I made some chocolate walnut brownies with the mix from Bob’s Red Mill. Its a really straight-forward recipe, just add: one egg, 2 tsp vanilla, 1 1/2 sticks of butter and 3/4 cup warm water. I like the recommended ingredients too, so I added 3/4 cup of walnuts (Wish I had added more, or even put another layer of walnuts on the top).  The brownies are definitely not cheap!  At $6 for the mix, $1.50 for the butter, and $2.50 for the walnuts, its about $10 for the result.  This will keep me snaking all week and I’ll probably have a few to share as well.

Between brownies and the rice pasta I’ve been cooking, that’s most of what I’ve eaten in the last few days. I hope this doesn’t have a correlation to the sinus infection I could feel starting today. I don’t think it was anything in the pasta, because I’m starting to feel better after a few days of extra sleep and rest without changing my diet.  The rice pasta with creamy alfredo sauce, chicken, and broccoli sure sits like a full meal, and I get 3-4 servings out of a $7 input.  The problem is that its quite intensive on the cooking time.  Everything might end up mixed in the same bowl, but it needs to be cooked separately first.

My goal is to gain 10 pounds and keep it steady there.  I’m slightly underweight right now, so I have to balance my budgetary limits with enough calories to put me at my target weight.