Healthy Treats

I have been trying to be health conscious in my diet lately. And I say 'trying' because it is proving quite difficult. You see, healthy food is sometimes very untasty. Another way to put it is: why must yummy food be so sinful? Think buttery flake pastries and sweet custard egg tarts.....hmmm.

The very yummy but sinful 'Pavlova' (made from just sugar and egg white)

Ok, maybe I'm not such a great cook but I've been trying out a few healthy, fibre-packed recipes recently and the result is only so-so in terms of taste.



Okara Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

From my soy milk making, I got a lot of okara, the left-over residue after you squeeze out the milk. I was told that this is precious stuff, with as much protein as the milk but 32 times as much fibre. Instead of wasting it and throwing them away, I thought of ways to consume them. I've tried to make soy patties, but they didn't turn out too great. I surfed the internet and found this Okara Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, which I thought is great for the kids. It also uses oats and wholemeal flour, ingredients that I recently learnt to love.


This is really a health-conscious kind of recipe. There wasn't any butter nor sugar added, only canola oil and honey. As a result, the taste is rather bland but you can't deny the nutrition. And as expected, the kids didn't like the 1st batch very much.


Here are some of the ingredients used in the original recipe:

I made a 2nd batch, this time I modified the recipe a little to make it tastier. I added some sultanas, replaced the canola oil with melted butter and added 2 tablespoons of sugar! Of course, it became slightly 'unhealthy' after that. But what the heck, I reasoned that if its not tasty and no one eats it, then what nutrition is there to talk about? I liked the taste of this batch much better. KK seemed to like it better but XX, who prefers crunchier biscuits, didn't quite like the soft texture of this cookie.

Pinklavender's Okara Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (the 'not as healthy' version):

Ingredients:

• 1 cup okara (soybean meal)


• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour


• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats


• 3/4 tsp baking soda


• 1/4 cup butter, melted


• 2 tbsp caster sugar


• 1/2 cup honey


• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract


• 1/4 cup chocolate chips


• some sultanas (or other nuts, seeds etc)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line cookie tray with baking paper.


• Stir together okara, whole wheat flour, rolled oats, sugar in a medium bowl.


• In a small bowl, melt butter and honey and stir in the vanilla extract. Dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of boiling water and add it to the mixture.


• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring till combined.


• Fold in chocolate chips and sultanas (or even nuts, sunflower seeds)


• Using a teaspoon, scoop and drop them on to the cookie tray. Flatten slightly with the back of a fork.


• Bake for 15-20 mins.

E's Oatmeal Chocolate Muffins

I made these muffins yesterday at 11pm. It took me more than 1 hour to get XX to fall asleep before I could creep out at about 10.30pm to wash the dinner dishes. I know it's crazy, despite the late hours, there was this urge for me to bake something. I just had to do something for myself. And it didn't take me too long. While it baked in the oven, I did the dishes.

I found this recipe here when I searched 'oatmeal, chocolate, muffins'. I want KK and XX to eat more oats but it's got to be 'chocolate' flavour, otherwise KK won't touch it. You wouldn't believe how obsessed he is with chocolate. His milk is flavoured with chocolate (milo), his cereal is Milo Crunch or Coco Crunch, ice-cream must be 'rich chocolate' flavour, and biscuits, cookies, cakes must be chocolatey too. His comment for this muffin: Can you make it more chocolatey next time?

I halved the quantity for the recipe as it was the first time I'm trying it and didn't know if its good. I took care not to overmix the batter so the texture of the muffin turned out ok but I think this muffin recipe lacks sugar. It's not sweet enough. The website is called "Calorie Count", so you can imagine why. Thank God for the saving grace of chocolate, XX and KK are not rejecting it.