Not so fast: Is that decadent brownie really full of beans?

I'M GENERALLY an hon- est person, but April Fools' Day seems the holiday to confess some of the times I've fooled people into eating healthier foods. They're so delicious that no one guessed these foods were different than they appeared.

My husband has been the unwitting but satisfied victim of many meal make-overs. Most of the time, he doesn't notice and even remarks how good the food is that night.

Usually, I tweak ingredients to sneak in more fiber or vitamins, or maybe reduce saturated fat or sugar a little bit. But occasionally, the experiments have been a little bizarre.

BANANA MOUSSE ABUSE

Once, my husband, Rolando, was too busy watching a soccer game on TV in the living room to notice what I was doing in the adjacent kitchen until I turned on the blender.

"What are you making, honey?" he called.

"Dessert," I said. "A banana flip."

We'd had these shakes made from banana, milk and honey before. But little did he know, I had just read research showing that soy products and psyllium fiber, found in Metamucil, lowered cholesterol.

I've always hated gritty Metamucil, and said as much to a scientist I had interviewed earlier that day. That's when the scientist, Dr. David Jenkins of the University of Toronto, gave me his recipe for a banana mousse shake.

Skeptically, I tried blending 1 cup of soy milk, a small banana, 3 ice cubes and 2 rounded tablespoons of Metamucil. I sprinkled on ground cinnamon.

Surprisingly, the shake was light and smooth as silk.

"This is great, honey," Rolando pronounced after taking a sip. "How come you don't make it more often?"

He drained the glass in one long gulp before I had a chance to tell him it had 14 grams of fiber. This didn't have any harmful effects, but I did feel a little sheepish telling him after the fact.

MYSTERIOUS BROWNIES

Another time, I was the fool. A co-worker shared a plate of home-baked brownies. I ate three before she told me that she had substituted pureed black beans for all but 3 tablespoons of flour and 1 tablespoon of oil in the recipe.

The beans added protein, fiber, folic acid and minerals while drastically cutting calories.

Surprisingly, I couldn't taste the beans at all--probably because she left all the chocolate, sugar and walnuts in the recipe.

DIVINE DRESSING

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You can try these recipe substitutions to decrease saturated fat or sugar and add protein to meals:

2 egg whites for 1 whole egg

canned fat-free evaporated milk for heavy cream

applesauce for up to half the amount of butter or oil in cake or cookie recipes

powdered milk for up to one-fourth of the granulated sugar in baked goods

blended ricotta cheese for up to half the cream cheese in a cheesecake

Date published: 4/1/2007

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