"Groceries and Green Soup and Brownies oh my! "

This is getting posted a day late, so all the "today"s really mean "yesterday" :).

I've experienced many new things since going vegan. One of the best is the crazy rush I now get from grocery shopping. My chest tightens a little, my heart beat accelerates, my breathing gets a little faster, there might be a little salivary action...all from the thought of buying leafy greens. I wish I was kidding. (Actually I don't, it's great!) There are worse things right?

Today's booty from the small market in my neighborhood:

Red kale, mustard greens, swiss chard, broccoli, spring salad mix, carrots, scallion, red onion, yellow onion, red pepper, sweet potato, avocados, frozen blueberries, oranges, bananas, apples, raisins, and a small bag of brown rice. Eeeek!



No green smoothie today. But there was green juice and raw green soup instead!

1 cucumber, 2 stalks celery, 1 green pear, small piece of ginger, juiced!



Raw soup ingredients! I used 1 mustard green leaf, 1 cup salad greens, 1/2 red bell pepper, 3/4 of an avocado, 1 scallion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar, 1/4 tsp kelp granules, dash of red chilli pepper, dash of cayenne pepper, a couple shakes of sea salt.

Blended it all with a 1.5 cups of water

The end result: 



nom nom nom

I've attempted to make a raw green soup once before and this one was definitely the better of the two trials. It was so creamy (yay avocado) ! I kept thinking that it would have been just like having a smoothie if I'd added a little sweetener to it. I don't know if that's good or bad :/. Either way, I enjoyed eating it and will keep making [many versions of] it.

And finally, to end the night, Brownies! Not just any brownies. Black. Bean. Brownies. That's right. brownies made from black beans! Who knew you could even do that?! Well you can my friend. And it's delightful.

Le Ingredients: 2 cups cooked black beans, 1/2 cup raw cacao powder, 10 dates, 1/4 cup sucanat, 3 tbs earth balance "butter", 3 flax "eggs, 1 tbs vanilla extract.



 After processing everything together for a while and then mixing in the flax "eggs" you get this:

And after baking for 35 minutes you get:

Black bean brownies...baby. I was skeptical when I first found the recipe (to which I made a couple of changes). I thought, "c'mon, there is NO WAY you can make brownies from black beans that will actually taste like brownies. I was wrong. There IS way. These were (are, i'm still eating them hehe) really good. My only complaint is that the consistency was more fudgy than I cared for. The next time I make these I will try this recipe which uses rolled oats. I think the best part about trying this recipe was that I discovered a yummy new dessert dip in the process-- Simply black beans, dates, cacao powder and vegan butter pureed in the food processor for a few minutes. heaven. :).