Weekend Cooking: Now Eat This!

This week I started out my first step into an attempt to really change my eating habits.  Like many people, I tend to eat little to nothing during my work day, which then finds me ravenous by the time I get home.  At that point, I'd love to do nothing more than eat a big bowl of pasta and then call it a night.  I've always been health conscious and tried to big up the veg, eat lean protein, and stay away from too much fast food.  It's still hard though, and I think like many people, I want to shed some weight and still feel well-rounded and satisfied in my eating.

I can't say that everything I did took a lot of cooking, but I did make some amazing food.  Monday night I whipped up some mouth-watering chicken curry stir fry over buckwheat udon noodles.  Talk about delicious!  It made for some nice lunch leftovers for work.  I also discovered my new favorite appetite busting, low calorie fix:  Wasa crackers, Laughing Cow cheese wedges, and turkey.  This came in under 200 calories and left me full for hours afterwards.  As you can see from my pictures below, I also added some asparagus to give it color and because I happen to love them!

 

Now to the trial and error recipe of the weekend.  I tried Rocco Dispirito's Low-Cal Brownies that are made with black beans.  First off, I think he has modified the recipe since he published the book, because everywhere you look online, the recipe has changed to include chocolate syrup and a little sour cream.  He might have been responding to people's review of them, since they are pretty weird.  I'm not really a fan, but I suppose you can't complain when you know off hundreds of calories off of a previously favorite sweet treat.  The texture is very strange.  In some ways this is a pasty fudge (that you have to refrigerate), with nice chocolate flavor, but none of the mouth feel that you're used to with a brownie or fudge.  I think that in the future I'll splurge on the real thing, but just balance out my other calories to compensate. 

 

If you'd like to give them a try, the recipe is below.  

Rocco's Low-Cal Brownies

Nonstick cooking spray

1½ cups canned black beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon espresso powder

¾ cup egg substitute

2 tablespoons low-calorie sugar-free chocolate syrup, such as Walden Farms

2 tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream, such as Breakstone's

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

24 packets (84 g) Truvia or 8 tablespoons granulated Splenda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Cooking Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8×8-inch glass baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine the beans, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and egg substitute in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl halfway through.
Add the chocolate syrup, sour cream, butter, Truvia, and vanilla. Process until all of the ingredients are combined, about 1 minute.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish, and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, turning the dish halfway through the baking time. A toothpick inserted in the center will come out with soft batter clinging to it.

Let the brownies cool completely in the baking dish on a wire rack. Then cut into 12 squares and serve. Refrigerate any leftovers.

***Let me admit that I actually changed a few things.  In the place of the egg substitute, I used three whole eggs. Also, I used 3/4 cup of Agave (as listed in his cookbook) instead of Splenda or Stevia.

Like I said, they were pretty odd.  You would never find me in a position where I wouldn't be able to stop eating them, which I suppose is a real benefit of this recipe.  I don't know that I'll be drastically changing the recipes on each of my favorite dishes.  I think I'll stick to eating less of the fattening foods and eating more of the good stuff, like fruits and vegetables. 

*For more weekend cooking, go to Beth Fish Reads.  You'll find all sorts of great food-related posts and recipes!