Fudgy Vegan Brownies

The day before our son was born, we made these brownies. We had no idea that the next day, our lives would change forever. I had just interviewed my pal Laura Wright on our podcast, and she told me about these fantastic brownies from her new The First Mess cookbook that were vegan, gluten-free, and seriously fudgy. Intrigued, I made them that morning for a dinner party that evening. We gathered around the table with two dear couples and ate vegetarian gyros while their two-year-old sons ran around and threw dinosaurs to each other in our living room. We laughed and drank caipirinhas and ate fudgy vegan brownies. And like Laura promised, they were very, very fudgy (the kids loved them).

The next day we woke up and over our morning coffee I glanced at my phone. It was a text from our birth mama: “Hey I’m in the hospital. They think I’m in labor.” Whhhhhhaaat?! Alex and I looked at each other. My heart went through the roof. We scrambled around the house packing a bag for the hospital (or, Alex packed and I paced in circles).

Fast forward a few days and we were back from the hospital with the best possible sweet little man in tow. Luckily, some very fudgy brownies were left over — perfect for a very tired but very happy mama & daddy.

What I love about cooking is that it’s more than just recipes. It’s LIFE. It’s these life moments we get to share with people, when people make our recipes or they make ours. It’s so rich, and so, so good. Hats off to you Laura, for this sweet recipe for a sweet time in our life. (And, your book is incredible.)

> Check out Laura’s AMAZING cookbook of incredible plant-based recipes and vibrant photos — it’s one of our favorites this year. On Amazon: The First Mess by Laura Wright.

Did you make this recipe?

If you make these fudgy vegan brownies, we’d love to hear how they turned out. Leave a comment below or share a picture on Instagram and mention @acouplecooks.

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Laura Wright will appear on the podcast on March 15.

This recipe is…

Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, naturally sweet, egg-free, plant-based, dairy-free

Fudgy Vegan Brownies

 

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by: a Couple Cooks

Serves: 16

What You Need

• ¾ cup almond butter
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• ¾ cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons coconut flour
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup chopped chocolate from a 70% dark dairy-free chocolate bar, divided
• 3 tablespoons whole almonds, roughly chopped

What To Do

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square pan with a piece of parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond butter, maple syrup, applesauce, and vanilla.
3. To the almond butter mixture, add the cocoa powder, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine, ensuring that there are no dry lumps of cocoa in the batter.
4. In a double boiler, melt half of the chocolate chunks. Vigorously stir the melted chocolate into the brownie batter until fully incorporated.
5. Scrape the brownie batter into the prepared baking pan. Smooth the batter out evenly with a spatula, pushing it into the edges and corners of the pan. (We used a 9-inch pan, so we did not smooth entirely into one side to keep the brownies on the thicker side.)
6. Scatter the reserved chocolate chunks and rough-chopped nuts over the top. Slide the pan into the oven, and bake the brownies until the top is slightly firm and appears dry and lightly cracked, about 27 to 30 minutes.
7. Cool the brownies completely in the pan set on a wire rack. Then, cover the brownies and place them in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. This step is crucial. The brownies will not cut neatly unless they get adequate cooling time. (We enjoyed the brownies even more a day later after refrigerating over night.)
8. Right before slicing the brownies, run a chef's knife under hot water and dry it off, then slice into squares and serve.

3.5.3226

 

A Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living

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How Maker Mindsets Can Be An Easy Fit For Rural Schools

The maker movement has expanded greatly in recent years and much of the attention has focused on cities with high population density and large well-funded school districts. In rural districts, teachers are also developing maker projects to help students gain the benefits that come from hands-on experiences, while better understanding the needs of their communities.

Take for instance the work being done by Brock Hamill at Corvallis High School in Montana. The students in his science class construct air sensors and analyze data in a way that helps address a problem unique to their community. Air pollution poses a problem for that region of Montana because of nearby forest fires and, in the winter, use of wood-burning stoves.

“We can just get days and days and days of smoke,” said Hammill, and it can get to the point where sports practice and games must be canceled.

Working with a teacher training program at the University of Montana, Hammill borrowed expensive air sensors for his students to use for a couple of days each semester. But he wanted his students to have more access to sensors, so he set about making his own. His first task was to see if he could even make a sensor from scratch and then test its accuracy so that his students could do the same.

“I took it as a challenge to see what could we do,” he said.

First, Hammill created step-by-step instructions on his website to provide students some structure for such a new project. He then used a $500 grant from Montana State University to purchase enough equipment to make seven air sensors. All of his students were able to build those sensors in class, a project that included putting together hardware and software that could transmit data to the internet.

Then students had the opportunity to make modifications to the air sensors, such as having the light color change to represent different air quality measures. Students — who had unfettered access to their sensors — also worked on making them more adaptable to different environments.

“They were working on wearable models you could just use a battery with and put in your pocket,” said Hammill. This would let students publish their real-time exposure to air pollutants at their exact location. Students also had the challenge of making a sensor that would register volatile organic compounds, such as paint fumes.

“They were just changing code left and right, making it work,” he said. “They liked it, too, because they’d never worked hardware and software together. They’d change the code and run it and show other groups.”

The air sensor project helped students understand a problem in their community while giving them much-need computer programming skills. “It’s just hard for these rural schools to get a computer programming teacher,” he said.

OLD-SCHOOL MAKER

Rural districts might already be offering a maker program and not realize it. Organizations such as 4-H and Future Farmers of America teach agricultural education skills that involve a lot of “making.” Students might be designing, programming and learning about technology under the auspices of such a curriculum.

Jacob Bowers teaches a variety of agriculture classes in his town of Pella, Iowa. In that program, high school students learn how to fly drones over farm fields and analyze data from those flights. Thanks to a grant from the Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical Innovation Act, Bowers purchased drones to be shared by his and neighboring districts. Along with learning how to fly the drones, students learn data analysis. Bowers also gets permission from farmers to look at their field data, which come from more expensive drones.

Students spend less time flying and more time figuring out how to program a drone to take the footage they want, he said. For instance, a drone can be equipped with a UV camera to determine the health of a field. Depending on the type of light bouncing back at the camera, farmers can determine how much fertilizer is needed on the field. The same thing works for a temperature camera. Based on the temperatures coming back, students can figure out where different soil types are located.

Having the students figure out fertilizer plans is the big challenge to master. With efficient use of fertilizer, “we save the farmer money and it’s a little less hard on the environment as well,” said Bowers.

Bowers isn’t just teaching kids how to crunch numbers on spreadsheets. In his greenhouse class, students design hydroponic systems.

“They actually work together to build a more sustainable hydroponic system that can make a lot of produce,” he said.

Next year, he plans to teach a metals class where students learn to run a small business creating metal signs. They’ll learn to run the books, find clients and use design software to make different products for those clients. All this is in the spirit of maker education. But how tech-driven the program is depends on the teacher, said Bowers.

The big takeaway is “identifying what skills are going to be applicable 20 years from now,” he said.

That’s why he focuses on fertilizer figures and data analysis, because that’s something students will likely always need to understand if they work in agriculture.

As other teachers have seen, students who struggle with academics often shine in a maker space. Bowers sees that in his hydroponics class.

“They’re excited to walk in and be able to show other students what they know.”

TAKE IT SLOW

Giving students access to skills they normally might not be exposed to is a big value of the maker culture. But when maker spaces are new to a school, schools might experience some growing pains.

Noelle McCammond worked as technology support for the Corning Union Elementary School district and helped design the maker space at Maywood Middle School with Michelle Carlson, an educational consultant who helps bring maker spaces to schools.

They tried to make the first maker project open-ended, but students didn’t really know where to start and needed more structure.

“Our student population and our teachers really struggled with it,” said Carlson.

They had to walk back the process a little bit and spend time just cultivating that idea of being creative and seeing what’s out there, said McCammond.

“We had to be really structured and give them clear roles,” she added.

But as students got more comfortable with maker equipment, teachers were able to give them time to tinker.

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Three Fun Riddles Filled With Math Problem Solving

In the rush to cover standards and ensure students have learned the concepts they will need in the future, it’s easy to lose sight of how fun math can be. These three TED-Ed videos offer fun, challenging riddles that can also be explicitly connected to mathematical concepts. The “Prisoner Box” problem is essentially a loop and could be a high-interest way to dive into this topic.

In this next puzzle, viewers are cast as intrepid secret spies, tasked with deactivating a death ray. It’s also an interesting introduction to visual models and graph theory. The answer explanation starts at 1:04 in the video.

Who can resist trying to solve a brain teaser that Albert Einstein supposedly wrote?  This problem seems pretty complicated at first, but it could be a great way to give students an opportunity to sift through the information given and start making sense of it. The video explicitly talks about some effective problem solving strategies like trial and error that can help students develop their logical intuition. And, while this is a silly problem about a stolen fish, multiple variable equations require a similar type of logic.

 

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How Schools Can Face The ‘Bad Habits’ That Inhibit Meaningful Changes

Making lasting change in schools is difficult not only because schools are communities made up of individuals with their own opinions about what’s best for kids, but also because, like most institutions, they are full of “bad habits” that can be tough to break. While habitual behavior can be good — like when it reinforces a positive culture or set of norms — it can also be a stubborn obstacle to enacting meaningful change.

At the EduCon conference hosted by Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, a room full of educators easily listed common “bad habits” they’ve experienced in their work, such as siloed learning, homework just for the sake of it, spending time planning with no action, keeping the door closed and visitors out, poor communication between administrators and teachers, traditional professional development, fixing problems by mandate rather than by team problem solving and initiative overload.

Even when everyone in a school building understands that a set of habitual behaviors are holding back change it can be difficult to shift away from them because of time constraints, history, comfort with something familiar, or control issues. But if school leaders and educators in the building truly want to see changes to teaching and learning, they must name negative habitual behaviors, own them, and intentionally make plans to address them.

“This issue of patterned behavior and things that are hard to break is something we keep running into over and over and over,” said Diana Laufenberg, executive director of Inquiry Schools. Laufenberg has been consulting with schools around the country on school transformation and often finds that long-held beliefs about things like the schedule present the most persistent obstacles to helping school leaders achieve their visions. She once worked with a project that had lots of flexibility, no accountability, only 15 students and four teachers, but the first thing the organizers freaked out about was the schedule.

When Laufenberg encounters patterned behavior that is challenging the rest of a school’s vision, she not only tries to get leaders and educators to identify and own that habit, but she does so in a way that isn’t judgmental. Teachers get defensive when a new leader — or worse, a consultant — comes in and implies everything they’ve done in their careers has been wrong. Instead, Laufenberg says it’s crucial to make a strong case for why change is necessary and then invite people to walk through a new door together. Leaders can frame that change as a positive thing and help individuals to focus on transforming practices within their control.

Teachers often complain about “initiative overload” as a bad habit at the system level. It’s a common story: a district superintendent or coordinator attends a conference and comes back with a bunch of new, shiny ideas that she or he wants implemented in classrooms right away. Often new leaders spearhead signature initiatives that then die out when they leave, and classroom teachers are left with the memory of a litany of failed initiatives that were poorly implemented and never given enough time to succeed. It’s no wonder teachers are reluctant to throw themselves into each new idea that comes along.

A COMMON UNDERSTANDING

Mandated initiatives from the top are a reality that teachers in classrooms can do very little to modify, but when discussing the idea, educator Gerald Aungst realized his personal bad habit is a scaled down version of initiative fatigue.

“I always notice what I could be doing better and I tend to try to tackle it right away,” Aungst said. He supports gifted children at Cheltenham Elementary near Philadelphia and often finds good ideas he’d like to try with students mid-year. For example, when running literature circles with his students he was dissatisfied with the kind of questions students were bringing to kickoff the discussions. He stumbled upon the Question Formulation Technique and immediately knew it could help his students develop better questions. He put aside what he had been doing with students and dove into the new strategy.

He now realizes that approach didn’t give him enough time to think through how he would introduce the technique most effectively. “I had a good idea and I jumped to implementation of that idea too soon,” Aungst said. Interestingly, that’s often what happens at the school and district level as well. A good idea may be poorly implemented because the leader doesn’t take time to explain and build enthusiasm among staff.

To address his own bad habit, Aungst is trying to carve out space in his prep time to not just map out lessons for that day, but also to do some longer range planning. And, he’s trying to develop a system for saving ideas as they arise so he can examine them more deeply over the summer and integrate them into his plan for the following year.

Aungst has also worked at the district level, so he knows the view from the central office is quite different from the one in the classroom. “When I was a teacher I felt like so many things that came from district offices felt random and arbitrary,” he said. But he also worked as the supervisor of gifted education for several years, where he began to see that there were lots of individual teachers doing amazing work, but they weren’t all headed in the same direction. He began to see the need for consistency and then struggled to balance that against giving teachers autonomy and preserving their excitement.

“It’s the teachers who are constantly reflecting on what they can do to be better at their jobs who feel even more overwhelmed because they’re getting input from so many different places,” Aungst said of initiative fatigue. These experiences have led him to believe that teachers and building leaders need to understand the broader district goals, but have space to work together on how to get there. That many not be the most efficient delivery mechanism, but it may end up producing the most positive long term results.

Another challenge of habitualized behavior in schools is recognizing that change can’t happen if the structures, schedules, culture and mindsets don’t also change. That often means that in order to break out of calcified approaches changemakers need to put every idea on the table and consider each equally.

For example, when Laufenberg taught in Flagstaff the district was having a lot of financial trouble. She raised the idea of going to a four-day school week, which would save the district a lot of transportation costs. But the idea was dismissed out of hand as something parents and the school board wouldn’t approve. Predetermining solutions like that limits the levers for change available.

CHANGE IN A TECHNOLOGY CONTEXT

Adina Sullivan has been thinking for years about how to help teachers in her district break out of patterned beliefs and fears about using technology in the classroom. As the education technology coordinator for San Marcos Unified in Southern California, she often encounters teachers who say kids can’t use technology either because of age or ability, they themselves aren’t “techy” people so they can’t do it, or fear using a tool that they don’t already know everything about.

“It’s the same or similar issues that have always been there, it’s just now applied to using technology with students,” Sullivan said. When pushing teachers to try new approaches Sullivan is careful not to shame them about their current strategies or their fears, but instead try to understand where they are coming from and then help them to have a positive classroom technology experience that will bolster confidence.

One high school English teacher was resistant to technology at first. She often missed trainings and generally felt that since she planned to retire soon she didn’t need to learn much about it. But the district is six years into a rollout of classroom devices and the pressure from parents and students to have a more tech-savvy class is mounting. This teacher started with a simple project producing brochures with Google Drawings and then moved on to a jigsaw activity with Google Slides. Those successes gave her confidence.

“Now she has found ways and a reason to integrate technology into her college prep English course, which is a course that a lot of teachers don’t feel they have time to add anything new to,” Sullivan said.

The first steps teachers take to integrate technology are usually just a substitution of technology for something that used to be done analog. But Sullivan says it’s important to start somewhere. “Sometimes transformation is just changing someone’s idea of what they can and can’t do, or what is and isn’t possible,” she said. And, she notes, bad habits or deeply held beliefs about the roles of students and teachers in classrooms were developed over a long time, so substituting new belief structures and habits will also take time.

Change often comes with a period of discomfort that can be good, but Laufenberg cautions educators trying to make change in their buildings or districts that when morale goes down and buy-in fades it can be easy to end up with exactly the system that existed before the change process started. That’s why leaders and individuals within the system have to fight hard to recognize and replace their own bad habits.

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6 Reasons for Why Yogis Should Not Smoke Cannabis

MY (VEGAN) GUIDE TO MONTRÉAL

Before beginning this guide to Montréal I must acknowledge Quebec is on the unceded indigenous territories of the Cree, Mi’qmaq, Naskapi, Algonquin, Montagnais, Abenaki, Mohawk, Attikamekw, Huron and Malecite nations, whose lands were violently taken during formal colonialism. The ongoing struggle for the recognition of their sovereignty and humanity continues today.

Okay, bebes!! I have done it. It took a bit of walking, eating and dancing but I now have compiled a list of my fave eateries, stores, tattoo artists and music venues in this city. Lemme just say quick: I was only here for 6 weeks and I'm not omniscient. This list is not complete, but it's pretty decent. Here we go!
CONTINUE READING...

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Being mentally strong means knowing what you want and going for it. It’s about following your dreams and taking on any challenge life throws your way. Keep in mind that courage and determination are key factors in having the strength to accomplish what you desire.

Mentally strong people understand that life isn't about fairness, but about perseverance. While some of us were built this way, some have to learn how to remain focused when we're dealing with a busy schedule.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. – Epictetus

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9 Ways to Stay Mentally Strong in Your Busy Life

#1. Take Control of Your Thoughts and Emotions

You'll have to learn to make the difference between facts and impressions. Stop letting yourself get beat down by other people's thoughts about you. You are the only person who can choose to be affected or not by how others perceive you, so don't give them the power to influence your opinion about you.

As long as you know who you are, and you believe that you acted the right way, then there's no need to feel bad about anything.

You'll always come across negative situations, but how you choose to respond to them will determine if you are mentally strong or not.

#2. Avoid Regrets or Feeling Sorry for Yourself

Dwelling in the past hasn't helped anyone unless they've learned something from their mistakes. Other than that, regrets regarding what you should've done or said won't do you any good. If there's a chance to make things right, go ahead; if it's too late, then move on.

At the same time, you have to accept that laying around and feeling sorry for yourself isn't the way to go. Even if you've dealt with a bad breakup, allow yourself a couple of days for grieving and then power up!

Don't waste time with emotions or facts you can't change, so assume responsibility and let go.

#3. Stop Trying to Please Everyone

Regardless of your age, now is a good time for you to realize that you are not responsible for other people's happiness. Even if they get upset, it's not your job to put things in order or to boost their mood.

Each of us has to deal with problems, and it's not you who should protect and care for everyone, so start putting yourself first.

Also, learn how to say “no” without feeling bad about it, and install boundaries when you have to.

#4. Accept that Sometimes Things Change

Even the best-laid plans can sometimes take a different turn, so instead of feeling bad or fighting the change, learn to adjust to it. People don't like change because it disrupts their life or messes with their goals, but unfortunately, we don't always have the power to stop it.

Mentally strong people know that there's no point in complaining about things that are out of their control. As long as you don't have the power to interfere in a situation and fix it, then there's no point talking about it either.

The only thing that is in your control is how you deal with change and your attitude towards it. Try to keep an open mind and be positive!

#5. Don't Jump before Considering the Risks

Going after what you want is admirable, but doing it disregarding the risks makes you naive. Always postpone a decision until you've made a list of advantages and disadvantages that will come with that decision.

Knowing the difference between a calculated risk and a foolish one will also ensure that you won't have any regrets about it in the future.

Even if they're busy, mentally strong people will take the time to consider all the facts before making a call.

#6. Focus on Yourself, Not on Others

Mental strength means that you'll pay more attention to what you do, how you act and what you say. Concentrating on the misfortunes or successes of others won't help you accomplish anything.

Keep in mind that you have the power to live your life how you see fit. Instead of being jealous of a colleague, try to analyze his/her situation and see if you can't learn something that will benefit you as well.

The key to success is to mind your own business and always strive to improve yourself!

#7. Let Go of Expectations

We usually like to fantasize about positive outcomes that would please us. Although a positive attitude is important, miscalculating the facts can easily turn towards disappointment.

Even when we're dealing with other people, we create expectations. We believe that just because we've helped them out, they should also return the favor when the time comes. The problem here is that we rely on things that are out of our control.

Trusting someone to do the right thing is not the same as believing in yourself. A mentally strong person will deal with the facts, and not let himself be disappointed by false expectations.

#8. Take Things One Step at a Time

While everybody would like to snap their fingers and get what they want, that almost never happens, in reality. Patience is indeed a virtue, and applying it daily takes some time.

Begin by realizing that regardless of how much you may desire something, it will take time, so it's sort of a form of delayed gratification.

Make a plan, stick to it and most important of all, be realistic about it.

#9. Appreciate the Time Spent Alone

Being happy might seem impossible if you don't have someone to talk to, but mentally strong people enjoy the time they have in their own company.

Free time equals productivity, not depression, so adjust your way of thinking accordingly. Take a look on garagegymplanner.com and learn how to build your own gym, for example, or use the spare time you have to master a new hobby, relax or do whatever you'd like.

Take care of your own needs and pamper yourself! If you don’t take care of yourself, there's no point in waiting for others to treat you right.

In conclusion…

Staying mentally strong is difficult, especially when your busy schedule doesn't allow you the necessary time to do everything you’d like to do. The key is to take things at a time and learn to be independent.

Author Bio: Evelyn Kail

Evelyn helps people to live a happy and healthier life. She is an established Health and Fitness author (over 12 years of experience) and editor of garagegymplanner.com. She also loves writing about people and inspirational stories.

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