Not a very long time ago, it has been Strawberryelmo’s last teen birthday. It is quite a strange feeling, because I really loved being 18 years old but we can’t change that time goes on, so I will do my best to enjoy being a teenager for one more year.

And now, enough philosophy, let’s move over to dessert. For my teeny tiny celebration I made some light and fluffy mousse au chocolat. But not the classic thing. But it had to be some more special, which is why I used kinder chocolate instead of dark one.

It surprised me how easy it was to prepare – you need only 2 ingredients!
By the way, it looks great if you serve the mousse in surprise egg shells and makes the dessert more handy, too.

100 g (3,5 oz.) kinder chocolate
3 egg whites
2 tbsp water

Break the kinder chocolate into pieces and place it in a small pot, together with the water.
Heat over a water bath until it has melted. Don’t forget to stir!

Place the egg whites in a tall dish. Blend with a mixer until they form stiff peaks (you will want it to be firm so the mousse gets all the tiny air bubbles in it).

Let the chocolate cool for a minute.

Use a whisk to stir the egg whites into the molten chocolate. Be careful not to beat down the egg whites.

Transfer the mousse to small cups or chocolate shells. Let it cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

And then… enjoy.

I am so glad my bf got me a gorgeous ice cream maker for Christmas, because I adore ice cream.
I love frozen yoghurt.
I love sorbet.
I love soft ice cream.
Ice cream in a cone.
In a bowl.
A big melba.
Just every kind of ice cream (except mint).

It feels just right to make my own one with the machine and it is pretty easy, if you ask me.

You can just toss the ingredients together an freeze them or make a deluxe version with egg yolks (this is the kind that takes more time – but believe me that it is absolutely worth the stress).

This recipe is based on the basic ice cream recipe that I found in the gadget’s manual. It worked pretty good, I just added the molten chocolate toffee to the mass.

Chocolate Toffee Ice Cream

(makes about 750 ml/3 cups)

2 egg yolks
1 tbsp corn starch
100 g (1/2 cup – 1 tbsp) sugar

250 g (8 oz.) chocolate toffee

350 ml (1 2/3 cup) milk
150 ml (2/3 cup) heavy cream

Prepare your ice cream maker. I had to put my bowl in the freezer for 24 hours before I could get started. Be sue sou have this prepared.

Place the egg yolks, corn starch and sugar in a bowl. Whisk by hand or with a mixer until the mass thickens and turns pale (abour 90 seconds) .

Melt the unwrapped chocolate toffee in the microwave, heating it for no more than 30 seconds at a time. Stir before you place the bowl in the microwave for another 30 s. Set the dish aside.

Combine the milk and cream in a medium saucepan and heat until the liquid starts to boil. Remove from heat. Start stirring the egg yolk mass and gently incorporate the hot dairy mixture.
When you have poured in all the milk and cream, add the molten toffee and let it dissolve.

Now pour the mass back into the saucepan and heat one more time while stirring, until the mixture thickens a bit (it should not boil).

Let it cool on the counter and then place it in the fridge for at least 12 hours. (You may not put hot ingredients in the mixing bowl of the ice cream machine.)

Now turn on the mmachine and slowly pour in the prepared ice cream mixture. You should get a nice portion of chocolatey, creamy goodness.

These truffles area more elegant mini version of bounty bars and might be the perfect treat for your Valentine. Just imagine to get a bunch of mini candy bars in a box, wouldn’t that be lovely?

The coconut mass is made in no time, what is more tricky is filling the chocolate hollow spheres. From this recipe, you get about 25-30 truffles, depending on how much filling you put in. Now grab your 4 ingredients and impress your Valentine.

Bounty Truffles:

160 g (5 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
80 g (3 oz.) ground coconut
30 chocolate hollow spheres
200 g (6 oz.) chocolate coating

Mix condensed milk and coconut flakes in a bowl until they form a thick mass. You might use your hands to make it more even. Now it’s time to fill the hollow spheres, which is the tricky part about those truffles. It works best if you dip your hands in cold water first, then gently press the filling into the spheres.
Melt the chocolate coating in the microwave, not heating it for longer than 30 seconds at a time, or over a water bath. Dip the truffles in the chocolate and place them on a baking sheet until the coating has hardened. You can sprinkle some coconut flakes on top for decoration.

They taste best when cold.

I felt very uncomfortable in my body, so I decided to make a start from point zero. To achieve this effect, I fasted for four days, which means that I only fed myself liquids, such as tea or juices. I cheated the last day by eating some spoons of rice, but nevertheless, I got the effect I wanted – a healthy curiosity about what the world of food might offer.

There are a lot of people complaining about vegans and their way of life just because they ‘Can’t imagine living this way.’ I think this is the wrong way to deal with people on a diet and it is not impossible at all to live the vegan lifestyle. So for a whole week, I kept the rules and actually liked it. There are so many substitutions for eggs and dairy products that it is not difficult to change e.g. youghurt for soy yoghurt. The only thing I missed a little was cheese and milk chocolate, but it was bearable. It was really easy to prepare all the meals like soy scallop or falafel.

Since I do not like the taste of Tofu, I did not have it in my nutrition. Wanna know, what I ate the whole week? Here is the list.

Day 1:

soy yoghurt blackberry
honeydew
noodles with tomato zucchini sauce
apple
apple pie cookies
bread
salad

Day 2:

apple
cornflakes
soy rice pudding
melon
cookies
sandwich with vegetable burger
couscous salad

Day 3:

soy rice pudding
pineapple
soy cocoa
baked sweet potatoes
baguette
apple

Day 4:

oatmeal with soy milk
oatmeal cookies
orange
apple
chili con seitan

Day 5:

chocolate flakes
soy scallop
soy yoghurt raspberry
apple
oreos
bread
baked peppers

Day 6:

apple
orange
oreos
bread
pumpkin soup with coconut milk
grilled zucchini
falafel
hazelnuts

Day 7:

apple
bread
soy cocoa
almonds
semi-sweet chocolate

The evening of the 7th day I quit the vegan diet by eating some ‘milinki’, a Bulgarian bread-like food containing milk. I think I will consume some vegan products more often from now, e.g. the soy cocoa which was really yummy. Hope you liked this post and look forward to seeing more diet weeks.

I used an original Italian tiramisu recipe as a basic, but substituted the espresso and amaretto for plums with sauce (I don’t like alcohol and coffee in dessert).

I am sure you can do this as well with blueberies or peaches with the same delicious result. So.. when you have stopped dieting because of your new year’s resolutions – try this, you will not regret it.

Plum Tiramisu:

3 eggs
75 g (1/3 cup) sugar
250 g (8 oz.) ladyfingers
500 g (18 oz.) mascarpone

2 ripe plums
300 ml (1 1/6 cup) orange juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon

cocoa powder, for dusting

Cut the plums into thin clices and then the slices into smaller pieces – this will make the tiramisu easier to eat. Put the cut fruit together with orange juice and cinnamon in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes, then remove from the heat.

Seperate the eggs and beat the eggwhites with half of the sugar in a bowl until stiff. In a second bowl, stir the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar and mascarpone. Now carefully integrate the beaten egg whites in the creamy mass, trying to keep as much air inside as possible.

Put a layer of ladyfingers at the bottom of a rectangular pan. Pour half of the orange sauce and half of the plums on it. Cover with half of the cream. place a new layer of ladyfingers on top and repeat.

Let the dessert cool for at least two hours, but not for more than a day, since it contains raw eggs.