January 2019 – CATHOLIC AND CHOCOLATE

Instrument of Your Hands

Lord, make me an instrument of your hands to care for my mother in her now final season of life.

When she’s impatient, help me to be patient.

When she’s anxious, help me to be peace.

When she worries, help me to show faithfulness.

When she is angry, help me with self-control and gentleness.

Lord, help me to not be overcome by the weight of this journey you have us on.

For through it, it is not only to tend to her needs, but lessons in selflessness and trusting your will where I am to learn.

Thank you for the graces you give us each day and the tender love you allow us to have knowing one day, it will always be with me to carry on.

Chocolate Breath

This post is overdue especially because I partially named my blog site chocolate. For whatever reason, more emphasis had been geared to the other topics I wanted to share.

But let’s get back to chocolate. I have written how my love for chocolate began when I originally began to blog. My earliest memory is sitting in the back seat of my Mom’s car during a ride to pick up my Aunts from the Tucson airport. I was eating a Hershey bar. I remember loving the flavor. And as far as I can remember, it kept me pretty steady while we drove to pick them up.

Once my Aunts greeted me, they both realized the aroma coming from my breath and I probably still had some chocolate stuck around my mouth. My Aunt Alicia at that point said I had chocolate breath and since I have been nicknamed.

As I grew older, my taste in chocolate has changed. From a kid to an adult, it went from milk chocolate/very sweet to dark chocolate/less sweet. I love the rich flavor of dark and the variety. After years now of eating a piece of chocolate everyday, I had no idea that the medical world would see this as a good thing. That is eating healthy high cacao rich chocolate is good for you.

In this section of my blog dedicated to chocolate, I’ll share the brands or desserts I have come to love. If you follow my Instagram account, you will already see I post on this.

Chocolate Bars

The chocolate bars I list here are eaten out of pleasure. Yes, some carry healthy benefits while others do not. I’m not noting all the characteristics of each bar. Only what I receive in flavor. Some are Non- GMO while others well, are full fledged unhealthy. But all are dark chocolate! I do list by my own ranking.

Endangered Species 72% Dark (West Africa) – on a regular basis, I have my go to chocolate bar. In the evening, I like to nibble on this. It’s not sweet, but flavorful, not bitter, but smooth.

Green and Black’s Organic Dark 70% (Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, India and Brazil) – this is slightly sweeter than the Endangered Species and the break off squares are nice and thick. One square usually satisfies. Rich tasting.

Lily’s Dark Chocolate with Stevia Original – I really wasn’t sure how I was going to like this one. The Stevia was making me think it was going to have a weird aftertaste. But it doesn’t! I liked the flavor so much that I have used the baking chips for cookies and they come out great!

Teuscher Dark 77% (Switzerland) – Can’t find this in Arizona. I can either order or wait until I fly to New York and take a trip to their fabulous store at Rockefeller center. This chocolate hits all the notes.

Perugina Bitterswseet Chocolate 70% (Italy) – This taste like chocolate cake. More sugar in it but one square does you good. Perugina makes Baci, another chocolate treat. One that I find too sweet, so when I came across this I had reservation and yet it’s fantastic!

Nibble Organic Dark 72% (Peru) – Two ingredients only. If you are not into bitter, this isn’t for you. But I found its deep chocolate taste yummy. It’s not a chocolate bar you can easily find. I found it in Old Town San Diego at a coffee bar. It is pricy, but the break squares are chunky.

Stonegrindz Chocolate Cinnamon Cayenne 66% (unknown) – This chocolate company is based out of Scottsdale, AZ. I found them at a Chocolate Fair. I’m not much into these added flavored chocolates such as this, but this one changed my mind. I couldn’t find where they source their chocolate, but appreciate their otherwise informative website.