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by Chantel Chansa

SCRUMPTIOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

This chocolate cake is one of the best I have ever made. This recipe is made without butter and eggs, and is so incredibly quick and easy to make, imagine that!!!! I stumbled upon this recipe on YouTube several years ago and decided to try it. I didn’t know that this recipe was vegan, I just wanted to try it. Well, I am so glad I did because this is my favorite chocolate cake recipe. I am not a huge fan of chocolate but this cake will have you addicted to just this cake. I believe the oil in the cake is what makes it so incredibly moist. You can use any oil you choose but I opt for the Olive Oil. This recipe also calls for lemon juice or vinegar. Either one is good but I prefer fresh squeezed lemon juice. Fresh lemon juice gives it a wonderful flavor vs the vinegar or even bottled lemon juice. The type of Coco (Caco) powder you use is up to you but any unsweetened will be good. One day I would love to try this recipe using unsweetened Carob powder. When I first made this recipe I used regular granulated white sugar versus now I use organic cane sugar. Any substitute sugar or sugar alcohol will work fine, just adjust the measurements if needed.

I should type these next words in bold but I’ll trust that you will be sure that you DO NOT miss this one very important step when you are placing your dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. Make sure you aerate the flour. Doing this will make a world of difference on how your cake will turn out.

I will include the icing but I have only made it once and DID NOT like it at all. So, I never make it when I bake this cake. If you make it, you may like it but to me the cake alone is delicious and truly doesn’t need any icing, in my opinion. Sometimes I’ll sprinkle Confectionary sugar on top of my slice before I eat it. I don’t suggest sprinkling it on the entire cake unless you will be serving it in expectation of it being devoured.

This cake will probably become your favorite and a favorite with others who you share it with. It was always a popular dessert wherever I took it. So be prepared to share this simple and quick recipe with others.

SCRUMPTIOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups All Purpose flour (earache flour)
  • 1 cup sugar ( any kind)
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened coco powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt ( do not use coarse)
  • 1 cup cool water
  • 6 Tbsp oil ( I used Olive)
  • 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice or distilled white vinegar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting

  • 2 Tbsp salted butter (room temp)
  • 1 cup confectionary sugar
  • 1Tbsp coco powder (unsweetened)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • about 3 tsp milk

Mix all ingredients together except the milk. After mixing, you will add 1/2tsp of milk at a time to the mixture until you have a frosting consistency. I ended up using a total of 3 for my consistency. Since I did not care for the frosting, you may like it. I also think that it needs to be adjusted to that persons liking, which I did not do, for the fact that I loved the cake without it. I hope that you enjoy this recipe.

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by Chantel Chansa

HOW I STARTED INTERMITTENT FASTING

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I must start off by saying, please consult with your Primary Care Professional, if you have one. The reason being, your doctor should be able to help you find the right dietician/nutritionist and hopefully be able to help you along this journey.

Here is how I started off doing Intermittent Fasting (IF). I started with 12 hours of fasting, which was pretty easy. I like to snack late at night, so that helped me adjust to my new eating times. I would stop eating at ten o’clock at night and would not allow myself to eat again until twelve hours the next day. Most of the time it would be later than ten in the morning. I do want to input that during my fasting time, no matter how many hours I was fasting, I did not eat more than five hundred calories. Now, with these calories, I tried to stay away from processed sugars. What I refer to as processed sugars is: High fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, cane sugar, maltitol, artificial sweeteners, and other processed sugars. Okay, so I’m admitting that all I would have is a cup of coffee. However, my coffee consisted of non-dairy creamer and sugars that are of low glycemic index (organic coconut sugar and monk fruit sugar with erythritol). I usually have my coffee before nine in the morning, so near eleven I would start looking to what I would eat for lunch, then eat by noon. My lunch would be a small portion of a heavy food or just a finger food. Then I would not eat again until five o’clock in the evening. My evening meal would be a normal dinner meal and I would leave my eating window open until ten o’clock that night. Now, this is just how I started prepping my body for fasting. If it takes you longer to jump up to the 16:8, then keep taking those small steps towards your goal.

I do want to add, what you eat also plays a role in what you are trying to achieve. Whether you’re doing IF for weight loss or wanting to clean your body. I will tell you that eliminating anything processed (including sugar), meat, and dairy will definitely help start you on a great path. I did not eliminate all of these at once. Doing this is a major adjustment to your body and mind. You may not be the person who can eliminate all these at once, but start eliminating something so you can start detoxing from that. I also want to warn you that you will experience signs of detoxing, and those signs could be headaches, a rash in various areas of your body, fatigue, body aches, nausea, brain fog, and irritability. You may experience sweating, diarrhea, and cold chills. Everyone may not experience all of these symptoms, but the toxins are released through breathing, bowels, sweating, and urine. Your detox may, or may not, be as severe as others. I personally believe that depending on how much detoxing your body has to expel, will be based on the severity of how much the body rids of the toxins.

Another addition to this start is to drink water. I know a lot of people who have problems with drinking water. Those of you with this issue, start with putting fresh fruits or veggies in your water for taste (do not add sugar). I also do not suggest adding any flavoring packets to your water. Those packets have sugar in them and food coloring. I can suggest a flavoring that is sweetened with a sugar alcohol such as Stevia. If you are a person who drinks sodas all day long, cut back to one a day and do this for about three to 4 days then keep decreasing. Your goal is to get your body rid of sugar and caffeine. You can drink green tea, black tea, and black coffee. All of these can be consumed hot or cold and sweetened with local honey or stevia. Hopefully, the teas and coffee will replace the soda caffeine with a natural caffeine to help with the withdrawals.

I know all this may seem overwhelming, but remember, you will have to mentally prepare for all this before you actually begin. If you truly want to improve your health, then you will be just fine. You could see results as early as a week. Keep a track record of the day you began and what you have consumed. It’s always nice to see progress and what you ate to achieve those goals. Also, keeping a food consumption record could help you track what could be aggravating your body. Overall, keeping a good, detailed journal could help you with your new health journey. I, personally, have found whenever I get off track from my diet, my body lets me know.

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********DISCLAIMER******** I AM NOT A TRAINED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL. THIS INFORMATION IS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND PERSONAL RESEARCH THAT I HAVE FOUND.

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by Chantel Chansa

LENTIL SLOPPY JOES

Let me tell you about this recipe. If you don’t like lentils, don’t know if you like lentils or just want to try something different using lentils, then this is the recipe to try. In my opinion, it tastes like just like sloppy joes. The only difference is that you are replacing the ground beef with lentils. Another opinion I’ll give is, this recipe actually tastes better than any canned sloppy joe or any seasoning packets that there is out there. I can say that adding ketchup to your sandwich seems to add great balance of flavors. The photo above is of my sandwich. I love adding pickles, mayo and ketchup to finish off my sandwich before I devour it. Of course, you add your own favorite toppings that you would like.

This recipe makes a lot. If you are feeding a family of six with each of them having one sandwich, you’ll still have leftovers. You can store leftovers in the fridge for about four days or you can opt to freeze the remaining for another day.*

HINT: If you don’t have time to chop up those veggies just buy the chopped frozen bell peppers and onions.

lentil-sloppy-joesDownload

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by Chantel Chansa

What is the purpose of hair?

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels.com

I want to share with you some knowledge about hair. Hopefully, you will find this information interesting and useful. Now days with all the tools, products and chemicals, we can achieve just about anything we want with our mane. However, not everything we do to our hair is good. I will probably have to give a series about hair because of all the information there is, it would make just one post extremely overwhelming.

I first want to start off with, “What is the purpose of hair?” I’ll give you four top reasons for its purpose. The purpose of hair is first and foremost, it was designed to be protection for our body. Protection in the means of being a thermal regulator. Hair regulates body temperature, being in cold environments makes our muscles contract, causing them to pull the hair into an upright position. When this happens, the erected strands trap air and serve as insulation to protect the body from the cold. This is why when a person who has long, or thick. hair feels warmer than someone who has little or no hair. Hot temperatures give an opposite effect. As sweat glands secrete sweat, it evaporates to cool the body. This effect makes the muscles relax and causes the hair to lay flat in order to release heat.

The second very useful function of our mane is it extends our sense of touch. It is astounding to know that we may feel an object before it even touches our skin. In 2012, a study was published by John Hopkins University School of Medicine. In that report, it stated how the brain processes and collects information through hair on the skin. David Ginty, Ph. D., professor of neuroscience at John Hopkins, says more than 20 classes of mechanosensory nerve cells in the skin is what detects everything from pain to temperature. I find it absolutely amazing how the design of our body can physically detect the feelings of the changes from our atmosphere, to knowing there is an object near you before it comes in contact with your skin.

Now, for the third reason of how our hair serves a purpose. Having body hair which covers almost our entire body except for the palms of our hands, soles of feet, and lips. Aside from providing cover from the environment, body hair such as eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, and ear hair helps keep dust and foreign matter out. This is how we are able to feel something near us without it touching us. Those tiny, itty-bitty hairs that cover our body are called vellus hairs. Vellus hair is also referred to as baby hair, or peach fuzz, and is translucent and much thinner than the hairs on your other body parts.

The fourth reason why hair is important is it gives you a sense of identity. For many centuries, hair has been a significant part of a woman’s physical feature of adornment and attraction, which it still serves the same today as such. Hair is the first feature on a person’s body that most people see and judge on its appearance.

Now, you have four reasons why we have hair and its design of use for us. It serves a mighty and essential purpose for us. It is important to take just as great care of your hair as it is for your outer and inner body. Everything that we do to our body has a great effect on our well-being. No matter if your hair is long or short, you still have those sensory follicles. I may suggest being aware of what you are applying to your hair.

by Chantel Chansa

Walnut crumbles (meat alternative)

There are so many beans, legumes, fruits, nuts, seeds and veggies that can be used as a meat alternative. It also never occurred to me how much protein, fiber, vitamins, and more are in these alternatives. I’d say they are far more beneficial than meat itself. This recipe my mom stumbled upon and so we decided to try it. Prior to finding this recipe we were using frozen ground meat as an alternative. When we first tried it, we used it as taco meat. I tried it and fell in love with it. It is so easy to make and you can double the recipe and make them plain, just minus the seasoning when making the recipe. I freeze the plain crumbles. When ready to use just add your favorite seasoning. What I do is just add about 1 tsp of water to about 1/2 cup plain crumbles and dry seasoning (single person serving). Add more water if it does not completely moisten them. Then just spread the crumbles on a small toaster oven sheet and give it some heat to dry them, maybe about 5 minutes in the little oven. I sure hope you enjoy this meat alternative as much as I do.

If you would like to download this recipe, the PDF is below. Look for the black “download” button.

walnut-crumblesDownload

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by Chantel Chansa

How does Intermittent Fasting work?

If you have read my previous blog “what is IF” then you have a small idea of what it is and how it is different from Deep Fasting (DF). This post I will go into details on how IF works, what changes I made to my diet, and what method I used most. I will also post App(s) that I used to help me keep track of my time. Links that I display, or Apps that I suggest, I do not get any type of incentives. Hopefully, down the road, I can make that possible.

Now, let’s move forward. Most Americans’ normal eating cycles differ greatly with IF, especially if they eat throughout their waking hours. In this nation, most people eat three meals a day, plus snacks. So, every time they eat, they are running on those calories and not burning the fat that is stored in the body. This is how weight is gained.

There are several different ways to customize IF to work for you, but they all are based on choosing a set time schedule to eat and fast. This is referred to as Time Restricted Fasting (TRF). The fasting timeframes start as low as 13 hours fasting and 11 hours eating. (The 13:11 window. This time frame is a great first step into introducing IF to your body and mind.) Next is the most commonly used timeframe, which is the 16:8. Others are 18:6, 20:4, and One Meal A Day (OMAD). Once you hit 24 hours of fasting, you will begin the process of getting into the Deep Fasting Stage (DFS). The longer you go, the more health benefits you will reap. It does sound crazy and unachievable, but it IS achievable. Many people have been able to do this, so it is not rare at all. I have a chart below that you can visually see the timeframes.

There is another method of fasting than just hours in a day, I call it, Ratio Fasting (RF) 5:2. This eating for five days and fasting for two. However, you can make your RF how you desire to fit your needs or goals. The charts below can give you a visual idea of how all this works.

When I started IF, I did start at a low timeframe and worked my way up to my goal. I, at times, did unintentionally exceed my goal, but I reaped the rewards of feeling so much better, especially the next day. The main timeframe that I use is the 16:8. Once I get myself back into the swing of fasting again, it’s much easier to maintain. I TRY not to stray away from fasting too long. When I implement my fasting, I normally do it about four or five days a week. In the beginning, I did just two days a week, and then worked my way up. I thought it would be hard, but it truly wasn’t. Implementing IF has done wonders for me and my overall health. I am certainly happy that I gave it a try. The App that I have been using to help track my time of fasting is Zero. It is free with both Apple and Android phones. However, there are other fasting apps you can choose from to use, but of course, use what benefits you most.

In conclusion, IF has been studied by many doctors who have tried and recommended it to their patients who have various health issues to serious health concerns. All patients who did participate in IF had extremely positive life changing results. However, there are many Healthcare professionals who are not aware of how incredible fasting is for one’s body, and how it can allow your body to naturally heal itself, just as it was designed to do. Now that you have an idea of how IF works, I hope this will help you on choosing a timeframe, or even customizing it to fit your daily routine. With IF you can start the journey of living a heathier life. My next post will be what foods are suggested while inside your eating window, plus what happens to our bodies when we fast.

***DISCLAIMERS***

  • I AM NOT A TRAINED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL OF ANY SORT.
  • ALL INFORMATION ABOVE IS FROM MY OWN PERSONAL RESEARCH AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
  • FASTING OF ANY KIND IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED FOR CHILDREN AND THOSE WITH EATING DISORDERS.
by Chantel Chansa

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittment Fasting (IF) is any various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting, and non-fasting, over a given period. (Wikipedia definition) The methods of IF include: alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and daily time-restricted feedings. John Hopkins School of Medicine says research show that IF is a way to manage and prevent, or even reverse, some forms of disease. Many diets focus on what you eat, while IF focuses on when you eat. I do agree that it is very important to monitor what you eat, because it is a major factor in your daily health eating habits. It’s much harder today, than 50 years ago, to maintain a good healthy weight. Today, we are presented with larger food portions and processed foods. Let us not forget that we have all sort of 24/7 entertainment available, which contributes to many adults and children staying awake longer. Staying alert longer means more sitting and snacking, versus 50 years ago when the TV was off at 11pm and children played outside. Many people have made this transition slowly, without even realizing it. If you think about it, this transition was slowly made over decades. Now it is considered a normal part of life with how, and what, we eat. We also have a higher percentage of all kinds of diseases now than 50 years ago.

So, you’re probably asking what the difference is between Fasting and IF. Well, I did a little research and found some pretty good information on Simple Roots Wellness website (SRW) that I agreed with the most. SRW said that there is a HUGE difference between IF and Fasting, they label fasting as Prolonged fasting. Their approach to fasting and IF is, IF should be considered a normal way of life and not in itself fasting. Fasting is going three to five days without food, or with very little of it. There are pros to IF for everyday health, but the Prolonged (Deep) fasting is where the massive health benefits are found. https://simplerootswellness.com/intermittent-fasting-vs-prolonged-fasting/

Prior to my knowledge about IF, I always thought that fasting was not eating for three days or more, which is true, BUT, I did not know fasting could pretty much be customized to achieve the prolonged fasting, which I like to refer to as DEEP FASTING. I also thought that fasting was only for Biblical reasons, which is also true, but there are many reasons in Biblical fasting, as well. (Fasting and the Bible I will save for a special post at another time) I personally have not completed more than 26 hours of fasting, and that only happened once by accident.

Overall, either of these fasting methods are very beneficial in weight loss, or just trying to improve your health. Improving your health is not always about losing weight, though a majority of the time, that is a person’s goal. There are some people who want to get toxins out of their bodies quickly so, when they eat the correct foods, those foods can be absorbed to be beneficial to their health. In my personal experience, IF has been the best for my weight loss, and it boosted my overall health. In my next post, I will go into more detail about how IF works and what is the most used method.

****DISCLAIMER**** I am not a trained Healthcare professional of any sort. Please talk with your HCP when you want to make any changes in your diet. This post is just my research and personal experience.

by Chantel Chansa

Welcome to Chatty Chansa

My name is Chantel Chansa, I created this blog as a place to share all the things that I am passionate about. Topics that I chat about, I have either researched, used my knowledge, experienced or all three. I have had many people to ask questions regarding things that I have knowledge of. So, I thought that a blog would be a great way to share with them along with others like you. Here you will find information on various topics as this blog site grows. I would like for my site to be a place where learning is explored, and knowledge is taught. I hope that you will find it useful for yourself, your family, and friends. I thank you for taking your time to read what I am led to share.

Chatty Chansa

Exploring knowledge

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