Chocolate Covered Goldfish

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I have a confession to make, I've been chocolate covered crazy lately! If they don't sell it in stores chocolate covered, I will make it at home chocolate covered. That's why I went ahead and took upon myself to make my goldfish chocolate covered. It was well worth it, as they had that chocolaty crunch to them that was satisfying to my chocolate tooth. I would definitely make these again and snack on them while watching my favorite movie. 

Ingredients:

• 1 to 2 cups of goldfish
• 2 cups Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (for making the melted chocolate)

Steps:

Add 1 cup of chocolate chips to a Double Boiler and melt the chips (as above).

¥ou'd be smiling too if you were added to chocolate.

Pour 1 cup of Goldfish into your now melted chocolate and completely mix together until the Goldfish are completely covered in chocolate.

Line a cookie tray with wax paper and lay out the chocolate covered Goldfish and then place the tray in the fridge and allow to dry for at least 1 hour. 

Review of World Market: White Chocolate Bark With Banana Bar

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Ever since I started this chocolate journey, I've been on a "let's try the oddest chocolate combinations kick". There's just something intriguing about mixing chocolate with different ingredients that when given some time, I'd like to try my hand at in the kitchen as I've done before on this blog & others. For example check out my chocolate covered onion rings experiment that I deemed to crazy for this blog. I digress, for now I'll have to settle on reviewing this white chocolate bar with banana chips bar. Oh poor me, it's a tough job but someone has to do it!

I have to be honest, it took me awhile before I actually bit into this bar. It just didn't get my chocolate appetite going when I brought it home like I thought it would. Alas, when I finally did try it, after a couple weeks of sitting in my pantry, I was very regretful that I didn't try it sooner. It put some kind of chocolate guilt over me, maybe it's the power of the chocolate. Yes, I can see how it could of been that... the powerful taste of the combination of banana chips and white chocolate together that said, "you should of tried me sooner". For that I am sorry but I'm not sorry for saying what I'm about to say about said chocolate bar, while it was good, it just didn't satisfy my chocolate craving. Although, I know without a shadow of doubt that everybody's chocolate tastes are different and that if you are a big fan of white chocolate (which I can't say I am) then you'd absolutely love this bar! Keeping that in mind, you need to try track down the nearest World Market and get you one!

What is my final verdict for World Market's White Chocolate Bark With Banana bar? I'd have to say while I wasn't a huge fan of the taste like I said before, it's something that's inspired me enough to want to try and make my own white, milk, or maybe even dark banana chip chocolate bar so be looking for my next post to be exactly that! I do ask for your help fellow chocolate addicts, please comment and tell me what kind of chocolate you think I should try with the banana chip bar I plan to make and if there is other special ingredients I should add to it! It should be a fun chocolate experiment. I'll be waiting on some responses before I actually do this so again, please comment. 

Youngevity Healthy Chocolate: Chocolate's Best Kept Secret

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Healthy Chocolate or more specifically Healthy Triple Treat Chocolate is the chocolate you've probably never heard of. That's why I'm calling it chocolate's best kept secret. What makes it stand apart from all the other great chocolate out there? The answer would be in the health benefits that have been added to it.

Let's start off with the blueberries that have been added to Youngevity's Triple Treat Chocolate. Blueberries are super packed with powerful antioxidants. Antioxidants of course fight health compromising free-radicals that occur in our bodies and cause disease. Not only that but blueberries are been reported to improve vision, clear the arteries, strengthen blood vessels, enhance memory, stop urinary tract infections, reverse age related physical & mental declines, & promote weight control. It's obvious that blueberries are a powerful health benefit added to Triple Treat Chocolate and then some. Are you concerned that you might taste the blueberries in Triple Chocolate? No worries, the only thing you'll taste is the deliciousness of the chocolate.

Probably just as equally health sustaining as the blueberries being added to Triple Treat Healthy Chocolate is the probiotics that have also been added. Probiotics are very simply live micro-organisms that are in many common foods such as yogurt that provide beneficial bacteria to the intestines. People all over are starting to see the benefits of consuming probiotics as part of their balanced diets. This comes in the form of not only intestinal health but in improved immune function, healthy blood pressure & cholesterol levels. Triple Treat Chocolate suspends this probiotic powerhouse in their chocolate so it will pass its benefits on to you. It's claimed that this is a higher pass through rate than just eating yogurt!

Triple Treat Chocolate is not found in stores but if you're interested in trying Triple Treat Healthy Chocolate click here where you can get 30% discount on this product or any nutritional product offered on (www.energy2live.my90forlife.com) FOR LIFE by signing up FOR FREE to be a preferred customer! By the way the link to sign up to be preferred customer can be found at the top of the page where it says Join & Save 30%.

It's important to tell you that Triple Treat Chocolate is only 1 of 3 varieties of Healthy Chocolate that Youngevity offers which includes Triple Truffle Chocolate & TLC Liquid Chocolate. Check out these other awesomely delicious Healthy Chocolate Selections where you can also order Triple Treat Chocolate together with Triple Truffle Chocolate in a combo pack.

Review of Wild Ophelia: Peanut Butter & Banana Milk Chocolate Bar

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As you all know, I love chocolate, and I'm all for trying new and exotic chocolate combinations.  However, I must say, this wasn't my favorite.  Don't get me wrong, it was good chocolate, and I would love to try another variety of chocolate that Wild Ophelia offers.  I love that the fact that these chocolate bars are all natural, and made here in the US.

I also liked the inside of the box, it was fun to look at!

All in all, the chocolate was good, and I'd love to give their Smokehouse BBQ Potato Chips dark chocolate bar a try, but the peanut butter & banana is not one that I would probably get again.

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peel

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Recently over at our sister blog, Off The Menu, we had a Christmas in July event.  Yes, I made a whole Christmas dinner.  As facebook fan asked me to make fig pudding.  Now I have never had, let alone make, a fig pudding.  But after learning what goes into this traditional English Christmas treat, I decided that I would like to add my own touch by including some chocolate covered candied orange peel in the pudding (which is more like cake than pudding.) Sweet, delicious, simple to make, and covered in chocolate, what could be better?


Ingredients:

• 1 navel orange
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Steps:

Peel the orange in as little pieces as you can.

Eat the orange, or save it for later.

Slice the orange peel into 1/3" wide by 2" long strips.

In 1/2 water boil the orange peels for 2 minutes.

Drain the orange peels.

Boil 1/2 water with the 3/4 cup sugar until the sugar dissolves.

Add the orange peels, and boil for 15-20 minutes.

Line a cookie tray with wax paper, and in a single layer, lay out the orange peels.

Allow the orange peels to dry for at least 1 hour.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate chips.

Put the orange peels in the chocolate and completely cover the peels with the chocolate. 

Use a fork to place each orange peel on a wax paper lined tray.

Place the try in the fridge, and allow to dry for 1 hour.

Remove the peels from the wax paper, and keep in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Simple as that!  Now that you have chocolate covered candied orange peels you can use them as a fun garnish, or eat them as a little after dinner treat.

Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate With Whole Hazelnuts

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There is no doubt that some of the best chocolate comes from Europe, more specifically, Germany.  A German chocolate bar that is well worth the time is Ritter Sport.  Recently, I went on a chocolate shopping spree at the new Trader Joe's that has popped up here, and a dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts Ritter Sport was among my loot.  Now, I have had another variety before.  I have had the Butter Biscuit kind before, and that was so good, I just couldn't wait to give the hazelnut a try.  I must say that I was not disappointed!  This was sure a chocolate craving satisfier; it was smooth, dark, sweet, and very crunchy. Also, the dark chocolate was not overpowering and complimented the hazelnuts perfectly! Not only would I get this particular bar again, but I would love to try the other varieties available!

On a more personal side note, when I took a bite out of this chocolate bar for the first time, childhood came flooding back. I'm not kidding. Its been over two decades since I used sell a hazelnut chocolate bars door to door to raise money for school fundraisers. I would get my parents to buy from my own stash just so I could savor the hazelnut mixed with the smooth chocolate because it was a real treat. I had not had this memory ever in my life as I forgot all about it until I taste tested the Ritter Sport for this review. It's amazing how something such as a taste of a particular chocolate bar that you have not had since childhood can trigger memories of long ago. 

Trader Joe's The Dark Chocolate Lover's Chocolate Bar

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It was nice taking short break from all that very powerful dark chocolate for awhile. In my previous post the break from all this dark chocolate craziness came in the form of Trader Joe's Almond Clusters made out of the always sweet milk chocolate. As you can see, those almond clusters weren't the only thing I got my hands on at Joe's. Yes, I couldn't help myself, this is one out of three chocolate goodies I picked up during my brief Trader Joe's snack shopping spree. Which by the way, I suggest you try sometime especially if you have a little extra money to spend. I have to be honest with you, it makes for a very fun time loading a basket up with goodies and then tearing into them on the way home.

How fitting for this particular chocolate bar: The orange pear shaped art found on the wrapper represents the Cocoa pod from which the cocoa beans come from!

This particular chocolate bar from Trader Joe's was appropriately named the Dark Chocolate Lover's Chocolate Bar. Appropriate because you have to be a real dark chocolate lover to enjoy this very powerful tasting piece of chocolate. To relate just how powerful tasting it was, I drink my coffee black as night in the morning with no sugar or cream and on top of that, it's dark roast that I make very strong. However, the taste in my mouth from taking a bite from this dark chocolate bar was 20x more bitter to my taste buds than my morning coffee routine. I could barely handle it! That's not to suggest that this dark chocolate is not bad in any way, shape, or form, just not my cup of tea. Someone out there, who is a fan of dark chocolate might get a lot of enjoyment out of it and find the taste extremely enlightening to their sweet tooth.

Even if you don't consider yourself a fan of dark chocolate, if you really want to give the Dark Chocolate Lover's Chocolate Bar a shot, I highly suggest consuming it after a very spicy meal because I can see it complimenting that spicy after taste to the 9th degree. Just be warned though, the dark chocolate found in this bar is some of the darkest you can get being at 85% Cacao and is not your typical run of the mill dark chocolate as it is much more bitter tasting.

Just to explain what cacao is, it's a seed or cocoa bean from the Theobroma cacao also known as the cocoa tree native to South America. From these cocoa beans they produce chocolate and use more or less depending on what they want the cocoa content to be. Hence this particular bar contains 85% Cacao which is obviously extremely potent on the scale for which they measure the cocoa bean content of what goes into chocolate.

I may of not enjoyed this bar but I did appreciate the intricate design of the chocolate bar which had little flower like creations on them and was cut very fine. There is a lot of beauty to behold in chocolate especially chocolate bars where we can appreciate the work of art and originality of every piece of chocolate even if the taste is not to our liking.