Treats for your Sweets

When my husband was in college he made up a fake holiday in honor of Valentine's Day.

S.A.D.

It stands for Singles Awareness Day. He wore all black, made a pin to wear on his shirt, and walked around announcing it all day.

Isn't he lucky that now he has someone to make him a yummy Valentine's Day meal, mostly healthy, and even makes dessert! :) Just joking, I'm really the lucky one!!

I made these meringues for us, mostly because it's just the two of us, we're trying to be healthier these days, and we just had lots of chocolate cake last week.

And they were SUPER easy! They are such a great snack! The vanilla really taste like toasted marshmallows! I love buying the meringues from Trader Joe's, but why when these are so easy to make, and I had everything on hand already. I separated the meringue batter and made half vanilla, half chocolate, piping into hearts, but you can make all chocolate, making drops, fill with fruit, whatever you want!!

What did you do for Valentine's Day??

We spent much of the day at church for our two services, but after a long nap, letting the puppy play, and cooking for the two of us, the day was perfectly complete with hours of endless Olympic obsession! Is anybody else as obsessed with the Olympics as I am?? What's your favorite sport?

Chocolate and Vanilla Meringues (Adapted from Fix It and Enjoy It Healthy Cookbook - With the Mayo Clinic)

Ingredients

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1-2 TBS. Dry cocoa powder, unsweetened

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees and line cookie sheet with parchment paper or silpat.

2. In mixing bowl, separate egg whites into bowl.

3. Combine with cream of tartar and vanilla extract until soft peaks form.

4. Beat in sugar, 1 TBS. at a time until stiff peaks form.

5. Divide batter in half if desired for vanilla meringues.

6. With remaining batter, sprinkle 1 Tbs. cocoa powder for half batter or 2 Tbs. for full batter over top, and fold in gently by hand.

7. Place batter in pastry bag affixed with preferred tip. Pipe hearts or drops onto silpat or parchment paper.

8. Bake ~ 45 min. or until dry to touch in thickest part of meringue.

9. Remove meringues from oven and cool.

10. Serve as desired with fresh fruit on top or sprinkled with powdered sugar.