Salads for Brownie Scout patches

For Scouts, our daughter was to encourage a healthy habit it our family. We already do many of the items on the list: ride bikes together, walk to school, etc.

Our daughter wanted to make salads. I bought all sorts of fresh veggies at Aldi, but we ended up eating the veggies because we didn't get a chance to make the salads.

Last night she went to the store to buy stuff and try again.

But she got distracted and bought only lettuce. So tonight she made salads with lettuce, carrots, apples and raisins.

I didn't get fruit because I added pickled firecracker carrots and experimented with my dressing:

Spicy Ranch Vinaigrette
- 1/4 cup ranch
- 3 tablespoons pickling liquid from the firecracker carrots
- 3 tablespoons Franks Red Hot sauce

That was yummy and zesty.

Vegan Brownies

I used to make killer vegan brownies all the time, but I haven't made them in years. My daughter needs to contribute to her Daisy crossover today, so I volunteered to make brownies to protect her dairy-free status.

The original Betty Crocker recipe:
Melt
2/3 cup butter
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

Mix separately
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs

Add chocolate
One cup flour

Mix and bake in greased pan for 40-45 minutes at 350 until brownies pull from side of pan
My version

2/3 cup margarine
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 ounce dark chocolate (in candy bar form because I ran out of the other)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon canola oil

For pre-batter:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla

And the flour as directed

Trail Matzo

Gayle suggested slathering my leftover matzo with butter, adding chocolate and walnuts and baking it in the oven for a Girl Scout style trail snack.

I made a sauce of 3.5 ounces intense dark chocolate, 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, one stick butter, and one cup peanut butter. I added about 3 tablespoons dried strawberries and about half a cup candied ginger, torn into chunks.

I put the matzo on cookie sheets and added the chocolate, then I added walnuts and baked at 350 for five minutes.

I should have sprinkled the strawberries and ginger on top with the walnuts instead of in the sauce. I didn't use enough. If I did it in the sauce thinking it would allow the ginger to blend into the chocolate. We'll see.

It worked well, but next time, I'm going to spread the chocolate and the goodies more evenly.