Out of sight, out of feeble mind

This was not a good weekend, healthy eating-wise. Well, actually, lots of what I ate was healthy food with the key word here being “lots.” Lots and lots. Like Ray Milland finding the bottle in the overhead light, I made choco espresso gems, pumpkin pie bars and peanut butter cups and sampled them all.

The sound of my falling off the wagon was  likely heard from here to Santa’s Workshop. Ditto for my howls upon discovering the 1,000 calories in Red Lobster’s Warm Chocolate Chip Lava Cookie a la mode (we split it but still…)

The one smart thing I did was ask He Who Can Sleep and Forget Any Temptation to hide the Cape Cod potato chips or they, too, would be gone this morning. If I don’t see a food, I’m likely to forget about it. Leaving out any temptations means I’ll see them and lay waste unto them.

Which makes me the perfect target of television advertising. Suggest it to me, dance it across the screen with a snappy jingle and I’m in the kitchen looking for it. Some part of my resolve is evidently warm chocolate lava when it comes to snack foods at night or to just walking away (more effective than saying “No”).

So this morning it’s back out on the road to walk and think about the errors of my ways. And if I put the last of those darned peanut butter cups in my husband’s lunch box, I will have forgotten all about them by the time I’ve walked a few miles.

Here’s the quick and easy recipe. There is no simpler way to enjoy your chocolate unless you just take it in an IV.

Taste of Home’s homemade peanut butter cups

7 ounces milk or dark chocolate

1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Line 12 cups of mini muffin pan with gem papers. Melt chocolate, shortening and butter together in microwave, stirring every 30 seconds to keep chocolate from scorching. Put 1 tablespoon of this mixture in the bottom of each paper cup.

Melt peanut butter in microwave, stir and divide among 12 cups. Top with remainder of chocolate mixture. You can refrigerate to harden quickly or just leave on countertop if you’re not in any hurry to misbehave.