sweets

I’m notorious for grabbing “interesting looking” food from the grocery to try.  I’d say my success rate for picking good stuff (edible, not gross, non-gag-reflex-inducing) is about 70/30, 70% being failure. 

My theory is that chocolate makes everything better.  And since I’m always looking for a new way to eat chocolate and not feel guilty about it, I just had to try this Dark Chocolate Covered Edamame from Trader Joe’s. 

If you have a Trader Joe’s near you, get some of these ASAP.  They are around $3.50 per box, super tasty and loaded with protein.  My guy says they kind of taste like M&M’s.  He loves them so much that he has now told all his coworkers about them and regularly calls me at work to ask me to stop by Trader Joe’s on my way home to pick up a few boxes for them.  I feel like a drug dealer! 

If you decide to give these a try, please be sure to stop back by and tell us what you think of them.

Last weekend my guy bought this huge thing of blueberries from Costco and after the entire week went by he had hardly made a dent in them.  I don’t care for raw blueberries so I started looking for recipes where I could use them up.  I made more bran muffins and added blueberries this time and while I was looking back at Farmgirl’s recipe I found this awesome recipe for blueberry breakfast bars. 

I was a little intimidated because it was a 3 layer recipe, but it was super easy. 

I used all organic ingredients and these things are just fabulous.  In the picture, they look really sweet and gooey but they are not that rich so they really are a good replacement for your normal breakfast bar.  I also used Earth Balance butter for the first time when I made these and I really like it!  I think I’ll start using that as a butter replacement. 

I recommend trying these ASAP.  Click here to view Farmgirls full recipe on these tasty blueberry bars. 

I still have a few blueberries left.  What’s your favorite way to eat them?

Brownies are my guy’s all time favorite desert but I don’t make them often because neither of us have any kind of reasonable self-control around brownies. 

Box brownie mixes are very risky (to me) but I decided to try the Nature’s Path Double Fudge Organic Browne Mix this weekend.

The recipe on the box only calls for 4 tablespoons of oil and cold water.  For optional moister brownies it suggests adding 2 eggs, which I did.  I also added walnuts.

This brownie mix is made with whole wheat flour.  I always feel less guilty about sweets if they are made with whole wheat instead of bleached enriched flour, don’t you?

I’m sorry to report that they kinda sucked.  They weren’t so bad that they got thrown in the trash (I’ve done that plenty of times).  They were edible, but they were dry and tasted very “healthy”.  You know what I mean when I say they tasted healthy, right?  The top was also shiny like rubber for some reason.  I won’t be buying these again and now I’m a little scared to buy the other Nature’s Path baking mixes. 

Have you tried these brownies or any other baking mix from Nature’s Path?  How were they?  

image credit natures path

NOTE: WORD PRESS IS BEING A BRAT AND WON’T ALLOW ME TO UPLOAD THE PICTURE OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT.  I’LL KEEP TRYING SO CHECK BACK LATER.

On of my favorite blogs is called Farmgirl Fare.  It’s written by a girl who up and sold her bakery in California to buy a rural farm in Missouri.  Now she describes herself as a “cook, gardener, shepherd, farmhand, veg, surrogate mom, wildlife expert, midwife & undertaker.”

Farmgirl makes all sorts of great food and is happy to share her recipes with us.  This weekend I tried her recipe for Banana Bran Muffins.  I’ve never made any healthy-ish muffins but I have to tell you that, compared to the bran muffins I’ve bought at chain bakeries, these things were superb!  Here’s Farmgirl’s Organic Banana Bran Muffin recipe.

• 2 cups (3oz/86g) wheat bran
• 1 cup (oz/141g) oat bran
• 1 cup (6oz/170g) whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons (12g) baking soda
• 1 teaspoon (6g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (4g) salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup (5oz by weight/156g) milk
• 2/3 cup (5-1/2 oz/156g) yogurt
• 1/3 cup (2-1/4oz/65g) canola oil
• 1/3 cup (3-3/4oz/108g) molasses or cane syrup
• 1/3 cup (3-3/4oz/108g) honey
• 1 teaspoon (6g) vanilla extract (optional)
• 2-3 very ripe bananas mashed
• walnuts (optional)

Place oven rack in the middle of oven and heat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease a standard size muffin pan or line cups with paper liners.

Combine all dry ingredients in large bowl and set aside.  Combine eggs, milk, yogurt, canola oil, molasses and honey in small bowl and mix well.  Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix just until combined.  Add mashed bananas and walnuts.

Generously fill muffin cups with batter.  (I used a stainless steel ice cream scoop).  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.  Cool muffins in pan for 10-15 minutes, then carefully remove from pan and serve warm, or let cool on wire rack.

Enjoy them plain, drizzled with honey, or spread with peanut butter.  (I had one withe peanut butter and honey today)

I purchased all the organic flours at my local Whole Foods grocery in the bulk isle.  This worked great for me because I didn’t need to buy a huge bag that I won’t ever use.  I only purchased what I needed.

This is a great all purpose bran muffin recipe that you can use with any kind of fruit you and your family enjoy.  I’m going to try blueberry next. 

The chocolate chip cookie has got to be the most under-rated sweet out there.  It’s not that fancy but it’s delicious and it goes with everything.

This week we tried another great natural cookie.  Tom’s Cookies are made in San Francisco and you can order them online but I found this cute bucket of pre-cut cookie dough at my local Trader Joe’s. 

These cookies are very different from the Immaculate Baking ones from last week.  They have a small amount of oats in them which gives them a lot more substance and makes them a little chewier.  They have this awesome brown sugar and vanilla flavor that compliments the rich chocolate chips nicely.

Tom uses natural ingredients like fresh eggs and milk to make his cookie dough and he’s also a pretty charitable dude. 

Apparently President Clinton made these cookies famous when the Clintons liked them so much that they asked Tom to whip up a special Peanut Butter Banana cookie (um, YUM!) for his inaugural ball.  It’s amazing what an endorsement from a famous person can do for a business. 

Hey Mr. Prez, can you endorse my blog, please?