Black Bean Brownies

Black Bean Brownies are rich, delicious and very chocolaty. I am showing you my ingredients so that you may know the truth. I cannot afford very high quality products all around, so I spend on what I must in order to accommodate my own intolerances and allergies, and save every penny I can everywhere else. the honey, cocoa, vanilla and black beans were as bought cheaply and on sale. 

I decided not to use the almonds in my recipe this time, and have decided that though I like nuts in my brownies, that this is the kind of brownie that ought to remain smooth and without crunch. 

Begin by straining and rinsing both cans of beans well. Then put them in the blender (this is a big recipe, and I have a big blender, you may need to half the recipe if your machine is small) It is best to wait to blend until you have added the wet ingredients. 

Add the cocoa, baking powder, salt and oats together in the blender atop the beans.

Pour in the oil first, so that the measuring cup is coated in oil and the honey doesn't stick when you measure it in the next step. It starts looking very pretty now, all the layers in the blender. 

the vanilla was sucked down right into the oats, see? gone before I could snap a photo. Those oats are thirsty! 

As a matter of fact, it is all rather thirsty. In order to persuade this to blend, you are going to need to poke holes down through the dry ingredients so that the wet permeate through. It needs to be done this way so the wet ingredients distribute evenly, and aren't sucked away to only mix with the lowest layers. You are going to need to stop blending, stir and restart again many times, but it IS worth the time you take. The consistency of the brownies are marvelous, and will be runny if you try adding any more liquid. 

I found this pic online here, I forgot to take enough pictures, but this is how the batter should look covered in chocolate chips. 

Pour the brownies into your greased 9x13 pan, using a rubber spatula to empty the blender and to spread the batter across the pan. Sprinkle the top of the brownies with the remaining Chocolate Chips.
When the brownies are finished give them some time to sit before you try to cut them. They are very gooey at first!

I stole this pic from someone else. This is a fine example of how your finished product should look when cut. 

This is my edited and doubled version of a recipe I found from Chocolate Covered Katie, who is adorable and has a great many good ideas for healthy dessert recipies.

Black Bean (No Flour) Brownies! 

3 cups black beans (2 15oz cans, drained and rinsed)
6 tbs Cocoa Powder
1 cup instant gluten free oatmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup honey (or maple syrup for strict vegans)
1/2 cup canola oil
4 tsp gluten free vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (it just does not taste right without them)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all ingredients except half the chips in a blender until smooth (you will have to stop and stir often to get it blended all the way through, but it's worth it for healthier and allergy friendly dessert!) pour into a greased 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle the remaining chips across the top. Cook for 17-22 minutes. Let them sit out and cool for a little while before trying to cut them, unless you don't mind having a gooey mess on your plate. Enjoy!

Print this recipe Here

Love and Allergy-friendly Kisses!

Jo Aich

Rosie Made a Pizza!!

My new neighbor has been teaching me how to interact with my children all over again. She is infinitely patient with them, and is always willing to take much longer in doing something so that they can both participate as much as they please. I am going to have to start meditating or something, with great focus on patience. 

It's a three-eyed, cheese covered pizza for the pizza eaters~ Is'nt it cute? 

My dear neighbor teaching Rosalee to knead dough, look how much fun they are both having! 

They also made little boots out of tin foil when Rosie grew out of her favorite frog rain boots.

From the Kitchen of Jo Aich

My owl looks over all the baking and cooking I try in this kitchen. If wood could speak, this one would be telling you all about my year of frustration and binging, and then about all the new things I have suddenly realized are going to help. Having good food that won't make my body hurt, or upset my emotions and mental capacity that I can look forward to eating? The more I keep atop this, the more everything changes. 

But not everything can be handmade.  I was talking to my sister the other day and she reccomended that I give a try to sweet potatoes. I found them on sale for $0.68 per lb. at a local store with great produce sales nearby, LoLos Fresh Food Warehouse. 

I have also found that many stores have begun carrying this Chex brand gluten free instant oatmeal. I really like Maple and Brown Sugar ones, although I do try to avoid this much sugar in general, it is a very easy thing to throw together in the morning when I'm still drowsy and unenergetic. 

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints. This Gospel has been key in my recovery from my addictions, and this temple has held true and current miracles for me in my life. 

If you'd like to know how this happened, or what goes on in these sacred places, find out here, or find out more information about my religion on http://www.mormon.org. 

I have had the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in my life, and I truly want others to feel it as well. If you feel weird about it, go to these sites anyway. You won't feel weird for long. 

Love love love and allergy friendly kisses, 

Jo Aich

Too ambitious, my dear Watson?

I have decided that my previous plan to put a new recipe up each day- was too much. I'll be keeping it to three a week at most.
Thanks for all the support!

Love and Allergy Friendly Kisses.
Jo Aich

Allergy Friendly Apple Crunch Recipe

I used the Apple crunch as a bit of a cop-out when I realized that I just didn't have the energy to make up another allergy-friendly dish and take pictures of the process. So I took some pictures of my plate and am giving this a "minimalist" try, to see what I think when there are less photos. 

My neighbors have a beautiful tree with four different kinds of apples grafted very successfully into the same trunk. Half of the tree is red and the other half is green. My babies and I love walking past their home just because of that amazing tree. It had a great yield this year and they advertised to the neighborhood that the apples were ready on a first come-first serve basis. I had my hubby pick a box full on the way home from work- and these are what was left after making several batches of apple crunch. 

I'm going to tell you how I made this. Then I'll give you the easy apple crisp way. 

Simple base for homemade gluten-free granola

I had some leftover homemade granola base that I decided to use. Here's how I made it:

This recipe has no wheat, soy, corn, white cane sugar, is vegan and high in protein. 

2 cups GF oatmeal 

1/2 cup honey  

1 teaspoon vanilla

You may decide you'd rather have a different flavoring in place of the vanilla, and if you'd like to add raw nuts or fruit, now is the time. Any already-roasted nuts or dried fruits are often better added after it's baked so they don't get too dry. 

Mixed all ingredients together in a big bowl, tossing until the oats are well-coated. Spread over parchment paper on a large jelly-roll pan. Bake on 450 in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden and hardened, removing to stir every five minutes or so. 

Apple Crunch

This recipe has no wheat, soy, corn, white cane sugar, is vegan and high in protein. 

I cut up 3 apples, added 1/4 cup each almond and coconut flours and tablespoon of coconut sugar and tossed it all together in a big bowl. 

I put the apple mix in a 8x8 square baking dish and poured the granola on top, about 1/2 inch thick covering the whole pan. 

bake at 350 for 25 minutes- the apples are still a little crunchy and the granola is on the browner side of done. It tastes wonderful. 

Allergy friendly Apple Crisp 

This recipe has no wheat, soy, corn, white cane sugar, is vegan and high in protein. 

The easy apple crisp recipe is an old tried-and true. I must have made it at least 50 times my freshman year of college, and this is just the allergy-friendly version. 

3 large apples cored and cut in thin slices

1 cup of GF flour mix  

1 cup GF oatmeal

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup butter/shorting/substitute 

toss apples with 1/3 cup of the GF flour and 1/4 cup of the honey. 

Spray your 8x8 square pan and layer the apple mix across the bottom. 

in another bowl stir together the remaining 3/2 cup GF flour mix and 1 cup GF oatmeal until combined. Cut in the butter/shorting/substitute and honey at the same time, and work over until combined into good crumbles. 

bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Best laid plans (mostly of mice)

I had meant at some point for this blog to become a place of healing and happy things.
It has become more of a venting place for my woes, I fear.

So, since things are going better and I'm getting my energy back since all the blood loss, I'm going to use you all as guinea pigs as I try something different.

drum roll please.

recipe blogging.

I'm going to need to learn how to write up directions, take careful account of everything I add to my recipes and take pictures that look nice (specifically of food, but this might apply to anything).

So, starting tomorrow I'm going to post one recipe every day (hold me accountable, guys, I really need the practice if this thing is going to happen), with pictures and with different formats.

I'll be experimenting with how a blogger goes about making their recipe easily printer-accessable.

I'll be copying different ideas from other food blogging sites on format for recipes, photos and how to do a write-up of the cooking experience.

I'm so excited I could blow a gasket! I hope I don't though. Since I don't have one and blowing the human equivalent seems... wrong. This is my plea. Comment as I experiment. Let me know what you don't like, specifically. Let me know if you really do like something a lot. Love and allergy friendly kisses, Jo Aich.

And yet there is Hope.

over the last several weeks I had put in a lot of hours preparing for a baby shower for a neighbor who has just moved in. Her and I hit it off and after talking for a bit I realized that she had not been thrown any kind of shower and that there were a bunch of big important and expensive things that they didn't have yet. So I made invitations with a note that let the neighborhood know her circumstances and what she was in need of, and then I started on decorations. I have found that you can save a lot of money by spending time. We did a sheep theme and made up a caramel apple bar. It was very rewarding. I got a great response in donations for a group gift and many women just came to the shower with the usual onesies and nighties and burp cloths that you can just never have enough of in that first year. Needless to say, it was awesome.

For a few days following up to the shower I started having pretty bad back pain. I mostly just made preparations while lying down and things were all right, but it was pretty distracting during the shower itself and the cleanup was very difficult. Yet, I saw the hand of my Heavenly Father all through that day, people showed up to help, young men just came on over to put up chairs and take out trash. It was a miracle to me on a day like that.

I didn't think much of it when I had a little spotting that night. It had been a wonderful, but stressful day. The back pain was worse during church the next day. I went through all the motions, just a little more slumped and squirmy than usual. When I got home, I found that I was bleeding more. Not a lot, just... definately not spotting.

I wailed. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am emotional. I was terrified. I looked online at a few credible medical sources and then called the on-call OB at the place where I hadn't even gotten in to see an ob yet and asked what I should do. The doctor I spoke to helped to calm me down and told me that if the bleeding didn't get any worse that he would make time to see me the next morning when the office was open.

I waited. He told me that it looked like everything was fine, but I could have an ultrasound if I wanted. I did want, but the news wasn't good. They didn't find any fetal pull. There wasn't a baby inside of me at all. They told me that it was possible that I had passed the baby already, or that there had just never been one that formed at all.

I have to admit- I have heard it before from a very good friend of mine- it does feel less awful to believe there wasn't a baby that was lost. But I still wept on the way home. When we got there I asked for a blessing. The priesthood is very real, and I have had the spirit of the Lord so strongly beside me since then.

I wish that was when it ended, but on Tuesday night I was spending a little time with my neighbor after the kids went to bed, and I felt a crazy gush *down there* and hopped off her couch. There was blood everywhere. I was hugely embarrassed.  I hurried home and changed, but I bled through that almost instantly as well. (I did have on pads, the good kind too... Always Infinity For the Win. It wasn't nearly enough)

I called into the on-call line again and went to the ER. There were very nice to me there. They got me back and in a bed pretty fast, the ER Doctor was fast and very helpful and they got me some pain meds when my body went through it's mini-labor. They kept expecting me to pass a very small baby. I didn't. They put me on bed rest for however long I kept bleeding and cramping. (I still am, I should be typing this from a prone position. I'm not)

While I was there, I had my husband give me another blessing. Again I was wrapped up in the Spirit of love and comfort.

I had to go in again on Thursday, because I was bleeding even worse than the first time, but I got to skip the ER and go straight to see an Ultrasound Tech. The bleeding had subsided again before I even got there. The news on the ultrasound was good. No cancers, growths or tears. Just a body doing it's really amazing job of working itself back into place without damaging all the organs around the area.

This whole week has been full of little miracles, most of which have not been so little to me.
-The baby shower? Almost everything about that day was a miracle, hundreds of little ones and one big huge one.
-The couch cushion that was bled on? no stain at all. My neighbor showed me so I wouldn't fret.
-Then, the first night I was bleeding, just as I got home from the couch incident I got a text message asking how I was feeling from my Relief Society President. I let her know the situation and she lined up several nights of meals to be brought to my home. Before anyone knew anything about bed rest.
-My good friend watched my kids last minute on Monday morning so that I could go to see the doctor alone with my husband. I know it was not a good time for her, but she made it work. She didn't know what was going on.
-My new next-door neighbor has come over every day for three days and watched my kids ALL DAY while my husband works so that I can sleep/lay down pretty much all the time. She was there to help me when I started bleeding again.
-Most notably of all, to me, is this: After three major bouts of grief, all before that first hospital visit, I have not felt a need for it. I have had closure and I KNOW that my heavenly father has been watching out for me.
-I haven't used my eating disorder to deal with this. I haven't even been tempted. My Birthday Miracle has stuck with me.

My faith in my Father in Heaven has grown so much this week. Letting him take my burdens is something I have done before, but even in the action it has felt abstract. This time it does not. My burden is very obviously being carried for me. I am so grateful for all of his gifts and for the love it must take for him to have brought to pass so many miracles and so many people in my life just now. I love him.

~Jo Aich.