You'll LOVE this!

Hello from mid February!  We got through January, which is my least favorite month, and early February dumped snow and ice on large hunks of the country.  But middle February brings a Big Day filled with roses, gifts, romance and chocolate and it’s HERE!  

I’m not a huge fan of forced holidays, but I can’t blame Mr. Hallmark for the A+ job he’s done reminding buyers to remember their loved ones.  And although I’m way too practical to spend a lot of money on flowers, I’m tickled that my dear little KB, flower shop owner extraordinaire is enjoying a record-breaking month.   I love sussies and Masher is the king at surprising me with great stuff, so VD sussies aren’t anymore special than the rest....

But chocolate!  Let’s rejoice in some GREAT NEWS.  Chocolate is heart healthy!   Chocolate is GOOD for you!  In moderate amounts on a daily basis, chocolate actually helps PREVENT  heart disease and high cholesterol!   So let’s unpack that sentence.

First, “in moderate amounts.”  Does this mean you cut back from 4 Snicker bars to 2?  Or from the dinner plate size of brownies to the salad plate size?  Sorry.  No.  Here’s the deal.  

1 ounce of pure dark chocolate per day is a great thing!  

That’s 6 Hershey’s kisses!  Or 1/4 cup of Nestle Toll House chocolate chips, which just makes me smile.      

I said DARK though.  And I said PURE.  This means that technically, you can’t call Snickers heart healthy.  Nor can you extol the virtues of brownies with a clean conscience.  Mixed with all the added sugar and junk, chocolate quickly slides into the BEWARE, BEWARE category...

And another thing!  You know what ELSE is actually good for you, in moderate, “pure” amounts?  Wait for it...COFFEE!  Not coffee on steroids from the coffee company on steroids.  A cup of black coffee is the standard here.  When you add in everything under the sun (and still call it coffee?  huh?) you’re messing with the benefits.  But 2 cups (as in 16 oz.) of pure black coffee goes in the “win” column.

So when your lover comes in with a box of Dove chocolates or chocolate turtles, thank and thank him some more.  But let him eat those.  Get yourself a couple of kisses (then get the candy kind!) and sit down with a nice hot cup of coffee and sigh that you’re the luckiest Valentine in the world!  <3