Mmmmm, have melted chocolate -- with pix

[Esther]

pink meltaways, white meltaways, Oreos with a strawberry filling and chocolate/vanilla sandwich cookies....  Use your imagination.

There is a lady named Tonni who lives around the corner from me. Every summer she does the 5K run fundraiser for breast cancer awareness. She is a 13 year survivor. Her sister had it 5/6 years ago but recently died from brain cancer and her mother just died about 2 months ago from lung cancer. Then her only surviving sister's 20 year old son was killed in an accident about 6 weeks ago. She's had a terrible year.

Anyway, Tonni is giving a little party for the ladies who accompanied her on the run and I'm making chocolate covered Oreos for her party. I found pink meltaways and the Oreos have the chocolate cookies with strawberry filling. I'm doing some in chocolate too and some in white. I also have an oval mold that has the words "thank you" done in a curly cursive font that I'm putting just plain chocolate in. They should be happy with their goodies. Will picture them in a bit. 

[Kittyzee]

I know myself how yummy those chocolate covered oreos are.......can I lick the spoon Esther?   

[jw]

They sound soooooooooooo good............I'm on the low crap...........I mean low carb diet and I make myself peanut butter cookies............I've tried other kinds but so far my fav is the peanut butter and that isn't saying much  .
Sometimes I think I'll just throw in the towel and eat anything I want but I don't want to have to buy all new clothes 5 sizes bigger or run around the roads trying to shrug the fat off..............so here I sit trying to come up w/ good dessert ideas the low crap...............I mean low carb way  . Anyone have any good dessert idea's for low carb?

[CT]

JW,
  These are pretty good.
http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/b/2008/05/21/top-low-carb-desserts.htm
Esther, bless you for all you do in the fight against Cancer. You are a very thoughtful lady. 
Kay

[PondmaninAL]

Okay, now who wants to make a post for the low fat desserts for us fatso's that don't have a problem with carbs.

[Esther]

Actually, it's pretty easy to cut fats in recipes. Do you guys get that cable show where that is what they are teaching? Now of course I don't remember the name of it. They have a lady, who for whatever reason wants to lose a dress size or about 15 pounds in 6 weeks. So they take some of her favorite high cal/fat recipes and pare them down and show her how. Then they come back in 6 weeks to see how the lady has done losing weight. Of course they always are wonderfully successful. LOL.

I suspect that most of us know how to lose weight and eat sensibly. The problem isn't so much not knowing what we should eat as how much and how often we eat. Most of us know what are the big offenders. What we lack is self control.

It's like a lot of the people in trouble financially. It isn't that they don't' know how math works. It's that they lack committment to control their spending.

[jw]

Thanks Kay.........the only problem is they say to use that stuff that starts with an e and I just want to use what I can get at the store for the sugar free stuff and they say it doesn't taste right w/o it  . I've been using mostly Splenda in my dessert recipes. I do have some of the DeVinci syrups but haven't really used them much and I have some of the other sugar free subs in the powder form also like Sugar twin etc.


Pondman you can have the low fat diet...................been there done that...............I can do just fine on all the low carb I can get my hands on...........just need to stay away from bad carbs like sugar, flour and high carb junkfoods  . I just need some good recipes that are easy and simple as I hate to cook. But Esther is right, I need will power to keep my hands off DH's cheese nips and chips.............ugh............it's hard when it's sitting there calling to me from inside the pantry depths  . I bought this stuff at Costco w/ Hoodia and Green tea in it...........supposed to taste like Pomegranate juice and help curb your appetite and raise your metabolism............we shall see...the jury is still out  .

[Esther]

I don't know if it is that we are so used to the taste of real sugar and stuff with fat but the substitutes don't cut it for me. I also use Splenda but don't like it straight. So I use half and half. I suppose that is better than all sugar. The ready made stuff often has the problem of when it is low sugar, it is high fat and the opposite. So you gain on one hand but lose on the other. If only I could just cut back and avoid all the right stuff. I know how to lose weight. I'm just not committed. I can't find the button. When I have been successful, I don't know what put me in the right frame of mind and when I stopped watching what I ate, I don't know how the button got unpushed.

[Kittyzee]

Those look sooooo good Esther!  They are beautiful too!  Too bad we don't live closer.....

[Esther]

Kittyzee, they are so easy to make. Maybe I'll do a tutorial on it. It is just fididdly but the end results are always nice. The chocolate covered oreos always go over REAL BIG... The summer my son was married, I did chocolates for 5 receptions. All his friends got married at the same time. The molds are inexpensive and the melting chocolate varies in price depending on the quality. Really though, I have used the cheapest chocolate and the cheapest sandwich cookies and noone complained. LOL. Sometimes I have found the Ghiradeli chocolate in 2.5 pound bricks at Costco or Sam's Club and IT IS CHEAP. That chocolate is WONDERFUL! But they only have it prior to Christmas sometimes.

[PondmaninAL]

My diet plan is simple. I cut back on food and add activities. The cutting back took a little work and staying busy and moving about is a little difficult at the moment due to the surprise rain showers.

Esther, one year at Christmas time, one of the guys that I worked with had his wife bring in some sweets. She brought in chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate covered Ritz crackers with peanut butter sandwiched in them. Of course, my favorite candy is Reese's Cups, either the original or the ones with white chocolate. I heard they had them with dark chocolate as well.

[Esther]

Scott, I've done lots of the pretzel rods. I have maybe 8 different molds for different holidays. When the grandkids were first in school, I'd make them for their holiday parties.

I have molded, fillled and dipped just about anything out there. I have three good sized boxes of molds and have been messing with chocolate about 20 years. Every once in a while I do a wedding but don't particularly like doing them as I don't like making the same thing over and over. I have 8 silver/chrome charger plates. I arrange the chocolates on them, put paper doilies in between and stack them. Then I wrap plastic wrap around the whole stack to transport them. Works out pretty well. I hate packaging them individually.

Right now I'm thinking on making something up for the 7th grade football team's end of season party. I do have some sports molds but thought the covered Oreos would be better. Now I have to see if I can get one with a football on it or a plain topped one and then attach a football half to the top.

[HOWELL]

Hey lovely Esther....Of course you can pinch my cheeks anytime you want....I have some new silly pics up now....
I have been away due to the fact that college is eating me completely....but I wanted to say hit to you all, BTW those chocolates looks delicious....

[Esther]

I'm glad to hear you're letting college "eat" you up completely. It shows me you are one dedicated student. Good for you. I never was.

I'd send you some chocolates if I thought I could get them over the border. LOL

[karen J]

Pondman you can have the low fat diet...................been there done that...............I can do just fine on all the low carb I can get my hands on...........j

Yup! Give Pondman the low fat boneless skinless chicken breast on a bed of quinoa.... We can have the skin fried crispy with butter on it. 

Anyone have any good dessert idea's for low carb?

Fried chicken skin with Boursin cheese.  But if you really need something sweet, how about cheesecake? If you google "Beachgirl's cheesecake", you'll find the recipe- it's fantastic. We like blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries with real whipped cream. Or, Breyer's low carb ice cream. But those are really once-in-a-while treats.

People are really well intentioned about spreading the word on breast cancer awareness, but unintentionally spreading a message that promotes cancer. Cancer feeds on sugar. It can not exist without glucose. Why feed the cancer? I can't donate to these organizations any more because they are ignoring the evidence and the science. They are not telling people the truth about how to prevent cancer in the first place. Our tax dollars are being used to subsidize the growing of one of the biggest causes of cancer (and non alchoholic fatty liver disease, and heart disease, and metabolic syndrome, and more)- corn.

[Esther]

Why don't the medical people telling us this amazing news? It seems that the cancer specialists would be the first to tell a cancer patient about this danger. I know Braeden's parents were never advised of it.

[karen J]

Esther, I really don't know why. Most docs really don't have the time to pour through thousands of studies. And most caregivers are happy to see a patient eat, no matter what it is.

Cancer specialists do know this, in a roundabout way. The way that "smart" chemo works is that the drug targets hypoxic regions of the body- regions that are without oxygen. Tumors have to rely on fermentation to obtain energy because they can't use aerobic respiration, and glucose is required for fermentation. The medical community seems more intent on creating drugs to treat things instead of focusing on prevention. There's no money in prevention.

If you want to get really, really mad? We've know this since 1931! Otto Warburg won the Nobel prize for this discovery.

[karen J]

Here is an interesting Time story about some researchers who have started using Warburg's hypothesis in advanced cancer studies.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1662484,00.html

Another thing that will get you mad, especially if you read that above article and realize the deep implications of a high- fat, low- carb diet (if they're using a high fat low carb diet to treat cancer, how should we eat to prevent cancer in the first place?), is that just look at what the Susan G. Komen people recommend:

http://ww5.komen.org/BreastCancer/HealthyBehaviorsampRisk.html

There it is. They recommend cutting fat. And using "food sources like oranges, orange juice, green leafy vegetables and fortified breakfast cereals". Except for the lettuce, that's all sugar.

[Esther]

Karen, I am not mad in the least. Although some may repond that way.  You have an opinion and I don't. It is interesting information.

Right now I'm working on a tutorial for making the chocolate covered cookies. It's been fun. When I get it done, I'll post a link.