I just noticed it has been a year since I have blogged on this site! I am going to start up! One new post per week is my goal from this point on. This past Sunday I did a freezer meal prep. I will share recipes and reviews in the next post! Talk to you all soon!
Let me just start by saying today was mind blowing for me. The thought of actually creating brownies from black beans was completely unbelievable to me. In fact, I hadn’t even heard of it until a Facebook friend mentioned it a couple weeks ago. Then my amazing talented cousin posted she was making them last night. That was it, my curiosity was peaked and I couldn’t forget about them. There are several recipes out there! I made 2 today- both went well.
You CAN make brownies using black beans! Make sure to rinse them very well and pay the, dry. It’s cool if you mash them a little while drying them-you’re about to blend them anyway. The recipe I used suggested raw sugar. I made them and they were awesome- sweet and delicious. I also made a batch using Truvia baking blend. They were equally delicious. It sounds absolutely disgusting but it is soooooo good!
The photos below are from my first batch- which were the raw sugar ones.
Here is an ingredient photo. The recipe I will link to suggests using flax eggs, I used eggs in this one. The flax eggs make this a vegan friendly option. Notice no flour!
This is a shot of everything in the blender. Using a blender is best for this to mash up the beans.
This is what it looks like blended! Looks like brownie mix…tastes like brownie mix….
Seriously…I did not sub brownie mix to play these up..these are legit made with black beans.
Post baking pic:
I was totally shocked at the result. If you had asked me a couple months ago about this, I would have laughed you out of my house…for real. My kids ate these and loved them. They had no idea they were made of black beans. I will keep making them and just won’t tell people what is in them….he he he Surprise that brownie was only 78 calories (when using Truvia blend and flax eggs) I plugged everything into my fitness pal to see.
Flax eggs were another anomaly that threw me for a loop…just sayin.
Biggest tip: make sure to rinse and drain the beans really good. Mine tasted nothing like beans at all…had I not been so diligent it could have been different.
Here is the recipe I used. Legit Black Bean Brownies
There are plenty out there you can try. Again I subbed heaping 1/4 cup of Truvia baking blend for the sugar and they turned out great!
I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!
Yours in Health,
Emily and Crew
I promised my sweets next….but then this happened….
I have been meticulously trying to plan what I eat each day. Sometimes it works, sometimes it fails but I try. Today for lunch was to be tuna salad on a sandwich thin. I didn’t get to eat breakfast so all I could think about was the amazingly delicious tuna salad. I went to the fridge…gasp…the thins were gone. The hubs took them to work for lunch! Like he needs to eat too?! Any who…I saw some random thin pizza crusts and made a plan. Healthy BBQ Chicken Pizza – my favorite from Papa John’s.
People- I actually made this without a recipe. I just made it! This is huge progress for me! I have never just randomly put things together. My cooking practice is paying off big time! I used my left over Patti Labelle deliciousness, some of this leftover cheese, half a sweet onion, some turkey bacon, a chicken breast and a whole wheat thin crust.
Obligatory ingredient pics:
This is pretty straight forward. Cook up the bacon sorta crispy and grill up the chicken breast. I used my Foreman Grill. Slice up your onion.
I put mine directly on the rack.
Here is the finished product:
It was delicious. Definitely a great alternative to the Delivery option.
This added up to 168 calories on my fitness pal for 1/6 of the pizza. I added the specifics directly into here and created my recipe.
Papa John’s BBQ Chicken on thin crust (this is on a 14″ crust instead of 12″)
It took me about the same amount of time to make this as it would of for them to deliver it, but I spent less money and ate less junk.
Let me know what you think. This is obviously customizable. I’d love to see what you do with it!
The Recipe
Ingredients
1-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, grilled
1/2 sweet onion, sliced
5 strips low sodium turkey bacon
3/4 cup low skim shredded mozzarella ( more or less depending what you want)
3-4 tbsp bbq sauce
1 whole wheat thin crust
Little bit of olive oil
Process
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grill your chicken and cook up your bacon using the method of your choice. Slice your onion. Make sure to cube or shred your chicken after it is finished grilling,
2. Prepare the thin crust by adding a small amount of olive oil to the top.
3. Brush or spread the BBQ sauce on the pizza crust.
4. Layer with chicken, onion and bacon.
5. Top with cheese.
6. Bake for 7-10 minutes and Enjoy.
Yours in Health,
The Crew and I
The hubs, the kids love sloppy joes. I usually stay away from them because of the sauce. I have never found a homemade created alternative until now! The recipe was simple and my favorite part was that I could use the slow cooker. Monday’s are my busiest work day so any chance to do something easy and delicious is immediately accepted.
Please keep in mind this sauce is not a total made from scratch sauce BUT the ingredients are ones that you can actually monitor. It calls for bbq sauce so I read labels and picked out the one I thought had the least additives ( for example)
The process:
I browned up half and onion, 1 lb of lean ground turkey and 1 green pepper. I cooked the, up in a tablespoon of coconut oil.
In my crockpot I combined ingredients to make my sauce. Garlic cloves, bbq sauce, tomato sauce, yellow mustard and ketcup. I noticed mine was a little tomatoey so I put in about an extra tablespoon of bbq. It looks like a paint pallet!
The results were amazing.
My husband asked if the sauce came from a can. My 6 year old are the whole thing and loved it. I’d give this recipe an A+!
That deliciousness on the side is kale, Apple and onion sautéed in coconut oil with a little Apple cider vinegar. So goooooood!
Here is an action shot of that:
And the finished product:
Ok ok….cut the pics, you came here for the recipe didn’t you????
This site has nice little list of clean make ahead meals: Make Me Ahead Clean Eats
Here is a link to the recipe:
Again, I used Patti Labelle’s amazing bbq sauce and used 2 tbls. instead of 1. I didn’t use the stevia packets because the bbq sauce has agave.
Up Next: How I deal with this sweet tooth of mine
Yours in Health,
Emily and Crew
I haven’t been able to blog for a few weeks. A new semester started which means craziness! But I just want to say…
Now on to the food!
Hiding in that amazingly crisp romaine is a deliciously cheap black bean burger. I was buying Morningstar farms frozen chipotle ones because I’d convinced myself it must be impossible to make burgers from black beans. I was wrong and I am so happy. They were very easy to make and I had all of the ingredients lying around my house.
I got the recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch
The ingredients are: a can of black beans which by the way costs less than $1. An onion, green pepper, an egg scrambled, whole wheat bread crumbs and some spices.
Oh yeah, don’t forget my favorite! The garlic!!! Anywho I used my fancy pampered chef hand chopper to do this:
Then I utilized this super expensive metal thingy to do this:
Scrambled up some eggs
Starting combining these three things:
Added in the spices and bread crumbs like so and mixed:
This mixture formed some great patties and they did not fall apart!
I actually wrapped mine in lettuce in place of using a bun. This goes great with Greek yogurt on top as sour cream! The recipe includes a chipotle mayo recipe which I did not make because I didn’t have some of those things lying around and I substituted Greek yogurt. I always use good old G Y as S C.
End product pics:
Yummy! We use this as a meatless option instead of buying frozen ones. I don’t think I spent more than $3.00 to make these either. Those are Alexa Sweet Potato fries on the side 😄
Here is the recipe link Black Bean Burgers
Hope you enjoy! Yours in Health,
Emily and Crew
* sorry if this is poorly written, it was done in the company of a crankster 3 year old
Ok so this recipe is totally an adaptation from one I found on Pinterest. There are protein packed peanut butter cups, but everything is mixed together. You don’t get the yummy peanut butter center like in these ones. I was surprised at how easy it was to adapt the recipe so it would make these. I think it took me about 4 tries but I finally got tasty, kid approved ones!
Here is the preparation process. I’ll include my adapted recipe below.
So those are the ingredients! Can you believe it’s only 6???
So I took the peanut butter, protein powder and vanilla and mixed them together. My goal was to make it think enough with the powder that I could form patties out of them. I also added honey to taste to give it a little more sweetness. When I say to taste, I literally sat there and tasted after every little pour. It was very depressing …. NOT! In the end I wish I would have added more protein powder because the peanut butter mixture was a bit sticky.
Next I combined the melted coconut butter, cocoa and honey to taste to create the chocolate shell. Again, really important that you taste the mixture. The cocoa is unsweetened so very bitter and not pleasant unless given a little pizazz.
I poured a little of the chocolate on the bottom of each cupcake liner.
Then I put in the peanut butter.
And topped it off with more chocolate.
Let these babies freeze for 15 minutes and they are done!
I couldn’t wait to try so the peanut butter mixture inside looks softer than it would if I let it go the 15 min.
The Recipe for Peanut Butter Cups – I made 6 giant ones.
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 scoop protein powder (I used Douglas Labs Ultra Protein Plus Vanilla)
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla
Honey, to taste – no seriously you actually have to try as you go
1/4 cup cocoa powder
4 tbs coconut oil, melted
1. Line a cupcake pan with 6 liners on your choice.
2. In a bowl, combine peanut butter, protein powder, vanilla and honey. Your mixture will be thick. I like to be able to form mine into patties. Just make sure it is not super sticky. Adding a little more protein powder will help. Divide into 6 patties.
3. Mix cocoa powder, melted coconut oil and honey to taste.
4. Add a little of the chocolate to the bottom of the lines.
5. Add peanut butter mixture patties or drop them by the spoon.
6. Add more chocolate to top off the peanut butter. You may have to make more chocolate depending on how big you make them.
7. Let them freeze for 15 min.
A couple notes:
Coconut oil melts at 76 degrees F. These are best left in the freezer until eaten.
Please keep in mind I am not a professional recipe writer.
These bad boys are huge. I have been eating half of them at a time. I’ll be working on a smaller version.
If you decide to make them, lmk how it goes. My 6 year old said they taste like Reese’s. I’m not confirming or denying, but they are delish!
Yours in Health!
Emily and Crew
So before I start talking about this delicious turkey chili let me just say 2 things:
1. I didn’t take as many pics of the prep process as I would have liked for this recipe. I was also making the carrot cake cookies and unfortunately they cast a huge shadow. Plus this is pretty much just throwing a bunch of stuff together!
2. Does anyone know where I can find the last item here on my grocery list???
So it was for reals -1 here on Friday. Perfect day for chili…I was using a different turkey chili recipe and it was my go to, but I decided to be brave! I found this one by searching simple turkey chili on Google. It is by a woman named Amanda and has become my favorite recipe after making it 1 time. Check out the nutritional info.
Click here for Amanda’s Recipe
I did change a couple of things, whoa I almost passed out typing that. Side note: 2 months ago I would have NEVER in a zillion years attempted to alter a recipe.
I sautéed my onions with my turkey and I had to use garlic powder because I was out of garlic ( I know right…that almost sent me over the edge) . I also let mine cook in the crockpot on low for a few hours. That is one of my favorite things about this recipe is that it is pretty versatile in how it can cook.
I was surprised at the flavor of this. I am a habitual under seasoner- it’s like a cooking disorder. I always get afraid that I’m going to over season and end up doing just the opposite. Proud to say I seasoned this one awesomely. I had enough left for lunch for everyone in the fam. And my little picky girl loved it! It was not too spicy at all.
Here are a few action shots:
My turkey and onions
My concoction waiting for said turkey and onion to be added ( I did drain the meat mixture before adding)
I topped mine with aged artisan cheddar from Aldi and plain Greek yogurt. Perfect for a cold winter dinner!
Hope you make it and enjoy!
Stay warm and healthy!
Emily and Crew
Before I share this amazing treat, let me just say my 7 year old despises all things carrots…except these cookies. But the thing is I’m totally ok with her eating these because they are delicious and healthy! 
I got this gem of a recipe from Amy’s Healthy Baking. This woman has an amazing collection of healthier options for those of us with a wicked sweet tooth. I first made these last week. They went so fast I had to make another batch!
Here are your ingredients. There is an egg in there too but it’s hiding behind the coconut oil. Make sure your egg is at room temp, cold egg + melted coconut oil can result in clumpy making for an unhappy baking experience.
Amy’s recipe asked for quick oats and I almost cried a river at the sight of these old fashioned ones…until she said on her site that all I need to do was throw these bad boys in the food processor! Whhhaaaat?!
I pulsed my ninja like 8 times and got
Quick Oats! Below are some pics of the preparation process. You are basically combining all wet ingredients
And all dry ingredients
And grate up a carrot to tossin there:
Then mixing them all together to get this:
Now is the important part! You must refrigerate your mixture for 30 minutes. Do not skip this step! You have been warned…also resist the temptation to eat the mixture before baking. It is amazing but results in a loss of freshly baked cookies.
I like to pat mine together in patties before baking, Amy suggests dropping them from a spoon. Whatever floats your boat!
Make sure to let them cool for at least 15 min before taking them off of the parchment paper.
Final product:
Here is a link to her recipe and site: Amy’s Healthy Baking.
If you try these, make sure to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!
Yours in Health,
Emily and Crew
I don’t want to over-blog here, but my 6 year old loved dinner. She is miss picky so I was psyched! I found this recipe on Pinterest. And have been making many meals from this site The place with all the yums! – click this link to find the recipe as well as many other ones.
Tonight I made Tuna Cakes. I grew up on salmon patties so I was excited to try these. The ingredients were simple! (Click on the link above, then meal plan 1) here is a pic 
I added the MW on my own…I known have no self control but just a tad for seasoning. And I always cook with dog leashes and new earrings nearby for luck!
Mine looked a little soupy so I added some….
Cornmeal to make them easier to shape. I cooked 6 patties in coconut oil. They. Were. Yum.
I thought for sure my very picky little love would hate them, but I was so wrong! She ate the whole thing! Here is a pic of approval.
I wrapped mine in a romaine lettuce leaf but the kids were able to just pick them up and eat them. They were awesome! I also paired mine with sweet potato fries because I was feeling kind of lazy. I think dinner tapped out at about 140-160 calories, but I was full! Thanks http://brokeandbougie.blogspot.com for this awesome 90 day meal plan and for this recipe!
Here is the recipe for the tuna cakes specifically: http://brokeandbougie.blogspot.com/2013/08/like-crab-cakes-but-with-tuna.html
(I just looked at her face, it looks confusing…I assure you she loved them! Lol)
Yours in Health,
Emily and Crew 
