Friday Foodie Fun - Salted Caramel Brownies

Notice how I left the "fitness" part of the title out?  Yeah.  After eating these brownies you definitely need some fitness to help burn off the sugar and calories.

It all started one night after I had diligently cleaned my entire house and was sitting enjoying the clean while playing Mario Cart with Madelyn and I had a sudden craving for salted brownies.  My sister in law introduced me to this wonderful treat at Christmas so I ventured to the cabinet and discovered that Yes!  I did have brownie mix!  Then brilliance struck and I dug out some caramels I had for caramel apples and in a fit of PMS sugar / salt craving a star was born.



Cast of Characters

This was crazy easy and crazy good.  I thought I had sea salt, but plain course salt worked just fine. The only change I would make is to try caramel ice cream topping next time because the actual caramels got pretty chewy/hard after they cooled, but not to the point of not being able to eat the brownies.

I mixed up the brownie mix, poured it in the dish and stuck caramels in as my heart desired.  I only did half the pan for fear that it wouldn't work and then I would have nothing to calm the chocolate craving beast.

As soon as I pulled them out of the oven, I sprinkled them generously with the salt and oh my were they amazing!

This was a quick and easy treat that hit the spot while having a slightly more sophisticated flavor profile.

Super Simple Salted Caramel Brownies:

Brownie mix of choice (I chose Ultimate Fudge with Hersheys pouch)
Square Caramels
Course Salt (Sea salt is idea, but iodized works fine)

Prepare brownie mix as instructed on box, plop in the caramels as your heart desires and bake as directed.  As soon as you pull it out of the oven, sprinkle on the salt. 
Enjoy as soon as the caramel is cool enough to eat without plastering itself to the roof of your mouth.

-Katrina

Friday Foodie or Fitness Fun

Denise's Recipe - Clean Eating White Chicken Chili

Hello all... I am back on the healthy eating kick, my own mixture of Clean Eating and a Low Glycemic Index Diet... It works the best for my body.
Beans are one of my main sources for carbohydrates.  It is also very convenient for me to have a pot of soup or two on hand for a quick and easy lunch or snack.   I have never made a white chili so I thought I would try to create a recipe from scratch...

Here we go:

beans after the overnight soak

They are plump and ready to use

sauteed onions adding garlic

after an hour on low heat

White Bean Chicken Chili

1 bag of dry navy beans.. I did the overnight soak, the quick soak works well. You could use two cans drained
2 C. of chicken, cut up to your liking, I ran mine thr0ugh my mini chopper to get a super small shred (was being LAZY)
1 lg onion - medium chopped
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs unsalted butter
1 Tbs garlic
2 Tbs almond meal - probably don't need this but I wanted to try seeing if it would thicken up the broth
1 Tbs cumin
1/2 Tbs oregano
1/2 Tbs of chili powder
1/2 C chopped cilantro

Finding Pinterest...

THANKS Katrina...
So a few months ago Katrina texted me and told me I really needed to get a pinterest account so we could share all the things that we love, food, sewing, food, crafting, knitting, home projects, more food and perhaps more crafting and sewing.  Do you like how long that sentence was?  I am sure it's not punctuated correctly but, I don't care.  I took the plunge and requested a pinterest account and oh my, i didn't know how much time I could truly waste.  Pinterest is definitely sparking some lost creative juices and now Katrina wants us to get back into Four Ribbons... I am sure one of us or the both of us will have to write about where Four Ribbons went but, in due time.  So be on the look out for future posts.  We both have a lot of things we are working on and would love to share them with you.

Love ya,
Denise :)