Morning, Monday.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! It doesn’t quite seem fair that another Monday is here again – boo! But I hope your Monday morning isn’t starting off with another migraine, yet again. Maxalt, come to the rescue! Anytime now..

I’m glad I meal planned and wrote out my grocery list before leaving Chicago. I had just enough time to swing by the grocery store on my way back into town and unload before heading off to hockey. Today is most certainly a rest day. Stairmaster on Friday with a long run on Saturday left my quads SCREAMING for relief during last night’s hockey game! Hockey is a great workout to have in my weekly repitoire of exercise. Unlike distance running and cardio machine workouts, hockey is explosive and requires every muscle in your body to perform duties not normally performed in most other forms of exercise. Balance and agility = hockey. Love it!

Mom Prevention spoiled me rotten this weekend with healthy recipes. Let’s start with dessert first! Great minds think alike because I bookmarked this recipe from Taste of Home last week, too.

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Black Forest Cake from Taste of Home

2 cups cherry juice blend
1-3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened ocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups cold fat-free milk
1 package (1.4 ounces) sugar-free instant chocolate pudding mix
1 can (20 ounces) reduced-sugar cherry pie filling
1-1/2 cups frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat the cherry juice, sugar, applesauce, oil, eggs, vinegar and vanilla until well blended. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into cherry juice mixture until blended.

Pour into a 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Frost top of cake with pudding. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Top with pie filling. Chill until serving. Serve with whipped topping. Yield: 24 servings.

Nutrition Information (1 piece with 1 Tbsp whipped topping): 186 calories; 3 g. fat; 18 mg; cholesterol; 272 mg. sodium; 36 g. carbohydrate; 1 g. fiber; 3 g. protein.

Result: This was delicious! I don’t normally bake a ton of sweets (holidays aside) and I forgot how lower-sugar ingredients can nake sinful treats not so sinful. And cherries + chocolate? There may not be a more excellent duo in desserts. I know some would argue  peanut butter and chocolate, but I would take cherries and chocolate any day! I could eat cherry pie filling straight from the can! Enjoy!

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Don’t you think Mom Prevention did an awesome job? She plated that piece of cake and everything. I’ll have to give her a hard time about no whipped topping, otherwise it would’ve looked JUST like Taste of Home’s pretty shot 😉 But her dessert was more than worthy of a blog appearance, don’t you think?!

Prevention RD is continuing to undergo its face-lift. I received a few emails about some unavailable posts — I am looking into that. THANK YOU for bringing that to my attention, I greatly appreciate it! If you see something funky and have a second, shoot me a line!

My Maxalt kicked in…today may not be the worst Monday ever now! And Happy MLK Jr. Day – no class tonight! 😀 I’m glad to be off tonight so I can recoup after the weekend travels!

Question: Do you like cherries? Anyone else off work for MLK Jr. Day?

Have a fabulous week, all!