I heart Dates - Date Brownies

Wow! That was a really long break! So I meant to only take a month off but then that month turned into 6 months. Isn't that funny how that happens?

Healthwise for me these last 6 months have been in pretty much lousy. In September I had another miscarriage and it just was really hard for me to bounce back from that, emotionally. When I am sad like that I turn to really unhealthy behaviors, like secretly eating large bags of m&ms by myself, eating lots of processed foods, staying up too late, and not exercising. I was pretty much a wreck. I felt like a fraud writing this blog. But it's a new year. I am feeling better and I am back on track. I have been trying some new recipes and I can't wait to share them.

One of my goals this year is to not eat any sweets, unless they are sweetened with dates, or other fruits. Dates are awesome! I buy the 2lb box of medjool dates from Costco. They are soft and delicious.  I have basically learned that you can do a lot with dates. So I am going to be posting a lot of date recipes this year.

The first tip I have in working with dates is to get a food processor, if you don't already have one. In these recipes you want to get the dates really well processed. Sometimes you can do that in a blender but in a lot of these recipes there isn't enough liquid to make it work. So without further ado here is a yummy brownie recipe.

Date Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter or coconut oil 
• 6 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 2 cups medjool dates pitted
• 4 eggs
• Little less than 1 Cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chopped walnuts

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2.   In your food processor blend the dates , add the eggs if you need more liquid

      to get the dates to blend.

3.   In 3-quart saucepan over very low heat (or with a double boiler), melt butter or coconut oil and chocolate,  stirring the mixture constantly. Remove from heat. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Stir the date mixture into the chocolate.

 

4.  If you didn't use all the eggs with the dates, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each, then stir in the vanilla.

5.  Combine the flour and salt in a separate bowl; stir into the chocolate mixture.

     Fold in the walnuts. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.

6.  Bake in oven 30 to 35 minutes. Brownies are done when toothpick inserted    into center come out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack.

** Warning these brownies are not at all low fat. But they are sugar free and they are delicious!

Warning: Make these at your own risk, Peanut Butter Oatmeal CooKies

We have been planning the refreshments for my daughter's upcoming baptism and I really feel this need to have everything be healthy since I kind of  present myself that way. It has been kind of stressful coming up with idea that would be healthy, quick, appealing, not messy etc... So E wants to have cookies at her baptism and I said that I would make some. She said she wanted store bought. I thought she was crazy. I mean who thinks store bought cookies taste better than fresh homemade?? I tried to convince the kids that homemade was better but they did not believe me. So we did a taste test. And one of my hypotheses was confirmed...

My children ARE crazy! They thought the store bought cookies tasted better. So I agreed to buy some for the baptism. Hey, that is less work for me. But of course none of this stopped them from scarfing down all the homemade cookies I made. I mean these cookies I made were awesome so it just proves that my kids' taste buds are whacked.

So here is my recipe for

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

First Mix: (I used a hand held beater)

1 Cup natural peanut butter
1/2 Cup butter or refined Coconut oil (if you use the virgin coconut oil it will interfere with the peanut butter flavor)
1 Cup organic brown sugar (healthy stores and some grocery stores will carry this)
1/2 Cup Sucanet (evaporated cane juice, ditto about where to find it)

Then add:

2 range free eggs
1 tsp. of no alcohol vanilla
2 Tbsp of favorite nut milk, or cow's milk if you want

Stir in:
1 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
1 tsp. baking soda
4 shakes sea salt

Finally add:
2 Cup regular oats
1 Cup chocolate chips

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen

** I haven't had "real" cookies in the house for a long time and they sorely tested my will power. I must admit the cookies won, hence the warning!

Burgers and Fries - a healthy version

This  past weekend my family and I went to the mall to do some shopping. We ended up eating at the food court which is always kind of a gross experience. My kids ate Chick fil-a, I had tuna sub from Subway and my husband had a Philly cheese steak sub. We all indulged in Wendy's new "Natural cut fries with sea salt."

See, we are not perfect at healthy eating. Eating out, especially when you want fast food is hard. And to be perfectly honest some times I just feel like eating bad food. I am still trying to get over my tendency towards emotional eating and overcome our addictions to bad, processed foods. It is a journey and a long one. 

So when we are at home and we get a craving for some "junk food" I make this version of burgers and fries that really are even better tasting than what you can get at a fast food place with none of the guilt.

The burgers are these veggie patties we get at Costco.

Bake them up in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.
Serve on whole wheat bread, buns, or skinny buns.
Serve with ketchup, mustard, whatever
Add lettuce, tomato, sprouts, avocado, whatever sounds good. To me the avocado is really what takes this burger from good to great.

The Fries come from a recipe I got from my sister, Jen. I changed it a bit. To see her original recipe click here.

A lot of times we will eat this all with a salad or a green smoothie.