I have moved up one clothing size since I started blogging.
And yes writing a food blog has something to do with my weight increase!
Having said that, another more likely reason could be the age factor – the older one gets, the lower his/her/my (boohoo!) metabolism rate.
Translation: I can no longer eat the way I used to without exercising and my clothing size still stay miraculously stagnant.
Re-organising my wardrobe over this weekend made me think:-
(a) should I donate my old sized clothes to the Red Cross & Vinnies to make space for new clothes that fit me better and seriously, who needs dieting? or
(b) keep the old clothes (hoping to get back to my ideal size in no time) and make do with a couple of my new sized clothes for now; start a healthier eating regime and exercise in effort to lose the fat from the butter, cheese and chips ( I shamelessly consumed over the last year) that was UNSTRATEGICALLY stored in my body. {Darn you body, I need MORE BOOBS AND NOT DOUBLE CHIN & LOVE HANDLE!}
Even though my heart and appetite tell me to go with (a), I’ll listen to my head and go with (a) for now.
Just kidding, I meant (b).
Let’s see how far I’ll stick to my healthier eating regime, shall we?
Maple Syrup Flavoured Homemade Baked Beans
(adapted mostly from The Australian Women’s Weekly – Slim – Low Fat Eating for Life {for Australia}; {for US})
Ingredients:
- 400g / 16 oz canned cannellini beans
- 410g / 14 oz canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 medium brown onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce *if you are a vegetarian, make sure get the one without the anchovies*
- 2 tsps whole grain mustard or dijon mustard
- 2 – 3 tbsps maple syrup
- Flat leaf parsley *optional*
Methods:
- Finely chop onion and garlic.
- Wash and drain cannellini beans, get ready maple syrup, canned crushed tomatoes and whole grain mustard.
- In a medium sized pot, heat up 2 tbsps of oil. When the oil is hot, add onion and garlic and saute until the onion is soft.
- Add crushed tomatoes, cannellini beans, tomato paste, whole grain mustard, worcestershire sauce and water. Mix the ingredients until well combined and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until thicken slightly.
- When the mixture is well heated and achieve the consistency you desired, stir in 2 tbsps of maple syrup. Taste if you require to add more maple syrup – I have ended up adding an additional tablespoon of maple syrup to balance the tanginess of the tomato sauce. This is an option but you can spruce up the baked beans with some chopped flat leaf parsley if you wish.
Edit on 23/8/2012 – Please disregard the “vegetarian” label in the title as I was not aware there’s anchovies in Worcestershire sauce. If you are a vegetarian, please omit Worcestershire sauce from the recipe unless you can find a Worcestershire sauce for vegetarian. I would like to thank Curtis for pointing it out to me. 🙂
Maple Syrup Flavoured Homemade Baked Beans
(adapted mostly from The Australian Women’s Weekly – Slim – Low Fat Eating for Life)
Ingredients:
- 400g / 16 oz canned cannellini beans
- 410g / 14 oz canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 medium brown onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce *if you are a vegetarian, make sure get the one without the anchovies*
- 2 tsps whole grain mustard or dijon mustard
- 2 – 3 tbsps maple syrup
- Flat leaf parsley *optional*
Methods:
- Finely chop onion and garlic.
- Wash and drain cannellini beans, get ready maple syrup, canned crushed tomatoes and whole grain mustard.
- In a medium sized pot, heat up 2 tbsps of oil. When the oil is hot, add onion and garlic and saute until the onion is soft.
- Add crushed tomatoes, cannellini beans, tomato paste, whole grain mustard, worcestershire sauce and water. Mix the ingredients until well combined and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until thicken slightly.
- When the mixture is well heated and achieve the consistency you desired, stir in 2 tbsps of maple syrup. Taste if you require to add more maple syrup – I have ended up adding an additional tablespoon of maple syrup to balance the tanginess of the tomato sauce. This is an option but you can spruce up the baked beans with some chopped flat leaf parsley if you wish.
Hi Emily – really good job by adding dijon mustard & maple syrup. Brings up the whole flavour of baked beans!
I’d say go with both a & b. Why not? Give half away and keep a few old fav with you. Do good and stay hopeful at the same time:)
Agree! 🙂 Thanks for your comment.
Ooh, I’ve been wanting to make a homemade version of this for a while! Thanks for the inspiration! Beautiful site, btw!
Thanks for your compliment Charissa and homemade version is wayyyyy better! 🙂
Emily, I am SO excited to have this recipe! I love baked beans but get turned off by the amount of sugar called for in traditional recipes. This one sounds delightful with the perfect combination of ingredients. Yeah!!
Thanks Kelly.
I tweaked the recipe from a slimming book which explains the reduced amount of sugar. 🙂 I hope you’ll enjoy the recipe.
I guess us Kellys like lower sugar because I was going to make the exact same comment! Canned baked beans are loaded, but I wanted a quick recipe that I could control the sugar content.
Awesome!
Thanks Kel for your comment. I suppose great minds think alike haha! I hope you’ll enjoy the recipe. 🙂
Firstly I have to say that your beautiful photos drew me in, they are stunning, but I also love beans and have been wanting to try my hand at homemade baked beans for a while now, so thanks for sharing this recipe.
This looks like a fabulous recipe (I’m trying to go vegetarian, for the most part, to lose weight).
I was wondering, could I exclude the onions? I don’t particularly love them, since I hate biting into chunks of onions, but if they kind of just melt into the beans, I wouldn’t really care about including the onion.
Hi grace i believe u can exclude them. 🙂
Just wondering which worcestershire sauce you’re using?
Mainly because any good worcestershire sauce will contain Anchovies…so it won’t be suitable for vegetarians.
I used Lea & Perrins.
I didn’t even realise there’s anchovies in worcestershire sauce….thanks for the information. I’ve committed a boo boo…and I do apologise for that. I will remove the “vegetarian” off the title.
Thanks for your comment…really appreciate it! 🙂