Not-so-cool beans.

I am utterly exhausted right now.  But in a good way.  It's not so much the "Uuuugh, I'm so sick and tired of life" kind of exhaustion, but rather the "I actually got off my arse and did things today!" type.  I am perfectly content with spending the rest of the afternoon up here in my room, typing up the rest of this blog and maybe starting yet another book (I'm currently reading two -- a book about feminists of the 21st century along with a sci-fi.  About to start a memoir.  Lawlrandom).  Oh, and listening to the breeze outside.  It's 75, sunny, and just all-around gorgeous right now; however, my watery eyes and itchy nose are telling me that I should probably stay in here for the rest of the day.

Anyhoo, as cheesy as it sounds, today reminded me of why my life is worth living.  There may not be anything about my life that's particularly interesting at the moment, and there may not be anyone in my life who really cares about me right now (in fact, there are some utterly shit-tastic people in my life right now whose mission is to get as much as they can out of me, all while pretending to be my friend.  No names will be mentioned), but I'm still getting things done and moving along in my life.  They're not.  And, when I graduate next summer, they'll still be doing what they're doing today -- mooching off of other people and deceiving their way through life.  Pahahaha.

*Ahem*  Okay, slowly working my way back to the topic of food...

 In terms of exercise, this weekend has been great.  Yen Yoga had free classes all week to celebrate their second anniversary, so I signed up for Bikram Friday and Saturday morning.  MAN, is hot yoga ever intense!  I loved it, though.  Even though it's an unbelievably intense workout, it leaves you feeling surprisingly calm and serene.  In other words, it's the exact opposite of running, which leaves you (well...me, at least) panting and achy. Sure wish I could afford a membership there...Bikram seems perfect for those who enjoy a good workout, but need some sort of stress-relieving activity as well.  With all the scheduling drama going on between my three jobs, life is getting a bit stressful.  X_x Ugh.

Oh, and speaking of running...I had a little adventure of sorts the other day.  See, there's this two-track at the end of one of the streets in my neighborhood that I've always wanted to explore.  I ran down there the other morning, crossing my fingers and hoping that I wouldn't run into any random axe-murderers while in the woods.  Well...I was in the woods for a grand total of two minutes before encountering another road.  X)  I followed this road and found...a totally normal-looking street, with average-looking houses.  Maybe even a boring dog or two.  Not the most exciting of adventures, but I did find a nice loop to jog around, so now I have a new route to take in the morning.  

I went back there this morning and, after showering, hopped on my bike and went down to the drugstore.  I live on a hill, so getting back home kind of sucked.  X_x Hence me being exhausted.

...And now for the food!

Well, CCK posted a recipe for chick pea blondies the other day, and I was intrigued.  Healthy, gluten-free, high-protein blondies?  Too good to be true.  I had to try it out.

Um...it was too good to be true.  Sorry CCK; better luck next time.  X)  The batter was so dry!  So dry that well, it wasn't even really batter...more like chunks of chickpeas and sugar.  Egh.  Adding a tablespoon of water helped; however, as soon as they came out of the oven, I took one look at the pan and knew that they were going to crumble everywhere before I even had a chance to get them out of the pan.  As you can see...that's pretty much what happened.

Then it was time for Black Bean Brownies, Take II.  I almost had it!  They were fantastically fudgy, wonderfully dark, yet...barely chocolatey.  At all.

W.T.F.

See, the black beans make it seems like these things are a LOT more chocolatey than they actually are -- even after adding 4 tbsp of dark cocoa powder, you could barely taste the chocolatey goodness.  =(  I'm not sure if I'd add any more cocoa powder, although the addition of about 3/4 cup of dark chocolate chips seems like a good idea for next time.  ;)

Here's the blondie recipe I mentioned.  Hehe, she's so funny...I based my brownie recipe off of this one.  Adding 4 tablespoons of water to the brownie batter seemed to be what helped them achieve maximum levels of fudginess...so maybe that would work for these guys as well?

Here's my recipe.  Again, I'm thinking that about half a bag of chocolate chips would make them about 800 times better!

Fudge-tastic Brownies

You'll need:

• 1 1/2 cups black beans
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• heaping 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar (I just used white sugar)
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup soy protein powder
• 4 tbsp dark cocoa powder
• 4 tbsp water
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (for whatever reason, you really can't taste it once the brownies are baked, so don't splurge on expensive PB for this recipe)
• ...Chocolate chips.  Copious amounts.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, and the wet ingredients in another, smaller mixing bowl.  Combine, and pour into a greased 8 x 8 baking dish.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Don't forget to sample some of the batter beforehand -- one of the many perks of vegan / lacto-vedge baking is that no raw eggs are ever involved!

This is hella long.  I should really update more often, eh?