Brownies

Today has been a busy day!  Bryce had a birthday party then left the party to head straight to baseball tryouts.  Josh took him to baseball tryouts so Brennon and I decided to make him a treat for when he gets home.  It's super cold outside and there are a few snow flurries falling.  Brennon has stayed in his PJ's all day and is loving it! Today we decided on warm chocolatey brownies.  The sneaky ingredients in these is black beans and applesauce and is open to a lot of personalizing and interpretation.  The batter for these is so good we can't help but lick the spoon, and the mixing stick thingies, and our fingers, and the bowl....

Ingredients:
- 1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 4 eggs, 2 only egg whites, 2 with yolk
- 2 scoops protein powder (optional - chocolate, vanilla, or unflavored will do)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp salt

Directions:
- preheat oven to 350 degrees
- in a food processor/blender combine black beans, sugar, applesauce, & melted butter - blend until smooth
- pour into a large mixing bowl and add the rest of the ingredients
- mix with mixer on medium for 3 minutes. - you can add ingredients a little at a time if you want, but I like to just throw em in and do it all at once
- next, lick the spoon and anything else that comes in contact with this batter - it's delish!
- pour mixture into a 9x13 greased baking dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
- ENJOY!

Tip Alert: You can top the brownies any way you like!  You can also add things to the batter before baking
Examples:
- add nuts, chocolate chips, or peanut butter chips to batter before baking
- top with nutella spread (that's what we did today - melt it for about 30 seconds in microwave to make it easier to spread)
- top with cream cheese frosting (the hubs likes it like that)
- top with powdered sugar
- top with crumbled reese's peanut butter cups or any other favorite candy
- top with caramel
- basically anything else you can think of

Tip Alert #2:
- instead of butter, you can use 1 whole cup of applesauce and eliminate butter
- instead of butter you can use oil
- instead of applesauce use a whole cup of oil or melted butter
- you could use all purpose flour if that's all you've got
- and I personally think a Tbsp or 2 of coffee would be fantastic in this!

The consistency of these is in between a cake and gooey brownie consistency. Have fun with it!  Let your kids top theirs the way they like!