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!

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...