Mouth Watering Low Cal Brownies

March 1st, 2010

I am a hardcore chocolate lover! In fact, whenever I think of dessert, I automatically think of chocolates, or at any rate, chocolate flavored stuff! Strawberries, mangoes or whipped cream? They’re not for me, if you don’t combine them with chocolate. Na uh! You can call me a chocolate-a-holic and look down on me for it, but God, does it feel good to give in to temptation!

I’ll bet you already have a mental picture of me! A really, really oversized woman who absolutely HATES shopping because she can never find anything her size! Well, it gives me great pleasure, to tell you that you’re wrong, and no, I’m not a health freak, who works out for two hours everyday! A perfectly normal, light cardio routine does just fine for me!

So what’s my secret? Innovation! Yep, I learnt the art of making absolutely delicious desserts, full of the intoxicating flavor of chocolate, which have a really low calorie count compared to their conventionally made counterparts! So you can be like me too, just follow this recipe and enjoy to your heart’s content!

Ingredients

Half and half (fat free)- 1/3rd cup
Eggs, large – 2
Low-fat margarine – 2/3rd cup
All-purpose white flour – 1/2 cup
Whole wheat flour – 1/2 cup
Chopped, unsweetened baking chocolate – 7 ounces
Splenda – 1/2 cup
Egg substitute – 1/2 cup
Granulated sugar – 1 and 1/2 cups
Walnut pieces – 1 cup
Vanilla extract – 1 and 1/2 teaspoons

Method

• Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. At the same time, lightly coat two 9-inch baking pans with canola oil and keep them aside.

• In a medium sized, nonstick saucepan, put the margarine and fat-free half and half. Melt the margarine, stirring all the while at medium-low heat. After all the margarine has melted, remove the pan from the flame.

• Stir in the chopped baking chocolate and make sure to mix well with the melted butter. Use a wooden spoon to do this and continue till all the chocolate has melted. Then put in the Splenda along with the sugar and mix well.

• Put the eggs in one at a time and stir vigorously after adding each of them. Follow up with the egg substitute and then put in the white flour and the whole-wheat flour. Add the walnuts and vanilla and stir well. Your batter is now ready.

• Pour this batter into the previously prepared baking pans and bake for about 20 minutes in the previously prepared oven. Remove from heat and cool before serving!

All this in just 130 calories per serving. Could you ask for more?

The Wonder That Is Water

March 1st, 2010

Most people are sick and tired of everyone telling them how important it is to drink enough water everyday! Hello? We’re all aware of the fact that getting eight glasses a day is the simplest way to stay healthy, but in today’s world, it isn’t practical to be gulping down water at all times! After all, who likes using public loos? I know I don’t!

Here’s something that you probably didn’t know. If you’re looking to lose weight, then your secret weapon is water! Yep! Don’t believe me? Did you know that if you decrease your water consumption by about 3%, your body compensates for it, by decreasing your muscle contractions by 30%? Muscle contractions use a lot of energy and if you end up decreasing them, then you end up burning a much lower number of calories! Scary huh?

Water does a whole lot more than just quench our thirst. You know those micronutrients everyone keeps talking about? Well, water helps the body absorb them. Water soluble vitamins like Vitamin C, Vitamin B etc. are pulled out from various food components and absorbed by our bodies due to water. They also considerably help in the digestion of proteins and carbohydrates, which are water soluble components.

Another important role of water in the human body is that of a temperature regulator. Drinking enough water ensures that we don’t overheat our bodies. The mechanism responsible for this is perspiration, or sweating! Yes, the dreaded sweat is actually beneficial to our body!

Not drinking enough water could be lethal! If you don’t drink enough water, your blood pressure can go dangerously low, in fact, even blood clots may form. If you don’t drink enough water, you can get a terrible case of constipation.

Not just that, your normal kidney function can be seriously handicapped. Your skin dries up and you even suffer from frequent headaches. Yep, lack of water is truly the root of all evil.

Water also acts as a cushioning agent. It lubricates all the body’s tissues and joints and also ensures that everything is functioning as it should. Elimination of toxins would be impossible without water, as would be proper respiration! Yep, it’s true, you can say goodbye to breathing properly, if you don’t drink enough water! So never underestimate the importance of water in your life and make sure to get at least eight glasses of water in a day to stay healthy!

Look thinner…Instantly With These Tips!

March 1st, 2010

The other day, I was walking down the street and I happened to glance at my reflection on a shiny glass door. I was quite surprised by the fact that I looked a lot slimmer than I actually was. Mind you, I had weighed myself that very morning and I was quite put out about the fact that I had gained 3 pounds!

It turns out that it was all due to the way I had dressed for that day and it was all a coincidence! I have to say, it was a pretty lucky one though! So I devoted all my energies to finding out more slimming tips and tricks and I’m here to share them all with you! Feel free to borrow from them!

• If you’re top heavy, like me, then try wearing tops which have a loose fit which taper down to hug your waist and hip area. This nicely draws attention to the contrast between your comparatively narrower waist and your heavy chest area.

• Also, while you’re picking out clothes, go in for thin fabrics, like cotton or jersey material.

• Also, dress in a single color, throughout. This adds much needed height to your figure!

• If you’re not curvy, then wear clothes with a lot of colorful prints and patterns. They give you curves which you never thought you had!

• If you have an apple shaped figure, pick out clothes with vertical or diagonal lines, it has a nice slimming effect.

• Also, wear tops which are longer than the normal tee shirt. Make sure they cover your hip region!

• If you have an apple shaped figure, you can freely try out suits, jackets and dresses with a shirt waist. Their classic lines and cuts are very, very flattering!

• If you’re one of those people who are gifted with an hourglass figure (or one of those people who work furiously to maintain it!), then you can go in for V-necked outfits.

• Also, wear a belt at your waist to emphasize its slenderness. Few thinks look smarter or chicer!

• Wear fabrics which drape well so that you can show off your perfect figure! It’s no wonder that women blessed with hourglass bodies are traffic stoppers.

• Lastly, if you’re on the shorter side, like me, then wear a lot of dresses, which are knee-length, or shorter.

With these slimming tips, you surely can’t go wrong! Have fun fooling people!

Tiger Woods’ Lies…AGAIN!

March 1st, 2010

Tiger Woods has been making waves…AGAIN! This time around, it’s because of his public “apology”. After a stint in sex rehab, Woods claims that he is now a better person (yeah right!) and that he’s going to try to mend his ways. But his mistresses don’t really believe he will. I’m totally with them on this one, aren’t you?

Joslyn James, who was “with” Woods, for three years, says that his press conference was a farce from start to finish. The porn star, who is starred in films like “Top Heavy 4”, says that she feels insulted. Aww…you poor home wrecker, we totally sympathize with you! She also says that she would not be averse to a telephone apology from the man in question and that she really did not deserve to be ignored in his public apology.

She also goes on to say that, in her book, an apology should be meaningful and genuine, but she found no traces of that in his apology. She says that Woods is an extremely selfish individual and whatever he does is only about him, no one else. She didn’t believe that it was a real apology. Gloria Allrad, James’ lawyer said that though Woods had caused a whole lot of emotional turmoil in James’ life, she would not be pressing charges against him.

Jamie Jungers, another one on Tiger’s colorful list of mistresses threw in the emotional card! She said that her relationship with Tiger transcended the mere physical; their feelings for each other ran far deeper than that. She had hoped Woods to acknowledge their relationship but wasn’t surprised when he didn’t. Figures!

Jungers who works as a blackjack dealer and a model in Las Vegas, said that Woods’ apology was absolute hogwash. His aim was to make people feel sorry for him through the apology, nothing else. At the same time, she cuts Woods some slack and says that she wouldn’t call him a liar, because she closely saw his emotions when his father passed away, but at the moment, he isn’t bothered about anyone else but himself. So true!

Jungers felt that Tiger wronged all the women he had slept with (yup, there’s no sugar-coating that one!), by not apologizing to a single one of them. She said that it was hurtful and rude of him to completely ignore them and instead apologize to kids and women all over the world. God! Will someone give Tiger’s many mistresses their due?

A Lady’s Vengeance

March 1st, 2010

Lady Gaga has emerged triumphant! She’s a superstar and there’s hardly anyone on the planet who doesn’t know of her! So, here’s a message for one of her ex boyfriends who doubted whether she would succeed, “people, even if they’re as weird as this superstar, do manage to make it if they work hard enough, you know”!

Gaga says of her ex in Cosmopolitan’s April issue, that her erstwhile boyfriend told her that she would never ever manage to taste success or even be nominated for a Grammy, never have a hit song to her credit and that he hoped she would fail! Gaga remembers telling him quite clearly, that someday, when they were not together, he wouldn’t be able to so much as order a cup of coffee at the local deli without hearing something or the other about her!

Sounds a tad arrogant, doesn’t it? But take a minute out to look beneath lady Gaga’s frankly creepy exterior! There’s a smart girl out there who’s worked really, really hard to get where she is today, and you can’t deny that she’s got a great voice and a generous dollop of talent.

Gaga also states in the issue, that she ate “sh*t” for way too long in her struggle to make it in the music business, but she’s always believed she would make it, since she’s been ambitious to the point of being delusional! She says that people don’t really get her, because she’s so ambitious. Umm, shouldn’t that be more like, people don’t get he, period?

We’re hoping that Gaga’s current flame, Matthew Williams doesn’t doubt her, because she’s already reached the dizzying heights of success. But there’s a good chance he isn’t because he’s worked with Gaga for way too long. The two probably understand each other very well, in both a professional as well as a personal capacity.

Matthew is one of the chief collaborators in the Haus of Gaga and is responsible for designing all the wacky outfits that Lady Gaga so loves to sport. Don’t know about anything else, but if his designs are to play any role, I’d say both gaga and her beaus definitely have one thing in common: they love to shock people!

After all, Lady Gaga wears hair phones, masks and even bulges in her pants (gulp!). Let’s hope the two are able to enjoy a successful relationship. After all, success in your personal life is as important, if not more, as success in your profession!