A week’s worth of chocolate

Did you know chocolate is a vegetable? That’s right. Explaining her recent study results, which showed that people who get a daily dose of chocolate are slimmer than those who don’t, Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego said, “It’s my favorite vegetable.” Dr. Golomb cited chocolate’s antioxidant prowess when comparing it to other vegetables. She also relayed that chocoholics those in the study who ate chocolate each day had a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than those who didn’t.

Well, of course, I want to make sure that we’re all getting enough vegetables in our diet so here’s a week’s worth of recipes so you can get your fill.

Monday

Whole wheat chocolate yogurt loaf

Keep 100% whole wheat bread moist by adding in plenty of Greek yogurt and chocolate, of course!

Tuesday

Blueberry-spinach chocolate brownies

Spinach-Blueberry Brownies

These brownies have a boost of extra nutrition from a blueberry-spinach puree that you mix in the batter. My teen loves these brownies even though they do turn out a bit softer than your straight-chocolate recipe.

Wednesday

Easy peanut butter cups (no bake!)

These homemade peanut butter cups are easy to put together. Thanks for the idea Martha and Me.

Thursday

Chocolate chocolate chip cookies

From Garlic Girl, add cocoa to your chocolate chip cookies for a extra boost of the good stuff.

Friday

Chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake

My signature dessert that I try to make infrequently because it’s soo tempting. (I should point out that technically you should be sticking to around an ounce of daily chocolate so you’d need to be nibbling your cheesecake slice.)

Saturday

Lemon Ginger Shortbread S’mores

Chocolate and lemon make such a surprisingly perfect combo–add a toasty marshmallow topping to make this updated kid classic from Good.Food.Stories.

Sunday

No cook cocoa granola bites

End your week with these simple treats that have both cocoa powder and mini-chocolate chips (although feel free to add the regular size if you feel like you haven’t been getting enough chocolate in your diet).

*Special thanks to the National Institutes of Health for funding this study and others like it. Dr. Golomb mentioned she needed to do additional studies. The big question: WHERE CAN I SIGN UP?