The One with the Chocolate Goodness

How do you satisfy a massive chocolate craving without ingesting all the (insert: delicious) calories of a jumbo-size bag of M&M's?

Chocolate Meringues!

10 calories of crunchy, chocolaty goodness. And it makes my house smell like brownies. And I finally got to use the Pampered Chef icing squeezy-tube things that my sister told me I just had to have. A year ago.

Chocolate Meringues

Ingredients:

2 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar substitute
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Optional: Almond slivers or powdered sugar to sprinkle on top. Or chocolate chips. Or M&M's...depending on how desperate you happen to be at the time.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 250F. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar at the highest speed possible.

It will start out looking kind of gross and soupy. I had to convince myself that I wasn't whipping up baby chickens that never got a chance at a happy little life pecking away at bugs in a sunny little farmyard. Which, in all actuality...never mind. Cocoa powder will soon be added to make all my thoughts and troubles disappear.

Hang on till the chocolate. Hang on till the chocolate.

Right when you think your arm is going to fall off from holding the mixer, the egg goop will start to form peaks. This is a good thing.

Step 2: This is the best part. Throw in the cocoa powder and vanilla, and keep whipping the life out of the egg mixture. It will deflate a little bit, but that's ok. It will look and smell like brownie batter, which is the ultimate power source of all things good and holy, and the absolute cure for world peace. And PMS.

Step 3: The fun part. I filled my little Pampered Chef icing-decorator-squeezy-thing and resisted temptation to squeeze it straight into my mouth. Raw egg, despite copious amounts of cocoa and vanilla, probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Step 4: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and pipe as many little meringue stars as you can get with the mixture. The recipe I followed called for 20 meringues in all, but I made mine a little smaller and got a decent amount of bite-size stars. So. Cute.

Step 5: Bake in oven for 30 minutes, until they are crisp and dry. Then turn the oven off and let the meringues cool in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, and place meringues on a pretty plate.

Eat almost all of them without looking your husband in the eye, and prepare yourself to feel ashamed and guilty about the amount of chocolaty goodness you just consumed.

Then remember that the entire recipe is no more than 100 calories (which you easily burned off when you had to chase the dogs down the street when they escaped out the back door) and immediately make plans to make another batch tomorrow night.