Brownies a la bean

I really like using surprising ingredients that add a healthy twist to a recipe without compromising taste or enjoyment. After a couple of trials of a brownie recipe that included canned beans (original recipe from My darling lemon thyme) as its main ingredient, the below came out as my best version and voted as amazing by 100% of people. It's fudgy, sweet and delicious.

Brownie a la bean

1 tin of beans - white beans, black beans or kidney

3 eggs 

4 tablespoons oil - coconut or macadamia
1/4 c sugar

1/2 c Xylitol (starch based natural sugar)
1/2 c cocoa powder
1/2 c LSA (like almond meal but more cost effective)

3 heaped dessert spoons flaxseed meal (works to bind in the absence of flour)
1 t vanilla essence
1 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

Optional

2T espresso and 1T coconut flour. Coconut flour is like a sponge - so if your mixture is too wet this will bring it back (use sparingly)

Chopped chocolate

Nuts 

Whatever other tasty additions you like. You could also ice with the avocado icing from here

Preheat oven to 180 and grease a loaf pan or small square tin. Line with paper if you like.

Mix your dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
Tip beans into the bowl of a food processor and blend to form a smooth paste. Add all the wet ingredients to the beans and pulse to combine. Add sugar to bean mixture and combine.  

Pour bean mixture into a mixing bowl and slowly mix in the dry. Stir through whatever delicious additions you have.

Pour into your tin and bake for 30-35 mins - it should be a fairly wet mix. the top should spring back when done.
Cool in the tin

This is seriously good and you will want to eat it all.

Ricotta fritters

This is the recipe from the side of the ricotta pottle.  Ricotta is delicious, and I am hooked. This stuff tastes ever so slightly sweet out of the container so there will definitely be some ricotta desserts in my future.
I'm on the fence about these fritters. First taste they were a bit bland but lemon juice squeezed over the top and some avocado perked them up a bit.
Again another way to use up stuff in the fridge.

500gms of ricotta (or for me what was left in the tub)
Small handful of basil chopped fine
Handful of cherry tomatoes quartered
Two handfuls of spinach chopped fine
Clove of garlic chopped fine
Shallot (so fancy) chopped
1/2 cup of flour
2 eggs
Seasoning


Pop all the ingredients bar the flour in a bowl and mix well.  Add the flour and mix till combined. Drop in spoonfuls in an oiled pan. Once they were brown I left them on the side of the pan away from the heat for a bit, just to help cook through.
Serve with lots of lemon juice and avocado slices.


Hint when making fritters, pancakes or similar always do a test one first, this will help ensure your pan is the right heat and you get the hang of how the mixture will react in the pan. Plus it's always the first taste test too  :)

Below some more questionable mobile phone photography.

Pasta with salami, ricotta and vegetables

I've never bought ricotta before, and at the supermarket today whilst having a good peruse of the cheese section found a nice little pottle at a reduced price of only $3.  I do love my bargains, and the ricotta had a good six days to go till its use by date.  I happily popped it in my trolly along with some bocconcini and grana padano.

Once home and being peckish I decided to whip up a bit of an early dinner consisting of the following.  Use as much of the following ingredients as you need for the amount of people you have.  i.e I made enough for two servings.

Salami, cut into chunks and fry till crispy. Drain off the oil once it's almost done and add the tomato. Cook for a min or two longer then turn off the heat and stir through red capsicum, chopped basil, spinach and rocket, a tablespoon of ricotta (per serving).  Stir everything together
At the same time boil a pot of water and add (preferably home made) pasta, recipe here.
Once you're done, add a tablespoon or so of the pasta water to the mixture in the frypan.  Serve with a drizzle of lemon juice and some toasted nuts (I forgot these unfortunately on mine)