Tasty chocolate recipes for fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of year to whip up some delicious goodies in the kitchen and I love nothing more than the smells of spices and baking in my home!

One of my favorite ingredients - and I know I’m not alone in saying this – is chocolate. I mean, who doesn’t love something deliciously moreish like chocolate brownies or a divine chocolate fudge cake to indulge in?

I’ve been doing some online searches to find some fabulous fall recipes that use chocolate. Here’s what I came up with:

Chocolate, Pumpkin and Stout Brownies

In the weeks after Halloween, you can pick up pumpkins from the supermarket for pennies! I’m always tempted to buy a few and experiment with them in the kitchen, and I couldn’t be happier to find a recipe – courtesy of Organic Garden -  that makes use of this abundant, cheap ingredient.

The only thing I have reservations about is using the stout in this recipe. I imagine that it will give the brownies a wonderfully deep flavor, although I’m not sure kids will enjoy it. Depending on how many discount pumpkins I pick up, I might have a go at making several variations!

Chocolate and Ginger Cake with Bourbon Sauce

What could be a better combination than chocolate and ginger for fall?! This is one of Martha Stewart’s recipes, although again it uses alcohol as an ingredient, which I’m not sure kids will like. In place of the bourbon sauce, I was thinking of making a traditional ganache - which is made using melted chocolate and heavy cream. For decoration, I think some whipped cream and strawberries would really bring this cake to life.

I’m always been keen to use as many Fair Trade ingredients as possible when I’m baking, so I was delighted when my research brought me across a company where I could buy loads of supplies in one place. You can find a full selection of FairTrade ingredients perfect for making cakes, including essential items like sugar, online at Traidcraft. They stock a wide selection of organic and Fair Trade products, and they even offer free delivery.

However, in my excitement at finding a supplier that has lots of Fair Trade goodies, I didn’t realise that this was a UK company. Unfortunately, their free delivery doesn’t include transatlantic travel, so I’ll have to find another source. Those lucky British bakers!

Chocolate Pots

 I don’t know what’s going on, but I seem to be intrigued by all things British when it comes to chocolate recipes! Gregg Wallace is famous in the UK for hosting the popular cookery show Masterchef and he is responsible for this gorgeous chocolatepot recipe. This takes little preparation, but makes a fantastic sweet treat for the end of dinner parties. The recipe has been created specifically for a brand’s website, although you could make this with any kind of chocolate – including Fair Trade brands!

Choc-V's Chocolate Vitamins Review

Noah is a very picky eater. I am not sure why that is, I am a somewhat picky eater but I am nowhere near as bad. I have been expanding my palate some, so I am trying.  When you have a picky eater like I do, it can become difficult to make sure he is receiving the right amounts of vitamins and nutrients. Most of what Noah eats is healthy just not a huge variety of things. He also goes to a nut free school, which means he can’t bring peanut butter and jelly in his lunch. He doesn’t like to eat meat so; protein in his diet is tricky.  Of course he will eat peanut butter and jelly at home, but he doesn’t eat it all the time.  I try and supplement him with vitamins.  Oh how have vitamins changed since I was a little girl.  I used to have to take those cartoon rock chewable vitamins.  I did not care for them but I had to take them. I probably almost choked on them more than I care to remember.  Kids are lucky now, they have many different choices.  I just learned about Choc-V’s. Choc-V’s are vitamins for kids that are chocolate.  Yes, chocolate.  If I had those growing up, I would never flush my vitamins down the toilet. Choc-V’s come in three varieties. 

Multi-V which is a multivitamin that contains 17 essential vitamins & minerals, including 1000IU Vitamin D with a great milk chocolate taste. Multi-V's helps support healthy eyes, strong bones and teeth, and a healthy immune system.

Probotic that contains 1 billion microflora to help restore digestive health, strengthen natural defense systems, and prebiotic fiber to help promote the effectiveness of the probiotic. It comes in white chocolate.

Calcium Choc-V's contains 300mg of Calcium to help build strong bones and teeth. Also contains Vitamin D to help the body absorb and use the calcium. Enjoy the great white chocolate taste.  

Not only is it good for you, it tastes great. Noah enjoys the Choc-V’s we received. I gave him one last night and he asked for one with his breakfast! Of course, I had to say no.  I have friends that won’t let their children take gummy vitamins because of the dental issues it can cause.  So until now they were stuck with the hard chewable vitamins that were disgusting.  Choc-V’s saves the day!

Here is some additional information on Choc-V’s from the company:

Everyone loves chocolate. That's why we added yummy chocolate to our vitamins - and vitamins to our chocolate. Choc-V's combines the wonderful taste of chocolate with all your essential daily vitamins for a new and improved, delicious vitamin. So leave your pills, your capsules, and your gummies behind and get ready for the next big thing in the evolution of vitamins. No artificial colors or preservatives.

Choc-V’s came up with a fun campaign called the Chocofier.  It’s really easy and fun to use.  All you do is go to the Chocofier machine website. Type in the URL of the site you want to chocoify. Pick your flavor of chocolate and the website becomes drenched in chocolate. 
  Here is my site Chocofied:

I wouldn’t do it on an empty stomach because it definitely made me hungry.

For more information and to find out where to buy please visit Choc-V’s website.

Sheila's Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jell-o Shots Recipe

When I was in New Hampshire, visiting my best friend Brandy, she knew I never tried Jell-o Shots before. I don’t know why, cause I love Jell-o a lot. I of course really liked them, no surprise there. She didn’t really like them, I am not sure if it was because there was Malibu in them or what, but they were so good.  As most of you guys know I love coming up with my own unique recipes.  I started thinking about how I could make a drink that tasted like a chocolate covered strawberry. Cream Di Cacao is a chocolate liqueur but, honestly you can really taste the alcohol in it. I learned that the hard way when my friends and I tried to make chocolate martinis. It was the grossest thing I ever drank.  I also wanted to incorporate Jell-o shots.  The thought of Jell-o and chocolate pudding mixed together, made my stomach churn, so I had to keep brainstorming. I knew that they sold molds to make your own shot glasses but I wasn’t sure if that would be enough Jell-o shot. I almost bought a shot glass mold from Amazon, but decided not to.

I went to Michael’s and I am addicted to Wilton products and I saw a tart mold. I thought this would be perfect and I picked up the Jell-o Shot supplies and some milk chocolate chips and I was ready for my creation to be born.

This is a fairly simple recipe. I highly recommend getting more than one Tart Mold for this recipe. They are like 2 dollars apiece. I need to pick some more up soon.

You will need:

A box of strawberry Jell-o

1 cup boiling water

1 cup alcohol of choice I used Malibu, you can use vodka

A bag of Milk Chocolate chips you can use any type of chocolate chips you want

One Tablespoon of shortening

Wilton Tart mold (will make three) The recipe will make about 9 or 10

1. Boil the water and combine it with the package of Jell-o, stir until dissolved.

2.Stir in 1 cup of alcohol and mix well

3.This is a very important step.  Put the Jell-o in the fridge, while you make the shells. Don’t let it get completely firm.

4.Melt  chocolate and shortening in a bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, stir and microwave 10 more seconds at a time if not completely melted.

5.Fill the bottom tart mold, it pulls apart, 1/3 the way full. Snap on the lid and press down on the mold to completely cover the mold with chocolate.  Place in the refrigerator.

6.I didn’t want the look of the clumpy Jell-o, so I came up with a brilliant plan. After the Jell-o is no longer hot or warm, but still liquid, pour in the top of the mold and return to the fridge. You can also cut it in cubes, or whatever shapes you want, or do it clumpy. You will want to let it sit probably for quite a while, overnight if possible for everything to set up nicely.

7.Carefully pull apart the mold, and remove the chocolate tarts, then remove the Jell-o. You can use a toothpick to help prevent it from sticking too much. I wasn’t able to get the perfect Jell-o shape but I was able to get it out in two pieces. 

These are yummy. I don’t think I would eat a bunch of them because they are rich but they would be great as part of a dessert sampler at a dinner party, or just a classy way to serve the classic Jell-o shot.

You could also make it with cherry Jell-o or Raspberry or any flavor you think would sound delish!

Please remember to drink responsibly. You must be 21 years or older to enjoy this recipe.

Hey Baby What's Youre Niche?

Everyone is always talking about niches.  What is your niche? I am not exactly sure if it pronounced nitch or niche which would rhyme with quiche.  Honestly, I don’t really think I have a specific niche. When I fill out certain things one of the question commonly on the questionnaire is what is your niche or what your main focus is.   True I do a lot of reviews and giveaways but, I also talk about food, family life, being a mom, doing crafts and other bits of random things.  I think that I am my own niche. I am just me, I blog about whatever I feel like. It could be what products I like one day and something random like about baby diets.  I don’t consider my blog as a review blog because I have quite a few personal posts. I think a review blog is a blog that has only reviews, giveaways and other PR related posts. I love doing PR related things but I am a lot more than just PR.   I consider my blog a mish mash of everything.

There are a bunch of great niche blogs out there. I just don’t think I am able to write about just one thing and one thing only.  My friend Laura writes a chocolate blog.  I like chocolate but I don’t have her discipline to do that. I think it is awesome if someone has a niche, or is like me that write about whatever comes to mind.  I have never really been  a certain type of person. When I was in school I was friends with whoever I wanted. I wasn’t a preppy person although I have a funny story about Goodwill, I wasn’t an athlete, I hated gym.  I wasn’t a gangsta, I wasn’t a skater. I was just me. I have always had my own style, did my own thing and was friends with different types of people.  I wasn’t anyone but me.  I would dress whatever way I wanted to, be it a band shirt and cords or clothes from Abercrombie.  It just depended on how I felt that day. 

I guess that is something I carried along with me as I got older. I don’t want to be in a specific group and only do one thing. I want the opportunity to do what I feel like and not be stuck being type casted in the blogging world.

Do you have a niche or are you just like me and do a little of this and a little of that?