I would have never referred to myself as a sweet-tooth. I have always had a hankering for savory/salty. I could easily turn down cake, cookies, brownies or chocolate, but definitely related to the Lay’s slogan, “Bet you can’t eat just one” potato chip. But when I revamped my diet to take in more healthy, whole foods, I suddenly started getting cravings for sweets. It’s not the kind of “omg, I will lose my arm if I don’t get something sweet” kind of craving. Just found myself wanting a little something sweet every now and then. It was so odd to me at first, then I realized that most of my whole food eating is on the savory side, and that when I get my daily fruit intake, it’s usually in the form of a nutriblast or a spiced up fruit salsa or covered in peanut butter, so that puts it more on the savory side. So bottom line thinking is that I didn’t know what I was missing until I didn’t have it.
To be honest, extreme healthy eating doesn’t allow for cookies, cakes or any junk food, even if it is made from whole food, in your kitchen. But I don’t agree with anything extreme, so I say “Let them eat cake!” The average healthy diet means you should be able to live in moderation, and with that there is always room for cake (or a cookie, or a brownie, or a blondie!). If you can make it in your kitchen, using whole food ingredients, EVEN BETTER! But the last thing I ever want someone to do is beat themselves up or feel guilty for a little indulgence. (I really think this recipe post is leading into another blog post topic, so I will save the rest of what I was going to say for that lol).
On to the Blondie recipe…I had read about a brownie recipe that used black beans and found that extremely interesting. A whole cycle of thoughts went through my head, from “ewww, gross” to “how the…?” to full on “that is so interesting.” I read all of the comments and everyone who had made them said if they hadn’t made them themselves, they wouldn’t have even known there were black beans in them. So I was all game for making them, but realized I was out of cocoa powder. So looking in my pantry I see garbanzo beans (chick peas). Now normally I have these in there for homemade hummus, but it got me thinking. So I went to my trusty sidekick, Google! “Chickpeas in desserts” was the search, and I found this great site that gave me a Blondie recipe using chickpeas!!! To be honest, I was very skeptical, but really eager to try it. If nothing else, it would be fun to make. But to my honest surprise, they tasted like a completely guilty dessert. While a little softer than a brownie in texture, it was definitely not a chickpea, hummus like texture. I probably could have cooked them an additional 5 minutes and let them cool longer, so I will try that next time.
I hope you will throw away your inhibitions and make these as well!!! You can even trick the kids, which is always fun!!! Lol
Clean Eating Blondies
Ingredients:
Olive oil Spray (for the 8x8 baking dish)
1 can organic chickpeas, rinsed and drained
½ cup organic almond butter (you can also use peanut butter)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup (or agave nectar or honey)
2 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips, plus 2 tbsps (I just cut up a ½ bar of 73% cacao dark chocolate bar, but you can also use Enjoy Life Mega Chunk, which are vegan, gluten free and dairy free)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 8x8 inch pan with olive oil spray
In a food processor, add all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips and process until the batter is smooth. Fold in 1/3 cup of chocolate chips.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan then sprinkle the 2 tbsp of chocolate chips on top. Bale for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the edges are brown.
Cool for 20 minutes. Cut into squares and enjoy the surprise!!!
I almost forgot to take a picture that is why the pan is missing 2 Blondies haha!
No comments:
Post a Comment