Like I often say, these are so healthy you could eat them for breakfast! In fact, I fed them to my kids as an appetizer before dinner! They still ate well, but if they filled up just on these, it would be ok! Dates rock! Peanut butter and walnuts are healthy fats, and cocoa has it's own laundry list of mental and and other health benefits!
To mention dates again, I go back to Dr Greger's endorsement of dates as a healthy food. Here it is in a nutshell: dates are made mostly of sugar, so the worry is that like sugar, dates may raise our blood sugar, raise our triglycerides, oxidatively stress our bodies, and make us fat. According to recent studies: DATES are FANTASTIC for us! No harmful affect on triglycerides or weight, improvements in antioxidant stress level, and one study considers that dates may be an almost IDEAL food with its many essential nutrients and health benefits!
Peanut Butter Brownies
2 c walnuts (or pecans, or some combination of the two, or probably another nut would work!)
3 c pitted dates (60 dates if you're counting!)
2 t vanilla
1.5 c warm water
1/2 c ground flaxseed (optional: updated additional, nutritious ingredient!)
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa
1/2 c natural peanut butter (1/4 c for more of a chocolate brownie; 2/3 c for a peanut buttery brownie!)
Blend all ingredients in a food processor until you have a brownie-batter-ish consistency (no eggs so feel free to enjoy some!). It helps to blend the nuts a while before adding the water. You may wrap your food processor with a towel when you add the water. Fill pans to thickness you want your brownies to be. I made mine a half inch or so thick. I use two silicone bread pans (4x9" or so) so there are more edges! I also fill something else with what is left; this afternoon I used an 8" round pan. I bake for ~30 minutes at 375 convection, so that's around 40 minutes at 400 conventional.
Unlike brownies with beans in them, you can feel free to taste and enjoy piping hot from the oven! SO YUMMY! Happy weekend!
COMMENTS: Do you camp? I've mostly camped as a kid, Girl Scouts, and another random trip or two. I think it's an awesome experience with nature, for anybody, and especially for kids. Now, if I can get my hubby on board! He's a good sport. We did go once when our friends graciously offered up their camper to us, while they slept in their tent. It was fun! I want to do it again! It even had a lasting effect of turning my daughter into a self proclaimed nature-lover :)
