"Sweet dreams are made of these..."

Believe it or not, I haven't eaten a single bit--or chip--of chocolate in two weeks. I think that might be a personal record. ;)

When I decided to give up chocolate this year for Lent, (after nearly going into a sugar-induced coma on Valentine's Day -- kidding! kind of) I figured I'd probably end up eating fewer sweet things as a result.

Think again!

I've been doing quite well in the dessert department recently as usual, and had a wonderful week of sweet treats. On Tuesday at Okawame Jr. High, we had a little birthday party for Junichi, complete with a gorgeous cake made by one of the teachers...

For the first time in my life, I was glad that the inside wasn't chocolate. I gave the decoration chocolates from my piece of cake to the birthday boy. :)

On Wednesday, we had two awesome, (non-chocolate!) homemade (so impressive!) desserts at my conversation class...

They were as delicious as they were beautiful. :) Because they were so aesthetically pleasing, and mainly because I'm just obsessed, I had to take more pictures of them...

Picture perfect apple tart with a scrumptious cookie-like crust.

Triple layer fruit dessert: kiwi, milk, strawberry....ooh, la la.

This pretty, pastel-colored dessert was appropriate since Wednesday was "Hina Matsuri," or "Doll Festival" -- a day to honor girls. I wrote more about it in this blog post last year.

Last weekend at the grocery store, I noticed a Hina Matsuri display of mochi (a type of Japanese sweet made from rice).

Mochi isn't bad, but for the record, I'll take fruit desserts over rice "desserts" (note the ironic use of quotation marks) any day. :)