B is for Beans: A Sweet Surprise

Beans Two Ways

Here I go again trying making the Vitamix recipe for black bean brownies.  The first time I followed the recipe and overblended my dough into something so gross and glutenous that it was inedible.  This time I only mixed my wet ingredients in the blender and then added them to the dry ingredients in a bowl.  I think they would be better with a little oil and more sugar.  Either way, I really think the Vitamix recipe just isn't great.
There are lots of black bean brownie recipes out there though, so if you have a tried and true one that works, post it in the comments.

What is great, and easy, is that I had made a huge crock pot of black beans and stored them in 2 cup servings in Ziplock bags and froze them.   This has worked so well and is so cheap!  What a great way to save money and have beans on hand.  I freeze them flat too, and that enables you to defrost quickly and easily.  On Thursday we had to take Violet to gymnastics in the evening, so I was able to throw a frozen block of beans, some water, taco seasoning, frozen corn, and frozen roasted peppers in the crock pot before we left for easy burritos when we got home.  I love my frozen beans!

From ChocolateCoveredKatie.com found via Pinterest

I also had leftover garbanzo beans this morning and made what my husband and I are calling "Desert Hummus," but is called "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip."  I made this this morning for breakfast for my daughter, and she loved it.  I didn't even tell her it was supposed to be cookie dough, but as soon as she tasted it she said, "Cookie!"  I left out the chocolate chips and it was yummy breakfast.  Violet oddly wanted to pour a little milk over her bowl of it and ate it with a spoon.  She thought she was eating a treat, I thought she was getting a great amount of protein from both the garbanzos and almond butter.  Win win with beans.

So those are our beany sweets today.  Strange but true.  I think I'll dip my black bean brownies in my garbanzo dip and feel weird but healthy...  Really weird.