Peppermint Patties: Gateway Drug?

For Lent this year I gave up Peppermint Patties.

I know, this sounds silly compared with last year,* but my PP consumption was getting out of control (not to be confused with PP).

I started getting them regularly because they’re delicious, obviously. And they're relatively low in PointsPlus Values. I’d take 3 (one serving) to work, usually have one after lunch, and then 2 left to either snack on during the day or have on the way home.

Not terrible. 

Then I started eating 2-3 after dinner.

Also not terrible. 

Then I started bringing the bag into the living room with me after dinner and eating a few more (…and a few more). Then I started going through an entire bag over the course of a weekend.  

Terrible!

I lost about 15 pounds when I started working at this new job (thanks for noticing), but around Thanksgiving I started devouring the PPs and have slowly gained about 5-7 pounds back.

Oh my! (my first weigh-in since October)

Plus the $8-12 a week was becoming a drain. Did I mention I worked only 6 hours a few weeks ago?

Here's the problem: I may have mentioned before that I like dessert. So what does one do when they can't eat their previous dessert of choice? Find new dessert, of course.

Meet the Brownie in a Mug:

So easy, so delicious...

I found this recipe when I was flipping through the Chow TV channel on my Roku. I think I was trying to find tips on mincing onions, but this seemed more interesting. After a few trial runs, my modified recipe is as follows:

In a standard mug mix:

• 2 Tbsp. water
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• A few drops of vanilla
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 2 Tbsp. flour

Stir in:

• 2 Tbsp. mini chocolate chips

Microwave on high for 75 seconds. Cool and enjoy!

...or if you're like me, don't cool, burn your tongue, but still enjoy.

And repeat.

...maybe... 5 nights a week?

Oh dear.

On the bright side, this curbed my spending problem! The only ingredient I didn't already have in the house was cocoa powder, which was only because I had run out of it. One container was less than the cost of one bag of PPs, and it's still mostly full after several weeks.

On the not-so-bright side... everything else.

1.  I burned my tongue. I already told you this.

2. Caffeine. 
The original recipe called for a pinch of coffee. Delicious, but not good right before bed. Turns out even without the coffee, it was enough chocolate to give me trouble getting to sleep.

3. Gluten.
I'm not supposed to eat wheat, so the sudden influx in my system made me generally sick and sluggish.

4. PointsPlus Values.
I knew a brownie was higher in PPV than a PP, but I figured one brownie was better than a bag of Patties. When I finally did the math, though, it turns out I could eat 12 Peppermint Patties and still have eaten less than one brownie's worth in PPV, which is 16.

Holy mother.

The one good thing about learning you've been eating more than half your daily PPV allowance in one helping of dessert is that it makes you never want to eat that dessert again.

Perhaps a more appropriate challenge would have been to limit myself to the 3 PPs per day. This would have been more tempting than removing them from the house, to be sure, but would have allowed me some leeway if I wanted something sweet -- if, HA! -- and might have even better reiterated to me that I was sacrificing something.

Eating a brownie hardly feels like a sacrifice. Except when it comes to fitting into my pants.

Have you ever made the choice to veer down a "healthy" path, only to discover later it was worse than the "unhealthy" one you were on before? What did you do about it? 

*I actually barely watch TV at all anymore. Thanks to my Hulu Plus subscription, which lets me stream shows directly to my TV the next day, I can pick and choose what I want to watch, and then watch it on my own schedule. Best $7.99/month I ever spent. That's less than my Peppermint Pattie budget!