Black Bean Brownies.... At Last!

Sundays are always so bittersweet - a day for relaxation but also signals the last day of the weekend for us 9-5ers. Today, my only need to do was to run 13km. I haven't mentioned this yet, but I signed up for a half marathon. I know half of you (the 4 people that probably actually check this) are wondering why the heck I'd do that and the other half have probably already ran one! This 21.1km trek is something that I have mulled over for a number of years and I decided that 2012 is the year it is going to happen. Up until this point, I've run a few 10k races but have never ran more than 10k. Every time I ever ran a 10km race, it seemed that I took a couple months off before hand, showed up and then as I ran, remembered how terrible it was to run without training. I've made a pledge to myself to approach this one slightly different - ie. actually train. So far, so good! I ran through January to set up a decent base and started a training schedule a few weeks ago. The training is 3 days of running per week and I usually try to supplement it with 2 - 3 days of cross-training/strength training. So anyway - it was a beautiful day out today! I smiled through moments of my run up until I hit 10km. After 10km, it was a grind! Thankfully, I had a few happy thoughts... 1) Sexy Sax Man, 2) Mega Party, 3) great tunes pumping and 4) the fact that I only had 3 more kilometers to run. I thought of this in exactly this order. I wish I could take credit for finding the Sexy Sax Man and Mega Party, but I can't! A fantastic person showed me this and I am just happy to be able to pay it forward. If I'm having a bad day, I know those will brighten it for me! :)

Black Bean Brownies!!

Anyway - I guess since I ran 13km, I also felt entitled to eat a lot of chocolate and then create something delicious with chocolate. Here goes... I used the recipe I found here. I've been wanting to try Black Bean Brownies for while. The desire to use my new food processor was a good excuse!

Black Bean Brownies (Gluten-Free)

19 oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/8 tsp salt 

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup agave nectar

3 slightly beaten eggs

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Grease an 8 X 8 pan and turn your oven on to 350F.

2. Place all of your ingredients except your eggs and chocolate chips in the food processor and process until smooth.

3. Pour in your eggs, process some more.

4. Stir in your chocolate chips.

5. Pour into your greased pan. 

6. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.

7. EAT. SMILE. LOVE.

I ate some chocolate chips and then went against my own norms and actually had a sample of the finished product! So soft and so good!! I'll definitely make these again!!

Hope you like them too!