So I wanted to make another pie for Easter Sunday. And since my younger brother loves anything chocolate. I decided to make a fudge pie. The big difference is this pie has an outer crust. But the inside is soft and fudgy! Here’s what you need to make this pie!
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 pre-made pie crust
1. Layer the pie crust on the bottom of the pie baking pan.
2. Melt the butter in a pan. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar. Then add in eggs and melted butter.
4. Mix mixture well! Then pour mixture into pie pan. Bake pie for around 30 minutes.
5. Take pie out of oven. Pie mixture on the inside will still be a little runny. Let pie cool completely then place in fridge for 1-2 hours.
Enjoy this yummy pie! It should be a hit at any dinner party!
This is week 62 in my series of Shape Up! The weekly post on what I did over the last week in my quest to getting healthier.
Shape Up! – Week 62
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The news about sugary drinks has not been good in the last several weeks. According to researchers from the American Heart Association and the Harvard School of Public Health. Sugar-sweetened beverages contributes to more than 180,000 obesity-related deaths worldwide each year. This means about one in every 100 deaths from obesity-related diseases is caused by drinking sugary beverages. The United States had the third highest amount of deaths caused from sugary drinks. And Mexico had the highest death rates in the world caused by sugary drinks.
I believe most people have no clue how much sugar they are really consuming when they drink a sugary drink. For example; the American Heart Association recommends a limit of added sugar to no more than 100 calories a day for women and 150 for men. But the average 12-ounce regular soda contains the equivalent of 10 teaspoons of sugar and has about 140 calories. The average American consumes around 80 pounds of sugar each year. Don’t you think that’s too much? Here are the average amounts of sugar in drinks from the Rhode Island Medical Society.
I have found some more interesting facts from the website http://fatsmack.org/. These facts show we have a problem of drinking too many sugary drinks.
One, 20-oz bottle of regular soda has about 16 teaspoons of sugar.
Teens consume twice as much soda as they do milk.
On an average day, 80% of youth consume a sugary drink.
A single, 20-ounce bottle of regular soda has about 16 teaspoons of sugar.
The average person consumes almost 100 pounds of sugar a year, with the single biggest source being sodas.
The American Heart Association recommends that the maximum daily intake of added sugars be no more than 4.5 teaspoons for teens aged 12-19.
Did you know, health costs of obesity in the United States are $147 billion annually? That’s like buying everyone in the U.S. an iPad 2.
No doubt we are drinking too much sugary drinks. Drinking nothing but water all the time does get boring after a while. But sugary drinks could be healthier. Most everything you buy processed has high-fructose corn syrup. You would be shocked how many products have this. High-fructose corn syrup is highly industrialized and has been shown to cause diabetes, obesity, and other nasty diseases. I wish foods would use other sweeteners like honey, agave syrup, raw sugar, molasses, and other natural sweeteners.
One huge tip I give to everyone! When you go grocery shopping, READ the ingredient labels! If you see anything with high-fructose corn syrup or any other ingredients you can not pronounce, put it back on the shelf. We need to be getting back to cooking in the kitchen instead of relying on processed foods. When I brew my own sweet tea, I use real sugar. I try to limit how many chemicals in foods I put in my body. And this is something we all need to be doing! Usage of high-fructose corn syrup has gone down in the last few years. Let’s hope that continues!
The last week, I have walked and eaten one meal a day. Being out of work for 21 months sucks! Here’s what I ate in the last week.
Saturday: Pizza, Sweet Tea.
Sunday: Steak and Baked Potato, Sweet Tea.
Monday: Grilled Chicken and Brown Rice, Sweet Tea.
Tuesday: Fajitas and Spanish Rice, Sweet Tea.
Wednesday: Bratwursts and Chips, Sweet Tea.
Thursday: Grilled Chicken and Brown Rice, Sweet Tea.
Today Geek Alabama is joining two awesome food bloggers, Jenn of Jenn Cuisine and Barb of Creative Culinary, who have spearheaded Food Bloggers Support For Sandy.As you know; Hurricane Sandy has caused a lot of damage in the northeast. Living in Alabama; people know what to do when a hurricane comes up from the Gulf of Mexico. We had our horrible weather event on April 27, 2011 when over 250 in Alabama were killed from the massive tornado outbreak. Here is video showing the Tuscaloosa tornado on live TV from ABC 33/40 and James Spann.
Hurricane Sandy caused billions of dollars in damage. It also left many people without power, food, gas, and the essentials. Even today there are still some people who are still suffering. Some of these videos shows the power of Sandy. Major storms like this brings heavy wind and huge storm surge.
Along with our comfort food virtual effort we are asking for a real effort too. Geek Alabama is encouraging everyone to make a donation to those in desperate need. Several organizations are dedicating themselves to helping the victims of hurricane Sandy. Some of the larger ones include:
American Red Cross is providing food, shelter, and other forms of support to hurricane victims. You can donate directly to the Red Cross or you can also text the word “Redcross” to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
The Salvation Army is also focused on providing food, shelter, and support to victims, and takes donations for storm relief.
Feeding America is providing food, water and supplies to those who need it as part of their disaster relief program.
Toomer’s for Tuscaloosa is currently gathering supplies to be taken to the storm affected areas.
For my comfort food I decided to make something that anyone could enjoy. Who doesn’t enjoy have a homemade cinnamon roll? You have to enjoy this sweet treat during breakfast or anytime during the day. Here is what you need:
Dough:
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter
5 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup warm water
1 yeast packet
Sugar/cinnamon mixture:
1 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter; softened
Icing:
3 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter; softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1. Combine warm water and yeast in a bowl and let yeast rise for 10 minutes.
2. Combine all dough ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Then knead the dough on floured surface. Put dough back in bowl and let rest for 30 minutes.
3. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in bowl and mix together.
4. Spread out dough into a large rectangle. Spread-out 1/3 cup butter on top of dough. Then spread-out cinnamon/sugar mixture on top.
5. Roll up dough and then cut into even slices.
6. After splitting dough; let the rolls rest for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
7. After resting; bake rolls in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Let the baked rolls cool!
8. While the rolls are cooling; combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Combine well!
Top the cinnamon rolls with some icing and enjoy! Pray for the people suffering from Hurricane Sandy!
My fresh-baked strawberry pie has been popular here on Geek Alabama. So to keep with the season theme I decided to make a blueberry pie. At the end it tasted very good but was a little runny. So If you make this you need to have at least 5 tablespoons of corn starch. Here’s what you need.
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line the bottom of the pie pan with a pie crust.
2. Wash the blueberries. Take out any stems and bad berries. Then mix together sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon in bowl.
3. Mix together mixture into blueberries. Then pour mixture into pie pan.
4. Put on top pie crust and then cut silts. Then brush with melted butter.
5. Line the edges with tin foil so it won’t burn. Bake for around 50 minutes or until pie crust is golden brown.
There you have it. Fresh baked blueberry pie. It was a little runny but the pie with a little vanilla ice cream on top will satisfy anyone on a hot summer day.
Since strawberries are in season right now. I wanted to try something that I knew would taste good. So with some simple ingredients you can make this too. And try this after it has been chilled in the fridge. I think it tastes better after getting cold. So here’s what you need!
1. Grease two 9-inch cake pans and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a mixing bowl; combine flour, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Then add in 2 cups milk mixing until moistened. Then spread batter into the two cake pans. Bake for 15 minutes and insert toothpick to make sure center comes out clean.
3. Cut strawberries in half and put into bowl. Add 1/4 cup sugar and mix well. Then let sit for 10 minutes.
4. Combine 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup into container of whipped topping. Then layer half of whipped topping with half of strawberries on top of one shortcake. Then do the same thing with the second layer.
5. Put in fridge and enjoy!
We all enjoyed this recipe and I hope you enjoy it as well!
So after the strawberry pie I made last time I came up with a challenge to come up with a pie that was better than the store bought Whole Foods chocolate pie that did not taste very good. The filling was made from scratch while the pie crust was store bought. The first step is to bake the pie crust in the pie pan. Follow the instructions on the box.
Then you need to cook the filling. Here is what you need.
When I watched 60 minutes last weekend I saw this story about why sugar is helping to decline the health of America. Here’s the video.
Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup is just about in everything in our food supply. And I hate to say this; I do believe it’s helping to cause the record amount of people who are obese in our country. And people living in the south know this all too well. We love our sugar! Things from sweet tea to desserts are loaded with sugar. In the south; people love using butter and sugar in many of the foods we love to eat. The movie Food, Inc. also helped to expose the numerous foods in stores that have hidden sugars.
I think way too many food products have sugar in them. And some food companies out there just add sugar so people will buy their product. Why; because foods with hidden sugars will have a better chance of being bought by people. And I think that is wrong! Some people even now believe that you can become addicted to sugar just like someone is addicted to drugs and alcohol. Yes I do believe we have a sugar problem in our country. But sugar is not the only problem either. We also like to sit down and enjoy watching TV or playing games and not stay active. By the way; check out this picture of the amount of sugar in several beverages.
How should we treat the sugar crisis? Most people believe we need to start taxing bad foods laden with sugar and fats. But ask many people down in the south about that and most will say; the government needs to stay out of our lives! Some people even say the leaders out of the White House needs to but out of people’s lives and quit telling people what to eat. So everyone has different opinions about what to do to solve the obesity crisis. Here is what I think we need to do!
First; we need to educate our kids about healthy eating and exercise. When I was young; time in gym class was used to take tests on sports. We need to be using that time to exercise kids! Also younger kids needs their recess time. Schools have taken away recess time so we can teach to the test. And that’s wrong as well! Second, we need to find ways to make healthy foods cheaper. Right now; poorer people will buy foods laden with fats and sugars because its cheap! Add the food tax that Alabama puts on its people and poorer people can not afford healthy foods.
Third; we need to make it cool to eat healthy and exercise again. Ads on TV and computers encourage people to eat unhealthy. Think about it; when we see that yummy pizza or burger being advertised; our mouths start to water. Then people go out to get that product. We need to make it hip and cool for people to eat better and to be active. At the same time; we need to teach people to cook better foods as well. These steps should help our obesity crisis get better. If we don’t do something soon; our obesity crisis could bankrupt the healthcare system. And we do not need that.
The Bible encourages people to eat healthy and lead an active life. All people needs to do things in moderation. That includes foods with high sugar and fats.
So I decided to do something creative. I made my own root beer syrup and mixed it with club soda to make my own root beer! You can do it this way or you could brew your own. But here is the awful truth. It is illegal to home brew your own beer in Alabama. So I did not want to post something that could get me arrested. Plus when everything is done the drink does not look like the root beer you see out of a can or bottle. But it tasted very good!
