THE brownies...

Okay, so I made the brownies today.  Ahem. 

First, how I adjusted the recipe.  It calls for 1/2 c. carrot puree and 1/2 cup spinach puree.  I used all the carrots, but I did 1/4 c. spinach and 1/4 c. blueberries.  Someone had said the blueberries was good.  Everything else I used as prescribed.  You could use either oat flour or all purpose.  I used a-p.

Everything else I followed to a T.  First, when I mixed the chocolate with the purees, I did a litle taste - not bad.  I never did encounter a spinach smell.

The review:  The brownies are strongly chocolate.  No hint of vegetables at all.  Not very sweet.  Dense and chewy, but not in the good decadent brownie way.  More in the "what happened to the levening?" way.  I guess it had the "healthy" feel to it.  Whatever, the science to the baking was messed with and not perfected.  I think it would be better to use a tried and true recipe.  I'm going to dig through my heart healthy cookbooks, use those recipes and add the purees to it.  I've also heard that the "no pudge" fudge brownies box mix is good.  Maybe it was the fact that I used the smart balance - that's what the recipe calls for - but I had the "light" on hand.  Too much water or air?  Maybe the oat flour would've worked better?  I'm gonna also try the Sneaky Chef recipe.

The family's take on it: Jake loves it.  He's just happy to have brownies - they don't have to be good!  Mom never makes dessert!  Ryan took a nibble and declared them bad.  Well, he said they were okay the first bite, then after it went down, it got a strong chocolate taste.  The child is not a big chocolate fan.  (so now you see what I'm dealing with, the child doesn't even eat chocolate or ice cream!)  Gary is not a fan.  But again, some dessert is better than no dessert.  He didn't detect any vegetables either.  Just that bad heavy texture.  He'd be happier if he had a big dollop of ice cream and fudge sauce.

I wish someone involved with the making of this cookbook would make the recipe as it is printed in the cookbook and tell me with a serious face that those are "death row brownies".  Surely they missed something in the printing.  That's all I have to say about that.

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Tonight I tried another new recipe.  A weight watchers crockpot recipe.  Basque-style chicken stew.  It has chicken, turkey bacon (just a little), red and green peppers, onion, olives, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, etc. etc.  It was soooooooo good!  It's a keeper.  Jake ate it up.  We had to make Ryan eat the chicken chunks and at least 6 pasta spirals. *sigh*