Take something and make it "better"

So there's an adage, "if it's not broken, don't fix it..." However, there's nothing in that statement that says, if you want something more, go make it better!!!....So I'm sharing my brownie recipe from a girl from college who told me that brownies from a box are gross...and i believed her and I've been making this recipe for years!...I don't know why, but I share this recipe with others in the past, and they can't get it, so I don't know...I've changed it a bit to suit my current tastes and new knowledge that I've picked up along the way...so my recommendations are to look for products like these to substitute and increase the nutrition in your brownies and add flavor at the same time:

• Nut flours (i.e. Almond Flour)
• Coconut Flour
• Whole Wheat or Whole Grain Type Flours
• Nut Oils (La Tourangele has an excellent line of nut oils to add flavor)
• Palm Sugar or Agave Nectar to keep the GI of the dish down without using artificial sweetners
• Add citrus zest to add more flavor and depth to your chocolate based desserts
• Experiment with coriander, cardamom, and nutmeg to add more layers of flavor to your baking
  

The point of this post is not to show off a great brownie recipe, but it's to demonstrate that with a little information about healthier ingredients, you can take something that is already good, and make it "gooder!!!!" by using healthier and flavorful ingredients!...

Jameson's Brownies


Dry Ingredients:

• equal portions whole wheat flour and almond flour to make 3/4 cup
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp sea salt (or 2 small pinches)

Wet Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp of water
• 3/4 cup of Palm Sugar (this sugar has a lower GI than regular sugar and just as sweet)
• 9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (60% or higher)
• 1/3 cup walnut oil (butter substitute)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract (use real extract in lieu of imitation)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Sherry Wine (Harvey's Bristol Cream)(or Baileys or Kahlua or Godiva Liqueurs)
• 1/2 Tbsp Orange zest ( you want the orange smell from the oils)
• 2 large eggs, brought to room temperature (this is key to make sure you're add ingredients together at relatively the same temperature)
  

Pre-Heat your oven to 325-degrees, line a 9x9 or any other baking dish of comparable size with parchment paper so that you can easily take it out afterwards with no brownies sticking.

Mix your dry ingredients. Measure and sift your flours and add the salt and baking soda. Set aside

Take a sauce pan and add to it the water and sugar and bring to a boil. When the caramel starts to bubble, add your walnut oil. When the mixture is boiling, turn off the heat and add chocolate and stir into mix. When the chocolate is completely melted, add vanilla, sherry and orange zest mix into chocolate.

With an empty heat proof bowl and a silicone heat proof spatula, pour the chocolate into the bowl. Crack eggs into a separate bowl and make sure no shells go into the mix. With a whisk in hand, add the eggs to chocolate and whisk quickly to prevent the eggs from curdling. Add dry ingredients and whisk into chocolate mixture until just incorporated (try not to over whisk to keep the brownies moist instead of chewy). Pour mixture to baking dish and heat on 325-degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. It's important to set your time to about 15 minutes and then check it periodically to prevent burning and thorough cooking in the center.

Remove and allow to cool. Cut and serve with "Agave Dream" Vanilla Ice Cream (low GI sugar used to make ice cream)

Serves 9
Be GREAT, One Meal at a Time!

Add some spice in your life...Creatively Make Something Your Own

So as far as cooking is concerned, it's not about how well someone can follow a recipe, it' really how well you use the recipe as a guide to make the dish reflect who you are and what you want to express to other people...this concept is common throughout the creative art world - you take a technique and then add your personal touch...you mix and match the best of what you like from a couple of different dances and turn the mix into your own unique dance style...you combine different types of music - classical and techno for example - come up with your own brand of music...the same rings true in cooking...as my mother used to say, you use "a recipe" as a guide and then you add your own personal touches to make it your own...so here's an example:

From my cookbook, "Mediterranean Food of the Sun", the "Bananas with Lime and Cardamom Sauce" recipe calls for limes, butter, a strange foreign sugar...and since I'm a health conscious kind of guy, I replace the butter for Almond Oil, the strange foreign sugar with Palm Sugar that helps keep your blood sugar levels low, and continue to use limes or lemons...But here's where I put my spin on it: I add cinnamon to the mix to also aid in lowering blood sugar levels and a another layer of flavor, and then I want to add another fruit to the mix, so I diced some pears to add contrast in flavors and textures with the bananas, and then for another layer of contrast, as Emeril Legasse puts it, "I kicked it up a notch" by adding a dash of cayenne pepper which leaves a very mild heat on your palette that makes you want to crave for some vanilla gelato!!!!...

And what do you have???...a completely different dish from the cookbook that is similar but now is completely my own because i used the recipe as a guide and put my own personal creative touches to express who I am and what I want to impart on whomever I'm going to serve it to...

So here's my recipe as adapted from the cookbook I am using for you to try and enjoy:

"Be Great, Bananas with Lemon and Cardamom Sauce

• 6 small bananas - sliced lengthwise and in halved (now you have 24 pieces)
• 1 Pear - cored and diced into 1/4" pieces
  
• 4 Tbsp of Almond Oil Extract
• 1 tsp cardamom-powder
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 cup flaked/ slivered almonds
• Half a Large lemon, to zest and one 6-inch peel for garnish
• 1/4 cup Palm Sugar or Low GI sugar substitute
• 2 Tbsp Dark Rum

-In a saute pan, add half the almond oil and bananas and saute until golden brown. Make sure you leave them alone to allow the sugars in the bananas to carmelize and give you a crust...As Tyler Florence says, color means flavor...Add half the cinnamon and distribute evenly throughout the bananas. Once golden, remove and place in a heatproof dish.

-Use the same pan and add the remaining Almond oil and almonds and cardamom until almonds are golden-pay attention because the almonds will brown fast and will burn on you if you're not watching them.

-Once their brown, add the palm sugar and lemon juice and lemon zest and allow the sugar to carmelize...reduce the heat, and add remaining cinnamon and cayenne pepper and continue to stir to incorporate.

-Take the pan off the stove and add the rum (you must do this to avoid uncontrolled flame outs), continue to stir...add the diced pears and cooked bananas and turn off the heat and fold the fruit into the sauce, careful not to break the bananas.

-Return all of the mixture to the heatproof dish...take the lemon peel, and twist and garnish...serve with vanilla ice cream/ gelato.

this should serve 6 people

Be Great, One Meal at a Time!

Want to feel better about yourself and your life-8 steps to bring your life into focus

There are times in our lives when what you see, hear, and watch determine what we think about life...but that's A$$ BACKWARDS!!!!....YOU should be determining what you think about life and live YOUR life accordingly with what you VALUE!!!...so how do you get back to thinking about what YOU think is important instead of what other people tell you what is important????....follow these 8 steps and start them NOW and try it for a month:

1) READ from a really good book 15 minutes a day (The Secret by Rhonda Byrnes, The Money Book, Young, Fabulous, and Broke by Suze Orman, Rick Pitino or Lou Holtz Business coaching books, a book that stimulates your way of thinking)

2) Turn off the "Electronic Income Reducer" AKA your T.V. to be effective with your precious time...

3) Stop listening to the radio in the car and put a great book audio CD in your car and listen to it in your car!

4) Read less newspapers

5) ASSOCIATE with Like-minded, POSITIVE people...this will indirectly inject more POSITIVE energy into your life through association (join a club, team, group of people who have common goals and beliefs as you do that makes you feel good about yourself after you meet with them)

6) DRINK more WATER...take your weight divide by 2 and that is the number of OUNCES of water you need to drink...i.e. 192/ 2 = 96 OUNCES of water = 12 cups of water to drink per day or 3 full containers of my 32 oz Nalgene bottle

7) EXERCISE - do whatever - gym, riding you bike, walking, pilates, swimming, whatever...be more physically active

8) 15 minutes of REFLECTION: on what you want to do with your life, where you want to be with your life, how to improve areas in your life that make you feel bad...while you're in the shower, when you wake up/go to sleep, taking BART/train/bus, whatever...think about your life and how you can make it better...

Try these 8 things for 1 month and see how you feel, how you look, how you think, and how your life is going...if you like what have, try it again for another month and see what happens...if you don't, then that's okay too...Bottomline is to take control over your life and your thinking and your future as best we can...and if we can have a feeling of more control over our lives, then that's a GREAT start to having more meaningful lives...