Brownies...with avocado.

Yeah, you heard that right. Brownies made using avocados. With the new year comes my resolution to eat healthier foods and I'm not even gonna lie; I hate veggies. LOATHE them, so any way I can incorporate them into my diet, I will. And while avocados are fruits and not veggies, they're green and soooo not fruity tasting to me ( I love most fruit) so I have taken it upon myself to consider them an icky veggie. So I poked around the internet for some avocado dessert recipes and I wasn't really coming up with anything until I happened upon this Mayan Mudslide Brownie recipe I found at Sugar Plum blog. (http://www.visionsofsugarplum.com/)
I made the recipe this cold and snowy afternoon and let me tell you, the batter tastes incredible! They are in the oven right this very moment baking (and smelling scrumptious!) and I will report back to you on how they taste and what my friends and family think of them. And while obviously masking avocados with chocolate isn't the heathiest way to eat them, but it IS getting me to eat them, which is a step in the right direction. And I will never give up brownies, so why not try to healthy them up??
Here's the recipe: (www.visionsofsugarplums.com/2010/05/mayan-mudslide-brownies.html )The few alterations I made: instead of using coffee (I hate coffee) I used a tsp. (I like spicy heat...you might want to alter this )of cayenne pepper and a tsp. of cinnamon. After all ingredients were added and before pouring into the pan, the batter seemed reallllllllllllllllly thick so I added a smidge less than a 1/4 cup of no sugar added pure applesauce. Also, the recipe calls for dulce de leche. I skipped this step because I don't know where I would buy it, and quite frankly? I didn't have any in
the house and was too lazy to go looking around for it in stores. I don't think it will be sorely missed, plus? Calories saved!

Hump Day FAILURE

Ok, so I have been wanting to make marshmallows FOREVAH but I have never gotten around to it. I am not even a huge fan of marshmallows, but hello, how fun would it be to say, "Oh, I just whipped up some homemade marshmallows this afternoon?" Plus, I know lots of people who go gaga over marshmallows who I would be more than willing to share with!
So, yesterday I set out to make them. And I did. And they seemed to work. Until I tried to get them out of the pan. And they kinda-sorta tasted ok even when I kind of picked away at the sticky mess to at least taste them and try to salvage parts of the Gigundo Sized Marshmallow before tossing it in the trash. Unfortunately, the recipe said, when transferring the marshmallow mixture from the mixing bowl to the pan, spray the spatula with cooking spray so the marshmallowy goodness doesn't stick to the spatula. Well, I did that, but unfortunately I used an olive oil cooking spray and let's just say...eww to the residual taste it left behind.
Because I am a trooper (and because I really want to make homemade marshamallows to give out to friends and family!), I will attempt to make these again, using a different recipe. (I used one off Martha Stewart's site.)
So, until next time, my cocoa will have to go sans marshmallows!

Seriously?

Ok, I so totally could not have my first post of this wonderful BRAND SPANKIN' NEW year be about Jiffy mix blueberry muffins and some pasta with lemon-garlicky goodness, sooooooooooo...

...I poked around the internet and happened upon a recipe for what sounds like a deliciously fabulous recipe: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. Hellllllllllllllllo, yummy! I just got finished baking them (and also got my first oven injury of 2011; a slight burn to the left lower pinkie. WAH WAH WAHHHHHHHHHH! ;) )and let me tell you, they smell D-I-V-I-N-E!! (And I tasted both the batters, the chocolate and the peanut butter part and HOLY PEANUT BUTTER CUP, BATMAN! I wanted to set the bowls of batter on the floor and lap it up like a hungry kitteh laps up some warm milk on a cold winter's night! I'm waiting for them to cool off and I will report on how they taste later, as well as post pics. Until then, my friends...
P.S.
I totally got the recipe from Joy the Baker, at joythebaker.com. Thank you sooooooooooo much for making this recipe public!!

Edited to add: the brownies turned out amaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzzzzzingly delicious!! Everyone loved them. So rich! So dense! So chocolatey! So peanut-buttery good! Pictures to come, once I figure out why I can't get my pics from my camera to my laptop...