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Friday, August 17, 2012

Vegan Brownies and a fun food shopping day

Dajia hao! How are you guys doing today? Well, I'm going very good, thank you very much. I've had a fun day. It was definitely more eventful than the rest of the summer days I've had since I came from China. I'll talk more about later in the post but for right now, I'll talk about my favorite thing: dessert.
Anyway, I made vegan brownies yesterday! Don't these look delicious? 


Well, they were! These brownies were very good. They are chewy but they are not dry, which surprised me. They have no fat in them. I ate them today and they still taste good and have the moisture. 
I've been looking for healthy versions of the foods I love, so I decided to try to make them. I love brownies, but I don't like how they have all the fat and sugar in them. Brownies have an unusually high amount of both. However, even though my vegan brownies have no fat, they are high in sugar. But, hey. Which sounds healthier to you? High fat and sugar or no fat and high sugar? You may say it depends on the kind of fat but oh well. At least these are healthier than the other brownies. 

And, guess what? They have applesauce and bananas in them. Now, aren't you guys surprised? It still tastes like a really good brownie too. So, now, here's the recipe. 

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup apple sauce
  • 1 banana, mashed
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
  2. In a bowl, mix together the apple sauce, banana and vanilla extract. 
  3. In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. 
  4. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. The batter will be thick. Then, add the chocolate chips if desired. 
  5. Pour into a greased pan and bake for 35 minutes. 
  6. Use the toothpick test to see if the brownies are done baking. 
  7. Let it cool and then cut into pieces. 
  8. Enjoy. :) 











I also made a shirt yesterday. But, I will post that tomorrow. It's a cute racer back shirt that you can wear to workout in. But, for now, you can hear all about my day today. 

So, I went around my university campus today with my cousin, who showed me around. After that, we went out to eat at L&L Hawaiian BBQ. Before I really got into health foods, I would order the chicken katsu, macaroni salad, rice and that stuff. That's at least half a day's worth of calories! But, now, they added healthier options. They have the healthy plate options and I ordered the garlic shrimp one. It came with brown rice and a salad. It was actually pretty good. I added soy sauce to the rice though. Here's a pic:

Looks delicious, huh? I was so psyched that they actually had a healthy menu! This was only around 270 calories. 

After eating this for lunch, we went to Sunflower Farmer's Market. My cousin goes there a lot and I've never been there before. He bought these organic baked apple cinnamon chips that I tried and they were delicious. I just had to buy it from there and I did. 

They had such a huge selection of healthy things! I was in heaven. Vegan, gluten free, you name it. They had it. Their bulk selection is really nice too! I love their salad dressing assortments and their granola bar assortments. I also love their snacks, cereals and everything! I had such a hard time choosing what to buy! I mainly wanted to buy items so that I can snack on them while I'm at school. The university food is expensive and I don't want to waste money buying their food. That's why I want to buy lots of snacks from here. Healthy snacks. Here's what I ended up buying:


I jut had to buy the apple cinnamon smiles cereal. It was just too cute! It's a generic brand but the nutrition isn't bad either.  As for the Clif Crunch Bars, I've heard good things about them. I've tried other Clif brands, including the regular Clif, Luna Bars and Mojo Bars. It's about time I tried their Crunch ones. For the Larabar, it said that the Banana Bread is a discontinued flavor. I don't know if it's true or not, but I bought one just in case it was. And, I've just heard many things about the Shirataki noodles. And, I've already told you guys about the apple chips.

Now, here's the pictures of the salad dressings and some other things:



So, what's your guy's favorite dessert?
Where do you like to go grocery shopping?
What are your favorite healthy snacks?

2 comments:

  1. Very impress with this non fat brownies. Going to give this a try. Thanks for dropping by my blog. Have a nice day!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for dropping by. I love reading your blog, especially with your Asian recipes. It reminds me of my own heritage, due to the mantou and other Asian pastries you make. I hope you have a nice day too!

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