Delectable Chocolate Bundt Cake

I love cake.  It's my favorite.  I'm not picky about cake...I like it all!  White cake, chocolate cake, cake with frosting, lemon cake, cheese cake, peanut butter cake with chocolate frosting...I could go on and on.  Cake, mmmm.  I love it!

I found a poem about chocolate cake by Michael Rosen. 

you know how the icing on top
is all shiny and it cracks as you
bite into it,
and there's that other kind of icing in
the middle
and it sticks to your hands and you
can lick your fingers
and lick your lips
oh it's lovely.
yeah.

The rest of the poem is pretty funny.  You should check it out!


Anyways...I've been playing with a chocolate bundt recipe that I found on allrecipes.com Too Much Chocolate Cake  I've been trying to lighten it up and make it a little healthier, and I think I've perfected it!  I made my version of the cake last week for my students to celebrate the end of the semester.  I meant to take a picture of the cake before I brought it to class...  I guess the one picture I got tells you how much my students liked it!  Nothing but crumbs are left!

Delectable Chocolate Bundt Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package fat free, sugar free chocolate instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 c. plain, fat-free yogurt
1/2 c. reduced fat sour cream
1 c. applesauce (I use no sugar added applesauce)
1 egg white
2 eggs
1/4 c. fat free milk
1/3 c. water
1 T. oil
1-3/4 c. chocolate chunks (If you can't find chocolate chunks, use chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350*.

In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mix.  In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, sour cream, applesauce, eggs, milk, water and oil.  Mix well.  Pour into dry mix and stir until combined.  Add the chocolate chunks.

Pour/spoon (it will be thick!) the batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.  Bake 55-60 minutes, or until the top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan until completely cool to the touch.  Invert cake onto a plate and serve!  Enjoy~

Here is my favorite bundt cake video clip...from one of my favorite movies, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."  

For more information about bundt pans, check this out!

7 Words and 7 Rules for Eating

http://www.gailgibbons.com

I'm kind of interested in food, if you haven't gathered that already.  After all, the name of my blog is "What's Cooking at Jen's House!"  So I read a couple of food blogs every day.  I am on the constant lookout for new recipes.  I cook daily for my family.  But I'm picky about the food we eat.  I read labels.  I make my own bread instead of buying it (have you seen all of the ingredients that are in your average loaf of bread??)  I avoid buying foods that contain High Fructose Corn Syrup.  I try to dodge processed foods (although Velveeta "cheese" makes the best hot cheese dip.)  I also make JP's lunch most days.  Have you seen school hot lunches lately??  School lunch is a whole 'nother post for another day.  Don't get me started on school lunch....grrrr!  

A while ago, I found the 100 Days of Real Food Blog.  It's a pretty interesting blog and I do follow most of the rules.  I try to find items with 5 or less ingredients.  You'd be surprised at how many foods have more than 5 ingredients!  

While looking at Real Food, I came across Michael Pollan's 7 Rules for Eating.  Micheal Pollan is a food author.  He has 7 Words and 7 Rules.  The words and rules make sense and I really do try to follow them. 

7 Words & 7 Rules for Eating

Pollan says everything he's learned about food and health can be summed up in seven words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants."  Probably the first two words are most important. "Eat food" means to eat real food -- vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and, yes, fish and meat -- and to avoid what Pollan calls "edible food-like substances."
Here's how:

1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can't pronounce, ask yourself, "What are those things doing there?" Pollan says.
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.
4.  Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot. "There are exceptions -- honey -- but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren't food," Pollan says.
5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it's full.'"
6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It's a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.
7. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.

Interesting, huh?  They make sense, right?  Why not try them?