Black Bean Brownies –Quick

Ready for some yummy flourless chocolate goodness?

Would you like that goodness fast and exceptionally easy?

Check out these babies.

(Quick) Black Bean Brownies  (slightly altered from Allrecipes.com)

• 1 1/2 cups or 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 t sea salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)

Lightly grease an 8×8 square microwave-safe baking dish {Silicon muffin pans or loaf pans or 8×8 pans are great.}

Combine the black beans, eggs, oil, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, and instant coffee in a food processor; blend until smooth {as smooth as possible}; pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish(es).

Microwave on High for 4-6 minutes.* Turn out onto a wire rack to cool {I lined my racks with parchment paper to avoid stickiness} or leave in your pan to cool on a wire rack. If you are impatient, you don’t need to wait for these to cool. They are yummy warm from the microwave. Would be lovely with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream, too.

{I microwaved this in two batches: half in my silicon muffin pan (3-4 minutes), half in my silicon loaf pan (4-6 minutes). You will have to judge for yourself how long your particular baking dish and microwave need. One thing to note, however: the top of your brownies will look like they are not done, but that’s just because of the properties of microwave baking.}

Makes 12-16 brownies depending on what containers you chose to bake these. 🙂

*Traditional Baking Instructions:

Bake in preheated 350F oven until the top is dry and the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 30 minutes.

Green Monster Fro-Yo

Okay, okay, so this is NOT a spinach or other green vegetable-based frozen yogurt. But it is green and exceptionally healthy for an ice cream treat.

Meet Avocado Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt (otherwise known as Green Monster Fro-Yo). Isn’t she beautiful?

AND she is decadently and delectably delicious, the sweet darling!

This recipe was one of those fluke kind of brain waves that sometimes happen. As I was endeavouring to drift off to sleep the other night, the idea for this frozen yogurt popped into my head. Of course, it is not a new notion–others have boldly gone before me in the field of green ice cream–but it was an original one by me. I jotted down the idea (so that my ever-churning brain would leave me alone to sleep),  woke up the next morning and wrote this baby down:

Avocado Vanilla Bean Frozen Yogurt

Makes 4 (approx. 1/2 cup) servings

WW Points+ = 5 points {So not the most frugal with the points, but it is worth it!! AND it is good for you.}

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 medium avocado (you should have about 1 cup or so of mashed avocado)
• 1 cup Greek yogurt (I used Balkan style yogurt this first time since I did not have any Greek yogurt in the house; however, my original recipe called for 0% Greek yogurt.)
• 1/4 cup agave syrup
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 3/4 tsp guar gum

Directions:

First, gently heat milk in a small sauce pan or in a microwave-safe container in the microwave until steaming. With a sharp knife {watch those fingers} cut half a vanilla bean in half {Sounds odd but that’s how you do it. You could go wild and use a whole vanilla bean too. Do what your taste buds desire.}, scrape out the black vanilla “caviar” and stir it into the milk. {I also put in the bean pod for extra flavour. Be sure you remove it before adding to avocado mixture to the food processor.} Cover milk with plastic wrap (to prevent a skin from forming on the milk) and let cool to at least room temperature. (This step can {and should} be done in advance.)

While milk is cooling {Take a nap or something before you start the rest of the preparation. The milk needs to be cool to cold.}, scrape out avocado and place in a blender or food processor. Blend until {more or less} smooth, then add yogurt. Blend. Add agave syrup and vanilla milk (and guar gum). Blend again. Pour into a bowl {Be sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape out all that lovely green avocado goodness.}, cover, and chill in refrigerator for at least one hour. Pour into an ice cream maker until has set. If a firmer texture is desired, scrape into an air tight container and freeze.

You could also add chocolate chips or shavings to this before or during the ice cream maker stage. I thought about it originally, but failed to write chocolate into the recipe {HORRORS!! How could I forget chocolate?!!}. SO . . . no chocolate in this batch. Oh well. Chocolate on top is good, too. AND saves on the waistline, since {cringe} it can {conceivably} be omitted.