Chickpea Cookie Dough Update.

I went away for the weekend and left MJ alone in the house.  I came back to find this:

I'm gonna go ahead and say the chickpea cookie dough was a huge success.

Chickpea Cookie Dough!

As you know, I love cookies. 

A lot. 

But it's difficult to eat cookies when you are trying to live a healthy lifestyle.  Don't get me wrong, I do still eat cookies, but if there's a healthy alternative out there that still tastes yummy, I'm ready to try it.

I've previously tried Almond Butter Cookies and Chewy Mocha Brownie Cookies and Dessert Nachos.  All were relatively successful and, if you're going to eat dessert, these are great alternatives to the unhealthier counterparts.  So I'm always willing to try a new dessert and when Pinterest led me to this Healthy Cookie Dough, I knew I had to try. 

This recipe comes from a girl who calls herself "Chocolate-Covered Kate" which I think is French for "we should really be friends since we both seem to like healthy-versions of desserts."  Call me, Kate.

Anyway, when I saw this recipe it literally had my name on it.  I mean, my name is Julie Chickpea.  And I love cookies.  Match made in heaven.  Sorry MJ.

So Kate lists out ingredients that you should use, but in true Julie Chickpea style, I only used what I had. Which is how I think all recipes should work. If you don't have it in your fridge/pantry, forget it. It will still taste good.

So here's what Kate said to use:

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas or white beans (1 can, drained)
• 1/8 tsp plus 1/16 tsp salt
• tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup nut butter (You can get away with using only 3 tbsp. If you use peanut butter, it’ll have a slight “pb cookie dough” taste)
• up to 1/4 cup milk of choice, only if needed
• Sweetener (anywhere from 2/3 cup of brown sugar to 2 or 3 packets of sweetener, liquid sweetener, etc.)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 2 to 3 tbsp oats

Then you put it all except for the chocolate chips in a food processor (NOT A BLENDER) and then add the chips and eat it.  She gives a lot of good suggestions for dippers also. 

But here's what I really used:

• However many chickpeas we had left from our Can Salad dinner.  Probably about half the can.
• 1/8 salt
• No baking soda.  Didn't have it, and I wasn't going to buy it to add "a tiny bit over 1/8 of a teaspoon."  Sorry, Kate.
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup almond butter (because it was more fluid and therefore easier to stir than peanut butter)
• 1/4 cup fat free milk
• Note: this made it very thin.  I would probably not add milk next time.  However, after leaving the dough sitting in the fridge overnight, the mixer thickened and there's no problem anymore.
• 1 tablespoon Stevia
• a handful of 65% cocoa chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons oats

Now the problem is that we don't own a food processor or any type of electric mixer, except for a blender.... but my BFF Kate says absolutely no way should you use a blender.  MJ was also using the blender to make himself a smoothie. So I made the executive decision to to smash the chickpeas by hand/fork and stir in the rest of the ingredients using an old fashion bowl and spoon.  Grandma Chickpea would totally approve.

I think the results came out great, considering I was making it up as I went and opted not to use any technology in the mixing.  MJ and I ate this by the spoonful as a light, quick snack/dessert.  Almost like licking the spatula when Momma Chickpea bakes for me, minus the risk of salmonella.  It doesn't taste exactly like cookie dough but it definitely doesn't taste anything like chickpeas.  We have a ton left, but when this runs out I'd definitely be willing to try it again.  Maybe I'd use a food processor next time.  Maybe.

Thanks Kate.  I love you.  So call me, maybe.

Chickpea Cookie Dough!

***UPDATE***: http://chickpeasandcottagecheese.blogspot.com/2012/06/chickpea-cookie-dough-update.html

Can Salad... and can you make chickpeas taste like cookies?

Hey, what's up?

Hungry?

I'm not.  Because I ate a delicious salad.  I call it "Can Salad" because it requires the opening of a lot of cans.  I used to call it Steak Salad and I still could call it that, but I feel like the new and improved "Can Salad" title is much more fitting.  Because essentially, you can open up cans of whatever you have and put it in your salad.  I'm made this steak salad so many times that I don't even follow the original recipe.  This time, I used:

• Romaine Lettuce
• Chickpeas
• White kidney beans
• Red Kidney beans
• Chopped cucumbers
• Chopped tomatoes
• Broken up pieces of whole wheat pita chips
• Steak (cooked on the stove, seasoned to your liking)
• I know what you're thinking now.  Julie, you eat a lot of red meat.  You're so right, reader.  And I rarely eat red meat and never order it in a restaurant.  I just happened to pick two recipes with steak and blogged about cow parts two days in a row.  I blame the quinoa.  Please forgive me?  I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise.  Okay great thanks.

Dressing: Sweet Relish.  I do not like pickles and I love this relish stuff.  Perfect light dressing.  Even MJ only used the Relish as dressing without adding anything else.  If that's not enough for you though, you can add EVOO or some red wine vinegar.  Or both.  Or make up your own dressing.  You, too, can ignore a recipe just like I have done many times!

I'm pretty sure the recipe is also supposed to call for corn, but after I opened the three cans, MJ said we had enough and we will save the corn for something else.  Any ideas?

my beautiful Can Salad!

Speaking of too many beans, we have a very large amount of left overs.  Most of the beans, veggies and meat we will use for lunch or left over salads, but I saw this recipe on pinterest for chickpea cookie dough, so the remaining chickpeas are definitely going to sacrificed for the sake of science... aka I'm dying to see if you can really make chickpeas taste like cookies.  Please stay tuned.

Day 71

So I'm trying something new this week.  Instead of picking out a set day everyday, I picked out 6 dinners that I plan on making, and listed them here.  Now each day I'll pick a dinner and blog about how it goes!

Monday Morning Weigh In:
I was dreading this morning's weigh in.  Mostly because I know how bad I was this past weekend.  I was not surprised to see the number went back up 3 pounds.  However, my percent body fat went down about 5%.  I guess this means I'm actually gaining muscle!  Once I realized this I was no longer sad to be back at 5 pounds from my end goal. 

Today for breakfast I had my go-to englishmuffin/pb/banana with 3/4 cups of milk.

For lunch I had a salad with lettuce, chickpeas, cucumbers, tuna, tomatoes, broccoli, and some cheese.  I used a little balsamic vinaigrette. 

For snacks, I had 2 cheese sticks, some granola, a SKINNY caramel machiatto from starbucks, a little "whoopie pie" also from starbucks, and some smoothie that MJ made after work.

For dinner, I really wanted to make the Eggplant, Kale and Penne (since we still have so much left over pasta) but the grocery store is still not carrying eggplant!  I guess it's out of season?

I skipped ahead and made a Maple Soy Salmon, found in the "summer bbq" section of the best of clean eating cookbook.  Now I know I often make fun of the clean eating editors, but this recipe is a simple hit: marinate salmon in 1 tbsp pure maple syrup and 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce.  Grill.  Eat.  So easy.  Thanks editors!  

Since it is not warm out, I broiled the salmon instead of grilling it, and served it with brown rice and edamame.

The only change I would make would be to marinate the fish longer and use the extra soy-syrup as a sauce (we just used soy sauce alone).  

For dessert I had - you guessed it - a vitamuffin top.  Yum!

Week 4, Sunday (Day 64)

Monday Morning Weigh In:

I lost another half pound this week.  That means I'm only 2 pounds away from my goal weight.  I'm also 2 days away from finishing the meal plans in the book.  

Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 chopped apple, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 cup low-fat milk; 3 egg whites

This morning's breakfast was pretty good.  I ate the apple as a whole apple instead of spending time chopping it up.  The oatmeal was decent with the cinnamon.  I upped the milk to 3/4 cups and instead of 3 egg whites had 1 hard boiled eggwhite.  Very filling.
  
Snack 1: 2 tbls natural almond butter, 1 whole wheat English muffin

This was a nice twist on my normal "go to" breakfast.  I think I like peanut butter on an English muffin better than almond butter on an English muffin, but it wasn't bad at all. 

Lunch: 1/2 cup edamame, 3/4 cup wild rice; 1/2 cup blueberries with 3/4 cup yogurt

I vote this meal in the "strange" category.  When I went to prepare this lunch in the morning, I was disappointed to see that MJ selected a package of edamame that expired the week before.  I could see that the edamames were brown and slimy inside.  I ran to the grocery store and went right to the customer service desk.  They let me replace the edamames, but all the fresh packages were expired or dated today (I advised the customer service lady to take the bad edamame off the shelves) and so I had to get frozen edamames.  This only required a little more effort on my part in the morning, but I definitely like the ease of using the fresh, shelled edamames.

Instead of wild rice, I used microwavable frozen brown rice.  Way easier since I had to spend more time with the edamame.  I threw in some soy sauce as well to add some flavor to  my otherwise boring lunch.  


I never got around to eating the yogurt or blueberries.  Whoops.


Snack 2: 1 sliced banana with 1 tbsp natural peanut butter wrapped in 1 whole wheat tortilla; 1 handful unsalted almonds

Another snack similar to my "go to" breakfast and lunch, but different.  This was a pretty good snack, but could definitely use a big cup of milk!  


I also had 1 mini Reese's Peanut butter cup.

And a free iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts (SO MUCH BETTER THAN STARBUCKS!)

And 2 beers at happy hour.

Dinner: 3 oz grilled pork chop (replaced with chicken thighs), 1 cup torn romaine lettuce and 1/2 cup chopped cucumbers with 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 1/2 tsp evoo; 1 cup cooked black beans; 1/2 cup cooked quinoa

MJ and I don't eat pork, so we replaced the pork with some chicken thighs.  I ended up broiling the thighs so they would cook fasted.  We also didn't have any black beans, so we used a can of chickpeas instead, which went well with the "salad" side dish.

This was my first time making quinoa.  My mom warned me to rinse the quinoa a few times before I cooked it to get off the "yucky" taste.  Rinsing quinoa is kinda tricky because it is so small!  I need a strainer with smaller holes!  Mom also suggested throwing fresh, raw garlic bulbs into the water while the quinoa was cooking to give it some added flavor.  I think the final result turned out very successful!

 

Looks good right!??!?! It was super filling and I would definitely make this meal or some combination of this meal again!     


The only negative thing was the amount of dishes I used making this meal.  Good thing the rule in our house is whoever cooks doesn't have to do dishes!  Thank you, Michael Jordan.

Also, I didn't go to the gym today, but Mr. Fitbit says I walked 12,419 steps (5.35 miles) and burned 2,152 calories!


Also, I now have over 3,000 blog hits!  Thank you for reading my blog!!! Maybe one day my blog hits will surpass my fitbit steps.... maybe...

Week 2, Monday (Day 17)

Breakfast: 1 whole wheat English muffin with 2 TBLS peanut butter, 1 banana
This is one of my favorite breakfasts.  I used to eat this before I let a cookbook tell me what to eat.  I am pleased.


Snack 1: 4 whole wheat crackers, 1 oz low fat cheddar cheese
My only complaint here is that I bought shredded cheese (for last week's meal plan), so shredded cheese is not that easy to eat on a cracker.  The thought crossed my mind to microwave the cheese and make some "nachos" but I was too lazy.  


Lunch: Tofu & Edamame salad (5 oz sauteed firm Tofu, 2 cups romaine lettuce, 1/2 sliced red bell pepper, 1/2 cup edamame, 1 oz low-fat jalapeno cheese, 3 tbls red wine vinegar and 1 tsp evoo)
Tofu.  I cooked up 5 ounces of tofu last night so they would be ready to eat today.  It tastes like nothing.  I ate lunch with my friend who said it looked like I was eating chicken, but my salad was pretty pathetic.  Despite the pathetic review my salad received, it was very filling.  I was glad that I bought that 1 ounce cheese stick last week because the other half was exactly what I needed today.  The first item I've gotten that's actually been portioned correctly!  I would probably never pack this salad for lunch again, but would consider eating tofu again.  But probably served warm.


Snack 2: 1 apple, 1/2 cup chickpeas
I went to a meeting at 5pm and came face to face with my biggest fear: a plate of soft, delicious looking, fresh, chocolate chip cookies.  They looked so inviting and welcoming and good.  I took out my apple and stared at the cookies as I munched away at my healthy snack.  I owe myself an almond butter cookie for having such great will power!  I never got a chance to eat my chickpeas.  Sorry dudes.  I ate an almond butter cookie as soon as I got home.  I earned it.


Dinner: Farro Risotto with Wild Morels, Asparagus and Truffle Oil; 4 oz grilled chicken.  
If this dinner was a chapter book in elementary school, it would not pass the five-finger-test.  Farro?  Morels? Truffle Oil?  Google time. 

Farro.  Like Pharaoh?  Does this have anything to do with what's currently going on in Egypt?  Google tells me that Farro is something like rice or barley.  Google also tells me that my grocery store doesn't carry Farro.  I check out the recipe and decide barley is the closest substitute.  I call MJ:
"Hey could you pick up some barley on your way home?"
"Ok.. where do I find it?"
"It should be in the rice aisle."
"Oh, not with the lettuce?"
"No... it's like rice, not produce."
Much to my delight/surprise, MJ came home with the barley.  


Morrels. Google tells me these are mushrooms.  I buy two kinds.


Truffle Oil.  I don't need to google this one to know it's not worth buying a whole bottle of oil to use 1/4 teaspoon.  I'll pass.


I created this risotto and it was pretty good.  My only complaint is how much time it too and how many dishes got dirty in the process.  It sure looked pretty though:

Time to prepare for tomorrow's meals!  (What an exciting life I lead....)

Week 2, Saturday (Day 13)

Breakfast: 1/2  cup 5-minute uncooked oats mixed with 3/4 cup 1% cottage cheese and 1/2 cup sliced strawberries
Just when the oatmeal starts to bubble over in the microwave, I realize the meal plan says UNCOOKED.  What? You want me to eat uncooked oatmeal?  Will I get salmonella?  Then you want me to mix the uncooked oatmeal with a cheese clumpy mixture?  No thank you.  Plus, I've already cooked my oatmeal and cleaned the microwave and now I'm late.  And I'm tired.  100 calorie starbucks drink?  That sounds way better than cottage cheese.  Maybe next time.


Snack 1: 1 handful unsalted almonds, 1 grapefruit
I literally brought a grapefruit in a bag with me to a meeting I had today.  How the heck do you eat a grapefruit?  I really should have bought the pre-cut kind from the grocery store, even though it was more expensive.  I google "how do you eat a grapefruit?"  They suggest using a knife and a spoon.  Shoot.  I don't have either of those, so I eat my strawberries from breakfast and the almonds.  Except I really brought the cocoa almonds instead of the plain almonds.  Raise your hand if you're surprised.  Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  That's what I thought.


Lunch: Citrus Protein Salad (2 cups romaine lettuce, 1 hardboiled egg whites, 1/2 cup chickpeas, 2 tablespoons unsalted sunflower seeds, 1 clementines with 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp olive oil); 1 pear
Only upon typing up this blog entry did I realize I was supposed to eat a pear today.  Whoops.  When I went to throw together this salad, approximately 3 minutes before I had to leave, I saw that it called for hardboiled eggs.  Whoops again.  When was I supposed to make those?  How about a little heads up here, editors?  I'm already 0/3 on getting the meals right today.  The rest of the salad is mediocre.  There was too much dressing.  The sunflower seeds and the chickpeas were the only parts I liked.  Salad fail.


Snack 2: 2 low-fat string cheeses, 10 red grapes
Super easy snack for a day on the go, but mark me down as 0/4 today because I never packed the red grapes.  All 10 of them stayed sitting in my fridge (with seeds).  How did I manage to skip all my fruit today?  Maybe I'll be able to open this grapefruit....  Does anyone have a knife?


Dinner: Roasted Eggplant & Kale Penne with Pine Nuts and Feta; 4 oz grilled chicken
Alright, meal plan.  You're telling me to make this fancy meal and there's no corresponding recipe.  What gives?  I do some grunt work and figure out that this meal is really on page 88 of the cookbook.  Thanks for the help, guys.  Perhaps you should consider having an editor edit your work?  I'd be happy to do so for you, for a small fee.  Also, this meal serves 6.  Again, there are two of us.  I cut the pasta serving in half and leave all the remaining ingredients as they are so MJ will have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  The recipe calls for 1 bunch kale.  But how much is a bunch?  At the grocery story they are sold in individual stalks.  How many stalks make a bunch?  I guesstimate and pick 3 big stalks.  Once again, I wish the editors gave some portion guidance.
Besides the standard editing glitch, dinner was one of my favorites so far, which is ironic because my family has a distinct negative opinion about kale generally.  My only complaint was that I had to be doing 300 things at once to make sure everything was ready for dinner on time:
(1) roast the pine nuts (don't let them burn)
(2) bake the eggplant, stirring halfway
(3) cook the pasta
(4) sauté the kale
(5) grill the chicken
No one particular task was difficult, but together I felt like I was Speedy Gonzalez (with my assistant Slowpoke MJ Rodriguez).

We put the chicken on the George Forman and that came out pretty cruddy.  Luckily the pasta salad really didn't need any additions.  Without the chicken, this meal is only 215 calories.  But that's for a 2 ounce serving.  Hmm.  I whip out my new fancy-shmancy food scale and weigh my second helping of dinner.  3.25 ounces.  @#%&! I guess I had more like a 500+ calorie dinner.  Considering how many things I accidentally skipped today, I think my bonus calories are okay.  Better than eating a bonus 500 calorie cookie.  Or candy bar.  Or ice cream sundae.  Ahh I have to stop myself before I eat my foot.