Healthy...'er' Brownies

This is another recipe I 'pinned' on one of my Pinterest boards...originally found at this blog scroll towards the bottom of the entry for the recipe.  This brownie recipe has NO flour and NO sugar in it...sound disgusting?  I was willing to give it a try although I was somewhat skeptical...and the price of the almond butter ($10.99...YIKES) at the store gave me pause and think maybe I should just get the $3.00 boxed brownie mix instead...but where's the adventure in that?!?

Recipe:
16 oz. Creamy Almond Butter
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 of a 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar (70% cocao), chopped into pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Blend almond butter, honey and eggs in mixer bowl.
2. Add cocoa, baking soda and salt to wet ingredients in bowl and mix together.
3. Fold in the chopped chocolate.

wet ingredients blended

chopped chocolate

Pour and spread mix into a sprayed 9x13 glass dish.

before it's baked...it looks like a regular wet brownie mix

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  Let cool before cutting.

the 'after' picture - looks like brownies

It looked like brownie batter as I poured it in the pan, and it smelled like brownies as it baked.  But the final and most important test...the taste...

They WERE good...if you like sweet & salty combos, you will like this brownie - there wasn't a lot of salt added to the recipe but because of using the larger sea salt crystals you get a taste of it throughout the brownie...if you want a gluten-free brownie recipe, this is one to try...would I make it again?  Meh...I think the overall cost of making the brownies is what keeps me from being more enthusiastic about them...I'm not sure they're THAT much better than the $3.00 box mixes... :)  I guess I'll look for 'healthy' food in my salads and entrees and stick to the 'unhealthy' brownie mixes in the baking aisle. :)

I Baked Something...

I thought when I moved up here and had access to a beautiful, spacious kitchen, I would be baking and cooking all the time...however, the fact that it is still just me makes it easy for me to lack the motivation to put any effort into meals and just stick to easy things like soups and rice bowls etc...

I have been 'pinning' things on Pinterest for quite awhile...it's a really cool website (aka time waster) that is basically a virtual pin board where you can organize any picture, tutorial, recipe, party idea, photo idea etc...that you find on the web.  You can create as many 'boards' as you want and pin as much as you want...the trouble is, you find one thing, and then you see things other people have 'pinned' and in browsing through everything others have pinned, you find you've just spent hours on the site.  It's a great place for inspiration though ~ my original reason for joining was because I wanted a place to keep recipe ideas I would find on different sites all in one place, rather than having to try to remember which blog or what website I'd seen it.  I have recipe boards divided into "Recipes to try - sweets" and "Recipes to try - savory", and it's no surprise that I have about twice as many 'sweets' recipes to try as savory.

I finally got my act together this weekend and bought ingredients to make one of my 'pinned' sweets recipes...it's actually similar, if not identical, to one a friend of mine made several years ago when I was visiting her in San Diego (hi Leanne).  I don't remember her name for the recipe, but the one on Pinterest is called "Magic Eight Bars", so that's what I'll call them.

I even remembered to wear an apron this time :)  I don't usually think to put one on, but I got this one when I was at Sur La Table in Seattle earlier this summer...

I love the rick rack, ribbons and the teacups and teapot on it, and I have to admit, it did make me feel very 'Suzy Homemaker' ish wearing it :)

Magic Eight Bars

1/2 c butter, melted
1.5 c graham cracker crumbs
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 c chocolate chips
1 c butterscotch chips
1 c white chocolate chips
1 1/3 c coconut flakes (either sweetened or unsweetened - I used sweetened)
1/2 c Heath Bar toffee bits

Directions:
Melt butter in microwave-safe bowl and add the graham cracker crumbs to it.  Stir to combine and press crumb mixture into a buttered or cooking sprayed 9 x 13 pan.

(1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs is just about one sleeve of graham crackers - I put them in a large ziplock bag and then rolled over them with a rolling pin)

Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with half the chips, i.e. 1/2 c of each kind of chip, then top with half the amount of coconut, i.e. about 3/4 c.  Then add the rest of the chips and rest of the coconut.  After the chips and coconut are layered, add the the toffee bits to the top.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes, or until top is barely browning.  Start checking on it after 25 minutes.  Allow to cool and slice.  You can store extras in the freezer (ha, ha...extras, yeah right) :)  if you want to make ahead.

It's a great way to use up left over bags of flavored chips that are in the pantry - you could easily do variations with whatever you have, and add nuts as well if you'd like.

My 'plating' skills can definitely use some work...the bars are super sweet, so you don't need a huge serving...make sure you have milk to go with them!

And just because...here are pix of the most recent 'visitor' to pass through - he took a shortcut through the yard...