Showing posts with label planning menus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planning menus. Show all posts

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!