Fresh Baked Guilt

I feel like a bad mother if my children don’t have fresh, homemade, healthy baked goods on hand for snacks.

I agree, I’m an idiot, but, hear me out: like many of us, I have two small girls that seem to always be hungry, and sometimes they are hungry at inconvenient times. Sometimes, I am just not able to fart around preparing cheese and crackers, slicing up an apple, or making monkey pancakes with blueberry smiley faces (yes, those are often requested.)

So, instead of doing the easy, unhealthy thing and throwing a few chocolate cream cookies at them (those are mine, yo), I make sure that I always have yummy, healthy, fresh-baked goods on hand. Some go over very well – Banana, Blueberry, Bran Muffins, anyone? And some, not so well. (Amaranth, Flax Seed, Pumpkin Muffins anyone?) I have learned a few things along the way, like carob chips DO NOT make a tasty alternative to chocolate chips, and if you just bake your goods in mini-muffin tins, you can give your toddler the entire thing and know that a lot less of it will end up wasted and/or ground into the couch.

The other thing I’ve learned is that, if you call it a chocolate brownie, you can put pretty much whatever you want in the recipe, and your children will eat it. It was with that in mind that I gleefully made out to prepare a batch of Special Brownies from Rising Chefs, the recipe for which we received in our grab bag at the Bunch Family Dance Party this weekend.

Now, I don’t know about you, but for me, ‘Special Brownies’ are not something I thought I would ever want to be introducing to my kids, cool mom though I may be. Especially when I looked at the recipe and noticed there was, indeed, a lot of green in it…

* * * * *

Special Brownies

Based on recipe from Rising Chefs

(You know me; I’ll be adding flax germ and reducing the sugar. When I said that these would not cause one to catch a buzz, I meant it.)

Prep Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 min

· 2 cups whole wheat flour

· ½ cup cocoa powder

· 1 ½ tsps baking soda

· 1 tsp salt

· ½ cup canola oil

· ½ cup apple sauce

· 1 cup sugar

· ½ cup brown sugar

· 2 tsps vanilla

· 2 cups finely shredded zucchini

· ¼ cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. Grease and flour 1 9x13 baking pan

3. In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

4. In a large bowl mix sugars, oil and vanilla until well blended.

5. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

6. Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips.

7. Spread evenly into pan

8. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until brownies spring back in centre when touched.

Save some for the kids.

Comments

[Mouse]

This looks good, especially the zucchini. I may try to make it gluten-free. And, yes, my son's bread has flaxseed meal in it. What he doesn't know...

[kgirl]

Mouse - this should be ok w/a gluten free flour mix or straight up amaranth.