Black Bean Mousse Brownies

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY WEEEEEKENNNND! 

How are you guys? Did you have a fun Valentine's Day? Okay, maybe you were single and sad, but whatever. I'm sorry. :P I'm single as can be, and I honestly didn't feel sad about it on the 14th. *shrugs* Not that I've really been old enough to even qualify as a "single" for very long, so I guess I can't say anything yet. *laughs*

It's ok, y'all. There's hope. :P I'm actually doing a book study for this book, Love Defined, right now. The authors, founders of GirlDefined Ministries, are currently putting on a study of the book on their Instagram account. They've been doing a live video every day. So yeah, I'm hoping I'll become wiser. =D 

Anyhow, another thing I decided to do a couple days ago is go off of eating sugar. I have cheated... I mean, they offered me chocolate strawberries at work twice in a row. So I ate two chocolate strawberries. :P I decided dark chocolate DOESN'T count, so I've eaten 70-85% dark chocolate too. Also, savory sauces at restaurants don't count. I make my own rules, ok? lol.

So yesterday, since I'm off sugar, I decided to make a healthy dessert. The idea was brownies, but my creation turned out more mousse\pudding "brownie". Here's the recipe. ^__^

BLACK BEAN MOUSSE BROWNIES


15 oz can black beans

1\4 cup cocoa powder

1\2 cup walnuts

2 eggs

1\2 tsp salt

1 banana

4 tbsp butter, melted

1\2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp yogurt

2 tbsp maple syrup

1\3 cup water


Place all ingredients into a blender and blend well. Pour into a lightly greased 9"x9" glass pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 28 minutes. Let cool and enjoy! 

tip: combine some yogurt, maple syrup, and vanilla for a topping. Even better, whip some cream and sweeten it with maple syrup.

If you're not eating sugar, maybe you'll want to give this a try. It's good, and filling. You could even eat it for breakfast. :)

Also, if you did the survey in my last post thanks! If you haven't done it, it's currently still open. :)



WHAT'S UP? WOULD YOU TRY THIS RECIPE?

September Highlights

  September is over already! Fall is on the way as well- I'm enjoying the cool weather. :) 

  I had thought I might do a summer highlights post... but I don't think I will. 

   Here are my September highlights. :)

\\SEPTEMBER EVENTS

I helped in my cousin's wedding... 

...And I turned 16 that same day! :)

I returned home after over a month on vacation(s). 

Had my 16th birthday party. :)

My home school group co-op started. I'm taking three classes: essay writing, a trivia class, and art. :) Guess which is my favorite? Art, of course. ;) I've been painting, charcoal drawing (for the first time in my life, I believe), and all that. :)

Went to hang out with youth from my home school group and played "gaga ball". It was actually fun. :D

 Oh, started school. :P Fun, right? I'm currently in 11th grade. Yikes, I'm "almost" graduated already! Only one more year after this. Do you ever feel like yourself is growing up extremely fast? :P One day you wake up and realize your childhood is over. *sniff*

Fall came! :) At least for now. It's been blessedly cool lately. And some rain. I love the nights where you're hanging out outside and it's cool... like enough to make your hands cold. :) Just from experience the other night.

I'm on my way to getting a driver's permit... sort of. I'm reading the driver's manual, which takes a long time because it just isn't very interesting. :P I JUST NEED TO FINISH IT SO I CAN START DRIVING!! Er- take the test and start driving IF I pass. Let it be so. ;P 

  I had a dream the other night that I was driving... probably in a parking lot. And then I think I pushed the gas pedal instead of the brake and lurched toward the parked cars! Maybe I woke up after that. :P But that actually happened to me- I pushed the gas instead of the brake! Eek, scary! :P At least I was only practice driving and not on the road.

\\BOUGHT IN SEPTEMBER

  I thought I was pretty rich this month, and bought a lot of stuff. ;P

On the far right is the one thing I colored

  First of all, I got this lovely Godey's Fashions coloring book! I found it on ebay for like, maybe around three dollars? With free shipping, too. :) Click here to to see one for $3.49 plus free shipping, if you're interested in something to do while you're curled up by the fireplace with a cup of hot cider during the nearing cold days. :D Doesn't it look great, though?

    My Walmart has had lots of sales lately. I found this lovely scarf there for $3. :) The color is like mint green- my love. ;D This picture dulled the color, for some reason.

                

  The other thing I bought there on sale is this skirt, for $5. Isn't it pretty? I think it's kind of country-style, which I like. :)

   Here are a bunch of little things I've bought (from top-left): red lipstick (I should dress up 1940's, right? :D), green eye-shadow, and pink nail polish. The rest of the things, besides the feather ring, were all together for $2. They were on sale. Extremely on sale, because I think they were originally $11 or something. :P Who would pay that much?   

   And I bought The Inheritance (plus it has three other movies on it) for $5 at K-Mart. K-Mart had so many movies for only five dollars, and they weren't all junk (like at Walmart :P).

   I found this awesome mini pan at Goodwill ($1.59). I've cooked eggs on it. :D

  These last things are things that I just got... I didn't buy them. 

                     

    A wonderful birthday present from my sister! :) They are The Messenger by Siri Mitchell (my review is on my Book Reviews page :) ), a pretty journal, and this lovely photo album! I need to order some pictures from all my summer "travels" to put in it. :D

  I'm taking an art class in my homeschool group co-op, and I got this AWESOME sketch book! :) That drawing is my still-life drawing (what I had to do for home work). :P

\\CAKES OF SEPTEMBER

                                   

  I decorated my birthday cake, which many of you probably already knew. :)

  I made a cake with only wheat flour (because I couldn't find any white :P). Then I made a glaze for it. It was good, but you could definitely taste the wheat flour.

                                   

Then I made this cake, and decorated it. :) Good practice.

(the inside ;) )

       

      I also helped my little sister put together\decorate this cake. ;) (she made it.)

     Yea, lots of cake stuff this month. Oh yea, I helped with cakes at my cousin's wedding, which was this month (on my birthday), as well. I got lots of practice. One thing I've learned is that my hands are going to get full of frosting while decorating cakes. :P Probably just my messy-ness. 

\\WATCHED IN SEPTEMBER

It's a Wonderful Life

  

  I may not have watched this in September, but it was probably pretty close. :) Good movie.

                            

                                  

   The Inheritance

I watched this by myself on my dad's laptop, and I enjoyed it. :D

  Re-watched one or two other movies. :)

 \\READ IN SEPTEMBER 

  The only book I read this month was King, by R. J. Larson! It was really good! Read my review here.

  And now, I am currently reading The Captive Maiden, by Melanie Dickerson. :)

\\SEPTEMBER PHOTOGRAPHY ACCOMPLISHMENT 

    Star photography! :) See this post for the "details".

\\SEPTEMBER POSTS

 Here are the posts I've done this month:

Last Days of Summer, Stars, Spiders, and Bubbles

Book Review: King

My Trip to the West Coast, part 4: Lava Canyon

My Trip to West Coast, part 3: Mountain Hike

Sweet Sixteen

My Trip to the West Coast, part 2: The Reunion

No-Bake Fudge Popcorn Bars (cane sugar free)

 Another recipe! This one is like fudge no-bake cookies (I used a recipe for it as a guide for this stuff), but it's popcorn instead. Popcorn, peanuts, and shredded coconut covered in fudge-y chocolate. Yum. 

 It didn't seem to harden up like the no-bake cookies. That might be because I used honey instead of sugar, and I cut the butter... So I just put it in the freezer. ;)

NO-BAKE FUDGE POPCORN BARS

6 tbsp butter

3\4 cup honey

1\2 cup milk

1\2 cup cocoa

4 3\4 cups popcorn

3\4 cup shredded coconut

1\4 cup crushed peanuts

                                           __________

 Combine first four ingredients in a saucepan. Mix the other ingredients in a heat-safe bowl. (when measureing the popcorn, pack it down a bit. Doesn't matter if the popcorn gets crushed) 

Bring the saucepan mixture to a boil and boil for two minutes. Pour into the bowl mixture and combine well. Then pour it into a 9x9 pan and freeze. 

 ENJOY! ;)

 So yes, this was really good. :)

Double Chocolate Pan-Cakes

 

Double Chocolate Pan-Cakes

 

       2 C flour                                                                                 1 2\3 C coconut milk

       2\3 C sugar                                                                             6 T butter

       2 t baking powder                                                                  4 eggs

       1\2 t salt                                                                                 1 t vanilla

       1\4  C cocoa                                                                           3\4 C mini chocolate chips

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Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Stir into dry mixture. Add chocolate chips. Cook on a pan -over medium heat- the way you cook regular pancakes.

 

Enjoy with ice cream on top, or just plain. <3 

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 Hi, everyone! :) This is a recipe I made up yesterday. I used a normal pancake recipe for a model, tweaked some things, and made it into a dessert pancake recipe. Actual cake made on a pan. :) I did this before, with a chocolate cake recipe from a recipe book. This one is probably more healthy... it only has 2\3 cup of sugar, after all. ;)

Of course, you can use regular milk if you want. We didn't have any, so I used coconut. The recipes I make up are sometimes shaped by what's available. AND I used sucanat, which is natural cane sugar. Its brown, not white... I think it has molasses, so perhaps that's why.

Besides this recipe being easy and pretty fast, its also not very messy to eat; it's basically finger food, and therefore, good for packed lunches; eating in the car; and whatever else. :)

Oh, and if you pour a small circle of batter on the pan, it would make a little cookie sized cake- which would make this even more of a travel-friendly snack.

 

 Okay, I'll stop blabbering now, and present the photo gallery of Double Chocolate Pan-Cakes. ;)