Protein brownies version one

Protein bars are something I've added in to my eating plan, they're easy to eat on the go and I can eat one quickly which is super important as my job has major time restraints.  The problem is protein bars are filled with non-food.  As I commented on my weight reduction blog (Wiggly Jiggly Wobbly) non-food is any ingredient that has more than 3 syllables or a number in it (only applies to english words). When its science speak, its not food -LOL- So broc-co-li is acceptable, po-ly-dex-trose is not ;)  In my attempt to get healthy I'm trying to eat less non-food and so figure I'm going to give making my own protein bars a go. There are a lot of recipes out there in our virtual floating world for protein bars, so I'll be stealing altering and playing and hopefully I can come up with something that a) tastes good (most important), b) has good nutritional make up and c) fill the gap the same way store bought bars can.

So here is my first attempt, a protein chocolate brownie.

Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats ground in a processor to make oat flour
1/2 c chocolate protein powder (whey based)
2 T cocoa powder
1/4 c artificial sweetener
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c apple sauce (unsweetened, I used baby food nom nom)
1 egg
1/2 c water 

Directions

1. Heat oven to 180 C
2. Mix all dry ingredients until well blended
3. Add wet ingredients and mix well
4. Pour in to a 8x8 baking tray or divide into muffin cups (I poured this in to 9 silica muffin trays, medium muffin size)
5. Cook for 15-20min

I work these out to be in the 100-120cal range, which is less than my store bought bars.  I'm thinking they need to be a little sweeter or chocolate-ier (oh don't you just love how we can make up words), they're just missing something.  I did go easy on the sweetener, as often I find it to be over powering.  A few chocolate chips, maybe some peanut butter or nuts could definitely help this.  But its not a bad base recipe to play and tweak with. 

Chicken and black bean chili

Now this might seem like a common enough dish to any reader from the USA that might have stumbled upon me, however, here in NZ its not common at all.  In fact I'd never even had black beans before until I made this recipe.  But while browsing blogs or pinterest (ahh the addiction) searching for something new and scrummy to make I came across a recipe for turkey and black bean chili.  And then as I always do I forgot all about it until I was grocery shopping and looking for a can on chickpeas I found a can of black beans.  My brain had a bubble and with a pop I remembered wanting to try chicken and black bean chili.
 

Ingredients
Dash of olive oil

1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Chicken (I used 2 large breasts), chopped in to small bite chunks or chicken mince
1 can of black beans
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 large capsicum (bell pepper) diced
1/2 T ground chilis
1/2 T smoked paprika
1/2 T cumin
2 t basil
2 t rosemary or oregano
1 T red wine vinegar (or red wine)

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat.
2. Add the oil and garlic and cook until soft.
3. Add chopped chicken, one cooked add all other ingredients.  
4. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 40-60min.
5. Serve with brown rice