Trader Joe's Organic Chocolate

I can't say it enough.

Trader Joe's Organic Chocolate has turned me into a chocolate snob.

I cannot accept Hershey's chocolate anymore (unless we're talking m&m's because I still adore those).

Nope, several years ago my sister introduced me to TJ's Organic Chocolate Truffles.  First experience wasn't true love.  There's a bitter cocoa on the outside but once you get past that it's sweet dark chocolate.

They come in cute boxes at Christmas time because they are "seasonal."  Note the quotes there.  No woman would ever call chocolate anything a "seasonal" item.  Chocolate transcends all seasons.  It goes with all seasons.

One year a friend sent me a box of chocolate truffles.  No kidding. It was a large box filled with boxes of TJ's organic chocolate truffles.  I stashed them in my freezer and rationed them out carefully.  I had them hidden in the bottom of the deep freezer and kept 1 box in a different container in my upstairs refrigerator's freezer compartment.  I'd send the kids and hubby outside to play after supper.  Then I'd pull one precious truffle out of the freezer and let it thaw on the counter while I was cleaning up the kitchen. By the time they came in the kitchen would be clean and the truffle was long gone.

Since the truffles are seasonal, I accept the TJ's Organic Dark Chocolate Truffle Bars year round.  They cost about $2 each but each bar is divided into 12 squares.  Each square is about 45 calories.  They are the perfect finish to a meal.  Just a the right sweetness and chocolate to polish off any meal.

And I swear that when I have a little bit of dark chocolate to round out a meal, I always end up losing weight easier.  I figure it's about not feeling deprived.  That bit of chocolate is enough to keep my sweet tooth satisfied so I won't go off the deep end of the "diet."

Sadly, the nearest Trader Joe's is nearly 4 hours away from me, hence the friend mailing me a box of chocolates.  Sometime in the next few weeks my husband is going to be headed that way. I'm going to have to send a little extra cash along so he can get me stocked up on my chocolate ;-)