What I've BEAN up to

Greetings readers!  I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and got to spend some quality time relaxing.  I was lucky to have Thanksgiving off from my rotations and spent time with my family and friends.  Having a few days off from the dietetic internship allowed me to relax and reflect on the completion of my long term care rotation.  In my last blog post, I wrote about how the LTC rotation was a little challenging.  I found that particular rotation to be challenging because I didn't have much clinical experience prior to starting, and I really didn't know what to expect.  Although the rotation wasn't the easiest for me, I learned so much about the needs of the geriatric population and how a medical team (involving registered dietitians, doctors, nurses/nursing staff, physical/occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, and speech-language pathologists) must work together to assess the health of each resident at the long term care facility.  Malnutrition is a major health/nutrition-related concern for aged individuals and the most important component of geriatric nutrition is preventing weight loss.  Making sure that elderly individuals eat enough calories and protein was a huge part of what I learned as an intern during my last rotation.

In my current rotation, which is community-based, I'm working with the same population (seniors), but this rotation is less clinically-focused.  I've been learning about and getting involved in programs that prepare and deliver meals to homebound senior citizens.  I've also been learning more about geriatric nutrition and food quality of meals that are served at community senior centers.  I've really been enjoying this experience so far and I love that I can apply knowledge I gained from interning at the long term care facility in this rotation.  I also love cooking and preparing food, and part of this rotation involves observing food prep and being in the kitchens where the food is prepared.

Next week, I'm going to be doing a presentation at a few senior centers on the topic of beans and how to incorporate more beans into ones' diet.  I'm particularly excited about this topic because if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I love beans and I love coming up with creative ways to eat them.  For this presentation, I'm going to make some delicious black bean brownies to show the seniors that beans can be prepared and added to foods in an unexpected way.   While I can't take credit for the idea of this recipe, I tried to add my own personal touch from this black bean brownie recipe that I adapted from chocolate covered katie.  I plan on sharing these delectable chocolate treats at the presentation.  Hopefully the seniors get excited about eating beans in the form of a dessert!

If you're not a fan of dark chocolate, feel free to use a sweeter, lighter chocolate.

Black Bean Brownies

Ingredients

• 1 (15.5 oz) can of black beans. (I used the low-sodium version and rinsed 2x to get rid of extra salt)
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ⅔ cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. melted coconut oil
• ¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2.5 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup chocolate chips (I used the vegan, semi-sweet variety)
• (optional- add peanut butter or your favorite nut butter)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  In a food processor, mix all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips.  After everything is well mixed, add ¾ of the chocolate chips, scoop out the mixture and place on a lightly greased 9x9 baking pan.  Top the brownies with the remaining chocolate chips and bake for 18-20 minutes.  Allow to cool before cutting.  Enjoy with a cold glass of almond milk (or your favorite cold bevy!) and share with friends, or a senior citizen who needs some company 🙂

-Jess