on chocolate

Chocolate is proof that God loves us, LOL. That cocoa has many health benefits, including heart protection and diabetes prevention, is proof that God is a God of grace, LOL. I allow myself one bar of chocolate per week. I break off a little piece every day and make it last. It is currently the only sweet I am getting in my diet (except for fruit, and cheesecake on my birthday, LOL). Most desserts are off-limits to me because of gluten intolerance. Gluten intolerance is really God’s grace to me in disguise; He knew getting off sugar would be hard for me otherwise.

Two good things about organic chocolate: it tends to be much darker chocolate, so more actual chocolate content and less sweet than “regular” chocolate to begin with, and the sweet is usually from one of the natural sweeteners rather than refined white sugar. I tried a new chocolate this week: Dagoba Organic Lavender Chocolate, a blend of dark chocolate (59% cocoa content), wild blueberries, and lavender. You can’t even imagine the sumptuousness of lavender-infused chocolate until that first bite melts in your mouth. It was soooo heavenly.

Speaking of heavenly, Green & Black’s Organic Maya Gold Chocolate is a blend of dark chocolate, orange, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. This is probably my favorite chocolate of all time. Now I love the chocolate-orange flavor combination, but this is nothing like those chocolate oranges people give at Christmas. The chocolate is much darker, denser, and richer, and the spices add depth and warmth to the orange flavors.