Comfort Food: Lent Part 2

For me, Lent is a time to refocus and re-prioritize. People traditionally fast from food during Lent, and that was the second part of my fast. (Read about Part 1 here.) I chose to fast from cereal, as that was something I tended to overdo. 

Food is a form of self-care. Eating highly palatable foods for comfort is a choice. The problem was that I was mindlessly eating cereal and not finding it fulfilling.

So I took Lent to focus on other food choices. I went back to chocolate bowl cakes (based on this recipe) and peanuts and raisins and hot cocoa. Sometimes they satisfied and I didn't think about cereal, and sometimes they didn't and all I wanted to do was pull down the cereal box and fill my bowl. But I didn't.

I bought special cereal for Easter: chocolate peanut butter Cheerios!

I expected these Cheerios to be amazing, but  they weren't. Don't get me wrong, the cereal is decent, but not as rich and satisfying as I'd hoped. (I have something against the way that peanut butter tastes when it bakes. It's a hold over from my dislike of peanut butter for the first 21 years of my life.) My mom likes the Cheerios and I'm mixing them with things, so they'll get eaten, just maybe not as quickly.

I'm a little disappointed that my return to cereal hasn't been as satisfying as I hoped, but that's part of the point of Lent. Food isn't designed to give ultimate satisfaction. It's a good gift from God, but only He ultimately satisfies.

Hereby ends my series of reflections on Lent. Anyone else have Lenten experiences they want to share?

30 Days of Oatmeal: Chocolate Bowl Cake with Pumpkin Oatmeal Custard Topping

Hungry for a healthy dessert? Or a decadent breakfast? Don’t want to turn on the oven, but want something cakey? Try this chocolate bowl cake with pumpkin oat custard topping!

I discovered mug cakes via Chocolate Covered Katie and Happy Herbivore. Then I stumbled upon the collection of mug cakes at Kirbie's Cravings. I tried her skinny pumpkin mug cake and was absolutely hooked.

I’ve found, however, that mug cakes work just as well in bowls as they do in mugs. And I find bowls more convenient.

For this recipe, I combined the wonders of the chocolate mug cake with pumpkin custard.

I prefer to soak the whole cake with milk to make it extra sweet and squishy (and to cool down the cake so that I can eat it more quickly), but if you like dense cakes and have patience to wait for the cake to cool, feel free to skip this step.

Ingredients:

For the cake-

¼ c whole wheat flour

¼ t baking powder

Dash of salt

1 t cinnamon

1 T cocoa powder

2 T pumpkin puree

¼ c milk

1 t liquid sweetener (agave, honey, maple syrup, or molasses)

For the pumpkin oat custard topping-

2 T quick cooking oats

¼ t pumpkin pie spice

1 t brown sugar

2 T pumpkin puree

Directions:

1. In a small, microwave-safe bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cocoa powder.

2. Stir in the pumpkin puree, milk, and sweetener until thoroughly mixed. (Add extra liquid if necessary.

3. In a separate bowl, mix the oats, pie spice, and brown sugar.

4. Add the pumpkin puree to the oat mixture and stir until combined.

5. Top chocolate cake mixture with oat custard and microwave for three minutes on high.

6. Pour milk over cake to soak it, and enjoy!