So I’m sure you are dying to know about the giveaway I am referring to in the title of this post. Let me tell you all about it. A few weeks ago I received a copy of Substituting Ingredients by Becky Sue Epstein.

I was really excited to get this book because I swear – I realize I’m out of something mid-cooking nearly every week!! Well I guess sometimes I realize I have something slightly different from what the recipe calls for and I’m not sure if I can just substitute it one-to-one.

This actually happened the day after I got the book. I realized the brownie recipe I was testing called for dutch processed cocoa… and that I only had the standard kind. Oops. I grabbed the book – it had subs for cocoa powder in it but only for the regular kind and said 1/2 cocoa powder for baking could be substituted with 1/2 semi-sweet chocolate chips. Good to know but not exactly what I needed. So I got dressed (I was still in my pajamas) and went to the grocery store to look for dutch processed cocoa… and they didn’t have any. I even tried 2 different stores. Nope. A little googling solved that problem and the brownies turned out great.

So this book did not save me the first time around but I did browse through it and see how it will surely be useful (despite noting a few other misses – for example a sub for white wine for cooking was not there). There are lots of standard ingredients substitutions for things like light corn syrup, honey (for baking), and fish sauce (<- these are things I’ve looked up in the past). There are also some interesting subs for random ingredients – for example Becky suggests subbing green peppers, green beans and eggplant for okra (although notes the texture will be different with eggplant). My favorite tips are the ones for measurement conversions of dry to cooked ingredients. How many times do you see recipes that say 2 cups of cooked rice or pasta? Unless I already have that on hand, the more likely case is that I have to make some. How much dry rice/beans/pasta should I cook? This book provides equations for all these and more. Very cool.

So here is another cool part. The company sent me 2 copies by mistake. I received this one a few weeks ago and then got another package (with the same book) a few days back. This means one of you lucky Healthy and Sane readers can receive a copy of this book too!

Here is how:

1) Leave a comment on this post – anything goes.

2) If you have a blog, let others know about the giveaway and link back to this post.  If you don’t have a blog, tell someone about this giveaway and let me know that you’ve done so (after they enter the giveaway by commenting). You can also tweet about this giveaway (my twitter name must be included to qualify – that’s @healthyandsane fyi ) *Either one earns you a bonus point*

3) If you have a blog, add Healthy and Sane to your blogroll or follow me on Twitter (if I’m already on your blogroll, let me know – it counts!).  If you don’t, shoot me an email and give me some feedback on my blog. *This also earns you a bonus point*

*Please note this giveaway is open for US readers only.*

I will randomly choose and announce the winner on June 18th. Good luck!

Now let’s quickly cover today’s eats. SO good!

BALANCED BREAKFAST

Last banana zucchini spelt muffin (I had some frozen)

Fresh local strawberries

Oikos. It was extra good today for some reason.

BALANCED LUNCH

I’m still sore today so I decided to come home for lunch instead of going to Rope’n class. But not before I stopped by Whole Foods. I was dying for some sushi so I got some veggie maki since it’s Meatless Monday.

Brown rice carrot, avocado and cucumber maki

+ kale massaged with lemon and 1t basil EVOO + S&P - I was craving that too.

This was exactly what I wanted. I love when healthy meals really hit the spot like that.

Snacks at work included 1/2 apple pie larabar (mid-morning) and 1/2 giant banana with 1T Barney Butter (mid-afternoon). I was definitely hungry for dinner by the time I got home.

BALANCED DINNER

You may not recall when I raved about a tilapia dish with lemon caper sauce and roasted asparagus and grape tomatoes but this meal hasn’t left my mind ever since. Cara was responsible for this genius recipe (which can be found here) and suggested that I have to try it with haloumi as she originally posted it. So I finally did today.

Have you ever had haloumi cheese? It basically tastes like a slightly milder feta that you grill. Absolutely delicious. This dish was fantastic again. Can I put it on the favorite recipes list again? I think I can… and I am!

TREAT

One joe-joe (aka a chocolate oreo cookie minus the junk ingredients)

It may have something to do with what just came out of my oven

You’re going to have to wait for the next post for more details on that! Any guesses what it might be?

So remember the bake-off I mentioned a few posts ago? I emailed the organizer yesterday and she clarified the rules to me – this is a brownie contest! Dang, and I thought a had a winning recipe all planned out. Brownies happened to be one of my favorite desserts of all time, so I’m super excited for the tasting portion of the contest, but I’ve never actually baked a brownie I thought was outstanding. My last attempt at rocky road brownies was a good try. I liked the topping (and think it may be a great contestant!) but the brownie was really dry. I asked you for your favorite brownie recipe in that post (and Jen came to the rescue – I plan on testing it soon, Jen!) but I’m asking again. Do you have a favorite brownie recipe? It can be a basic brownie (I’ll add my own topping) or a great brownie “combo.” Thanks again!! I love that I have you all here as my resources.

Yesterday’s eats – it’s was Meatless Monday, fyi.

BREAKFAST

A green smoothie: almond milk, water, frozen banana, frozen strawberries, frozen spinach, ground peanuts (from a failed attempt at making pb) + Amazing Grass Kidz Superfood packet

Oh yes, let’s not forget the Bran Buds I received as a sample from the company. They added a nice crunch to the smoothie, which I ate with a spoon. Adam and I agreed we’d buy this cereal – it was really yummy

LUNCH

My favorite sandwich combo of all time – seriously! I brought it to work with me and couldn’t resist but eat half before my lunchtime workout.

Grilled peppers, zucchini and eggplant, fresh tomato, goat cheese and Stonewall Kitchen sundried tomato pesto on a TJ’s scooped out ciabatta roll

Just thinking about this sandwich again makes me happy. I can never resits this combo!!

WORKOUT

Power yoga at my gym. The girl’s voice wasn’t as soothing as my favorite instructor’s on Thursdays but the practice was good at the end. Once we started flowing I forgot about all this other nonsense like how I wish the girl didn’t sound so “valley.”

DINNER

I really tried being vegan for the day but couldn’t resist the urge to add the goat cheese to my lunchtime sandwich. For dinner the cheese jumped in once again but we couldn’t really taste it at the end, so it’s going to be 100% vegan next time. So what did we have, you ask?

Avocado and pinto black bean enchiladas from Eat, Drink & be Vegan

I made a few tiny modifications to the recipe – if you can get a hold of it and want to recreate my version exactly, here they are. I used only 8 corn tortillas (to save cals – 2/prs is plenty), black beans instead of pinto (Adam is obsessed with black beans!), almond slices instead of cashews (all we had), no onions, 1 jar of TJ’s enchilada sauce, 1/4-1/2 cup of Stonewall kitchen peach mango hot sauce and a sprinkle of TJ’s light Mexican cheese. I think that’s it

I served it with a Russian inspired salad – fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, S&P + nonfat yogurt (Russians would traditionally use sour cream) – it was perfectly cool to balance out the spiciness of the enchiladas!

Let’s peak inside the enchiladas…

They were “meaty”, creamy, spicy, super flavorful. Adam already requested that we make these again. Yay the vegan book is coming in handy!

Dessert (definitely not vegan!) – break-up bars

Yeah, go ahead and double that – so much for portion control.

Other snacks throughout the day included edamame hummus with baby carrots, a packet of somersaults, pickles, toast with hummus. I was definitely snacky!

We are having our outdoor furniture delivered today. Our first farmers market is also opening today. Lots of excitement for one day. What are you looking forward to today?

Everyone has their own reasons to “go meatless.” I believe that one can maintain a healthy body on a carnivore diet (with lean meats, omega 3 rich fish and of course portion control and a balance with veggies, fruit and whole grains) but I strongly believe in incorporating more meatless dishes into our weekly repertoire because of the impact this has on the environment.

From the Meatless Monday site… Why Meatless?

• REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide . . . far more than transportation.[3] And annual worldwide demand for meat continues to grow. Reining in meat consumption once a week can help slow this trend.
• MINIMIZE WATER USAGE. The water needs of livestock are tremendous, far above those of vegetables or grains. An estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef.[4] Soy tofu produced in California requires 220 gallons of water per pound.[5]
• HELP REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE. On average, about 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed lot beef in the U.S.[6] Compare this to the 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein.[7] Moderating meat consumption is a great way to cut fossil fuel demand.

Every single person can help reduce the demand for meat (especially inhumanely raised meat) by going meatless more often. I knew I was already doing my part (I know I could always do more by becoming a vegetarian but it’s just not realistic for my lifestyle – we can only do our personal best) but committing myself to a Monday seemed limiting. Well, I’m taking on the challenge!! I like that I can plan a whole day of meatless eats (not just a random meal here and there). I think it happens by mistake once in a while but being more conscious about it made it fun. And you know what? I had some kick-ass eats today. Let’s review them!

BREAKFAST

Breakfast pizza + coffee

Ww tortilla, Barney Butter, nonfat yogurt, mango, Kashi golean cereal, shredded coconut + choc chips

So yummy!

MID-MORNING SNACK

LUNCH

Star ingredient #1: Ellie Krieger edamame “hummus” (recipe can be found here)

It was super galicky and very delicious. I used my vitamix so it was super creamy too. Love it!!

Star #2: grill… well a grill pan for now

Whole wheat Tuscan pane with edamame hummus, heirloom grape tomatoes, grilled zucchini and goat cheese – all pressed together

OMG – seriously I couldn’t get over this deliciousness. Goat cheese + grilled veggies is seriously the best combo on earth. Love <3

MID-AFTERNOON/PRE-WORKOUT SNACK

Clif mojo mountain trek mix bar

WORKOUT

I’m still getting over (or into?) a mild cold so an intense cardio workout was just not in the books. I attended a Body Pump-type class and it was tough. I sweated like crazy and loved every minute of it. What else is new?

DINNER

A little snack while prepping dinner: Doctor Kracker “flatbread” with edamame “hummus”

+ a meatless dinner – ma po tofu with steamed broccolini (recipe can be found here)

I used light tofu, omitted the beef and rice and added broccoli to the broccolini to bulk it up. This made 3 good servings with these lighter substitutions.

I LOVED this meal. It was quite spicy (I used 1T of sriracha) and tasted super authentic. I could see myself ordering it at a Chinese restaurant and being a very happy camper. Some brown rice would have been great to soak up some of the sauce but I thought we’ve been eating too much rice lately so that’s why I omitted it this time. I wouldn’t hesitate to make it again… and you shouldn’t either!

A lovely super charge me cookie to end a lovely day of meatless eats

What do you think of the Meatless Monday movement? If you’re interested, you can pledge to go meatless on Mondays here.

I am enough, and that’s ok!

This little message refers to my eats too. We had a pizza party at work, so I had pizza… and cake! No need to worry about. I’m going with the flow, and I like it

BREAKFAST

Holey Donuts jumbo reduced fat cinnamon bun

I’ve been ordering a few boxes once in a while, when there is a free shipping promotion. It’s such a fun “treat” breakfast!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACKS

Pretty self-explanatory, I think

LUNCH

A little of this…

And a little of that…

I am proud to say that I had 2 slices of pizza and only 1 piece of cake. I could have had more, but I didn’t embrace the “screw it, I’m already being bad so might as well be really bad” mentality and consumed treat foods in reasonable portions. Yay me!

DINNER

Dinner was SO delicious today! As part of CEiMB, I made Ellie Krieger’s recipe for maple mustard chicken thighs, which this week was hosted by Handle the Heat (Tessa has amazing pictures!!). Every review I read about this recipe said it was great, so I had high expectations. I’m happy to report they were more than met!

We very rarely eat chicken thighs since they are higher in fat than white meat in the chicken breasts, so this was a bit of a treat. I made sure to trim all visible fat and kept the portions at bay. The whole grain mustard added such a fun texture – the little grains just popped in your mouth! Some high quality maple syrup balanced the spiciness of the mustard perfectly. Delicious!

As a side dish, I made some haricots verts by following this recipe from Cooking Light. The mustard based vinaigrette tied the beans perfectly with the mustardy chicken (Btw, I used 1/2 balsamic vinegar and 1/2 red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar and subbed pepitas for sliced almonds). Awesome, awesome dinner!! Adam and I had a hard time not going for seconds and polishing everything off.

Uh-oh… caught red handed (kinda ). Enjoying some dark chocolate with almonds while blogging… I can’t go to bed without a little dessert!

So yeah, no exercise today. There was just not enough time in the day today, and I’m cool with it.

How do you feel about all the challenges going on in the blog world? Love them, hate them? Do they motivate you or discourage you? I keep flip-flopping on that one.

If you missed my somersaults giveaway, make sure to click here. Yum! Oh and please follow me on Twitter (my twitter name is healthyandsane). I just joined and I feel lonely there all by myself!!!

With that said, I AM sticking to the challenge as planned until July 15th (right after the cake is gone!). It continues to be a learning experience and I appreciate that part of the challenge. I just wish I could continue learning while eating chocolate Anyways, onto…

TODAY’S EATS

I was short on time this morning and wanted something warm and sweet. I reached into the freezer for a Food for Life sprouted grain english muffin (which I planned on having with some melty Barney Butter) but then I saw 3 boxes of Holey Donuts in the freezer. Mmm, yum! I went this morning with the jumbo blueberry cinnamon bun. I’ll refer to it as heaven going forward Made my fingers nice and sticky, but tasted oh so good with a huge mug of coffee.

[388 calories, incl. coffee]

Sun-maid, I think I love you

[130 calories]

Leftover summer squash gratin:

[389 calories]

[160 calories]

[60 calories]

Dinner was the above referenced sandwich. We had some ham in the fridge that needed to be used up, so I made a croque monsier by following Kath’s recipe.

[389 calories]

The sandwich was pretty good. A little too much egg, so it got slightly soggy. It was also NOTHING like the Croque Madame from Shiller’s. That’s pretty much the best thing ever. Not healthy though, so you know, I’m not about to pour a bag of shredded cheese over my fried sandwich to replicate that beau.

And then there was MORE WEDDING CAKE! I honestly don’t even feel guilty over it. I feel like I should be, but I don’t. I promise this is the last time you’re seeing it though. The boys we are hosting at our house tonight did not finish it, so I’m bringing the rest to work tomorrow. Say good bye to the best wedding cake ever. Oh I’m going to miss you, cake, but my hips won’t

Total calories consumed today: 1711 (includes unpictured sweet cherries and AK MAK crackers) + CAKE

How was your Wednesday? I’m in a fantastic mood despite work being crazy. I “blame” some exercise endorphins for this… gotta love ‘em!

I can’t decide how I feel about the challenge. As expected, it’s teaching me a lot. It’s also prevented me from randomly shoving sweets into my mouth during a busy time at work. Very good. I really like that part of the challenge, but sometimes this girl just needs some good old fashioned chocolate. Just a little piece… pretty please? The lesson here is that a chocolate free life is just not for me, but I did discover that medjool dates and turkish dried apricots taste like candy Oh yeah, and then there is this beauty (my new favorite nighttime treat)… 1/2 Food for Life english muffin with cacao bliss:

Chocolatey coconuty goodness. Oh yes, life is good again I’m currently enjoying it with yogi green tea

[129 calories]

How else have I been keeping my sweet tooth at bay? With some roasted beets and raisins! Yep, you heard me right!

Kelly, does this look familiar? I asked you guys in this post what to do with some root veggies I got at the farmers market the other day, and you gave me so many yummy ideas. The common thread was to roast them, and then have them with some goat cheese. Oh yeah, I think you really can’t beat that combo! Kelly recommended trying a recipe she just recently sampled: swiss chard with beets, goat cheese and raisins. I followed the link to the recipe from her blog, and after browsing through it realized I even had all the ingredients on hand! Awesome! Adam was NOT excited for this one, but I had high hopes that I could turn his beet hating ways around with this one. It just sounded amazing, and we had plan B for him – a frozen burrito. Yup, that’s how we roll (it’s organic at least! haha). Take a peak inside

I used the leaves from the beets instead of swiss chard, omitted the onions and only used 1T of EVOO (although the rest of the proportions were kind of random too – 1/3 of the raisins, 1/2 of the beet leaves, 1/3-1/2 of the beets… I couldn’t remember how much they weighed and I mistakenly threw away the piece of paper where I wrote it down). I also added some sliced ham to make it a little more man-friendly. Adam hasn’t been too happy with my meals this week. I’ve been pushing his envelope a little too far with my vegetarian creations Long story short, he LOVED IT!!!!!!! I of course loved it, but that was no surprise, but my husband loving a dish centered around beets and beet greens and goat cheese (something he just recently started liking) is pretty amazing. He made me so happy. I love beets. Hope that means they can become a more frequent ingredient in our kitchen. I’m making beet chips next!

OTHER EATS

Oikos, 1/2 mango, pb puffins, turkish dried apricots (seriously these taste like candy!!!) + raw almonds. I love you yogurt (not as much as chocolate but I can’t live without you either!)… what’s up with me talking to my food today?

[356 calories]

+ 2 unpictured AK MAK crackers = 107 calories (I didn’t eat the whole apple… it was a little soft for my liking)

Leftover ww pasta with pistachio basil pesto + cauliflower, laughing cow cheese (awesome addition! – made everything super creamy) + pistachios:

[394 calories]

[220 calories - ended up eating the whole thing... it's just too yummy ]

Today was a really great food day! They’re not always this good, but today was noteworthy. I like note-worthy food days! Total calories eaten: 1546

I also took an abs class, then a spin class and finished off by solid 5 minutes of jump rope. A great workout! ~550 calories burnt. I haven’t sweat like this in forever! I think it made everything better. I feel cleansed

I’m off to relax with the new issue of Self magazine I picked up yesterday. I hope Jillian can inspire me to be a better me

1. Zesty’s chicken asparagus pesto quesadilla made for a great easy lunch

2. Lara sent me this recipe for wheat germ whole-wheat buttermilk pancakes after reading my post on Clinton St. Baking Co pancakes. These made for a healthy CLC-approved Saturday morning breakfast. Fresh raspberries from the farmers market (picked just the day before!) + yogurt and maple syrup made for amazing topping

These are great as a snack with my new love (see below)

3. When I saw Lauren’s veggie stromboli, I couldn’t wait to make it! Some farmer’s market broccoli wanted to be the star of the show, so I used lots of it + some chicken in this recipe. I also used TJ’s ww pizza dough (it had some soybean oil but I still bought it), added some spinach to the broccoli when steaming it, and used 0.75 cups of organic part skim mozzarella. This was such a fun alternative to pizza, although I’ve decided that after the challenge I’m going to start buying white pizza dough – it just tastes more like the real thing

My top 3 foods (and many others below) were all inspired by bloggers. Bloggers rule! My food would be so much more boring without you

4. I had some beautiful basil from the farmers market smelling up my apartment, so on Saturday afternoon when Adam was out, I decided to combine it with a few other random things in my fridge: ww couscous, fresh tomato (also from the farmers market… I told you I went to town on my last trip! ), black olives, pine nuts, hummus + goat cheese. I warmed up the couscous and then just threw the rest of the ingredients into the bowl, and finished it off with a few ribbons of the fresh basil. The result was a mediteranian inspired creamy and delicious dish! I’d definitely recommend recreating this

5. And that’s my new food love – Artisana Cacao Bliss! OMG – SO good! It tastes like coconut infused chocolate and I just can’t get enough of this stuff! It goes great on ww english muffins, pancakes (see above), ww tortillas, and straight out of the jar Speaking of straight out of the jar, looking at the picture below makes me realize I’ve had a little too much of it lately (the picture was taken late last week and my jar does not look like this today), but it’s SO GOOD!!

An all natural (sugar free) ingredients list:

So these are my top 5! Now let’s get to the rest of the eats…

Happy Tuesday

What I did have a chance to do, though, is check out Boston’s Health and Fitness Expo yesterday. I’ve been reading about these types of events on blogs for what seems like ages now. I was imagining larabar and goo samples everywhere, polar and garmin coupons and I don’t know what else… maybe booths with fancy performance socks or something Unfortunately, this particular event was kind of lame (just lots of hospitals and a few ghetto products sprinkled in)… until Katy spotted the Biggest Loser guys. Where? Oh yeah… that’s Mike and Ron!!! I am a HUGE fan of the show, and seeing those guys (ok Mike) kind of brought the 16 year old in me. I really wanted to talk to him, but there was a huge line to do just that and I had to get to work. Boo to adult responsibilities I did get a chance to snap a few photos (from a weird angle)… here is the best one:

They looked just like on the show! So so cool. Helen was there earlier, but I don’t really like her much so I’m not upset I missed her. Some lady told us that Mike’s brother lost 60 lbs already. That’s so great. Maybe they should bring him in for the next season. Ok ok, I’m done rambling. Maybe this is only exciting for me. I went back to work, and once in a while was thinking about this little celebrity sighting. I was thinking about what I’d say to them if I did stand in that line? I think I’d want to ask them if they were hungry standing there for hours? Are you a fan of the Biggest Loser? What would you say to Mike and Ron if you met them?

Yesterday’s eats included some vegan berry pie for breakfast, and then this…

Egg white omelet with mushroom, spinach, canadian bacon, light on the cheese, light on the oil + dry whole wheat toast at the Trident Cafe:

The Healthy Chocolate at the Expo (just acai berries – no sugar)… yeah, tasted like fake chocolate. No surprise there.

For dinner I made an amazing summer squash gratin from 101 cookbooks. This was pretty labor intensive (it took me probably close to an hour to slice and dice everything, make the breadcrumbs, make the sauce) but it was worth it in my opinion. I used fresh basil to make the sauce, halved the amount of oil (and added a little bit of water to the sauce instead) and only used 1.5 T of butter for the breadcrumbs instead of 4.  So many complex flavors. I really loved it! Can’t wait to have it for lunch today again. Unfortunately Adam said there was too much squash there for his liking so I froze his leftovers for a dinner in the future. We’ll see how it keeps

I also ate my last chocolate macaroon

Perfect way to end the weekend (ha, that’s lobsters on the tv – we were watching food shows)!

Oh wait, last question… I went crazy buying everything in sight at the farmers market on Friday and now have a whole bunch of root vegetables (beets, turnips). I went through lots of old Cooking Light and Eating Well magazines for inspiration on how to use these up but the best I could come up with was just roasting these babies and adding them to sandwiches, salads or over some ww grains. Any ideas from you guys? Thanks!

Yesterday, however, I was invited to a Mary Kay party and wanted to bring some dessert. I search for recipes all morning, trying to find the perfect white sugar/white flour free recipe to bring, and finally decided on trying my hand at a chocolate/strawberry dessert number (using the same trick I used while making the amazing black bean brownies… i.e. starting with unsweetened chocolate and sweetening it with agave nectar). I didn’t have most of the ingredients on hand, so I walked to Whole Foods. This is where I kind of broke down, I think. The trip took a while, they didn’t have all the ingredients I needed (and I didn’t really have a plan B recipe) so I started going through their baked goods section and reading all the ingredients lists. It was hard – mostly everything had either sugar, white flour or soy.  It took me FOREVER to finally find a vegan cherry blackberry pie that complied with all the challenge rules (it used whole wheat flour and was sweetened with evaporated cane sugar and fruit juice). I bought it for backup, but I still didn’t like the idea of not bringing a homemade dessert so I went to another grocery store in an attempt to find the rest of the ingredients for my project. Nope – no luck there either. And then, by the time I got home, I basically didn’t have much time to make anything anyway. I felt so defeated So when my friend, Katy, mentioned that she made a (CLC non-compliant) lime cake I just said screw it – I’m going to have some. For the first time, I was tired of the challenge. I wasted most of my Saturday thinking and trying to comply with it. I was done! What didn’t help is that another guest brought the most amazing chocolate cake from a local bakery, so yeah – I pretty much had to have some of that as well.

Here is how you break a 12-day streak:

And then you go back for seconds after a few hours oops:

I woke up early this morning to workout, but I have a food hangover! I’m hungry, yet bloated. I’m jittery from all the sugar. I feel sick. Exercise is just truly not an option right now. I’m going to have to get my butt to the gym later in the day, but I also HAVE TO continue with the challenge. At the beginning of this post I mentioned that I haven’t felt this good in months, since starting the challenge. I’ve been feeling so much more in control, so much more at peace with my body and how I’m taking care of it. I want that feeling back! How do you handle the day after an excessive food splurge?

P.S. – the vegan berry pie from Whole Foods is awesome!

So yeah, given my love for chocolate and an upcoming blogger potluck dinner, I went searching my favorite blogs and magazines for some inspiration. Most sugarless desserts sounded boring for this chocoholic… until I stumbled upon a recipe for amazing black bean brownies I’ve saved a long time ago. The recipe is originally from Baking with Agave Nectar by Ania Catalano, and after tasting these guys, I need to get my hands on this cookbook. Yes, need. The copy from my library mysteriously disappeared (I’m not even kidding, the records say “missing”) and honestly I can’t blame whomever took it.  Actually I can blame them (sneaky thieves!) but you know what I mean…

Aside from being white sugar and white flour free (yay for staying on top of the CLC), these were fantastic! The brownies have some instant coffee in the batter, and the coffee really intensified the chocolate flavor. The texture was fudge-like, like a creamy flourless chocolate cake. My mouth is watering just thinking about these brownies (alas, they’re all gone). I halved the recipe, and the only substitution I made was using almond slivers instead of walnuts (one of my party attending friends, Katy, is allergic to walnuts). I think walnuts would have been excellent in these. Next time. Oh and no, you can’t taste the black beans

Progress pics galore…

All the ingredients:

Melt butter + unsweetened chocolate in the microwave

Do not taste this! Yup, I did… unsweetened choc + butter = gross

Pulse some almonds, black beans + a little bit of the choc mixture. If the batter is too dry, add a little more chocolate.

Combine choc mixture, remaining almonds (or walnuts) + ground coffee

Beat eggs

Add agave nectar

Combine the chocolate/coffee mixture with the black bean/almond mixture

Add eggs/agave mixture, saving a little (as per recipe), and mix well

Pour into the pan

Add some fluffy eggs on top (looks funny but it turned out great!)

Bake + cool (I refrigerated mine overnight)

Cut into squares or triangles. I cut mine into 12 triangles (that’s for the half recipe) but these are quite rich so I’d probably cut into smaller squares next time.

Serve!

Closeups… mmm

My first brownie. I may have had one for breakfast

The whole recipe is 5,012 calories (makes 24-45 brownies, depending on size).

Enjoy! This recipe is a winner!!