What if I told you that it was possible to make a giant chocolate chip cookie that is low on calories, helps you to fight off disease, manage blood sugar, and deliver a helping of fiber, minerals, and protein?
I’m hoping by now you’d believe me, and good news, it’s true. You just need to go to your local mega-mart, find the canned vegetable aisle, and grab a can of chickpeas. No, that’s not a typo. Yes, I know it’s almost impossible for me to type when this is my view of the laptop at all times:
But I’m serious. That’s exactly what I meant to type. Let me stop you before you say you can’t find a can that says chickpeas. Those tricky marketing people call them by their other name, garbanzo beans. I’ll give everyone a minute to stop giggling.
Now that you have that out of your system, chickpeas are awesome and almost as versatile as the egg or the avocado. I’m sure you all know it for hummus, but if you are familiar with this series, you know chickpea flour makes a great white pepper gravy that is better than regular flour gravy.
Chickpeas are little medical marvels. They can help prevent heart disease, cancers, type 2 diabetes, and provide choline to improve brain function. Take a drive on I-30 through Benton and tell me who doesn’t need a giant helping of that nutrient.
The chickpea isn’t done with its impressive feats. It makes a great chocolate chip cookie bar. It’s easy to make, tastes fantastic, and lets you eat fun food for not a lot of calories and all the benefits listed above. The ingredient list is short and simple.
There’s no comparison on the nutrition between this and one of those store bought cookie cakes, but just for fun, here’s the ingredient list for one of those things:
Ingredients
Cookie: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Sugar, Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Dextrose, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavor), Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified Soybean Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil), Eggs, Water, Fructose, Molasses, Contains 2% or Less of Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Salt, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Corn Starch, Soy Lecithin, Nonfat Milk. Icing: Sugar, Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified Soybean Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Mono-and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Palm Oil, Canola Oil), Corn Syrup, Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Soybean Oil, Contains 2% or Less of Salt, Citric Acid, Corn Starch, Alpha Tocopherol, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Dextrose, Titanium Dioxide (for Color), Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Maltodextrin, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Locust Bean Gum, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Yellow 6 Lake, Blue 1, Blue 2, Red 40, Salt, Carrageenan, Xanthan Gum, Glycerine. Quins: Sugar, Cornstarch, Rice Flour, Palm Oil, Contains 2% or Less of the Following: Gum Acacia, Xanthan Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Titanium Dioxide (Color), Red 3, Blue 1 Lake, Blue 1, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Mono-and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60.
Cookie: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Sugar, Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Dextrose, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavor), Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified Soybean Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil), Eggs, Water, Fructose, Molasses, Contains 2% or Less of Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Salt, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Corn Starch, Soy Lecithin, Nonfat Milk. Icing: Sugar, Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified Soybean Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil, Mono-and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Palm Oil, Canola Oil), Corn Syrup, Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Soybean Oil, Contains 2% or Less of Salt, Citric Acid, Corn Starch, Alpha Tocopherol, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Dextrose, Titanium Dioxide (for Color), Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Maltodextrin, Modified Corn Starch, Corn Syrup, Locust Bean Gum, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Yellow 6 Lake, Blue 1, Blue 2, Red 40, Salt, Carrageenan, Xanthan Gum, Glycerine. Quins: Sugar, Cornstarch, Rice Flour, Palm Oil, Contains 2% or Less of the Following: Gum Acacia, Xanthan Gum, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Titanium Dioxide (Color), Red 3, Blue 1 Lake, Blue 1, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative), Mono-and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60.
Wow! And you thought it was hard to find a can of chickpeas. Hand that grocery list off to your significant other and see what happens.You might not recognize each other by the time they return.
Save yourself some trouble and make these instead. You will feel better, look better, and won’t have to explain who that other car in the driveway belongs to when they finally return all those years later.
Chickpea chocolate chip cookie cake bars
Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas drained
1/2 cup dried peanut butter powder
1/4 cup monkfruit maple syrup
1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup stevia in the raw
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 tsp baking soda and sea salt
70% dark chocolate chips (measured by your heart)
Instructions:
Drain your garbanzo/chickpeas:
Mash the beans as best you can and then hit them with a stick blender to break up. If you don’t have a stick blender, use a food processor. Once they have been smashed a bit, add all the ingredients except the chocolate chips and blend again until completely smooth, then stir in the chocolate chips. Line a 8×8 baking dish with parchment paper and scoop out the goodness:
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, then cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting into bars. Serve plain or with a scoop of low carb vanilla ice cream:
See the list of all Jason Murphy’s recipes at www.mysaline.com/jason-murphy.
