Dirty Hippy Brownies!!

So. I slacked for a little while... I'm going to go with around 3 weeks. I had a project at work due and an immense amount of work and very little timeline- welcome to consulting- that found me at the office till 1am on weeknights and bringing kiddo, laptop, and movies in on a Sunday. But now that that's over I can get back to focusing on my life. Ha.

Today I sat down and was perusing the lululemon website after a 30 min cold run in the ravine- and saw some pants I want to eventually fit in... But I got sad because I love desserts and unless I can enjoy food I just can't diet so I might end up a 1-tonne mom. So i was googling healthy recipes that looked really good- and I remembered I had Michael Pollan's book Food Rules somewhere (bear with me this timeline ends up at brownies haha). So I dug into that and it inspired me to see how creative I could get on improving food... One of the rules Italians and French people follow are ENJOY your food- and what's more enjoyable than a brownie? Nothing my friends. Nothing.

So I just took a brownie recipe from the internets and I made it my way-

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup organic cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup coconut sugar*
1/4 cup ground flax
2 tbsp wheat germ
1/4 cup hemp hearts
3 egg whites
1/2 cup pureed mixture of prunes and spinach**
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup almond milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup chopped unsalted almonds to sprinkle on top

*it's supposed to be unrefined so it contains all it's minerals still and it has a really low glycemic index so your blood sugar doesn't freak out.
**4 dried prunes, tbsp of water, and 1 & 1/2 cup fresh spinach in a blender

Mix the dry stuff except the sugar.
In a separate bowl mix the wet stuff and sugar.
Add together mixing as little as possible to blend.
Sprinkle with chopped almonds
Butter or Pam 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for 40 min.

It was perfect. The hemp hearts helped with the nuttiness and the prunes and pumpkin kept them moist. Not exactly your mom's brownies and not too sweet or dense but chocolatey enough to make everyone happy, especially my insatiable sweet tooth and I could let H have a sizable piece and not have visions of him being a 1 tonne teenager. We all loved them! Bingo!! Score one for dirty hippy brownies! I guess the next logical step is to move us all unto a commune.