Healthy Vegan Black Bean Brownies

My name is Danielle and I am a chocoholic. There, I said it. I LOVE chocolate. So much so that saying I "love" it is probably an understatement. Whether it be liquid or solid, ice cream or candy bar, milk or dark, cake or cookie butter, I enjoy whatever form it comes in to the very last bite... or lick. My borderline addiction has surely led to a few extra LB's, so I do what I can to avoid it. But as any other addict knows, quitting cold turkey isn't usually the most effective way to drop a bad habit. That being said, I try to practice moderation and sneaking it in to healthier recipes, which is where these brownies come in to play.

I will admit I was skeptical to try brownies made from black beans. Not that I don't like black beans-- I do-- but in a burrito, not as a dessert. And not with chocolate. The idea was intriguing though, and if the recipe wasn't too good to be true that would mean I could get my chocolate fix for a handful of calories while sneaking some nutritional ingredients into my diet. Who was I kidding, I couldn't get my oven mitts out fast enough.

After I baked my first batch of black bean brownies I was sold. I honestly could not tell there were beans in them and I was so impressed that I tried shoving them down everyone's throats before telling them the "secret" ingredient. However, I was a little disappointed after logging my original recipe and finding that the calorie count wasn't as low as I'd hoped due to the high amount of sugar and chocolate chips. So I played around with a few different recipes and found one that contained healthy ingredients, only 48 calories per brownie, and just happened to be vegan, too-- bonus! Check out my modified version below, and make substitutions based on your own diet or ingredients on hand. 

Adapted from Minimalist Baker
Yields 12 Mini Brownies
Ingredients:

• 1 cup black beans (about half of a 15-oz can), well rinsed and drained
• 1 large flax egg* (combine 1 tbsp flax meal with 3 tbsp water)
• 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil**, melted
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder 
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• heaping 1/4 cup baking stevia***
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp water or almond milk
• 1/2 tsp espresso powder (optional-- I like to add because it enhances the chocolate flavor)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Other topping ideas include (but are not limited to): PB2 or peanut butter, chopped nuts, almonds, dried cranberries, peanut butter chips, and more... get creative!

*1 egg or 3 tbsp egg substitute may be used
**Canola or vegetable oil may be substituted. I've even used applesauce with great results! 
**Granulated sugar or other sugar substitutes may be used

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare the flax egg by placing flax meal and water in food processor, pulse a few times, and let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Combine remaining ingredients in food processor and blend until completely combined. 
4. Pour mixture into a 12 cup mini-muffin pan or 11 x 7 pan
5. Allow to bake for 15-20 minutes. Brownies are finished when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Set pan on wire rack and let cool.
7. Dig in and enjoy!

Nutritional Facts:

Calories: 48 | Fat (g): 2.6 | Carbs (g): 5.9 | Protein (g): 2 | Fiber (g): 2 | Sugars (g): .4 

If you want to use the whole can of beans you can certainly double this recipe, I always just make this amount because I'm typically the only one who eats them (I knew I shouldn't have let Eric watch me make them-- he hates black beans). Also, because they are made from such natural ingredients, they tend to go bad within a few days, so this makes the perfect amount for me.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did! Comment below and let me know what you think and/or how you modified. Thank you so much for reading! xox

Skinny Pumpkin Cookies

 

As I've mentioned in one of my last posts, Fall is my favorite season. I adore absolutely everything about this time of the year-- particularly the fact that I have an excuse to indulge in anything pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin! This morning I made my first pumpkin meal of the season; Bethenny's SkinnyGirl pumpkin pancakes, and boy were they were amazing. I will be posting that recipe soon, too, don't you worry. The pumpkin madness didn't end there though, I mean I had to use up the leftover pumpkin puree from the pancakes! ;) So just a few hours later I began baking some "42 Calorie Pumpkin Cookies" (which were actually 49 cals according to my calculations) that I found on Pinterest (where else?). I put my own spin on the recipe though and added chocolate chips to a third of the batter, butterscotch chips to a third, and kept the other third plain. I had my bag of white chocolate chips out, too, but I figured I'd use those for the next time-- as I was sure there would be a next time just after test-tasting the batter. All versions were super tasty, but surprisingly I loved the pumpkin-butterscotch combo the best (I expected to like the chocolate chip version best... if you know me, you understand, if you don't, you'll come to.. my name is Danielle and I'm a chocoholic). Needless to say, this recipe did not disappoint, which is why I just had to sure it with you all. :)

Skinny Pumpkin Cookies

Adapted from The Realistic Nutritionist

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15-18 minutes
Yields: About 34 cookies

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 teaspoon almond extract (you can use vanilla if you prefer)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie  mix)
• Cooking spray

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
• Cream sugar, applesauce, pumpkin and almond extract together.

• In another bowl, or if you're like me, in the same bowl, mix flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spice. Once mixed, add to bowl with the wet mixture and combine well.

• Add chocolate chips or butterscotch chips to mixture (optional).

• Drop rounded spoonfuls of batter onto pan and bake for 15 – 18 minutes, or until browned.

• Enjoy!

Nutritional information per cookie: 49 calories, >1 gram of fat, 9 grams of carbs and >1 gram of protein. 
(I added these to MyFitnessPal-- you should be able to find them by searching Cupcakes and Corgis).


There you have it, 49-calorie pumpkin cookies that don't taste like cardboard, but rather taste extremely delicious. Not only are they lo-cal, but they're very easy to throw together. Hopefully you enjoy them as much as I did. 

And there is a lot more where these bad boys came from! I have several more healthy recipes on my radar, so look forward to more skinny-deliciousness in upcoming Motivational Monday postings. Use these recipes as a reminder that eating healthy doesn't mean having to break the bank, or sacrifice flavor or time. I hate, I mean hate cooking (baking is another story), so a majority of the recipes coming your way will mean minimal cooking time and easy prep-- although I can't promise the same for my baking recipes. Regardless, you can expect most healthy recipes I share won't contain 2334546 ingredients, take hours to prepare, or require you to buy high-end ingredients. I hope these recipes motivate you to make smarter meal choices and ease you into adapting to a healthier lifestyle. I will also be sure to include nutritional information with these recipes as well, just to make it easier in keeping yourself on track.

Thank you so much for reading, have a wonderful week! xox
 <3 Danielle

Healthy Turkey Chili

Between Spring 2012 and Spring of this year, I lost a total of over 30 lbs. A lot went into this weight loss, the key components being exercise and eating healthy. I've slightly discussed the exercise portion of my lifestyle change in previous posts, here's a little about the healthy eating part. One of my secret's to a healthier diet would be substituting high-calorie, fatty foods for healthier alternatives. My favorite swap? Ground beef for ground turkey. I have eaten so much Jennie O as a part of my diet that I'm surprised I haven't sprouted wings and started gobbling. That being said, it shouldn't come as a surprise that ground turkey is the star of tonight's meal.

Upon coming inside from the chilly, Fall weather this morning, I knew right away what I wanted to make for dinner-- Turkey Chili. Not only is it so delicious and healthy, but it's also super easy to prepare. And to top it off, it's one of Eric's favorite dishes. In fact, when I told Eric what I was making his eyes lit up, and he just walked over to the stove to get seconds. He's not into eating healthy-- it's just that good. If that isn't enough to convince you of the deliciousness of this recipe, I don't know what is. Did I mention that it's only 327 calories a bowl?

Turkey Chili

Makes 4 bowls
Adapted from Self.com

Ingredients

• 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 pound ground turkey breast
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, undrained
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Shredded reduced-fat cheddar to top (optional)

Directions

1. In a 2-quart saucepan (I use a large pot), sauté bell pepper and onion in oil over medium heat 5 minutes.

 

2. Add turkey and cook, stirring, about 5 minutes. 

 

3.Add tomato sauce, beans, and seasonings.

4. Stir well. Increase heat, stirring, until mixture comes to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. 

6. Ladle into bowls; top with cheese if desired.  

 Nutritional info: 322 calories per serving, 6 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 29 g carbs, 38 g protein
 

There you have it, the staple Chili recipe in the Smith-Woods household. Hopefully it's a hit in your house, too! Remember, you don't have to sacrifice flavor or enjoying your favorite meals in order to lose weight, sometimes you just need to give them a little makeover. Also, be respectful of serving size; eating the entire pot of this Chili kind of defeats the purpose of it being healthy. Making small changes like these in your diet can lead to big changes in your waistline. Happy cooking! 

xoxo Danielle

Friday is... Bride Day!

So we have Motivational Mondays, why not do Bride Day Friday?! Every Friday I'll post about wedding-related topics. Whether it be advice, thoughts, or rants, I'll supply you with the good, the bad, and the ugly that is sure to follow over the next nine and a half months leading up to my big day.

 This first post falls in the category of 'Good', I'd say. For my Fiance, Eric, and I's engagement party I wanted to bake the desserts myself. I found a picture of these adorable engagement ring sugar cookies on Pinterest (pictured above) and was inspired to try my hand at making them myself using a copy-cat lofthouse cookie recipe I had used for some Christmas cookies I baked (below).

These cookies turned out amazing when I baked them at Christmastime; soft, the perfect amount of sweet, and extremely addicting. I knew the cookie-baking part of this process would be easy, it was the decorating part I was slightly concerned about. The final product ended up turning out OK, but being the perfectionist that I am, I think they could've looked better. I did receive several compliments on how delicious and cute they were though, so as long as the guests were happy, so was I. Here is the Lofthouse Style Frosted Sugar Cookies recipe I used from Authentic Suburban Gourmet's blog, which was originally adapted from Recipe Secrets.

Ingredients:

For the Cookies:
6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sour cream (light or regular, I've used both with the same result)

For the Frosting:
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Black icing color
Clear vanilla extract
Wilson's silver shimmer dust

Directions:

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time beating until each is incorporated. Add the vanilla and sour cream and beat at low speed until combined.

Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Divide dough into two sections. Flatten into rectangles about 1 1/2 inches thick, then wrap with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator overnight or for at least two hours until firm.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.

Generously flour a work area and rolling pin. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2.5" round cookie cutter, or the 3.75" ring cookie cutter (which obviously cut down on the amount of cookies yielded), cut out shape and transfer to a baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until pale golden. Immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.

To make the frosting:

Cream together the butter and vanilla in a large bowl. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Once smooth and creamy, add in heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired spreading consistency is achieved. 

Because this makes a lot of frosting, I frosted all the cookies once they had cooled completely, but did not use all of the frosting. Then, with the remainder of the frosting, I added a couple drops black icing color until I achieved the shade of gray I wanted for the 'ring' part of the cookie. I transferred the gray frosting into a piped bag and created the circle and 'prongs' to create the base of the ring. I then mixed the shimmer dust with clear vanilla extract to create a sort of edible paint and used a fondant brush to paint over the gray ring portion of the cookie. This created a silver, or should I say more 'white gold', effect to the cookie.

Allow frosting to set, then store in an air-tight container. Let cookies sit for several hours before serving to allow the flavors to develop.

I really wish I had taken more pictures of these cookies (this is honestly the only one I have), but now I know better for next time. There are a few things I would do different if I had to make them again, such as cutting a smaller hole in my piping bag, or using a smaller tip to create a more precise shape with the silver frosting. I also would have waited to store them in the container until the frosting had more time to set, because as you can see some of the frosting flattened from the cookies being stacked on top of each other. Oh well, you live and you learn. 

This truly is one of my favorite cookie recipes, so whether you make them bridal-style or not, I'm sure you will satisfy your sweet tooth. Thank you so much for reading and enjoy!! :)

xox Danielle

I'm baaaaack!

I've slightly remodeled the blog, changed the title, and am still working on making the look match my vision. It is coming together, but that's the easy part.

Now for content! 

My goal is to keep this blog active, and with all that is on my plate with work, planning my fabulous wedding, playing 'housewife', volunteering, and trying to maintain a social life, there should be plenty of subject matter-- let's just hope there's enough time! 

So first I suppose I should explain the blog title. Cupcakes and Corgis is very reflective of me, as both subjects play huge roles in my life. 'Cupcakes' is representative of my love of baking. Whether it be cupcakes, brownies, muffins, or any other baked good, baking has always come quite easy to me and is something I love to do. It has become an outlet for me, a productive way of releasing stress and frustration. It is also a way of expressing myself and showing my love and appreciation. If it's your birthday, or any other exciting celebration in your life, and I love you, you better bet your bottom dollar that you will be receiving a cake, or most likely, cupcakes, from yours truly. 

The 'Corgis' part-- well that's pretty self-explanatory. Not only do I own two Pembroke Welsh Corgis that I love more than anything in this world, but they are my favorite dog breed. They have the most quirky personalities, full of love and kisses, but also sassy and stubborn. And then there's their appearance. Don't even get me started on the short legs, big ears, and little nubs where their tails should be. It's apparent I'm not the only sucker for these dogs, as anytime I take them on a car ride-- both their little heads popped out the same window, smiling at the cars passing by-- I can't help but notice the passerby's smiling and giggling at the two of them. I can't even begin to count the number of individuals, grown men included, who have stopped me on my walks with them asking what kind of dog they are, or where I got them from, how cute they are, etc. You know how they say a smile is contagious? I think Corgis multiply that process. ;)

Cupcakes and Corgis is all about lightheartedness and fun. They are both such little things in the grand scheme of life, but isn't it the little things that count? While Cupcakes and Corgis is the title, content will certainly not be limited to those two topics. You will find posts including everything from recipes to fitness routines to wedding planning tips. All of those subjects play a very large role in my life right now being a housewife-in-training, a runner currently training for my second half-marathon, and most importantly, a bride-to-be. ;) I want to pass on the tips and lessons I've learned the hard way to help make your life easier, and that is certainly not limited to cupcake recipes and how to train your Corgi (to be honest, I could not even slightly help you there... one of mine won't even sit on command). Life is more complex than that, so I don't want to limit what I post, I just want to share anything that I feel another person might learn from or be interested in. 

I hope you take an interest in what I post and that you learn a thing or two from what I share. Thanks for reading and I'll be posting soon.. promise!

xox
Danielle