"Sugar"

We have this tradition at our studio when it comes to our Competitive student's birthdays.  The kids get to bring in cake on their birthday for all the Company students that are there at the time, which is usually all of them by coincidence I'm sure.

Now I have no issues with this tradition, as the kids enjoy it and so do all the teaching staff.  We get to have great cake and that generally satisfies my need for food for the evening!  However, I forgot that January is jam packed with birthdays, like every other day, and my glucose levels are definitely on the rise.

Letting them eat cake at the studio basically goes against a lot of standards we set for them when it comes to the time they're at the studio for classes.  They are not allowed soda drinks in my studio at any time, and they are only to bring healthy meals and snacks with them to eat.  It's not that I'm trying to put them on diets, but it goes along with that my last blog, that it's important to know what they're fuelling their bodies with if they want to perform well in class.

I don't want to start telling them to bring in fruit instead of cake, because after all we all celebrate birthdays with cake.  Thick white cake with about 5 inches of icing and colored sugar flowers on top!  They don't really sell cakes in the grocery store that are low in fat, or have smaller portions of icing on them, so we'll just have to deal with what they produce in large enough quantities for our studio.

But good news, I have found a new recipe that will elude all guilt when it comes to eating cake.  Vegan Chocolate Cake!  Sounds gross right?  It is so not!  I use a regular chocolate cake mix out of a box and then instead of adding all the extra ingredients like eggs, water and oil, I add one special ingredient... pumpkin puree!

Who knew they sold pumpkin in cans?  Well the Hungry Girl website told me so!  It takes longer to bake then the box indicates, but it is moister, tastier and stays fresher longer in my pantry.  And the best part about them is that I don't feel guilty eating it.

Hungry Girl has a lot of great tips for replacing things in your food to make them healthier but just as tasty.  It comforts my need for eating yummy things, and relieves my need for unhealthy treats sometimes.  I don't think anyone should every feel guilty about eating things that they enjoy... I just don't want to hear them bitch later how about none of their clothes fit!

So because the kids got measured in December for their costumes, it is too late now to let all that cake go straight to their centers... we will have to work that much harder this entire month so that we can keep the tradition alive!

Actually, I'm going to go research on the internet now to see if anyone has done a study to prove that the effects of drinking wine with cake virtually eliminates any fat... or I'll just do the study myself.
Results to follow later this month!