Easy brownies that won't kill you!

I'll be the first to admit it: life SUCKS without internet. I'm posting this blog with the help of a friend, but I am still without the net and it looks like that won't be changing until another 2 weeks or so. In the meantime, I'm hoping to placate you all with some delicious treats. The holidays were rough on my poor tum-tum, and I'm right in the middle of a great detox that I learned about from a book called "The Fast Track One Day Detox Diet". Check it out here. I love this book; the information was basic and not new to me, but it definitely would have been had I not attended nutrition school. I definitely felt that the author and I were on the same wavelength when it came to nutrition, and I liked the plan so I'm giving it a shot. Did I mention how much I love to detox, haha? And after going through 3 Tofurkeys and countless pies this holiday season, it's definitely time.

So, how do we have yummy treat time without sugar, chocolate, or gluten? Easy. This recipe is a quick modification of about a hundred different raw brownie recipes that can be found all over the internet. My favorite raw site is Gone Raw, an amazing resource filled with recipes and a very active and friendly forum. Here's a picture of the brownies I made the other day, which I like to call "The Omega 3 Explosion of Awesome Brownies".



YUM! To make these brownies, you'll need a few things. And if you're gluten free and can't tolerate oats (some can, some can't), you can make a substitute with any good binding grain or even more ground raw nuts. Amounts are up to you, since this is basically a make it how you like it recipe, but it very easy to whip together. I used the following:

Rolled oats
Hemp seed powder
Sunflower seed powder
Flaxseed powder
Carob powder
Walnuts
Dates
Agave Nectar
Almond butter

Start grinding your seeds and mixing the powders together with the oats in a big mixing bowl. I used about 1/2 cup of each. You can use more expensive things, like ground raw cashews, but all these seeds are insanely inexpensive for the amount of nutrition they pack. Chia seeds would have definitely made it in here, as well, if I hadn't eaten all mine. Oh, well.

Mix all your seed powders together well, and add chopped and pitted dates and walnuts, mixing together again. Here you can go crazy and add anything dried that sounds good. Whole seeds, cranberries, raisins: just be sure that there's no sugar added if you care to avoid sugar, which I do. This recipe need no sweetening beyong what's already on the list

Add agave nectar liberally, maybe about 1/4 a cup and mix. Now, start adding your nut butter. Again, use what you've got. Add enough so that the entire mixture becomes sticky and there isn't any powder left in the bottom of the bowl, but don't overadd. You basically want a big, hard ball of stuff. Using your hands is a must, so gently knead the mixture until all of the ingredients are bound well and press into an appropriately sized pan. Mine fit perfectly into a zucchini loaf pan which made the thickness about an inch and a half. Perfect. You want this to be as tall as fudge.

Put it in the freezer and wait...well, as long as you can. I waited about an hour, which was just enough time for it to set and become pan shaped. From here, you can slice into squares and keep it in the fridge. It is soooo gooood.

Oh, boy...I got a dehydrator for Channukah! You can imagine the Dehydrator Madness that's been going on around here. My apartment is constantly humming. Hopefully the internet faerie will come to visit us soon so I can share the edible yums I've been working on. If you make these brownies, post me some pictures and let me know what sort of variations you tried!