Black bean brownies

Hold on to your hats!  This recipe is a little strange.

I heard about this at my weight watcher's meeting in Randleman, NC.  A bunch of old southern ladies in a Methodist church basement trying to lose weight in the land of fried foods.  The leader said these were good so I made them and was pleasantly surprised.

You'll need:

package of regular brownie mix
Can of black beans
food processor
9 by 13 pan
cooking spray
adventurous attitude

First step: drain the beans and rinse them really well.

Put beans back in can and fill with water.  (Not a whole can of just water, but water + beans to fill the can.

Pour the beans and water into food processor or blender and give it a good whirl.

Add brownie mix.

Pour into greased 9 by 13 pan (or a smaller one if you want thicker brownies).

Bake according to package.  Mine baked at 350 for 25 minutes.

The end result: dense, chocolatey, a little flat, but worth the 5 points for a 12th of the pan (which is a pretty big square!)

Like my pretty plates from Mom & Dad Spence?

And I promise, they don't taste like beans!

Popcorn cake

This is SO good and only takes about 10 minutes to make.

It is a similar recipe to rice krispie treats- carb, butter, marshmallow= YUMMY

Here's exactly what you will need:

1/2 cup popcorn (as measured before popping)
1 bag miniature marshmallows
6 tablespoons butter
teaspoon salt
handful of chocolate chips or other sweet bits (Reese's pieces, M&M's, etc.)

You will also need a bundt pan or 9x13 pan, sprayed with cooking spray.

First, pop your popcorn.  I used an air popper, but you could also use some canola oil and popcorn heated in a large pot.

Then, melt the butter and marshmallows together.

Let the mixture cool for a little bit before adding popcorn in order to avoid deflating it.

Stir it all together and add some candy bits!

Pour and press into bundt pan with greased hands.

Let cool before removing from pan.

Close-up

ENJOY!

Maple Pumpkin Pie

This pie has two great fall flavors- pumpkin and REAL maple syrup.  Plus, it is sugar-free!  (plain white granulated sugar-free, that is) Check it out.

Maple Pumpkin Pie:

pie crust
can of pumpkin (small)
1 1/4 cup half and half
2/3 cup of real maple syrup (none of that Aunt Jemima or Eggo BS)
3 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
splash, big dash, or mini-bam of flour (I guess 1 teaspoon-ish)
all those spices that smell like Thanksgiving:
     1 tsp each of: cinnamon, nutmeg
     1/2 tsp each of: ginger, salt
     itsy-bitsy pinch of: cloves

Mix all the ingredients well.  I added cream cheese, just because I had it.  It was cold, fat-free cream cheese which did not dissolve into the batter and left chunks of white goo in the pie.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't look pretty.  RH asked if it was marshmallow pieces..... which has got me thinking about a follow up pie recipe.

Anyway, bake at 350 for an hour.  I did not pre-bake the pie crust or anything fancy.

Here's how it looked:

Piping hot outta the oven!

The maple syrup gave the top a sugar syrup sheen.

Got a piece on a plate while it was still hot (hence the melting whipped cream).  It smelled too good to wait.

And next thing I know, about 24 hours later there is a 1/2 inch slice left.

Green Tomato Spice Cake

Got the idea for this from a lady at the farmer's market in Willamstown.  I had forgotten about it until I saw green tomatoes here in Asheboro.  I decided to go out on a limb and try it.  It was SO good.  It has a similar flavor to a carrot cake or spice cake.  Very moist and super tasty!

Here we go:

1. Dice green tomatoes.  You will need 4 cups.  Place the tomatoes in bowl with 1 tablespoon of salt.  Let sit for 10 minutes and then rinse and drain.

Tomatoes- I might chop them into smaller pieces next time.

2. Cream together 1 stick of softened butter and 2 cups of sugar (you could probably reduce the sugar if you want).

3. In separate bowl, combine 2 cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1 teaspoon baking soda.  Stir in 1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup of walnuts.

4. Add dry ingredients to the creamed butter/sugar.

5. Stir in tomatoes.

6.  Pour into greased and floured 9 by 13 pan.  The batter will be very thick.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Serve plain or with cream cheese icing.  

Jessie's Naner Loaf

This is my first attempt at a 100 PERCENT FROM SCRATCH CREATION.  It went something like this: too lazy to research a recipe, so I made it up along the way.

Here's my inspiration: I bought bananas with the good intention of eating them in a healthy way.  A week later, they are soft and covered in brown spots.  The only solution: bake them into a more unhealthy form: banana bread!

Ingredients:

stick of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
3 almost rotten bananas
about a teaspoon each of cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder (I didn't know which to choose, so I used both!)
handful and a half of pecans

Cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs and bananas.  Add spices and then other dry ingredients.  Bake for an hour at 325 degrees.

This came out pretty good!  I really like the cardamom in it.

Not-Pumpkin Pie

I wish I had taken pictures of this while in progress, but it was an experiment.

This pie is made with butternut squash instead of pumpkin.  You first have to cook the squash.  I used a pressure cooker to make the squash for dinner the night before and had some leftovers.  After the squash is cooked, it needs to be pureed in a food processor.  Use enough to make 1 cup of puree.  This was about 2 small butternut squashes (probably 1 large). 

Make a pie crust or be lazy and use store bought, like I did.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

For the pie filling: combine 1 cup of squash puree, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup evaporated milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and a pinch of salt in food processor.  Pour into pie shell and bake for 10 minutes or until crust is browned.  You may need to use a pie crust shield or some foil to protect the crust from burning.

After 10 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.  Bake for 50 minutes or until set.  Cool and serve.

This was much better the next day after it had cooled overnight in the fridge.  Very similar to pumpkin pie, very custardy and very delicious.  Enjoy!

Bonus picture of our new place:

Rice Krispie Treats with a Twist!

It's hot out!  I hate having to turn on the oven and heat up the whole house.  This dessert can be made on the stove-top in just a few minutes.

We've all made regular rice krispie treats, they are a classic!  This recipe shakes it up a little bit.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter
10 oz. mini marshmallows (one small bag), reserve some for on top too!
3 cups rice krispies
3 cups cocoa krispies
chocolate chips or melting chocolate (about 1/4 cup)

Instructions:

1. Melt butter and marshmallows together in large pot.

2. Remove from heat.

3. Stir in cereal.

4. Press into greased 9 by 13 pan.

5. Sprinkle with marshmallows and melted chocolate.


Let cool and cut into squares!  ENJOY!

Strawberry Poke Cake

I just made a new cake! ... and it uses strawberry jello!


Jello is a pretty waspy food.

Strawberry is a good summer flavor.

And to top it off- cool whip!

This is a total wasp cake, just in time for summer!


To make this you will need:

cake (white or yellow), follow directions on box. I needed to add water, oil and eggs to my mix.

box of jello (I used small box, but you can use bigger size for more strawberry flavor)

cool whip

fresh strawberries

You may be able to find a lower calorie/lower fat cake mix, or make the cake with a can of diet sprite to lower the points. This cake is about 6 points for a 12th of a 9 by 13 pan. Not TOO bad.


First, make the cake batter according to package directions and bake.



Meanwhile, prep the strawberries that will go on top of cake when it is all done.


When cake is done, let it cool for a few minutes before the REAL fun begins.


Here's the fun part: poke holes in the cake with a fork or toothpick. This will allow the jello to seep down into the cake.


Mix jello packet in 1 cup of boiling (or almost boiling) water.

(yes, Royall really does walk around with the guitar like that)

Pour hot jello liquid over cake.

Let cool in the fridge for a few hours.

Top with cool whip and strawberries.



Cut up and serve for your 4th of July celebration! The jello lines kind of look like the stripes of the American flag!!!

Pineapple Angel-food Cupcakes

So I've joined Weight Watchers for the billionth time, and I lost a couple pounds the first week!

Therefore, the WASP foodie will be under-going a WW makeover. This doesn't mean the blog will only feature celery and frozen diet TV dinners. It just means that I will include (mostly) WW friendly foods AND I will include points values for my recipes.

If you've done Weight Watchers before, you may have heard of this one. 1 can of pineapple, 1 box of angel food cake mix. YUM!

You will need:


angel food cake mix
20 oz crushed pineapple (including juice)

and your choice of...
cupcake pan and liners (makes 24)
loaf pan (makes 2)
or an angel food cake tube (makes 1)

Since variety is the spice of life and since I only have 1 cupcake pan, I made 12 cupcakes and 1 loaf pan.

It doesn't get much easier than this. If Cass had opposable thumbs and wasn't lazy and aimed only to sit on my dark-colored clothing, I bet she could bake these.


First, empty out the cake mix and pineapple into a bowl.


Mix by hand or with electric mixer for a minute or so. That angel food mix will pull some weird chemistry on you and get all foamy.


Pour into cupcake liners or whatever kind of pan you are using.



Follow the box directions for time and temperature. The cupcakes took about 15 minutes and the loaf was about 35 minutes. I made the mistake of not carefully reading the package directions. I used dark non-stick pans which required a lower temperature. The result was darker and slightly sunken-in funky shaped cakes. No worries, they still taste great!

a lil powdered sugar never hurt nobody

see the funky loaf shape? hmmmm....

Here are the points values, DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

One cupcake is ONE point!

An eighth of the loaf pan is TWO POINTS!

If you use the whole batter in a different cake pan, an eighth of that is FOUR POINTS!

Not too shabby, eh?!