Obviously

Why haven't I thought of this before?

As some of you know, Husband and I are home brewers, which means we always have a ton of beer in the house. What I did not realize, was that what we also have, is a plethora of spent grains. In order to reduce as much waste as possible, we have in past created/found recipes utilizing the spent grains from the brewing process.

As most of you know, I am not much of one for eating many grains. I have a few here and there, especially because I know the fiber is good for me but they are generally too high in carbs so I stick to vegetables for my carbs.

What didn't occur to me, was that in the brewing process, you crush the grains and soak them in hot water in order to remove the sugars from them (in order for the yeast to eat, to make the beer). This means, that what is left over is primarily fiber and protein!

I can't believe I didn't think of this before. Lately, I have been making these "cookies" using just mashed banana and rolled oats. Last night, after brewing another batch of beer with Husband, I thought, "huh, I wonder if I could use the spent grains from the brewing process to make these cookies."

I did, and while Husband didn't like them quite as much (because they aren't as sweet and he LOVES sweets, but that's why I've been making them lately; he's been trying to cut back on his sweets), he did eat them, and I sprinkled some semi-sweet chocolate shavings into them to make them a little sweeter.
So today, I decided to look up the calories in spent grain, and when I did, I was shocked, until it occurred to me that we had removed most of the sugar from the grain.

So now, I have these cookies that are high in fiber, and have some protein, and even with the chocolate in them, come to about 45 calories a piece. So excited.

In the meantime, I have kept my intake today under 600 Calories and I actually feel great. Right now I want some beer that is in my fridge, and on the one hand, now would be a good night to drink it because I could totally do it and still come in under 1,000 for the day, but the thought of ending the day under 600 is so tempting.

I dunno. I don't think I'll be disappointed in myself either way.