Being Healthily Unhealthy

 

 

I’m back to half marathon training. I was down for a bit because I broke my tailbone. So I cut down and changed my workouts. Feeling better but better eating is always encouraged. So trying new things is always something i try to do.

Mr. Vietalian was diagnosed with this thing called Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis. Long story short is that if he eats too many carbs it pulls the potassium out of his muscles. The reasons they give you bananas after you run a race is because they give you potassium (and carbs) and it will help to prevent cramps. But so, with the potassium pulled out of the muscles, it’s like a really bad cramp to the point of paralysis. This can be brought upon by eating too many carbs. So now it’s the challenge, how does one cut down on carbs? I feel like this is the age old question much like: How do I lose those last 10 lbs? I never realize how much carbs I eat until I try to cut them out. Even bananas have carbs! That’s crazy. So here’s to eating clean and cutting the carbs to some extent.

So first up we’ve been eating more salads, which means you really need to jazz them up. Extra vegetables and new salad dressing. Ive just learned that I like chick peas. I thought they’d be really hard but they’re not. Just delicious. So along those lines I made salad dressing. Chipotle Hummus Salad dressing. The spice at the end is supposed to help to rev your metabolism. My metabolism doesn’t seem super active so here’s hoping there. It was pretty delicious. 

The other thing I’ve been doing is replacing flour with almond meal. I made almond meal cookies a while back. They flattened and spread out. But so this time I refrigerated the dough then put them on the pan. They were actually cookie forms this time! Not flat discs.

Black bean brownies do not taste like black beans. The tsp of baking powder really makes it cake like. It’s a little dry but I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. But I’m pleasantly surprised.

Chipotle Hummus Dressing

---

Chipotle Hummus Dressing

1/2 cup hummus
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 chipotle pepper, sliced
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

Blend together, add more milk for smoother texture.

Almond meal cookies

1/2 c. butter, soften
1/4 c. coconut oil
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 c. almond meal
1 1/4 c. chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven at 350
2. In bowl cream butter, coconut oil, and brown sugar. Add vanilla and eggs.
3. Mix in baking soda and salt, then almond meal- 1 cup at a time and chocolate chips.
4. Spoon tbsp of dough, 3 inches apart and bake for 11-13 minutes.

Black Bean Brownies

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c. cocoa powder
3/4 c. white sugar
1 pinch salt
Chocolate chips for sprinkling on top

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8×8 square baking dish.
2. Combine black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, and sugar in a blender;
3. Blend until smooth; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the mixture.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.