Revelations

Diet desserts suck. End of story. I mean, how many years of trying to make "healthy" brownies will it take me to learn? Apparently at least 3. 

Ok, seriously though, I'm done making these fake desserts. With you all as my witnesses, from now on, if I want to bake something yummy and satisfying, it will be something that is actually yummy and satisfying. Not fat-free, sugar-free brownies. I won't even provide the link to these because I feel bad trashing someone's healthy blog ideas, but enough is enough. 

I am ALL for cooking better (I mean seriously why would anyone ever need to sautee an onion in 2 sticks of butter???) but for baking, you need some fat and sugar to make it good. I always end up making these desserts, and either eating 5x the amount necessary, or needing to eat something else to quell my sweet tooth. 

Dessert should be decadent, something you savor and drool over. So from now on, that's what I'll do.

So un-gooey and non-fudgy : (

On a MUCH happier note:

Wheatberry Oatmeal. Holy crap, this stuff is like crack. Or at least what I imagine crack would be like. I am OBSESSED. And it is unbelievably filling, I finished eating ages ago and am still a little uncomfortably full. If I was actually listening to my body I would have stopped eating halfway through the bowl but that would be blasphemy.

And to make this amazing-ness even better, this morning I melted in my Adora dark chocolate calcium supplement. Dark Chocolate Banana Wheatberry Oatmeal=heaven. 

And I just drooled on my computer, a little bit.

Chocolate Overload

There really is nothing better than the smell of  freshly baked chocolate goodies. That's what my kitchen smelled like today. I think that's what heaven must smell like also...at least I hope so.

Since I had double the occasion to bake today (Amy's birthday and my mom having some friends over) I decided to make cookies AND brownies. I spent the morning browsing recipes and came up with:

1) Double Chocolate Cookies (from Treasury of Home Baking). These were really, really good. All my friends loved them. It was a little time consuming, and they turned out super thin and sort of stuck to the baking sheet. After they were done cooking, the recipe said to dip half in melted chocolate, but the cookies were too fragile so I ended up just drizzling chocolate on top, which worked perfectly. They did take a really long time to set-up, and since they were so thin they sort of fell apart on me. The taste, however, was great. 

The cookies took a while to make because the dough had to set for half an hour in the fridge so I made the dough, put it in the fridge and while that was chilling I made the brownies. The timing worked out really well.

2) Chunky Chocolate Brownies. I used toasted hazelnuts. I wish I hadn't. I'm actually not a huge fan of hazelnuts (I think they have sort of a funny aftertaste) and these would have been better with walnuts---or nothing at all. The texture was great, they were really fudgy and good, and next time I make them I think I'll omit the nuts entirely. They're really rich and chocolate-y and though the recipe says it makes 9, I got 16 decently sized brownies out of them.

So today was filled with way too much chocolate (including a few too many m&m nibbles, and a slight devouring of some chocolate-raspberry birthday cake) so tomorrow will for sure be a "back on the healthy boat" day of eating. No new recipes unfortunately though because nobody is going to be home for dinner at the same time and there are still leftovers in the fridge.

These treats were definitely a great indulgence--especially those chocolate cookies!

Fridge inventory.

MMM. I couldn't agree more with your sweet potato assessment, they really are amazing! That chicken looks pretty good to, another thing to add to the "must try" list. So much to cook, so little time!

So last night we hardly had any food in the house, as we just got back from vacation. Something had to be done about dinner though, obviously, so I threw together what turned out to be a pretty yummy affair. I found some fresh lemon pepper pasta I had in the freezer (I never used to get fresh pasta, but I almost swear by it now, its really great), so I cooked that up. Then I heated some olive oil (EVOO as Rachel Ray says in that annoying voice AH) in a medium frying pan, added some minced garlic, crushed, halved cherry tomatoes, and the juice of 1/2 lemon and sauteed that for a few minutes. Then I added a few pieces of chopped basil and a few handfuls of fresh spinach, let it cook for a few more minutes, and dupped it in with the pasta. After a generous smattering of parmesan, salt, and pepper, it was all set. I had put some asparagus up on the grill (with just a smidge of olive oil, s&p) so that was added to the plates as well. It turned out to be really good, I must say, and it was more than easy. And it was made from stuff already in the fridge! Always a plus.

Dessert was obviously part of this picture as well. As it had been a stressful day, I figured something insanely chocolatey would be necessary. So I made "supernatural" brownies, from a New York Times recipe I had cut out of the paper a while ago http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/dining/111brex.html?em&ex=1177905600&en=c469827842fe6568&ei=5070
They were amazing! I of course added atleast a cup of chocolate chips (and omitted the walnuts, but I'm sure they would have only added to the glory). Needless to say, these were the perfect remedy to a hectic day, but I should warn you: if you plan to eat less than 3, you had better be well armed.