Today was a super busy day of doctor appointments, pharmacy pick ups, post office, laundry, dishes, potty training our puppy, and a lot of cooking. I'm beat. I started the day off by cooking a big pot of black beans and a big pot of chick peas. I had soaked them over night so that they would be all set this morning. I bagged them up and froze them in two cup increments.
My hubby had requested that I make another batch of the semi-homemade baked beans that I had made for our son's birthday party. I made them this afternoon. I think that next time I will eliminate the one can of store bought baked beans and do the entire thing from scratch. I also tried out using different beans with it today. Instead of lima and kidney beans, I used small white and black eyed peas. I was just saying yesterday that we need to use up the black eyed peas. I made a batch of them and froze them but had no idea what to use them in.
Then I moved on to dessert. I made a pan of brownies. I wanted to make something that I could incorporate some of the raspberries and black berries that we had picked yesterday. I took the recipe that I like for raspberry filled brownies from Eat at home cooks and made a few changes today. 2 sticks of butter (I used vegan sticks), 4 eggs. Well, let me stop there. I only had three eggs so I looked up a substitute. What do ya know. Silken tofu is an egg substitute and I actually happened to have a container of it in the fridge! I decided to use 2 eggs and substitute tofu for the rest. It is 1/4 cup of silken tofu per egg. Ok, 2/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 cups sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, 1 cup flour, and 1/2 tsp baking powder. I was going to try to cut back on the sugar a little bit but I was worried that I would need it to balance out the tofu. Melt the butter then stir in the sugar, eggs (and/or tofu), and vanilla. Add the cocoa, flour, salt, and baking powder. Stir. Pour half of the batter into a 9x13 greased pan. The recipe then calls for 3/4 cup raspberry pie filling (I made it that way a few months ago and it was great). Today I skipped the pie filling and just topped the batter with 3/4 cup of the fresh raspberries and black berries that we picked. Then top the berries with the rest of the batter. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
I called the kids in for a snack. I asked if they wanted smoothies. Of course they did! I added the rest of the silken tofu, some milk, vanilla, raspberries, and pineapple. My son asked for strawberries in his too. They loved it and had no idea there was tofu in it. Score!
For dinner I wanted to make it something quick because I was tired of being in the kitchen. I figured we could have some of the baked beans and just grill up some veggies. I couldn't stop pulling veggies out of the fridge. Ha. My hubby grilled up red/green/cubanelle peppers, red onion, red/purple/sweet potatoes, asparagus, broccolini, yellow squash, zucchini, and shiitake mushrooms. For dessert they could choose between a brownie or a mini angel food cake topped with fresh berries and cool whip.
I was a little surprised with the results of the food today. My son will normally eat beans but doesn't really "like" them. He actually liked the baked beans! Yay! However, he didn't like the raspberries in the brownies. What? He can't be my child. My daughter said the brownies were ok. She prefers a wetter brownie. She liked the baked beans though (no surprise from my bean lover). My hubby liked the baked beans and said the black eyed peas went well in it. Score number two! Looks like I found a use for the rest of the bags of them. He said the brownies were good but a little soft and crumbly. As for me....I thought the beans turned out great. They were very sweet (which I like) and I like that I can play around with whatever beans I have to use up. The brownies. Ahhh the brownies. I don't know what is wrong with my family. I think the brownies are great! No problem. Just means I get to eat the whole pan. Ha!
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