 'flexitarian' foods, facts and information.  I was pretty surprised, although I'm not sure why I was surprised, at the full suite of information available at The Humane Society's website regarding living meat free.

Interestingly enough, the information from Humane Society also touches on a lot of the myths that we reviewed previously.  Topics such as variety (spice up your meat-free life), flexible options (you can be a flexitarian), health (protein, calcium, and vitamins.. oh my!), desserts (Crispy Peanut Butter Treats by Alicia Silverstone!) and more are covered.  Here's a great quote from one of the articles:

"[It] doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Whether your primary incentive is helping the environment, improving animal welfare, or addressing health concerns, you can take a significant first step by becoming a flexitarian. The term blends “flexible” and “vegetarian” to describe those who take a part-time approach to avoiding meat."

 
Also, and this is my favorite part, they offer a weekly email that will deliver to you every Friday which provides a meat-free recipe that you can prepare for Meatless Monday!  All the information that is provided on the Humane Society's website is also available in a convenient downloaded PDF information packet or the provide an option to request it via mail as well.

Vegan Peanut Butter Pie

Looking for a quick, light, tasty, peanutbuttery vegan pie fix?!?!

There isn't much else to say besides: MAKE THIS!  You won't regret it.
Recipe is HERE from Andy Bellatti's Small Bites.

I used Koeze's Cream-Nut All Natural Peanut Butter from our local Fresh Market (made in Grand Rapids, MI... represent! (ps. I'm originally from Michigan)).  Also, I went with a chocolate crust because, let's face it.. what is better than chocolate and peanut butter?

Instructions: add ingredients to food processor, blend, pour in pie crust, chill, enjoy!

This is so quick and easy to make and my photos DO NOT give this justice at all.
I even whipped it up with a blender (because I don't have a food processor).

Post-Vacation Wrap up and more

We're back from a wonderful vacation in Orlando.  Dan and I had a great time with our friends and it was an awesome experience.  Our main reason for going was that Dan competed in a gaming tournament for various fighting games.  He played Mortal Kombat 9 and there were also matches in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Super Street Fighter 4 AE, Tekken 6, and a few others.  He's been a big gamer as long as I have know him (going on 11 years!) and my first introduction to competitive video game competitions was awesome!  We've already got another in our sights for later this year and I think I might actually give it a try this time, too.

So how did I do on the food part you ask?  Well, I think OK.  I packed on about 4 lbs but have already shed two of them since being back on Wednesday.  I stuck completely to vegetarian and pescetarian meals (with the exceptions of two small tasting bites: Greek gyro meat at local place we've wanted to try (I love Greek food) and chicken at Three Broomsticks in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios).  Where did we eat you ask?  Not half as many places as I had hoped!

Our first planned stop got cancelled.  We had a late breakfast on the road and were all still too full to have lunch.  This was a bit of a bummer as I had hoped to get in a meal at the Ethos Vegan Kitchen in Orlando.  Next time...  So we moved right ahead to our second planned stop at the Raphsodic Cooperative Vegan Bakery.  I ended up here because I had purchased a Groupon (it might have been living social) deal a few weeks in advance.  Completely worth it!  This is a quaint little shop in an odd little place in downtown Orlando, but it was awesome.  The staff was super friendly and let us him and haw over our random sampling.  We each chose a treat or two and then headed to our hotel to check-in.  We got a handful of vegan cupcakes, a few cookies and a brownie.  Each item was so yummy and they kept well too.  We did not have a refrigerator in our hotel room so the items we didn't eat right away were just stored in the bakery box. On day three, they were still pretty good.  The brownie even made it back home (with part travel in a cooler) and was amazingly tasty almost a week later.  I couldn't imagine how good it would have been if I was able to eat it the same day!  Here's our goody box:

The rest of the weekend included stops at Giordano's for deep dish pizza (another Groupon deal and it was right across the street from our hotel.. we walked! I got mushroom and broccoli!), Whole Foods for random samplings (I love their hot bar for lunch or dinner.  Gives a great chance to try many foods that you don't usually eat... and so good!), and found a Sweet Tomatoes down the road (if you have one of these in your area GO! Salad Bar Buffet with soups and other yummy food.. such a good deal!).

Giordano's

Salad at Sweet Tomatoes

We landed at a few other stops as well over the five days we were in Orlando.  I'll post more about some of them in a separate post (World's Largest McDonald's and food at Universal Studios).  Overall, again, had a GREAT time!  We ate a ton and really enjoyed ourselves.  I did not get in the exercise that I had hoped, but we did a lot of walking while we were there so I felt that made up for some of it.  I feel like my food choices were for sure those of a girl on vacation, but I was still conscious of what I was putting in my mouth.  The stop at Sweet Tomatoes was awesome and definitely helped flush out all that cheese from the night before at Giordano's.  Hoping to get back to Ethos in the future and will for sure be stopping at Raphsodic next time we're in town... and I didn't stop at just one cupcake... I went for two!

I've got a new fitness / weight-loss / food plan in the works for the next two moths and will keep on my mission of getting healthy.  Which leads me to mention that I think I need to change the title of this blog.  While I was hoping to keep my focus on pescetarianism, things change and so has my life over the last 6 months.  As you've noticed, while my posts still include my pescetarian diet, I seem to have moved forward.  I'm enjoying sharing health, fitness, travel and overall life info with you and I hope you feel the same.

Chocolate 'Mousse'

Here's a quick and easy dessert or treat for you.
Add together 2 tablespoons of Cool Whip Free and a single serving cup of sugar-free pudding (I use Jello Brand but it would be fine with any brand).  Mix well until completely combined.  Viola! Chocolate Mousse at 75 calories and only 1.5 grams of fat.  You can use a little more Cool Whip if you would like... try it out until you find a combo that works for you.

Now I know this isn't the most organic or healthy snack since both pre-packaged pudding and Cool whip are loaded with chemicals and preservatives, but it is a good, quick, low calorie snack in case you are super craving chocolate or sweets and trying to cut down on calories and sugar.