Discover how delicious healthy food can taste!
BREADS & BAKED GOODS
If you love decadent, fudgy brownies, but don’t want to spend an entire day’s fat-and-calorie budget on one chocolate treat, put aside your skepticism about the surprising ingredient in this recipe and give it a try. Puréed canned beans are the “magic” ingredient. They replace half of the butter, with canola oil standing in for the remainder. Additional fat-trimming techniques include: substituting cocoa for some of the chocolate and two egg whites for one of the eggs. For whole grain benefits, we swapped white flour for whole-wheat. The result: a brownie with fewer than 100 calories and one-forth of the saturated fat of the traditional recipe. And, the best part: no one will guess that this is a healthy brownie!
Spring is a great time to get outside and re-energize your exercise routine. As you take to the trails to walk, run or bike, tuck one of these bars into your pocket for an energy-boosting treat. They provide slow-burning carbohydrates for refueling your body, as well as protein for muscle repair. The bars are easy to make—they don’t even require baking—and taste so much better than any bars you can buy!
Whether you follow a gluten-free or wheat-free diet or not, these lemony fruit muffins are a special treat. I have replaced wheat flour with 3 gluten-free products: almond flour, brown rice flour and cornmeal. Almond flour contributes a rich taste and helps tenderize the loaf, while cornmeal provides an appealing texture and color.
Lots more recipes coming soon!
Whole-Wheat Irish Soda Bread. Irish soda bread is one of the fastest and easiest homemade breads you can make. The ingredients can be mixed together in just minutes and you don’t have to wait for the dough to rise. It also lends itself beautifully to the nutty taste of whole-wheat flour. Enjoy it as a healthy tribute to Saint Patrick’s Day, for breakfast, teatime, or as an accompaniment to a bowl of soup. This simple formula lends itself to numerous delicious variations, which are listed below.
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Baking sourdough bread is really more of a lifestyle than just a recipe. Certainly it is a commitment, but learning to make this bread delivers rich rewards. Once you taste it and savor the fabulous crust, you will be hooked and want to bake on a regular basis. Once your sourdough starter is ready, the entire process of making dough and baking loaves takes 2 to 3 days, but there is very little active time involved; mostly it is just baby sitting while the magic of sourdough develops incredible flavors from a simple mixture of flour and water (plus a little salt). This recipe is adapted from Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson (Chronicle Books). Click here for how-to photos.
