There's A Cucumber In My Brownie!

With all the juicing I have been doing, the question of what to do with all the leftover pulp has been weighing on my mind. Currently, most of the pulp is going into my compost pile. That's great, but I still felt that I could use the pulp for something we could eat.
If you have ever seen the book Deceptively Delicious then you are familiar with the idea of using vegetable puree in baked goods.















I tried several of the recipes from the book and my kids could always detect that something was "weird". However, that was several years ago so I decided it was time to give it another try, this time using the pulp from my juicing.
First, I made my juice for the day. This one has Cucumber, radish, cabbage, carrot, apple, beet, lemon and spinach (YUM!).
This is what was left.

Hmm, doesn't look so good, does it?

I tossed it in the vitamix blender with some water. The amount of water will vary depending on how wet the pulp is, but you are aiming for an applesauce texture.

This is after the trip through the blender.

Simply use this puree in place of the butter called for in any brownie recipe. Or you could try replacing 1/2 the butter at first. I went for full replacement.

This was the result

What did my kids think? Well, my daughter doesn't like brownies at all so she didn't want anything to do with them. My son? The little turkey could spot it a mile away, he wanted to know "what weird ingredient did you try?) !!
I thought they were really good. The only thing I would change is that I lowered the amount of sugar in the recipe and next time I would use the full amount. I compensated this time with the powdered sugar on top.
I will WARN you though. DO NOT attempt to eat these warm, they are hideous. I am not kidding here. I thought the whole batch was heading for the trash. After they cooled, the chocolate flavor came through and they were great.

Enjoy!

Thrift Store finds

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a bit of a thrift store junkie. OK, maybe more than a bit! I am in thrift stores ALL the time. You never know what you might find. The trick is to go frequently and to know what you are looking for. If you wander aimlessly, browsing through everything, not only will you be there for hours, you will have a cart full of stuff you don't need.
I was on the search for a programmable bread machine for many months, probably close to a year, before I scored this Zojirushi machine for about $7.00! It works perfectly and has all it's accessories. I was able to download a free copy of the manual on-line.

 Other finds include a muffin top pan for $3.00

A doughnut pan for $4.00.

 I already had one that was gifted to me by my dad, now I can bake a dozen at a time!

My curly fry cutter for $6.00

and my everyday kitchen scale for $3.00

A big point to remember is that if you are gluten free and want to use a kitchen item that has been used, you MUST clean it very thoroughly or you will constantly contaminate whatever you are making. Look for items that don't have nooks and cranny's that dough might have gotten stuck in. The bread pan on my bread machine was of concern. I took the paddle out and soaked the pan and scrubbed it several times.
Also, when you see an item that you want, don't plan to come back for it later. Grab it right then. I am still kicking myself over not getting a flour tortilla maker. I had not priced it before-hand and wasn't willing to pay the $9.00 for it. I came home and looked it up. They start at about $65 new!
By grabbing these items at thrift stores, I have been able to stock some "specialty" baking tools that I otherwise would not have.

Smoothie

     If you read yesterday's post, you saw what could be done with just a few basic ingredients. Dried apples, dried blueberries and 1/2 a lemon. You get a great tasting iced tea. But you can do more with the leftover ingredients!

     After you have drained your tea, you will be left with plump re-hydrated fruit!
     What better than to use this mix to make a yummy smoothie!

If you aren't ready to make a smoothie the same day or day after making the tea, I would suggest pureeing and freezing the fruit in an ice cube tray. That way it will keep until you are ready to use it.

Smoothie

1/2 cup of any kind of milk substitute (I used Trader Joe's Almond)
1 banana
leftover fruit
Stevia to taste (I use liquid, about 8-10 drops)
2-3 tbsp Water (optional)

Place all ingredients in a blender, blend until smooth. Use the water to thin the smoothie if it is too thick.
Makes 2 servings

Each serving is 2 points on the Weight Watchers Points Plus program (just a note, I am counting the dried apples as having points even though they are re-hydrated.)

Frugal Iced "Tea"

         I love iced tea, so I was pretty thrilled when I came up with this super easy, super frugal version of it.
          For my birthday, a friend gave me a container of dry tea that contained bits of different dried fruits. I started making ice tea with that. When I ran out, it occurred to me that I had a ton of dried fruit  from last year.  I had spent time harvesting free blueberries from our local blueberry farm. I also harvested apples from a local apple orchard. I dried some of both, not really sure what I would do with them.  I decided to throw in some lemon and see what would would happen.

I used my handy tea maker very similar to  this one  that my wonderful husband gave me for my birthday. It has a really cool strainer built in on the bottom. Place about 1/2 cup dried blueberries and 1 cup dried apples in the container, along with 1/2 a fresh lemon (peel removed) into the tea maker. Fill the tea maker with boiling water and let steep. After the tea has steeped, you sit the container on top of your cup and the liquid pours out from the bottom. I put my tea straight into a glass pitcher.

      I think I let the fruit steep for at least an hour (I went off to do other things and didn't time it). The longer it steeps, the stronger the flavor will be. Chill and then add a little stevia and you have a cool, fruity drink!

Tomorrow, I will show you what to do with the leftover fruit pieces, so don't throw them away!
Enjoy!