half baked

It's my 100th post! So I'm going to break out of my shell & do a food post. Fasten your seatbelts.

When it comes to cooking...plainly put, I stink.

Granted, I am fully capable of following a recipe...but when it comes to subbing in items...I have no earthly clue what I am doing.

I was planning out my food for this coming week's lunch, and I remembered that Bethany posted a link to some carrot cake style protein bars. I thought I'd give them a whirl.

I already had several of the ingredients, or so I thought...

love this protein mix

For some reason though I am horrible with planning out a shopping list after comparing a recipe to what I do & do not have "in stock".

I went to the grocery store & picked up the only items I thought I needed.

Granted when I got home, I was incorrect & realized I needed others. Enter in the fabulous art of googling, and being able to twitter my college nutrition professor Cynthia Sass.

Here's what the original recipe called for...
1c oat flour
2 scoops vanilla whey protein
2tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
1/8tsp allspice
1/8tsp nutmeg
4 egg whites
3/4c splenda, truvia, or ideal
8oz baby food carrots
4oz water

I don't know what the heck oat flour is...well, I do now after googling it...but for some reason I breezed over that portion of the recipe. I ended up using unbleached white flour...I was going to use whole wheat flour, but naturally, mine expired in February.

So substitution #1: unbleached white flour for oat flour

Allspice? Again, I don't cook/bake a lot so I definitely didn't have that. But I did have pumpkin pie spice!

So substitution #2: pumpkin pie spice for allspice

I don't like sugar substitutes...I'm just not a big fan of how they taste. So I tweeted Cynthia & asked what I can sub in or if she thought I should use the sugar substitutes. I had a hunch she wouldn't recommend using them...and I was correct...she offered up to either use fruit or less sugar, but not the substitutes. She recommended pureed dates & peaches, mashed banana, cinnamon, fresh grated ginger, or citrus zest. I thought peaches would work with the particular recipe...

So substitution #3: baby food peaches for 3/4c sugar substitute

I'm sure my substitutes would make the chefs out there cringe...but I have low standards for baking, and I'm happy to say, the protein bars turned out edible!



Move over Betty Crocker!

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