Brownies

 I do love a good brownie. Preferably chewy in the middle and a bit crunchy around the edges. However, we are trying to cut down on sugar (it’s been 29 days since my last chocolate – although there have been a couple of chocolate biscuits), so when I spotted these “noshu” 99% Sugar Free brownies, I thought I’d give them a go.

So last night, I decided I’d whip them up (just call me Sara Lee).  Alarm bells rang when I did the spatula batter taste test and was left with that artificial sweetener taste in my mouth. Panic not I thought, smells OK, chocolatey, the things just need to cook.

30 minutes later, out they came.  I impatiently waited for them to cool a bit and then cut off my fave bit – the corner.  Still warm. Mmmmm, get in my belly – guilt free chocolate goodness.

I managed to swallow the mouthful and was left with this awful taste in my mouth.  The box lied. These are not delicious. These are not fudgy. These are not brownies.  I should have mentioned that they are also gluten and grain free.  And as for the suggestion on the box to add “Noshu sugar free choc chips,” I don’t think it would have been any sort of improvement.  

Never been a fan of artificial sweetener.  Luckily, I rarely drink soft drink, so I’ve never needed to grow to like Coke Zero.

As for these “not-brownies” well you’d need to be either very, very desperate for a chocolate hit or stranded on a deserted island.  And that’s why I ended up having to eat 4 chocolate biscuits to get over the disappointment and get rid of the yuck taste in my mouth.

I’m not much of a baker (let’s face it, I’m not much of a cook), but I used to make brownies from scratch until I discovered that not all packet brownie mixes are bad.  In fact, the Green’s Triple Choc Fudge Brownies are delicious and a bargain when half price at Woolies!

Verdict? Stick to the real thing or skip them all together.  Oh and if you want to make your own from scratch, this is my favourite recipe:

125g butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

1.    Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line a medium square baking dish with baking paper.

2.    Melt the butter. Add cocoa and beat until smooth.

3.    Beat the eggs and vanilla essence and add to the cocoa mixture.

4.    Add the sugar and walnuts and fold in the flour until just combined.

5.  Bake for 25-30 minutes. Depending on how gooey you like them

You'll Never Walk Alone

 

My current work set-up (dining table in the lounge) is right next to a large window giving me a good surveillance point for all the comings and goings of neighbours and their dogs. I feel like like a Spanish Abuela peering over a geranium covered balcony.  I recognise the regulars by their dogs rather than their mask covered faces and occasionally wave when they happen to glance in.  We’re all nosey like that – looking in at windows.

Read the above quote today and it got me thinking about all this walking. Maybe not today because the weather was crap, but on most days, there is more foot traffic than ever before.  Of course, with our limited freedom, it seems a shame to waste it and it’s a small attempt at reducing the extra chocolate calories going straight to my arse.  Sounds right in theory, not sure my input is being offset by my output.

All this additional walking around our 5km must be a good thing right?  We’re meeting neighbours with a wave and a muffled hello. Emilio has spent so much time out in the garden/garage that he’s picked up several new clients and had a lovely lady drop off a bottle of Spanish wine – she has a collie.

So if Nietzsche got it right, there should be a lot of great thoughts and ideas out there right? Could it be that over the next few years we’ll see a huge surge in - well everything really.  Or are people just walking about thinking what’s for dinner, dreaming of their next holiday and wondering how the hell they’re going to survive any more home schooling before turning into complete alcoholics.

Some people make phone calls (pays listening in, never know what juicy titbits you might discover about Ms Jones on the corner), some listen to podcasts and some to music. I now have a fancy new pair of wireless, noise cancelling ear buds thanks to Emi, but I only ever wear one ‘cos I worry about being reversed into and missing out on those juicy conversations.  I’ve been trying to get better at keeping in touch and making a phone call whilst on my walks, but sometimes the lure of late 70’s/80’s music is too strong and I have to play it – loud as possible.  I like to sing- a-long and maybe break out a dance move.  Do people look and think, that’s the crazy lady from number 5? Probably not. People are caught up in their own lives to really give a second glance at anyone else. Unless you’re not wearing a mask – then you get the “death stare.”  I religiously wear my mask.

Crikey, side tracked. Crikey? I don’t think I’ve ever used that word before. Where did that come from? Maybe because Bindi Irwin was in the news this week with a gender reveal.  Bit strange describing the size of her unborn daughter as a hatchling Aldabra tortoise.  How big is that? Are we talking baby mice size or new born pug puppies?  Anyway, all the best to them.

Back to walking. Sometime during my year of unemployment/freedom, I came across the wonderful Women on Walks group run by the inspiring Annie.  I wrote a story about the group a while ago.  With group walks currently off the table, Annie came up with a plan to keep us walking and connected by setting little challenges and counting virtual kilometres. 

The first lot of challenges were taking photos of “things.” Gates, door, paths that sort of thing.  All of a sudden I started noticing things I’d walked past countless times before and paying attention. We weren’t just walking around, we were on a super important mission.  We moved onto numbered letterboxes. Low numbers are easier than the high ones. The disappointment was real when after walking 15 minutes along a street, the number was missing.  I found myself walking down streets I never knew existed. I even got a little bit lost one day and admit to having to look at google maps. And now we are just finishing off letters.  So much creativity and virtually we’ve been around Australia, New Zealand, over to China and ended up in Portugal.  All our stops have been documented with awesome info and pics of all the places we visited along the way.   

Looking forward to meeting up with all the WOW’s on a real walk soon. In the meantime, I’ll keep walking and waiting for all those great thoughts to just come flooding in.