Five Minute Chocolate Ricotta Pears

Thankfully Jo has been a busy tasty bee and has kept you entertained because I haven't cooked worth mentioning in over a week.  I swear I have a good reason!  Really!  OK, maybe I don't and it's kind of embarrassing, but I'll tell you about it anyway.  Here we were last week, BabyBella and I, playing around, she's in my arms being carried and I'm leaning in one direction, when suddenly she flings herself in the other direction then starts slipping out of my arms (she's a big girl!), so I quickly swing back around toward her and RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPP! something gives out in my back.  Holy moly, Jiminey Crickets, wowza and crikey, that hurt.  Whatever it was I did, the pain radiated from my knees to my shoulders and literally made my vision swim for hours. Thankfully, Jo gave me some excellent advice what to do to help manage it so I was able to grit my teeth and kept going.  Since I still had to work and take care of kiddo, I cut myself a break by keeping dinners easy this week.  We even *gasp* ordered pizza one night.

In other words, it was the perfect week to make a homemade dessert that barely takes longer than scooping out some icecream--chocolate ricotta pears.

(Recipe after the break)

Chocolate Ricotta Pears (serves 4)
Ingredients:

• 2 fresh pears, whichever variety you prefer
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1.5 tbl unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp lemon or orange zest or 1/4 tsp dried peel
• 2 tbl semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Chocolate sauce for drizzling

Peel, halve, and core pears then set aside. Add all the ingredients, except chocolate chips, to a bowl.  

Using a hand mixer, mix at medium speed until well-blended.  Either stir in the chocolate chips or reserve for sprinkling over the completed dish. 

Spoon the mixture evenly onto the pear halves then sprinkle with chips (if hadn't been already added to the ricotta).  Drizzle with chocolate sauce as desired then serve.  That's it!  You're done! 

For Babybella I diced up her pear first so she wouldn't have to tackle it with a knife.  

She certainly is enjoying it!

And that's all it takes--five minutes or less to get that happy a grin out of a six year old.

(oh yeah, don't tell her it's actually not even bad for her...shhhhhhhhhhh)