Zucchini Brownies

I have never been able to make brownies.  I’m not talking about not being able to make homemade brownies…I can’t even make boxed brownies.  I either overcook them or undercook them.  I have tried every kind, every brand, every trick and all different kinds of pans; they never work.

So you can imagine my hesitancy to make a fancy brownie that required strange ingredients…

But I’m a little stubborn (okay, a lot stubborn) and nothing was going to keep me from enjoying a damn delicious brownie that I made with my own two hands…and a healthy one at that!

So I searched the web and came across a recipe for flourless zucchini brownies…um, hold up!??

The problem is that the blogger did not list all of the ingredients so I had to figure out what was missing…turns out it was cocoa powder…so I searched some more and tried to find a recipe for regular brownies to figure out how much cocoa powder to use.  Needless to say, I did not have high hopes for this brownie…how could I?  With my serious lack of brownie-making skills, and all of these weird ingredients??

But guess what?  It worked.  It really, really worked!

Let's talk about how healthy these brownies are!  They are made with almond butter, raw honey, zucchini, and absolutely no flour.  You’re gonna love these, believe me!  And you don’t have to feel at all guilty about eating them.  Now, these brownies are only a little bit lower in calories (about 50 less cals than box prepared fudge brownies) but they are SO much healthier for you than regular brownies since they are loaded with healthy fats, good carbs, and do not contain any flour.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup shredded zucchini – shred it and then chop the shreds up really small, then squeeze them so that as much of the zucchini juice comes out of them as possible.

1 ¼ cup of almond butter

1/3 cup raw honey

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ tsp of nutmeg

1 egg

½ cup dark chocolate or semi-sweet mini chocolate chips, divided

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350

In a medium bowl, add all of the ingredients reserving half of the mini chips for topping.  Mix everything together.

Pour the mix into an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan (I lined mine with parchment paper).

Sprinkle the remaining chips on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Remove and let cool for about 15 minutes, slice and serve!  They came out moist and cakey (I'm pretty sure that’s an actual outcome...)

And they are so good!!!

  

Nutrition:

Makes 9 good sized brownies

Calories 321 / Carbs 28g / Fat 23g / Protein 8g / Fiber 4g / Sodium 210mg