Category Archives: Beans

‘Snot Cheese for the MIND diet

AVOID these foods, Beans, Cheese, The MIND Diet

Cheese is almost forbidden on the MIND diet — the rule is to eat it less than once a week. So, I have been trying nutritional yeast for a healthy substitute.  My sad conclusion is that ‘It’s NOT cheese.’ Maybe I haven’t tried the right recipes yet, but I am throwing in the towel.

First, I tried to use it to make a Cheezy Sauce, kind of like Rotel Cheese Dip. It was edible, but not really worth the effort.  Then, I tried using the remaining sauce on cooked cauliflower and I really preferred the plain cauliflower.

cheeto-chickpeas
Garbanzos with “cheese” AKA nutritional yeast

Today, I tried making Cheetos-style Chickpeas.  I followed the recipe pretty closely so I am not going to repeat it here. I didn’t  have sea salt so I used regular table salt. Again, edible but not worth the effort. And, definitely not cheese. I think I will continue to eat my chick-peas on salad from now on. As far as cheese goes, I will either go without or eat a little now and then and hope that it doesn’t harm my brain too much.

I think I have learned my lesson about using ‘weird’ ingredients. I am going to go make some Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins.

Chili con Pollo for the MIND diet

Beans, Olive Oil, Recipes, The MIND Diet

Chili con Pollo, of course, is chili made with chicken instead of beef. I love chili on a cold day! But, the chili con carne that I used to make contains lots of ground beef, which I limit because I am trying to follow the MIND diet. I have tried making it with ground turkey with mediocre results. Today, I tried it with ground chicken and it was oh-so-good!

I think one reason why it was so good was because of the olive oil that I browned the chicken in. I have been trying to use more olive oil in my diet. I had formerly been avoiding oil of any kind as much as possible, because of it calorie contribution. But, now I am reading about the benefits of eating olive oil, so I am trying to work a little more in. So, I started my chili by browning the ground chicken in olive oil. I don’t know if that is what made it taste so much better, but I am definitely going to try it again.

Chili con Pollo   4 servingsChili con Pollo

  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • *4 cups “canned tomatoes,” blended to liquefy
  • 1 15 oz. can pinto beans
  • 1 TBSP chili powder
  • 1 TBSP garlic powder
  • ½ TBSP cumin
  • ½ TBSP salt

Brown the chicken in 1 T olive oil and crumble.  This means to cook it so it is really brown, not just cooked.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the chili is as thick as you like it.  I simmered my test recipe a couple of hours.

PDF version to print

Myfitnesspal.com says one serving is 319 calories.

Of course, you are welcome to adjust the spices to your heat tolerance and add anything you like. Onion and pepper would probably be good. I think I will try using about half the chicken next time. This recipe comes out to 4 ounces of chicken per serving plus a whole serving of beans. I don’t really need that much protein, especially when eating it for lunch.

*”canned tomatoes” is not exactly what I used.  I grow a few tomato plants each summer and, when they are being quite prolific, I freeze some.  I just wash and cut out stems and any bad spots and throw then in a zip lock bag and put them in the freezer. When I am ready to use them, I run them under warm water for a few seconds and the skins come right off – not really peeling because no knife is involved, they just “slough off.” More about freezing tomatoes.

When I use my frozen tomatoes in chili, I cut them in quarters and run them through the blender with a little water. Sometimes, I heat them a little first to soften them. For this recipe I used 4 medium tomatoes and about 3 cups water. I think that makes an equivalent to about two 15 oz cans  or 1 28 oz can of canned tomatoes. You could probably just put the quarters in the chili and the simmering would soften them up, but my kinds never liked chunks of tomatoes in anything so I always blend them, even when using diced tomatoes from a can.

So, I hope you will try my chili con pollo.  It has four of the recommended foods for the MIND diet and none of the “avoid these” foods.

  • other vegetable
  • poultry
  • olive oil
  • beans

While there are not really any of the foods to avoid, I do need to make an improvement. You might notice that my photo show some oyster crackers in my chili. I love oyster crackers in chili, but I have not found any whole grain oyster crackers yet, at least locally. I did see some on Amazon, but I would have to buy a couple of years worth.  I might have to resort to making my own. That might be my next post.

By the way, I knew that the Spanish word for chicken is ‘pollo’ because I have taken some Spanish in school. However, those classes didn’t prepare me to speak or understand spoken Spanish.  I have now started on a quest to be able to speak and understand Spanish. My main reasons for doing this are because I always wanted to and there are an increasing number of Spanish-speaking people in our area. A bonus is that there is some evidence (or perhaps more hypothesizing) that learning a new language may help prevent cognitive decline. This i just one of the articles that describes why this might work.  While I am not convinced that there is strong research support for this connection, I am enjoying the process and might find it useful.  I am sharing this with you because I am assuming that if you are reading this post, you are interested in preventing cognitive decline.

Hasta la vista

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Pie Bars with Beans?

Beans, Recipes

Pumpkin Pie Bars and Beans?  Will that work?  After I made my Black Bean Brownies last time, I was really excited about getting more beans in my diet by hiding them in dessert dishes. Pumpkin seemed like a natural to hide the bean taste and I think it worked out pretty well.

This time I used Old El Paso Fat-free Refried Beans. That might sound a little strange because they have a little more than just beans. Actually, the label says “Ingredients: Cooked Beans, Water. Contains less than 2% of: Salt, Tomato Paste, Sea Salt, Chili Powder, Sugar, Onion Powder, Natural Flavor, Garlic Powder. So, they are mostly just beans.

pumpkin pie bars

But why? With all the kinds of beans available, why did I chose these refried beans? The answer is that I was being lazy. I really don’t like digging out my food processor. I have used these kind of beans before so I knew they come already “mushed up.”  With these, I didn’t get out the food processor. I just mixed the ingredients in my stand mixer and it worked just fine.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

  • 1 can fat-free refried beans (Old ElPaso)pumpkin pie bars nutrition
  • 3 TBSP olive oil –
    I use Kroger Lighter Flavor Olive Oil
  • 3 eggs
  • 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup pumpkin
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice*
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix all ingredients well. I used stand mixer and let it mix on high for a couple of minutes.
  3. Spray an 8 inch baking pan with cooking spray.
  4. Add the mixture
  5. Bake at 350° for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out nearly clean.
  6. When cool, cut into 12 squares.
  7. Store in the refrigerator. They are even better when cold anyway.

* Substitute for 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice

  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • ½ tsp ginger
  • ¼ tsp cloves

 

Tastes like pumpkin pie without the crust. Tastes fine with a small blob of Fat Free Cool Whip.

Needs a little more oomph to make it bars. Next time add ½ cup oatmeal. Increases calories to 137.

Similar recipe at https://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/32371/pumpkin-pecan-pie-squares/ for 13×9 pan puts ½ cup pecans and ¼ cup brown sugar on top.  Could replace ½ of brown sugar in bars with Splenda, then put this on top. With the oatmeal, goes to 168 calories.

Fudgy Black Bean Brownies

Beans, Recipes

Fudgy Black Bean Brownies for the MIND diet – somehow those words don’t seem to belong together. Using Fudgy and Brownies in the same title as Beans??

I have been fascinated by the idea of using black beans in desserts for a long time, but I have never been brave enough to try it.  But, yesterday my need to get more beans into my diet and my desire for chocolate collided and I started looking for a recipe.  I found one that was almost perfect at http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/black-bean-brownies .  Really, the only thing I changed was switching from Canola Oil to Olive Oil – and the calorie count (more later).

Fudgy Black Bean Brownies                       PDF versionblack bean brownies

  • 1 can (15 ounces) black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, divide into two ¼ cup portions (no nibbling!)
  • 3 TBSP olive oil –  I use Kroger Lighter Flavor Olive Oil
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup baking cocoa
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Use a food processor* to process the black beans, 1/4 cup chocolate chips, and oil.
  3. Add in the eggs, brown sugar, cocoa, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Process until really smooth.
  4. Spray an 8 or 9 inch baking pan with cooking spray.
  5. Add the brownie mixture and sprinkle with ¼ cup chocolate chips.

Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out nearly clean. When cool, cut into 12 squares. Store in the refrigerator. They are even better when cold anyway.

*I can’t imagine making these without a food processor, but I suppose you could. I really hate dragging mine out, remembering how to put it together, and especially cleaning it up after using it. So, I might try sometime. You would have to really mash up those beans. The choc chips could be melted a bit, or chopped, or just put in whole so they would add more texture. The rest should be easy.

So, what was the result!  Fabulous!  So fudgy. Almost fudge, really. You can tell by the black bean brownies nutrition
photo that my husband and son liked them, too. They each ate two, although they added a bit of ice cream.  I thought they were great. And, one brownie just about took care of my chocolate craving.  Although, I did eat a second one after a light lunch today.

So, what about the calories? The original posting listed them as having 167 calories with 7 grams of fat.   When I ran my recipe through MyFitnessPal, I got 183 calories with 8 grams of fat. I think the difference might be in the size of the eggs. I used large ones and I think the recipe might be a bit dry without that much.

I was kind of surprised that there is no flour in this recipe. It was listed as “gluten-free.”  While I don’t really care if there is gluten or not, this should be beneficial to those who need that.  Actually, this has whet my appetite to try out other recipes in which beans are a major component. I am thinking I will try Pumpkin Bars next. But, I have to get the Brownies eaten (or maybe frozen) first.