ArcaMax

Hints for Traveling on a Diet

One of my husband’s favorite sayings is “Don’t fuel your body where you fuel your car.” Remember how you used to run in and grab a packet of those peanut butter crackers and a Diet Coke? Maybe you even added a bag of licorice strands?

Well, if you want to maintain your weight, I suggest you not do that anymore. You know better now.

YES - you can travel and not gain weight. You just have to (continue to) make good choices. Here are some ideas:

On a roadtrip? Need a snack in the car? Buy a bottle of water. Buy a bag of nuts. Most of those convenience stores keep apples, oranges, and bananas on hand. You are done with highly processed foods now.

Traveling to visit friends or family?...

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Plan Z Fudge Cake

This is a dense-tasting cake. Don’t expect it to be overly sweet. 20 years ago a cake like this was all the rage. I used to order it in restaurants. It came with a crème anglaise or maybe a raspberry sauce. You can serve it with either of those or whipped cream or even Truwhip (low carb version of Cool Whip). I’m glad I was able to invent this new recipe for Plan Z!

Servings: 8 to 12 servings

Ingredients:

1-3/4 sticks of butter
6 oz of bittersweet chocolate. 70% cacao. Chop the chocolate fairly fine.
1/4 cup of ZSweet, Swerve or Allulose
5 large cold eggs
3 Tbl of all purpose flour
pinch of salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Generously butter a 9-inch spring-form pan and dust lightly with flour.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a heavy sauce pan over very low heat. Then remove from heat and whisk in each egg, one at a time. Or instead of whisking you can add each egg and just put your mixer on low and run it for 3 to 4 seconds per egg addition. Then turn it off and add the next egg and so on.

Put in the Truvia and stir vigorously two or three times about five strokes each, (or run your mixer again about five seconds) and then gently fold in the flour and salt. Pour the batter into the pan and then hold the pan about three inches above the kitchen counter and drop it on top of the counter. Thwack. This process breaks up air bubbles in the cake.

Bake about 15 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. You might want to put a cookie sheet under the pan (next shelf down) in case a bit of butter oozes out. That way it won’t hit the bottom of your oven and burn. Don’t be surprised if you see butter bubbles around the edges or that the cake might be very puffy in places and look uneven. This is fine. The cake will settle as it cools and will have a cross between brownie and fudgy consistency.

After the cake cools on the counter, run your knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it and then unmold. Slide it onto a platter to serve.

You can serve this with a dessert sauce/cream or fresh berries. Or even just dense and straight. Pieces don’t need to be big. About 1.5 inches across the back is probably plenty. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola