Cinnamon Breakfast Bites

I agreed to bring treats to celebrate a co-worker's birthday. Normally I wouldn't think twice and bring the standard sopapilla cheesecake, but since I'm on the Wellness Committee and we had a health screening coming up, I couldn't justify the copious amounts of butter and sugar. (Well there's that and the fact that I didn't have crescent rolls in the fridge...but we're going with the "I actually wanted to be healthy" for the purposes of this post.)

So, I went searching on Pinterest for a pin that I could modify to include beans instead of butter/shortening. I remembered this gem:

http://pinterest.com/pin/203365739393831118/

...and got going. The recipe is below for your betterment. Yeah, I was thinking of you when I did this. :)

Ingredients
1-1/4 cups flour (I used a mixture of whole wheat and bean flour)
1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Butter Buds (this is the “secret” ingredient that makes them so delicious)
1/4 cup mashed great northern beans

I used a food processor to get them completely smooth.

1/2 cup skim milk
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons of butter, melted

Directions

1. Mix flour, crushed cereal, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt and Butter Buds in large bowl.

2. Cut in beans with pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Add milk and stir just until moistened. (More mixing making them gummy and dense. Less mixing is light and fluffy!)

4. Roll dough into approximately 2-1/2 dozen 1 inch balls.

5. Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar in a small bowl. Drop balls into melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

6. Place balls into a greased or nonstick mini muffin pan.

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in pan on wire rack before removing.

Makes approx. 2-1/2 dozen bites and gives you protein and whole grains in a tasty breakfast snack!

Granola

I have a love/hate relationship with granola. I love it because it tastes great and makes me feel like I'm eating well. But then I look at the ingredient list and the nutritional information and I am disappointed. Recently I've been trying to eat healthfully and my dear, sweet, husband is slowly catching on to the idea. He has also decided he would switch from his regular Berry Colossal Crunch (the poor man's version of  fruity Captain Crunch) for granola. Yesterday I was out of my regular cereal and he suggested his granola. IT. WAS. AMAZING. It had been a few years since I had granola and even then I think it was on my mision and muesli (similar, but no added sweeteners/fats). Curse you granola, for tasting so good!
After work J and I had some time to kill uptown because he had a meeting down here at 6:30 and I wasn't in the mood to pick him up from work, drive up to Metairie and then turn right araound to drop him off. So we decided to go on our regular date of choice: to the grocery store. We're weird. But whatever. The grocery store is romantic. We went to Whole Foods and browsed around for a good bit until I decided "Hey! I pinned a recipe for granola this morning! We should make some!" So while J rolled his eyes as he usually does when I bring up Pinterest, I pulled up the pin and got the ingredients.


Mine definitely turned out darker than this. But not too different otherwise.


When I got home after his meeting I quickly got started on the granola. The only problem was that I read it on my phone instead of my computer and mixed up the steps. Instead of mixing a few ingredients separately, I mixed everything together at once. This didn't effect the taste, but it made it so that only a few things were in clumps as opposed to most things. Also, I followed the baking time which was off. We should have stopped after 30 minutes but cooked it the entire 40. Not that the granola was burnt, per se, but it did has a distinctly "cooked too long" taste. But this morning when I poured my milk over it, it tasted a-okay to me.

So here's the pin. I would recommend it. But like I said, follow the instructions better than I did and don't cook it for as long. 30 minutes is the longest you'll want to cook it.