Molten Chocolate Love

 Whip up some sweet love this Valentine’s Day with healthy chocolate 

Love is in the air this month—on the radio, at the card stores, even at your favorite grocery store. It adds a certain milky sweetness to the air—or would that aroma be from something else? Besides love, the fragrance of chocolate would be that other aroma you smell in the air. According to Nielsen, Americans will purchase around 58 million pounds of chocolate this month alone. That’s a lot of heart-shaped candy boxes! If you’re wracked with guilt by your chocoholic status, those decadent chocolate pieces may be hiding some hidden health benefits, if you know which ones to choose.
 

Chocolate is rich in antioxidant flavonoids, the same heart-healthy antioxidants found in green tea, grapefruit, grapes, and wine. Chocolate’s other health secret is the type of fats it contains. The cacao bean contains stearic fatty acids, rather than cholesterol-raising saturated fatty acids, and the fatty acids in cocoa butter are monounsaturated fat, the “good” fat. The problems start when we tamper with nature’s chocolate recipe. Many forms of chocolate and chocolate products have added fats, like milk fat in milk chocolate, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, or saturated oils like coconut or palm oil.
 

Rule number one for keeping your chocolate healthy is to go dark. Dark chocolate contains the least amount of added fats and retains the most antioxidant flavonoids and all of their health benefits, including possibly reducing blood pressure, improved arterial blood flow, reducing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, and fighting inflammation. Not to mention the fact that eating chocolate just makes you feel great!  That stems from chocolate’s ability to enhance neurotransmitters in the brain, such as seretonin, improving mood and sleep patterns.
 

This Valentine’s Day, you can have your chocolate and eat it too with this FITworks!™-approved recipe for gluten-free brownies that includes Rich Chocolate Ultimate ProFIT® to pack some protein-rich nutrition into a traditionally decadent dessert.
 

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) jar creamy roasted almond butter

2 eggs

1 ¼ cups agave nectar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 scoops (8 tbsp) Rich Chocolate Ultimate ProFIT™

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking soda          

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Cooking Instructions:

1.   In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth with a hand blender

2.   Blend in eggs, then blend in agave and vanilla extract.

3.   Blend in Ultimate ProFIT, salt, and baking soda, then fold in chocolate chips.

4.   Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish and pour batter into dish.

5.   Bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes. Batch yields 24 brownies

Get Rich Chocolate Ultimate ProFIT and whip up some love for your body!