Thursday 24 March 2011

Blender Beware!

Over the last week or so, I have proved to myself that I should not be allowed near my food processor when trying to lose weight...at least where nuts are concerned!

It started when I made dark chocolate almond butter...


250g gone in 36 hours anyone?! It doesn't help that Liam dislikes recipes that include nuts (but will eat them on their own, odd) so anything I make tends to get eaten only by me, unless I fob it off on the children/other relatives!

Despite the addictiveness of the chocolate almond butter, on Sunday I decided to make Maple Walnut Butter. This was partly inspired by Maria's recent post about Maple Peanut Butter and partly by my love of Maple Walnut Coffee...


Unfortunately I only had 100g walnuts in (this was a sudden craving!) so my food processor wasn't too happy - it prefers larger quantities. Combined with about 25g maple syrup (after blending the walnuts for as long as I could take!) it still managed to produce this...


not quite nut butter consistency, but delicious nonetheless...it reminded me of the filling for treacle tart, yum. However, with the nuts alone being more than 700 calories, it really wasn't a good idea to eat the whole amount at once. Yet that's what I did, atop toasted soda bread and drizzled with honey - despite the maple syrup, the walnuts still tasted a little bitter...


Delicious, but the bread + the walnut "butter" + the honey almost doubled my calorie intake for the day...why do I keep sabotaging my weight loss efforts??!! I seems to manage one or two days of controlled eating where my weight goes down, then have at least two days of eating everything in sight so my weight goes shooting right back up again...this constant yo-yoing can not be good for my body!

Monday was another self-sabotage day...I decided to make Averie's White Chocolate and Mango Cookie Dough Bites. These were so tasty...


and even better with the recommended melted white chocolate on top...


Amazing! I loved the texture of the "cookie dough" and the chewy mango provided a great contrast. I don't have white chocolate often, usually preferring dark, but the sweetness of white chocolate went really well. These were extremely moreish...a couple of hours after making them I was down to my last six...


and by the end of the day (with all eaten by me except one by my Mum and one by my daughter) they were all gone! Why do nuts, which are so delicious and so versatile, have to be so high calorie?! :(

My food processor also made Katie's Naughty Girl Fudge on Saturday, this time with raisins added (which I partially rehydrated by soaking in boiling water for 5 minutes before adding to the cocoa "fudge" mix)...


but as all but one piece (tasty!) of this went to my Mum, it wasn't too dangerous!

So the conclusion of this post? I can't be trusted around blended nuts! I can't be trusted around whole nuts either - I've developed the habit recently of grabbing almonds & Brazil nuts from the cupboard whenever I go into the kitchen...but that's a different issue! I must try to stay away from the food processor unless I'm making something the whole family can enjoy or something more "meal" like, e.g. a smoothie, at least until I'm back to a weight I'm happy to maintain!

Bit of a random post, but I hope that by writing it down I will remember to step away from the food processor!! Plus I wanted to share the photos of the especially yummy maple walnut butter and mango white chocolate cookie dough bites! :)

3 comments:

  1. All of these blitzed up treats do look divine!

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  2. I agree! I only made a small amount of maple pb, but I finished it today! It is soooooo good that I could have eaten the whole jar, but I told Andy that I made it (and he doesnt eat it) and so knowing that he would know if I ate it in one go was enough to stop me!
    How do you make that fudge? I tried following her recipe but it keeps on opening up new windows and goes a bit crazy- I would love (reader request) next time you make it a little step by step :)

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  3. Oh yum this look amazing, especially those white chocolate cookie dough bites! I dont understand how people cant likek nuts?! I adore them!!

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