My Dad and I made almond butter brownies together.  It was fun.  They have no flour so if you are allergic to wheat you can eat them.  They are sweet and also healthy because they are made with almond-butter which is full of protein.  When I tried to crack an egg I did it to  soft.  The next time I did it way too hard so half of the egg was in my hand and the other half went kerplunk into the mixing bowl! Instead of pulling the egg apart I just crushed the shell!  We cleaned it out and started again.

The brownies did come out great and they were delicious.  You should try to make them at home!

Here is the recipe:

1 (16 ounce) jar creamy roasted almond butter

2 eggs

1 ¼ cups agave nectar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½cup cacao powder

½ teaspoon celtic sea salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup dark chocolate chips

In a large bowl, blend almond butter until smooth with a hand blender 

Blend in eggs, then blend in agave and vanilla

Blend in cacao, salt and baking soda, then fold in chocolate chips

Grease a 9x13 inch Pyrex baking dish

Pour batter into dish

Bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes

Makes about 24 brownies

A holiday recipe that I tested for healthiness was sweet potatoes.  Every Thanksgiving my mom and my Tia (aunt) Celi make sweet potatoes, and even though I don’t like sweet potatoes I tried both of them this year so I could do a taste comparison.  My mom’s sweet potatoes were really sweet and sugary..they’re called candied yams.   My Tia’s were plain.  I found out my mom makes hers with lots of maple syrup, brown sugar, and butter.  Not healthy at all!   All  my Tia Celi did with hers was rub butter on the skin before baking them in the over.  Then you peel the skin before eating them….so pretty healthy.  I still didn’t like ether of them even though one was full of sugar. I would have to  say my Tia’s was definitely the healthy one!      

This month the cast was asked to take one of their favorite holiday recipes and try and make it healthier.  I thought I’d share one of my favorites to kick off December!

I’ve never been a fan of pumpkin pie, but I love other pumpkin flavored things – pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup – we even served pumpkin bread pudding at my wedding!  As I have no willpower when it comes to most holiday desserts, when I was given the recipe for “Pumpkin Fluff” by my friends mom, I couldn’t wait to try it! 

The best way to describe “Pumpkin Fluff” is that it’s like a pumpkin mousse.  It’s totally fat free, unless you put it in a graham craker pie crust (which does make it taste even better) and it’s got lots of calcium and antioxidants.  Here’s the recipe, enjoy!

Pumpkin Fluff

1 sm box sugar free/fat free instant vanilla pudding

1 cup skim milk

1 15 oz can pumpkin

1 8 oz fat free Cool Whip 

1 tsp pumpkin spice (to taste, if you want more)

Directions

Make pudding first, using 1 cup milk per box (not according to package directions)

Add rest of ingredients

Chill in frig at least 2-3 hrs. (can make it ahead)

*I usually sprinkle cinnamon/splenda mixture over the top lightly before I serve it)

This serves 6, but I double it cause its such a big hit!

Hi! My name is Jaye and I’m blogging about a Raisin Taste Test that I did. I held the raisin in my mouth for 1 minute. When I first put it in my mouth, it had lots of flavor and it was plump. As time went by the raisin started to flatten and the flavor was going away. By the end of 1 minute the raisin was completely flat and it had no flavor. My hypothesis is that in just one minute, I had sucked all of the flavor out of that raisin. I tested the raisin for a minute and that was pretty cool! Next, I think I will test other foods, like apples, lemons, and carrots for a minute and see what happens!

What foods will you try?