A Snowy Brownie Making Day in New Bedford, MA

I’ve lived in New England  my whole life.  So, technically, I should embrace snow storms.  As a child, I definitely did.  There was nothing better than putting on my snow pants and going outside in the snow to frolic.  That would always be followed by coming back to a  warm house where my mom would serve some chocolate Ovaltine and cookies.

However, the older me, doesn’t appreciate the cold and snow as the younger me had done. The thought of going outside for any length of time, makes me want to crawl into bed and hide under the covers.

Today, was a snowstorm in all of Massachusetts.  School was canceled for my oldest daughter.  Both of my girls looked longingly outside the window as the snow came down.  I know they wanted to go out and play.  But I held them off with promises of playing in the snow tomorrow with daddy.

While, Facebook was filling up with photos of children playing outside, I decided to engage with my children, in what I consider I much more fun activity (and there was no complaints from them). The three of us made homemade brownies.  We all had a blast.  The girls helped me pour in the ingredients and mix it all up. We danced around the kitchen to ’80’s music streaming from my phone.  While the brownies baked in the oven, the girls went to town licking the bowl, arguably the best part of making brownies.  We all laughed and giggled and enjoyed our indoor fun.  A bonus to this great afternoon is that the brownies themselves are healthy – no grains (no flour) and no sugar (we used some pure maple syrup to give it some sweetness).  Yet, they are so yummy – even my picky 6 year old inhaled them.

Enjoy some photos from the afternoon (recipe to follow the photos):

Licking the brownie bowl is serious business.

She’s sulking because her sister is monopolizing the bowl.

Just as fun (if not more) than playing outside in the snow.

Mom, don’t interrupt me from licking the bowl.

Brownie mustache, anyone?

Here is the brownie recipe –  I adapted it slightly from Paleo Grubs:

Ingredients:

1 cup almond butter

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 egg

2 tbsp grass-fed  butter (I used Kerry Gold)

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

A smidge of salt

(Sometimes we add 1/4 a cup of  Enjoy-Life dairy free mini chocolate chips in – today we did not.)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a brownie pan.  We used 100% palm oil.

In a large bowl, whisk together the almond butter, syrup, egg, butter, and vanilla. Stir in the cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

If using chocolate chips, stir them into the batter now.

Pour the batter into a 9-inch baking pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until the brownie is done, but still soft in the middle.

Cool and enjoy!

Store in the refrigerator (which gives it a great texture)

Yields: 6 servings  (although we cut them up into 20 pieces and had two brownies a piece).