Month: February 2010

Chickpea Blondies + Karin is Amazing!

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OMG Lost was great!  I wish it hadn’t been 2 hours though!! I had so much to do last night!

Of course that didn’t stop me from watching and getting a little baking action in there.

This lady is pretty much awesome for a few reason…

Reason #1 Karin is awesome: A while ago I wrote a guest post for Karin while she was in Japan, and yesterday I got the cutest thing in the mail!

Adorable little bowl from Japan and delicious sun dried tomatoes!  I can’t wait to make something exciting with them!   Thanks, Karin!  You’re a superstar!!

Reason #2: She inspired me to make my own chickpea blondies after reading about her chickpea brownies!

Here’s my recipe:

Karla’s Chickpea Blondies

6.5oz cooked chickpeas (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup Agave Nectar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
~1/4 cup Chocolate Chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Place chickpeas in the food processor, process for a few seconds.  Add the remaining ingredients except the chocolate chips and process until smooth.

Transfer mixture to a greased baking dish and sprinkle with chocolate chips, I used a 9″ round pie pan.  Bake for 30 minutes.

These were really interesting tasting.  I’m not sure I would make them again to be perfectly honest just because they weren’t to die for.  Definitely worth the experiment if you’re curious!  Obviously they couldn’t have been too bad if my roommate and I devoured all of them.  This morning they are gone.  Not gonna lie, last night I felt ill (guess my sugar count ended up being WAYYYY off haha).   Have you tried chickpea blondies/brownies before?

Reason #3 Karin is awesome:  We’re pretty much bloggie twins… enough said.

Well I’m off to finish preparing for a presentation I have today on slums.  Speaking of slums… My apartment is quickly becoming a piece of junk (ok I’m grossly exaggerating).  The laundry machine stopped taking quarters so I couldn’t dry my clothes.  I had to place them all over various spots in my apartment (good thing this place in an oven, they dried in no time).

Now I have crunchy clothes like when I was little in Guatemala and the clothes was line dried on the terrace.

Have a great day!!!

Pour Some Sugar on Me

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Happy Groundhog day!

I hope you had a fab Monday and an even better Tuesday!

You’ll be happy to know my class devoured the Banana Chip Cookies!  I managed to resist and not eat a single one (except for the one I ate hot out of the oven on Sunday)!

Yesterday, I talked about my lack of February challenge.  Even though I don’t have an official one, I really like Anna’s from Newly Wed, Newly Veg.  For the month of February, she is cutting back on added sugar (it’s in the most unexpected places sometimes!).  This doesn’t include natural sugar in fruits and veggies.

I think this is a great idea!  Out of curiosity, I decided to count how many grams of added sugar I consume on an average day.

I don’t usually post everything I eat but for today’s experiment, here are today’s eats along with the added sugar count.

Breakfast: Coffee, PB Toast and Green Monster

Lactaid (3.3g) + GM (0g) + PB (0.5g)+  Toast (2g)= round to 6g

I’m shocked at how much sugar Lactaid has!  7g for 1 cup!  Luckily, I only put 1/3 cup in my coffee each morning!  Actually I sort of knew this… the added enzyme apparently starts to breakdown the sugar in the milk while it’s in the carton.

For mid-morning snack I had an unpictured apple and string cheese: 0g added sugar.

Lunch: Wrap, Fruit and Yogurt

Wrap: Honey Wheat Flat Out Wrap (3g)+ Hummus (0g)+ Pepper Jack Cheese (0g)+ Tapatio (0g)+ Cucumbers (0g)+ Tomato (0g)+ Lettuce (0g)= 3g

Kiwi: 0g added sugar

1/2 cup Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt (4.5g) + Strawberry Jam (6g)= 10.5

Total Added Sugar in Lunch= 13.5g

I had no idea plain Greek Yogurt would have 9g of sugar per cup!  It doesn’t taste sweet!

Afternoon Snack: PB Toast + Tea

Wegman’s Omega-3 Bread (3g) + PB (0g) + Tea (0g)= 3g

Ugh, I’m pushing through this bread that is not very tasty 😦  Wegman’s you failed me!

Dinner:

After my afternoon snack, I was still starving, so I decided to have the first part of my dinner early.  I started with some Kale chips.

Usually I just use some rice wine vinegar then throw them in the oven for 10 minutes.  But today I decided to try out a sauce that I got from Tina‘s Open Sky dealio she had a few weeks ago.  It was only $0.99 and free shipping so I figured why not.

I think had I seen the nutrition information beforehand, I would have saved my dollar.  A serving (2oz) of this sauce has 120 calories, 2000mg of sodium and 28g of sugar!  Essentially it’s sugar, salt and water.  I’m a little shocked that this was on Tina’s Open Sky page (by no means am I trying to judge!).  I suppose anything is okay in moderation.  On my kale chips I used a little less than half a serving.  Honestly, it did make the Kale Chip ridiculously delicious!

Kale (0g) +Wild N Mild Sauce (13g) = 13g added sugar

The other half of dinner was a corn tortilla with cheese both of which had 0g of sugar.

Although I may have something else later, probably a piece of fruit or something…

The Grand Total Added Sugar Consumption for the Day = 35.5g

That’s 142 extra calories, about 9-10 teaspoons.

I’m not entirely sure how to analyze this but it doesn’t seem like THAT much to me.  What are your thoughts?

Is it realistic to not eat added sugar?  Obviously it should be avoided where ever possible but is there such a thing as too healthy?  Any thoughts?

Ugh so much to do tonight!  Hope you’ve had a great day!!

Anyone else SUPER EXCITED about Lost?!?!?!

Happy February!

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So the January Recipe Challenge was somewhat of a failure.  I ended up making recipes from 4 of the 7 continents!

I missed Australia, Antactica (which doesn’t really have civilization) and North America (which basically should constitute everything I eat everyday).

Overall, this was a very fun challenge!  Even though I didn’t make it through all the continents, I discovered some great recipes and had fun in the process!

I was pondering the idea of a February Challenge; however, I’ve decided against it.  In February, I’m going to concentrate on healthy eating/living and getting back into the swing of school.  That doesn’t mean I won’t try fantastic new recipes and share them with you all!  Do you have a February Challenge?

But on to today…  I started February off with some spice!

Not that kind of spice!

I give you, Mexican Chocolate Oats!

In the mix:

  • 1/2 cup oats
  • Chia seeds
  • 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • Cinnamon
  • Dash of Cayenne
  • 1 small banana
  • 1 oz greek yogurt (for added creaminess and protein! stirred in at the end)
  • 1 tbsp natural peanut butter

Pretty delicious!  The cayenne gave it a nice kick to jump start my morning.

According to the World’s Healthiest Foods (anyone else love this site???), Cayenne has many health benefits!

Not only does is make your meals more exciting, but it also fights inflammation, reduces blood cholesterol, boosts immunity, helps prevent stomach ulcers and even helps in weight loss by raising your body temperature which uses more energy! (source)

Eat your Mexican Chocolate Oats! Basically any plain chocolate recipe can be made “Mexican” by adding cinnamon and cayenne.  Try adding some to plain chocolate cupcakes!  Sooo good!

Today is my first discussion section as a TA!  Wish me luck!!

Hope your February is starting out well!  Have a fantastic day!!

What’s your goal for February??