BrittanyKelly.com

Chocolate Pudding Cake

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:20:52 +0000

I have had several requests for this recipe. I wish I could take credit for it or say it was a family recipe that has been in the family for years, but I can’t. I originally cut this recipe off a box of cake mix by Betty Crocker (Peppermint Patty Poke Cake). However, I no longer make cake from a box and prefer to make just about everything from scratch, so the chocolate cake and frosting recipe I use is off the Hershey’s Cocoa box which, by the way, is the best chocolate cake ever.
So, this recipe can be made three ways, depending on your eating habits. You can use a box of cake mix and a can of frosting, you can make the cake batter using the attached recipe with conventional white flour and sugar, or you can make it with natural, whole products. When I make the cake I, more often than not, use whole wheat pastry flour and for the sugar I use unrefined, unbleached whole cane sugar (Rapidura) otherwise known as succanet. For the frosting I prefer to use the Rapidura powdered sugar, however it is difficult to find, so even when I make a “healthy” cake, I still might have to use a white, refined powdered sugar. If that is the case, I will at least use organic.
A natural alternative for Jell-O is the chocolate pudding mix by Dr Oetker. This pudding is cooked, however if you wait until it is a little cool but not set, it should work just fine.
If you want to make this a peppermint pudding cake for the Holidays or anytime in the winter, just add ½ tsp of peppermint extract to the filling ingredients and add ¼ tsp of peppermint extract to the frosting when adding the vanilla. Top with crushed candy canes, peppermint candies or ¾ cup of crushed peppermint patties.
Enjoy!!

“I Can Be What I Will To Be”

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:20:07 +0000

Have you ever wondered why you have a tendency to start something and not finish it? How many new years resolutions have you made and not kept? It is kind of a societal joke about not keeping new years resolutions, but the reality is that it is anything but funny. If you look back over the course of your life how many instances can you find that you started something and didn’t finish it, started something and “changed your mind”, declared that you would do something and didn’t? Any thought or action that is repeated over and over again becomes a habit and habits as we all know are difficult to change. So is the fact that you might be having difficulty in some (or several) areas in your life due to external factors (the government, your boss, job, weather, etc…) is it because you have formed a habit.

“…modern psychology tells us that when we start something and do not complete it, or make a resolution and do not keep it, we are forming the habit of failure; absolute, ignominious failure. If you do not intend to do a thing, do not start; if you do start, see it through even if the heavens fall; if you make up your mind to do something, do it; let nothing, no one, interfere; the “I” in you has determined, the thing is settled; the die is cast, there is no longer any argument.”

“If you carry out this idea, beginning with small things which you know you can control and gradually increase the effort, but never under any circumstances allowing your “I” to be over-ruled, you will find that you can eventually control yourself…”

- Charles F. Haanel,

Part 4 of The Master Key System

As the second paragraph mentions, you can begin to change the habit which will lead to greater control over yourself. As you do this your will gets stronger, the ability to ignore the voice in your head gets stronger, your power increases, self-worth improves, and your path gets easier.

Starting today, commit to yourself that you will start a project and finish it or commit to yourself that you will do an activity today…and do it. Start with something small, something that you know that you can accomplish and make sure that you get it done. Make a list for yourself of what it is you want to accomplish today. Do whatever you have to do to make sure that you do what you tell yourself you are going to do. Follow the “just for today” outline from the previous post and use it as an example. Just for today I am going to exercise for an hour, just for today I am going to make _____ sales calls, just for today I am going to eat a healthy snack. Whatever it is you commit yourself to, make it just for today and make sure it gets done. Even if it is something that you don’t feel like doing, do it. If you strive to stick to your commitment to yourself, it will get easier every day. You will lessen the habit of incompletion and strengthen your control over yourself. You will be amazed at what you will begin to accomplish.

Just For Today

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:55:32 +0000

I found the following passage in Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. I had never read it before but I wish I had found it years ago although, it probably means more to me now than it would have back then. If this isn’t a recipe for how to make the most of every day, I don’t know what is.

Just For Today

1. Just for today I will be happy. This assumes that what Abraham Lincoln said is true, that “most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” Happiness is from within; it is not a matter of externals.

2. Just for today I will try to adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my family, my business, and my luck as they come and fit myself to them.

3. Just for today I will take care of my body. I will exercise it, care for it, nourish it, not abuse it nor neglect it, so that it will be a perfect machine for my bidding.

4. Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.

5. Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways; I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don’t want to do, as William James suggests, just for exercise.

6. Just for today I will be agreeable. I will look as well as I can, dress as becomingly as possible, talk low, act courteously, be liberal with praise, criticize not at all, nor find fault with anything, and not try to regulate nor improve anyone.

7. Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime.

8. Just for today I will have a program. I will write down what I expect to do for every hour. I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. It will eliminate two pests, hurrying and indecision.

9. Just for today I will have a quiet half-hour all by myself and relax. In this half-hour sometimes I will think of God, so as to get a little more perspective into my life.

10. Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to be happy, to enjoy what is beautiful, to love, and to believe that those I love, love me.

-Sibyl F. Partridge

Please print this, post it and read it everyday. If followed, it will most definitely have a positive impact on your life.

Cheers!