Valentine's Day Red Velvet Mousse Recipe

Valentine’s day is shortly upon us and whether you celebrate a romantic relationship or a familial one, the meaning behind it remains the same. It’s about showing those that you love your affection for them.

I’ll be honest, Valentine’s day hasn’t been my favorite holiday for a while now. I can’t even count on ten fingers how many times this holiday has come around and I remain single each time. As cliche and cheesy as it may seem, I wouldn’t mind receiving flowers or candy.

Just because I don’t get these things, doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy looking at all the pretty hearts and candy displays at the stores. Red, pink and white go perfect together, in my opinion. Flowers look pretty just about any time and any where.

Whether your celebrating as a single person or as a couple, this Valentine’s day mousse recipe I have for you is the perfect little treat to indulge in on this day.

What I love about this mousse is that it’s sweet and satisfying without feeling too heavy on your stomach.

I don’t know about you but after I’ve eaten a box of chocolates, I always end up feeling stuffed and sickly. This mousse is so light and fluffy that you can barely tell you’ve just indulged in a sweet treat.

It’s the perfect after dinner treat!

This mousse is pretty easy to make, but there are two parts to it. You can top it with anything you want but I added whipped cream.

If you make this for Valentine’s Day, please come back and tell me how it went! I would love to know!

Be sure to check out all my social media icons at the top my my blog to find my social accounts! I’m regularly on twitter if you want to follow me @Echanningblog.

Valentine’s Day Red Velvet Mousse

Recipe Type: Dessert

Recipe from Mccormick.

Ingredients

• [For Red Velvet Mousse]
• 4 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• [For Cheesecake Filling]
• 1 (8 oz) package 1/3 fat cream cheese, softened
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• 1/2 c. confectioners’ sugar
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• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 c. heavy whipping cream, whipped

Instructions

1. [For Red Velvet Mousse]
2. Microwave chocolate in medium microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 minute; stir. Microwave additional 30 seconds at a time, stirring until chocolate is smooth and melted. Add 1/4 cup cream; stir until smooth. Stir in food color and vanilla. Let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly.
3. Beat 2 cups cream and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir in 1/2 of the chocolate mixture with spatula until well blended. Gently stir in remaining chocolate mixture. Spoon into dessert dishes. Cover. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. [For Cheesecake Filling]
5. For the cheesecake filling, beat cream cheese,confectioners’ sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Fold whipped cream into mixture.
6. Fill cup or bowl with red velvet mousse as the first layer. Then add in the cheesecake filling. Then add next layer of red velvet mousse. Repeat these steps until you’ve reached the tip of dish and then add any of your favorite toppings.

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Celebrating My One Year Blogiversary!

It sounds so weird saying this, but my blog has officially turned one year old today. I’ve been having so much fun with blogging that I didn’t even notice how much time had passed. I was actually scheduling posts to go up this week which is when it struck me that this huge milestone was coming up.

What a year 2015 was!!!

To recap for you, my blog has gone through various changes over the past year, not only aesthetically, but also in niche. But I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, so let’s start with the aesthetics.

If you’ve followed me from the very beginning, then you are probably very aware of the numerous theme changes, lol. What can I say…. I’m a perfectionist. I can happily say though, that their won’t be any changes in the foreseeable future because I’m in love with the look I have now.

Secondly, about half way through the year last year I changed niches. If you’re a blogger, then you know that when you first start blogging, you’re just getting your footing and figuring out what works for you and what you’re passionate about. This was the case with me.

I liked blogging about the things I was blogging about because I felt I had a lot of insight into what I was saying, but realized it was making me happy. After much thought, I decided to change my niche to lifestyle because that’s what I was passionate about and those were the types of blogs I enjoyed reading.

I’m looking forward to the year to come and with a new blog camera and exciting things planned, I feel this will be the best year yet for Echanning! Hope you’ll stay along for the ride!

To celebrate this milestone, I’ve decided to compile a list of my most popular posts as sort of a “look back” at last year. Hope you enjoy!

Everyday Detox: 100 Easy Recipes To Remove Toxins, Promote Gut Health, & Lose Weight Naturally

Blogging Resources: 30 Blogging Prompts

10 Things I Tell Myself To Block Out Negativity

6 Reasons Why The World Isn’t Such A Bad Place

Blogging With A New Purpose

Win A Copy Of Living With Intent By: Mallika Chopra

What I’ve Learned Through Blogging

Beauty Ideals: How Today’s Society Views Beauty

 

Looking back on some of my first posts, I start to realize just how far my little blog has come and how much has changed. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2016!

Thanks for being a continued reader!

What milestones has your blog his this year?

Green Smoothies: 66 Recipes & 7-Day Detox Plan

You may or may not have noticed that I haven’t posted any cookbook reviews on here lately. That’s no mistake, I was getting kind of tired of the same old same old, and let’s be honest a lot of you probably were too. However, I do have a book I’m going to review today and it’s called Green Smoothies: 66 Recipes & A 7-Day Detox Plan By Fern Green.

This smoothie book couldn’t have come at a better time for me or you because, like almost everyone else in the world, we’ve all set out to make January a fresh start which for a lot of people means eating healthy and exercising. And what could be more healthy than a smoothie?

My newest book obsession not only features tons of delicious and very, very easy smoothie recipes, but also recipes for juices, nut milks, and tonics. Great for cleanses or just as a regular addition to your healthy eating routine.

As you probably noticed in my last post, I kind of am obsessed with smoothies at the moment. They’re good for you and mostly easy to make. With this new book, Green Smoothies: 66 Recipes & A 7-Day Detox Plan, I have even more excuses to continue the obsession and even more information into different ways to add healthy items to my growing smoothie recipe collection.

As you can see in the pic above, each recipe comes with a small list of ingredients and a short instruction list because let’s be honest here, who doesn’t want a simple and easy recipe! What’s even better? These are all natural ingredients and healthy for you!

Really the only equipment you need is a juicer and/or blender. Throughout the book you will find tips and tricks for juicing and making smoothies and nut milk. There’s even a 7-day detox plan which is perfect for planning for the week ahead, which for me, I personally struggle with this.

If you like minimalistic recipes or even health plans than I would definitely recommend checking this book out.

In the pic above, is one of the smoothie’s I made from the book. It’s a Coconut Kale Smoothie and it was so delicious, especially since I love coconut so much! You can barely taste the kale in it!

Most of the recipes in this book contain 6 or less ingredients, so you won’t be shelling out too much money when buying the ingredients. I put the rest of the smoothie and blender into the fridge and it should keep until tomorrow.

If you’ve never tried smoothies or juices before, I really suggest just trying it because you might like it more than you think you would.

Thanks for reading and let me know in the comments below, have you tried smoothies or juices before and if so, which were your favorites?

 

***This is a sponsored post. I received this book from blogging for books in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own and 100% my true opinion. ***

New Years Resolution Green Smoothie

A New Year calls for a New Years Resolution Smoothie Recipe!

Just like Christmas, New Years went by in a flash and I almost blinked and missed it. I’m still in denial that it’s gone. But like most things in life, life goes on, so I’m doing my due diligence and making resolutions for the new year.

I know I’m probably going to get a huge eye roll after I say this, but like most people one of my resolutions is to lose weight. It’s not that uncommon for weight gain to happen especially during the holidays. If you managed to get through unscathed, please tell me your secret.

Moving forward with the resolution of losing weight, I’ve joined a gym and started a healthy eating plan. I don’t do diets because they never work for me. Actually I’m pretty sure they don’t work for a lot of people because diets are designed to fail. Diets are short term and our goals are to keep weight off forever, so as you can see these two don’t fit well which is why I never do them.

Although, I am making a conscious effort to monitor everything that I put into my body. Once you start paying close attention to the things you put into your body, you start to notice the havoc your wreaking on it. Sugar, Carbs, Gmo’s, etc…

That’s why I’m starting to adopt a healthy eating lifestyle instead of going on a diet. It’s more attainable and better for you. My focus for my new lifestyle is plant based, healthy fats and carbs and no sugar or dairy. That’s not that hard right?

Cutting to the chase, the reason I’m doing this post is to share with you one of my favorite recipes for a healthy lifestyle. It’s a delicious green smoothie with all natural ingredients and it tastes good too!

There are a lot of great reasons to love this and other smoothies. Not only are they great for your health and well being but they also help shed pounds quicker than any diet program. This particular smoothie has spinach, avocados, bananas, protein powder, and coconut milk with a few added extras to sweeten it up a bit (naturally) and also smoothes up the texture.

Avocados are loaded with heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids as well as having an abundance of nutrients such as vitamin k and c and it also contains more potassium than a banana. Crazy right?

You probably already know all the benefits associated with spinach but I’ll list them anyway. Of course you’ve probably heard before that spinach is high in iron, but did you know it’s packed with many other benefits such as protein, fiber, vitamins A, C, E, and K and calcium and potassium. It’s also low in fat and even lower in cholesterol! Win!

Instead of boring you with the science of it all I will finish off this post by saying that I love this recipe and don’t be put off by the green color or the fact that you’ve heard green smoothies’ taste bad because I promise you that is not the case for this smoothie. I seriously recommend giving it a try!

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think in the comments below! Also a reminder, if you want to follow me on social media check out my social media buttons at the top of my blog bar and they will take you right to them. You can find me regularly on twitter @Echanningblog.

New Years Resolution Green Smoothie

Recipe Type: Green Smoothie

Cuisine: Drink

Ingredients

• 1 heaping scoop of whey protein
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 banana
• 2 heaping tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups coconut milk
• Ice
• Two Handfuls of spinach

Instructions

1. Measure out the ingredients first.
2. Put all ingredients into a some sort of mixer (I used a blender for this recipe)
3. Blend the ingredients on the chop setting of your mixer so that all the ice is nice a broken up.
4. Then your done!
5. Garnish with any toppings you want!

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