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

While searching Craigslist for a used bicycle I ran across an ad for a gas powered one.  Isn’t this sort of like an oxymoron? 

Even though the advertisement says that it get’s 100-200 miles to the gallon, I wonder about the emissions and pollution.  Is it similar to a lawn mower with a comgas powered engine that creates worse pollution that a car? 

If you own one of these gas powered bicycles, we need to hear from you, STAT!

From what I understand, gas prices will not be going down anytime soon.  In fact, they’ll probably continue to rise through the summer.  It’s got me thinking, what is the breaking point where people will really start to look for alternate transportation?

Chicago has a pretty good public transportation system.  I live in walking distance of a train station but I still drive to work every day.  In addition to the around $50 per week I’m spending on gas, I pay $120 per month to park.  That’s $330 per month, around $16 per day to drive.  I could take the train for about $4 per day.  That’s a savings of $240 per month or $2880 per year!  I could do a lot with that extra money!

I had always said I’d start taking the train after I finished school because I didn’t want to take the train late at night after class.  I know what you’re thinking - “why don’t you just drive the one or two days per week to work and take the train the others?”  So then when I finished school I thought of starting to take the train to work but I was concerned about getting all sweaty before I even got to work.  I know what you’re thinking - “get over yourself!”

In my head my breaking point is $5 per gallon.  At $5 per gallon I’m giving up my parking spot at work and taking the train.  Now I can’t promise that I won’t discover another “barrier” when gas really does get to $5 per gallon, (I still sweat. I might still take a class every now and then) but that’s the goal, today. 

Now I’m wondering if anybody else has a breaking point.  I bet gas is high enough now that a lot of people are seriously thinking of a backup plan.  Maybe it’s carpooling.  Maybe it’s public transportation.  Maybe it’s biking. 

So lets hear it.  What’s your breaking point and what’s your back up plan?

More Wordless Wednesday

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. 

It occurred to me today that I could have ridden a bicycle to any place I’ve gone in the last 48 hours, if I owned a bicycle. 

By now we’re all pretty well versed in the badness of motorized vehicles, so I’ll spare the lecture this time.  I remember Ed Begley saying on the subject of transportation; “my first choice is to walk, next is my bike, next is public transportation, next is my electric car.”  Thanks for the great advice, Ed!

Benefits of bicycling:

1. Great exercise
2. It’s cheap (no gas required)
3. It’s green (no pollution)
4. It’s less dangerous (if I hit somebody on my bike, it’ll probably hurt a lot less than if I hit them with my car, yes?)

I live too far to commute via a bicycle but on the weekend I think I could really utilize a bicycle for almost all my travels.  The trouble is that I don’t know the first thing about bicycles.  There are Road Bikes, Mountain Bikes, something called a “Comfort Bike” and Hybrids.  I’ve read up on all of them but I do not see a clear winner, yet.  I need a bicycle consultation! 

Did I mention that I’m not even sure I know how to ride a bicycle?  I know I know, you never forget how to ride a bike, alledgidly.  But my gosh it’s been like a million years since I rode one, seriously!  Plus, I’m extremely clumsy. 

Which kind of bicycle would you recommend for me?  I’ll mostly be using it to get around my neighborhood on the weekend.

image courtesy of uh.edu

Permaculture - a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard Into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community.

I heard about this book via a blog I love called Crunchy Chicken.  It’s another green blog written by this cool chick in Seattle.  She has a regular book club and rather starting a book club here, I thought we could just jump on board with the folks over at Crunchy Chicken. 

You can probably pick up a copy of this book at the library.  I’ll post my thoughts about it here when I’m done reading it and I hope you’ll do the same. 

image courtesy of ecowise.com

More Wordless Wednesday

Do you think of sewing as “green”?  I didn’t, until today.  It turns out that making your own clothes is something like growing your own food.  Anything you sew yourself is one less garment that has to be shipped across the world to your favorite shopping center. 

I had this epiphany when one of my fellow Hatchet bloggers offered me great solution for my plastic bag problem.

Suzy over at Sewing With Suzy read my post about needing a plastic bag intervention and offered to teach me how to make my own reusable shopping bag.  I should stop right here to say that I have no idea how to sew and I do not currently own a sewing machine.  In fact, the only thing I’ve ever sewed was a shirt in high school Home Economics that unraveled while I was modeling it on the stage.  But, hey, Suzy says I can make this by hand and that she’ll coach me all the way so I’m up for the challenge! 

If you’ve ever wanted to learn to sew or if you just like reading interesting blogs, be sure to check out Sewing With Suzy.  She writes about basic sewing stuff and even has us doing cool projects like the reusable shopping bag I referred to earlier. 

image courtesy of morkoproducts.com

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?