Meg's Meal Planning

blackbean brownies

Black bean brownies 

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These tasty little treats are the healthiest brownies you will ever eat! No really! They are made with black beans and ground flax seed and have no added sugar or flour.  People will NEVER guess there are black beans in them. I let my family and many friends taste them and try to guess and no one even came close! What’s even better is they don’t taste healthy. The cocoa powder and chocolate chips make this a gooey, rich, and tasty dessert. You won’t even feel bad about going back for more!

They are inspired from Chocolate Covered Katie, but l substituted oats for ground flax seed.  I served them at the Mother’s Day brunch; click here for a recap.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1/2 ground flax seed
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup honey, or pure maple syrup, or agave nectar
  • 1/4 cup coconut or vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup chocolate chips, more for topping (optional)

 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor and blend until smooth.

2. Stir in chocolate chips, then pour into greased 8×8 pan. Sprinkle more chocolate chips on top for an extra chocolaty taste if so desired.

3. Bake 15-18 mins, then let cool 10 minutes.

Mother’s Day Brunch recap

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We had such a wonderful time celebrating Mother’s Day with our families. We are so blessed and fortunate to be able to celebrate with both our parents.  Two out of three of my brothers came home too, sadly my youngest brother, sister, and brother in-law were unable to make it.  So that left us with 8 people.  The menu came out great! There were a few variations and a few extra desserts – but you can never have too many of those!

For the orginal menu, you can click here to view it.

I ended up following a very similar recipe to the egg muffins I posted about a few weeks ago (click here for recipe). Except I didn’t add any ham or scallions this time, just cherry tomatoes, spinach, and zucchini. They were a big hit! And it worked out really well because I put them out as soon as they were ready, so they served as almost an appetizer, along with the gluten free banana bread.

I also didn’t end up serving spinach salad since spinach was going into the egg muffins. I thought that might be overkill, so instead I made almond green beans.  Again, I knew I didn’t want something that would take up precious oven real estate, so these green beans worked out well on the stovetop.

I had a ricotta cheesecake, but ended up buying it along with a fruit tart from a local grocery store, Highland Park Market. But I did make black bean brownies.  Please, before you knock them, you must try them! I’ll post about them later this week, so be on the look out for the healthist brownies you will ever eat!

Overall the day turned out great! And I’m so happy to be able to do this for our hard-working moms!