Baking Brownies (For the first time!)

Jum'ah Brownies

It is FRIDAY everybody! In Islam, Friday is special because we get to go to the Mosque and pray the Jum'ah Salat (prayer) and listen to the Friday Khutba (sermon). Friday is a blessed day of the week and in our house we treat it as a weekly Eid day. I usually cook a special breakfast (if time/school/work allows) and we all sit and enjoy our morning together as a family. Then everyone is out the door and gone their separate ways until we again reunite to go to the Mosque together. Their is a special, peaceful feeling that comes over me when I pray the Friday Prayer with everyone at the Mosque. It is truly beautiful! The rest of the day is family time. We then spend time together home watching movies and playing games, going for walks/hikes, or going to special places such as the movie theatre, a restaurant or shopping at the mall. Khalid and I hope to extend this family togetherness once we start our own family, to have a day of the week everyone can look forward to and cherish. 

Today, as a special Friday treat I decided to make Brownies for the first time in my life! My mom used to make them all the time when I was a kid, along with homemade bread and sugar cookies. I bake a lot, and have made many different goodies, but I have never tried brownies. So today I made my very own low-fat brownie recipe. I call them Jum'ah Brownies! I have to say they turned out amazing! The perfect in-between of fudgy and cakey, with a delicious chocolaty flavor. I will share these delightful treats with you, but don't be upset with me if you end up eating the whole batch in one day... You have been warned, they are tempting once made. ;) 

Jum'ah Brownies Recipes 

Ingredients:

3 med. - Bananas, ripe

.5 cup - Unsweetened Applesauce

1 cup - Granulated Sugar

1 cup - Brown Sugar
 4 lrg. - Eggs  

1.5 cup - Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup - Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened

1 tsp - Salt

1 cup - Milk Chocolate Chips

*Butter for greasing the pan.

*Used a 9x13 inch. pan.

Instructions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degree.

2.Mash bananas in a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat. Once heated and mushy, add apple sauce and sugar. Stir until combined. Then add the eggs one at a time, working and stirring quickly to avoid the eggs from cooking due to the heat of the mixture. Reduce heat.

Step 2

3.Mix the flour, cocoa, salt together in a large bowl.

Step 3

4.Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
5.Add the chocolate chips to the heated banana mixture, until fully melted. 
5.Mix the heated banana mixture into the dry flour mixture until fully combined.

Step 5

6.Pour the combined mixture into the prepared pan.

Step 6

7.Bake at 350 degrees for about 28 minutes. Until toothpick is inserted and comes out dry. 

Step 7

Enjoy your Jum'ah Brownies!

This one has a homemade peanut butter-ice cream sauce. Yummy! :D
(I mixed 2 tbsp of ice cream, 50g of vanilla yogurt and 2 tbsp of peanut butter together.)

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

My mom and me with the beautiful lantern my husband bought for  our home!

Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of the month of May, but as Khalid's dad always says, "In Islam, Mother's Day is EVERYDAY!" Isn't that beautiful? The status of women in Islam is amazing! 

"When she is a daughter, she opens a door of Jannah for her father. When she is a wife, she completes half of the Deen of her husband. When she is a mother, Jannah lies under her feet... If everyone knew the true status of a Muslim woman in Islam, even the men would want to be women." ~Shiekh Akram Nadawi

 This Mother's Day we had the family to our apartment and we had a nice day spending time together. I made a homemade Angel Food Cake that I iced with fat-free yogurt (this is my FAVORITE dessert)! It was delicious and was gone by the end of the night. I also made peanut butter cookies and decorated them to look like sunflowers and cupcakes with homemade chocolate-peanut butter icing, topped with smarties! Then mom opened the gifts we gave her. We gave her a frame with a picture of mom and I put in it and a box of white chocolates (because she can not have chocolate unless it is white) and I card. She loved the gifts, especially her card. Mashallah, she was all smiles!

After some goodies, we all played Skip-Bo (a card game). It is a great family game. I used to be the Queen of Skip-Bo but my mom, has definitely earned that title! She won all the games so far! I have to say she is really good at card games, Mashallah.  

Some of the chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes! Yummy!

Mom's slice of cake with one peanut butter sunflower cookies.

Khalid and I with our beautiful Indian hand crafted lantern,
purchased from Winners.

We planned to go see "The Five Year Engagement" at the movie theatre after eating out at a restaurant. But because my little brother was sleepy and was sleeping during all the card game excitement, we had a hard time waking him up to go to dinner. I have a Muslim doll named Amina that I got from a wonderful website muslimbase.com (I will do a post  on this fabulous website and the products I have ordered later.) and I used her to wake him up. She sings many songs and the repeating songs, eventually, woke him up.

Since we missed the movie we decided to drive around for a awhile and then order Chinese food to take back home. We had a good time listening to music and talking and laughing with each other. After we returned home we had our dinner together and I pack left over food and goodies for the family to take back home with them.

We had a great Mother's Day spending time together. It is great that there is a defined day for moms, but we should remember that every day is Mother's Day. They brought us into this world and raised us. They should always be treated with the kindness and respect they deserve. I look forward to having children someday, Inshallah and I hope that I can be mommy that they can look up to, be proud of, love and share their thoughts, fears and joys with.

Happy Mother's Day everybody!
How did you   spend your Mother's Day?