Thursday Thoughts from John Owen

“Set faith at work on Christ for the killing of thy sin.  His blood is the great Sovereign remedy for sin-sick souls.  Live in this, and thou wilt die a conqueror, yea, thou wilt, through the good providence of God live to see thy lust dead at thy feet.”

~ John Owen

Monday Thoughts

Food Fact Friday:Flourless Black Bean Brownies

Yes, you read it right, black bean brownies.  Undeniably odd sounding, but unbelievably moist N fudgy, with not a hint of "beany-ness" about them.  My Middle sister  first introduced me to them after finding them from an out-of-the-way source ( see end of post).  She made them and told me that they were "special" and that I should "guess" what the ingredient was.  I am known as the Food Sleuth at my house so I was more than happy to conduct what I hoped would be a successful investigation.  It was a Food Sleuth Fail.  All of my guesses proved to be wrong.  I finally gave up and was astonished to hear the answer of "black beans." 
I had heard of kidney bean, chickpea, and black bean flour (indeed we had used some ot those in our food science classes while trying to create a palatable gluten-free chocolate cake) but canned black beans? Really?

since te initial tasting I have made this recipe for numerous people (classmates, family and in-laws) and all agree that they are superb.  (note:  the only person who was not so keen on them was an individual who does not like fudgy brownies to begin with).   For those of you who are interested. these are gluten-free!

Below is the official recipe with the original pre-recipe comments.  I would encourage you to give it a shot an you just may find yourself surprised!  Enjoy!


Who knew black beans and brownies could go together? Apparently, Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts’ Culinary Nutritionist Julie Harrington did.

“I like creating food that people are used to but just with a healthier twist,” she says. “At Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts we have brownies on the menu! Eat brownies and still lose weight? Yup! It’s all about balance, whole foods, and variety.” Harrington adds that she likes to keep the black beans a little secret at first. “Offer these treats just as fudgy brownies because that’s what they taste like! It’s a great way to sneak in healthy black beans, plus gives it a little protein boost.”

With only 15 minutes of prep time, and 35 minutes in the oven, you can’t go wrong with this simple yet innovative recipe.

Shane Diet & Fitness Resorts: Black Bean Brownies (Serves 20)

Prep time: 15 min.; Cook time: 35 min.


Ingredients:

1 (15-oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
3 tbsp canola oil
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Coarse salt, a pinch
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
⅔ cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray an 8×8 pan with cooking spray.

2. In food processor, process black beans until smooth. Add the eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, vanilla extract, and sugar; process until smooth. Add 1/4 cup chocolate chips and pulse a few times to fully mix. Transfer the batter to the pan and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips on top of the batter.

3. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

Nutrition information per serving (1 brownie): 150 calories
4.7 g fat
22.7 g carbohydrates
4.1 g dietary fiber
6 g protein

Source: http://clubspa.spafinder.com/wellness-week-recipe-7-black-bean-brownies/

Food Fact Fridays: Breakfast Bars

 The original recipe from which these breakfast bars came was from Food Network’s Ellie Kreger RD’s cook book "So Easy" (see citation at the end of this post). Its’ original title was “walnut and dried cherry bars”….as you can see I changed them quite a bit! This is because I typically operate under the modus operandi “use what ya have." This guiding principle necessitates me to make numerous alterations/additions to recipes, making every occasion of using the recipe exciting as the outcome different every time! Since these bars freeze well, I have made a habit of making large batches, wrapping each bar individually in foil and then freezing them for use later in the school/work week.


Below is the original recipe with my own additions and alterations following. Enjoy some summer cooking!

Ingredients:
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (or just plain rolled oats is fine)
¾ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
¼ cup toasted wheat germ
1 tsp group cinnamon
¼ tsp Salt
½ cup Honey
1/3 cup Unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup Canola oil
1 Lg. egg, beaten to blend
1 Lg. egg white
¾ cup chopped dried tart cherries
½ cup finely chopped walnuts
¼ cup “fruit only” apricot fruit preserves
Cooking Spray


Instructions:

1—Preheat the oven to 350F.
2—In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, wheat germ, cinnamon and salt
3—In another bowl whisk together the honey, applesauce, oil, egg and egg white until well combined. Stir in the oat mixture until well combined. Stir in the cherries and walnuts.
4—Coat an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center becomes out clean, 30 – 35 minutes.
5—When the bars are nearly done, put the preserves in a small saucepan (or microwave) and bring to a boil. As soon as the bars come out of the oven, brush with the preserves. Cool completely and cut in to 12 bars, about 4X1 ½ inches each.
Makes 12 servings
Calories per bar: 230


Changes I made:
~ Made my own applesauce by microwaving 1 granny smith apple.... used about 1/2 of it
~Used fresh sweet cherries instead of dried tart cherries
~ Used Flax Seed Meal instead of wheat germ (note that this will brown the product more. When given a range of cooking time check your baked good after the shortest amount of time… in this recipe it is 30 minutes.
~ Added Whole Flax Seeds
~Used homemade strawberry jam on the top instead of the suggested the apricot preserve.


Citation

Krieger, Ellie. So Easy. Hobbocken, New Jersey: Wiley & Sons Inc, 2009.

Summer Cooking 1

Food Fact Fridays: 5 Minute Meal

This is probably one of the easiest meals you could ever make!  I am discovering all sorts of beautiful meals Tader Joes makes easy for me.  Thanks TJs! xoxo. ( in case you are wondering...that green leaf-idge is kale and not lettuce.)

Done and Graduated!

As of 11:10 am this morning, I will have turned in my last final and will be officially DONE with my Bachelors of Science in Nutrition with an emphasis in Dietetics!!!! As of June 10th at 8pm I will officially be graduated, after walking across the green and gold banered platform with my (fake) diploma in hand!

Done and Graduated! I can’t believe it! I can BELIVEEEEEVVVVEEEE it! Six years of college… full of growth, amazing experiences, special friendships and countless occasions of sleep deprivation.

One season ended and a new one has begun. Thank the Lord for His blessed provision!

What is Worth While

“This is the great danger……We must love our mothers more than Greek dialects.  If the instinct of daughter, sister, wife, or mother dies our of a college-bound woman, even in the course of a most brilliant career otherwise, the world will forget to lover her; it will scorn her, and justly.  If she does not make her surroundings homelike, wherever she is , whether she be a teacher, artist, musician, doctors, writer, daughter at home, or a mother in her household;  and if she herself is not cheerful and loving, dainty dress, gentle in manner, and beautiful in soul as every true woman ought to be, the work will feel that the one thing needful is lacking,--vivid, tender womanliness,--for which no knowledge of asymptotes or linguistics can ever compensate.  It is better for a woman to fill a simple human part lovingly, better for her to be sympathetic in troubles and to whisper a comforting message into but one grieving ear, than that she should make a path to Egypt and lecture to thousands on ancient Thebes.”

~An extract from What is Worth While written by Mrs. Samuel Linsay  (as quoted in the 1897 edition of the  Three Minute Readings for College Girls.

The Answer...

The silence has lasted far too long. It hasn’t been thanklessness that has hindered my fingers from giving updates. The delay began because I just didn’t’ know how to say it. I thought a lot about how I wanted to break the news. I even wrote down various rough drafts…some of which ended up stranded on a pieces of scrap paper at the bottom of my backpack while others still remain hidden in the back of a composition notebook where I had scribbled out an idea before class. After this first delay it was then the shear torrential momentum of this, my very last quarter in college that swept me along with very little time or energy for anything else. Until now, I haven’t had much energy to think of something clever or to even sit and type one more thing on the computer. So now I will abandon all attempt at cleverness and just say it ….


I got the dietetic internship! The one and only internship that I applied for.
As I have had more time to think about what this honor means for me in the next year, a host of emotions have accompanied the news. Amidst all of the happiness and uncertainty, I can whole-heartedly agree with Ruth Myers, author of 31 Days of Praise when she says…

“Thank You that I can move into the future non-defensively, with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead, for You hold the future and You will always be with me, even to my old age…and through all eternity.”’

~ Ruth Myers, 31 Days of Praise, Day 5

God has truly been kind!

20 Questions

It was the strangest game of 20 questions that I had ever played. For 15- 20 minutes, ten sets of eyes watched me as I gave the best answer I could to each other their two quires. It was the day that every applicant to a dietetic internship wonders about and tries to prepare for— interview day. It is the interview that appears (aside from the direct Providence of God) to be the final determiner of your acceptance into a dietetic internship (DI). It is the one chance you have to convince them that the resume, personal statement, GPA and letters of recommendation where all true and that out of the 100+ who applied you are one of the 14 interns they are looking for. It’s a bit of a dramatization but to some people, that is exactly how the game it played. 

So, what sort of questions did this game ask? Here is a sampling of the ones I encountered:

You are in a clinical setting and the patient you want to educate does not speak any English. There is no interpreter available. What do you do?


You are in hospital foodservice setting and the chef is not following the recipe. He substitutes peanut oil for the canola oil called for in the recipe. What do you do?


Describe a time you were criticized. What was it about and how did you handle it?


You are in a community setting and you are counseling a patient with heart disease who does not read at all. What would you tell the patient and what counseling strategies would you use?

I could continue on but you get the idea. While not impossible, the questions where challenging. At times I could feel myself hedging a question because I uncertain how accurate my specific answer would be. While I don’t think I did horribly, I also do not think I “nailed” it. Many friends have asked me what I thought of the interview. “It went well…I think,” is the typical response I give. I felt more confident with my answers right after the interview than I do now, a week afterward when the lapse of time has afforded me the chance to think about the questions more. But that is so often how it is isn’t it?

This entire process of summer internship research, fall internship selection, spring internship applications and now the interview process (notice it is not plural…I only applied to one) has been an incredibly challenging experience and a test on my faith.  Unlike many of my fellow nutrition soon-to-be graduates and Internship-Hopefuls, I am more intimidated by the thought of getting an internship than on not getting one. Terrible moments of fear have gripped me when thinking about an internship and all that it would require of me. Am I ready? Do I know enough? Can I handle the schedule? What if I got into it and hated it? These of course, are the wretched and often debilitating “what ifs” that God does not promise to answer nor offer grace for right now. I am speechlessly thankful for the persistent and genuine encouragement of my family, classmates and friends. God has been gracious in gradually affording me a quiet peace. 

Now that the interview is 7 days passed, I wait 19 days more until April 1st to find out what the clear, distinctive, will of God will be—yes internship or no internship. During that time I am going to wait with a smile, resting in who God has made me today and trusting Him who will fit for tomorrow.  God is good!

52 Living: V Day

52: Living: A Picture is worth a 1,000 Sniffs...

52 Living: Outside Computer Lab

Today marks the 1st offical full week of the Winter quarter...only ONE more to go after this! 

Friday Food Favs: YOGIDIP

YOGIDIP. 

It is the word that makes my heart smile. It makes a wonderful spread on sandwiches and it almost makes fresh vegetables taste better (although it is difficult to improve on a fresh purple carrot or a hydroponically grown cherry tomato)! One of unique features about this dip is that—as its name suggests—it is made out of Greek yogurt. Yes, the very delightful yogurt that is carefully strained in order to offer it a thick texture that is closer to sour cream than traditional runny yogurt. For a texture eater like me, thicker means better! While there is no hint of the "tanginess" of yogurt, it has all of the same "good bacteria" (a feature I thought some of you health-conscious consumers might want to know!).

I personally, have tasted the 3 out of the 5 different flavors and by far my favorite is the Garden Vegetable; however you like all things spicy than the Jalapeno cheese one is for you!

You can find this 7th wonder of the chip N dip world at Ralphs, Jensen’s, Henry’s....and other little markets like my university Farm Store.

52 Living:Snack Time

Celery, fresh yellow carrots, pita chips and Yogi Dip (stay tooned for Friday's post)

52 Living: Oopsy!

Other than ripped what title would you give this picture...? 

Hmmm... embarrassing perhaps?  Well, that was precisely the word that flashed across my mind as I discovered (at home) what had happened to my pants (at work).  Mortification indeed! Thank goodness for long work shirts!

52 Living: Stuffed Pepper Lunch

(Almost) after