Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

These are fat-free except for the egg yolk, and if you use two egg whites instead of one whole egg, they would be totally fat-free. I like them. I like them a lot. Of course, the chocolate helps. But I think it also helps that in this case the beans are replacing the shortening, no the flour. Here goes:

1/2 cup cooked mashed beans (I used a can of white beans and mashed up about half of them to get my half cup. I'm sure pinto beans or black beans or any other kind of legumous bean would work just as well!
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup rolled oats
(I just realized these should probably have 1/2 teaspoon of salt or so. But although I missed putting it in, I didn't miss it in the taste. Suit your own.)

In a mixer combine beans, sugar, egg and vanilla. Then put in the flour, cocoa, baking soda and oats. Mix thoroughly. Drop on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Herbed Lentils with Rice

Yesterday I did some sewing on the binding of Melinda's quilt, and while I worked on that, I watched Zonya's Healthbites on KBYU. She was talking about how to eat healthy on a slim food budget. She emphasized using fruits and vegetables as snacks, and buying them on sale. For the main course, though, Beans and other legumes are definitely the way to go. They are much less costly than meat and they are filled with protein, iron, fiber and lots of other good stuff.

She likes lentils because they don't have to be soaked ahead of time, and they only take about an hour to cook, and they are versatile flavor-wise in that they absorb the flavors of whatever you put with them. She shared two recipes, one for a casserole and one for a soup. I grabbed my pencil and paper and wrote them down. I had a red pepper in the fridge that needed to be used, and a 1-lb. bag of lentils in the cupboard, so I went ahead and made this casserole. I'll do the soup another day. She said that if you were to have a lentil casserole such as this just once a week in place of a macaroni-hamburger-cheese-type casserole, you would cut out a lot of fat over a year's time, enough to amount to a six-pound body weight loss.

I really liked this casserole, but not everyone would. For me it hit the spot. Dad didn't want to try it, although he has tried beans-and-rice type stuff in the past and been fine with it. This is supposed to serve six people with 1 1/2 cup servings. That's a lot. You may want to cut it in half.

Lentil Casserole: Herbed Lentils with Rice

1 3/4 cup water

1 can chicken broth

1 1/2 cups lentils, sorted, rinsed and drained

2 onions, finely chopped (mine were chunky and they are better finely chopped, trust me)

1 cup dry brown rice

1/2 cup additional liquid such as more broth or water

1 teaspoon dried basil, rolled in fingers to release the flavor as you add it to the pot

1 teaspoon oregano

2 oz. jar chopped pimientos or 1 chopped red pepper, optional (this is to add some color to the casserole)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

15 grinds fresh pepper (I'm not sure how much this is, but I added about 1/2 teaspoon)

Stir all of these ingredients together in a casserole dish and bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and sprinkle some grated mozzarella cheese on top, then return to oven for another 10 or 15 minutes to melt the cheese.

Gooey

And here's the finished product. I just now put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes to see if it will set up some more. Honestly, it's not that great. Maybe it's because I'm all beaned-out from the bean quesadilla I had for dinner. But if it wasn't for the chocolate flavor and the nuts to give it some texture--well, let's just say regular old brownies are better, in my opinion. Maybe a little frosting on top would help, once they're set up, that is.

Stay tuned for Brownies #2 when I try making my brownie recipe substituting beans for the shortening instead of the flour. Maybe Friday.

Ellen

Brownies #1

Right now, even as we speak, I have a batch of brownies in the oven. These are grain-free brownies that are supposed to be made from black beans; however, I don't have a can of black beans, and I'm too lazy to open the 25-pound bag of black beans and soak them overnight. So I opened a bottle of home-canned pinto beans and used those instead. I figure, hey, the beans are taking the place of the flour, and flour is white or brown, not black--it's the cocoa powder that makes brownies dark--so why should it matter? Well, I like the color from using pinto beans.

It's the easiest brownie recipe I've ever made. You put everything in a blender and blend it together.

Then pour it into an 8x8 pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Oops! I forgot! You're not supposed to blend up the chocolate chips and walnuts, but instead fold those in to the mixture before you pour it into the pan. After I put the batter into the pan, and after I took this picture, I sprinkled them on top and used a knife to stir them in.

While we're waiting for them to cook, I'll share the recipe. It's a gluten free recipe that came from this blog and it goes like this:

Healthy Grain Free Brownies

2 cups black beans (I used pinto), or 1 can beans, rinsed and drained

3 lightly beaten eggs

1/3 cup melted coconut oil or butter

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup honey or other sweetner

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8x8-inch pan. Blend everything but the chocolate chips and walnuts in a blender (I suggest putting the eggs in first so your blender has some liquid to work with. The motor on mine started to smell a little funny, if you know what I mean) and blend until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour into pan and bake for about 30 minutes.

2 Winner's and my weeks menu plan

I was talking to my friend on the phone recently and she asked me how I was doing with this whole diet thing. It was a hard question to answer. I feel like I've been a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other. If I'm not doing extremely well with eating, then I'm pigging out on ice cream and not knowing what to fix for dinner because I feel so overwhelmed lately. Overwhelmed by all the contradicting information out there. Overwhelmed by trying to force my family to enjoy "healthy" foods. Overwhelmed by my kids whining at me because they are not eating what I make and they are hungry and grumpy, and quite frankly, so am I! So here's how I'm doing. The thing is, when I started this I said that the main reason was to help my daughter get over her constipation problems. She is doing wonderfully! It all started with one dose of mirilax, cutting way back on cheese (really, cheese was a huge staple at our house) and talking, talking, talking to her about foods that are pooper helpers and pooper stoppers and going when she needs to go. She is doing so well and I'm so glad. So now I am pretty much back to where I was before. I realized that we already do eat pretty healthy around here. I mean not to any extreme, but we eat home cooked meals, home baked bread, tons of fresh fruit, and really not much in the way of processed foods. And that's ok with me for now. Even if my bread is 60/40 wheat to white. That's the way we like it. That being said I want to share two delicious recipes that we will be incorporating into our snacks. The first is the granola bars that Mom already tried. I finally tried them today and WOW!!! They are so delicious not to mention so incredibly easy to make! And the possibilities with them are endless. So, no more sunbelt granola bars around here. The second is a wheat thins recipe I posted about on my blog about a year ago, but never actually tried yet. But they are amazing and easy too! When Audrey tasted one she said, "Wow! I like these crackers!" And then when Wayne tried one he said, "You made these??!" and then he kept asking me, "wow, how did you make these? These are better than wheat thins!" Here are the two links: Granola bars Wheat thin crackers I love how with the crackers you can make a bunch of dry mix and store it in your freezer, which brings me to my next goal. I have been so busy lately that it gets to be 5 or 6 at night and I haven't thought yet about what we are having for dinner. It's frustrating and stressful for everybody so I need to plan better, and that means planning meals I can make mostly in the morning, or doing freezer meals (hint, hint, Jessica!) or of course the crock pot. So here is my menu for the week (Oh, and I only plan dinners. Lunch is leftovers and breakfast is whatever):

• Tue: Cornflake chicken and potato salad


• Wed: Chicken tortilla soup (crock pot)


• Thur: Chile and twice baked potatoes (crock pot and I will make tons of potatoes whenever I can and then twice baked potatoes freeze well for future)


• Fri: Stuffed shells and bread sticks (the stuffed shells can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen)


• Sat: Pizza


• Sun: Roast (crock pot) and mashed potatoes


• Mon: Fajitas (from leftover roast)

Whew! I feel so much better about this. For now. I already have my chicken marinading in the fridge (in buttermilk with garlic salt and some pepper) so I can just shake it and bake it before dinner (we call it chicken nuggets and the kids love it). I also pretty much have the potato salad made already. So dinner will not be stressful tonight, even though I will be leaving when Wayne gets home around 3 to go get some dirt and stuff for my garden and will probably be working in the garden until 5!