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A Reader Recipe: Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Fit Community — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:27:50 PST

If you've got a cookie craving, you're in luck: FitSugar readers Pure2raw recently shared this gluten-free chocolate chip cookie cake with us in our Healthy Recipe group.

Everyone loves cookie cake, right? We have a chocolate chip cookie cake that is not only gluten-free but egg- and dairy-free, too. It is full of flavor with a great soft, cakelike texture. Plus the three-ingredient coconut frosting is too good not to try.

Get the recipe after the break!

Corsets: Lots of Controversy Squeezed Into One Undergarment

Tara Sharp — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:40:11 PST

Nowadays, women who want a trimmer waist in a pinch typically turn to Spanx or some other body-slimming underwear. But when it's less about practicality and more about looking sexy in nothing but your skivvies (like for your Valentine's Day date night, for instance), you may choose to don a corset. While modern women are free to wear these fitted underpinnings whenever we want to spice things up in the bedroom, corsets and the idealized tiny waists they create have a long and controversial history that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

Just last September, Vogue Italia controversially featured Ethel Granger and her 13-inch waist, which she achieved by wearing a corset 24-7. Ethel, who holds the record for the smallest waist in recorded history, went through the painful process for her husband. Her motivation brings up one of the main issues with corsets: are they for the men or the women? And Romanian-born model Ioana Spangenberg, "the human hourglass," is being criticized for setting a bad example with her 20-inch waist, even though she claims she can't help her shape and didn't use corsets to achieve it.

To find out more about what made corsets so controversial back in their heyday (including info from Valerie Steele's book The Corset: A Cultural History), let's look back at some of the vintage ads and photos of these constrictive undergarments and the nonhuman-like shapes they created on women.

Snacking Good: Natchitoches Meat Pies

OnSugar Blog — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:07:39 PST

We've always wanted to take a stab at rolling out a few Natchitoches meat pies. Thanks to an easy recipe from Food Orleans, this might be a dream realized sooner rather than later.

[Baked or fried? You decide.]

Natchitoches meat pies are one of those special little treats with a name as fun to say as they are to scarf down. Nackadish - that's how you say it - is a small town we drive through on our way north to visit Alexandria or Oklahoma, and it's where Steel Magnolias was filmed, and it's famous for these little pies. It's a beautiful little place, with a picturesque riverfront lined with shops and restaurants that have their own sort of French Quarter-ish wrought iron balconies (remember the Easter scene where Jackson slapped Ouiser? That's the riverfront!). But you don't have to go into the actual town to get yourself some meat pies; just stop at any gas station right off I-10. They all fry them up and they're all pretty wonderful.

For her recipe, continue reading.

Healthy Dose Link Time: How Yoga Can Improve Your Sex Life

Michele Foley — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:40:17 PST

3 ways yoga can make you better in bed - Mind Body Green
Gluten-free recipes good enough to fool the bread-eater - Health
Keep your workspace germ free with these 10 tips - HuffPost Healthy Living
More on Ioana Spangenberg, the lady with the 20-inch waist - Blisstree
20 celebs criticized for their curves speak out - Shape
Is it chocolate that's causing your acne? - Self
The secrets of happy people - Fitness

Foods That Can Make You Look Pregnant

Shape — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:29:06 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar.

Over the weekend, I saw a photo of a female celebrity (who is in a relationship with a male celeb) leaving a café with the caption, "Baby bump?" and I had to refrain myself from shouting out loud, "Come on, can't a girl eat without the world thinking she's having a baby?!"

The truth is having a perfectly flat stomach all the time just isn't normal. After you eat or drink, food and liquids naturally expand your stomach and intestines, so at least a little "bump" is inevitable every single day. So if you regularly get stalked by paparazzi or you have family members who are anxiously awaiting news of a new addition, here's the lowdown on when you might get mistaken for being pregnant:

See which foods may make you look pregnant after the break!

Cool Idea: Sweet Paul's DIY Sweater Vase

Angela Swinderman Elias — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:20:24 PST

I always look forward to Sweet Paul's Crafty Friday posts, but I flipped when I saw his cozy little knit vase. As Paul points out, practically everyone has an old sweater with some sort of defect and a vase laying around the house. Instead of wasting money and time hunting for all of the necessary bits, just take a look through your sweater bins and cabinets to prep for this ridiculously easy DIY. Place the vase in the arm of the sweater, and leave a couple of extra inches of sweater material from the bottom of the vase. Fold the two inches of fabric, and you end up with the cutest Winter vase. Thanks Sweet Paul!

Photos by Alexandra Grablewski

Know Your Techniques: Large Dice

Camilla Salem — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:13:58 PST

A large dice is a relatively straightforward knife cut. Measuring at about 3/4-inch on each side, this cut may not seem as complicated as a julienne or a chiffonade, but with the right technique, you can really speed up your prepping process.

This cut's ideal for large vegetables, like tubers. A peeled potato is an easy example.

Cut the potato into 3/4-inch planks.

Keep reading to find out how to finish this simple cut.

HP Envy 14 Spectre Gets Priced at $1,400

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:47:38 PST

The HP Envy 14 Spectre was arguably the most fetching ultrabook at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and we finally know how much damage it will do to our bank accounts. The HP Envy 14 Spectre will be available Feb. 17 and priced at $1,400 to start.

The base model Spectre comes stocked with a 14-inch HD+ Radiance Infinity LED-backlit display and backlit keyboard, a 128GB SSD hard drive, Bluetooth connectivity, a TrueVision HD webcam, Gorilla Glass top fused to a black-and-silver aluminum body, and 9.5 hours of battery life. Supported ports include mini-DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 3.0, and an SD/MultiMediaCard reader. HP also developed HP CoolSense, which keeps your machine running cool even after long hours of use, so you won't suffer from the dreaded laptop burn on your legs.

What do you think of the HP Envy 14 Spectre - worth the price tag at first glance?

Cool Concept: The Cryoscope Weather Forecaster

Kelly Schwarze — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:59:25 PST

I know we're inching closer to a future resembling a Star Trek episode when concept gadgets like this Cryoscope weather cube are dreamed up. The haptic weather forecasting device works by the user touching its exterior aluminum cube to physically feel how the temperature will be outside.

Connected to the Internet, the cube translates web reports of the weather by pumping heat either in or out of the cube. Watch the Cryoscope's creator Robb Godshaw explain the inner workings of this magic weather cube in the video above. Do you think it's too early to add to my Christmas wish list?

How Long Did It Take Your Man to Get His Postpartum Body Back?

Rebecca M Gruber — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:01:12 PST

David Beckham is one of the lucky ones! Just seven months after baby Harper's birth, the dad of four showed off (almost!) every inch of his toned and tattooed body in one of the steamiest ads to air during the Super Bowl. Wait . . . a postpartum dad showing off his body? Considering that the average dad-to-be adds 14 pounds to his frame during his wife's pregnancy, that's something to be commended! And while we usually talk about the lengths new moms go to lose the baby weight, only 30 percent of new dads say they actually diet with their partners to lose the sympathy weight, making the soccer superstar one of the few.