EASY home-made Chocolate Candies and Protein Brownies + Meetup fun

This adorable family came over to spend a couple of hours with me and the girls.

Girl Heroes Jenn & her two awesome boys

As a mother only to furry children, I feel that I'm not very good at entertaining the kids of the bi-ped variety.  Unless of course I just stick them up on the rafters.  That's always good for a laugh.  Mine, of course.

So for their visit, I decided to make a little scavenger hunt.  As luck would have it, they are very intelligent, so they blew through it pretty quickly and soon we were onto much more fun things:

Goodies!  

Joanna Sutter's breakfast brownies (Shhh, don't tell the kids they are healthy!)  They are made with canned PUMPKIN, chocolate protein powder, baking soda, baking powder and I added stevia. 


Fitness & Spice Breakfast Brownies:

• 1 can Pumpkin Puree
• 2 T Coconut Oil
• 2 cups Chocolate Protein Powder
• 2 T Dark Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 t Baking Powder
• 1/2 t Baking Soda
• Stevia to taste (my addition)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir. Place into a prepared 8×8 pan and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until cooked through.  Makes 10 smallish brownies (very filling) at ~70 calories and 6 g protein each.


The result:  The kids loved them.  Even with the stevia, tee hee! They went back for seconds and perhaps thirds.  It's a winner of a recipe.


By the way, I don't need to show you photos of brownies.  You've all eaten brownies.  You know what they look like.  They are brown.  They are square or rectangular.  They look good.  They always look good.  There has never been an ugly brownie. (Translation: I forgot to take photos.)


Next up:  Almost raw chocolate candies.  This is a recipe that I tweaked from Healthy Hoggin.  These are.so.easy.  I just added the pan-toasted puffed kamut to give it some volume.  This way, you get a big hunk of chocolate with crispy cereal for 60 calories. Win!

 

The Recipe:

• 3 T coconut oil
• 2 T agave syrup (I reduced this from the original recipe which called for 3T maple syrup)
• 6 T cocoa powder
• 2 cups pan-toasted puffed cereal.  I used Kamut.

Mix together the first three ingredients, then stir in the cereal. You can use any puffed cereal:  wheat, kamut, millet, corn, rice.  Scoop them into mini-muffin papers or a mini muffin silicone tray.  Then put them in the freezer.  Serve frozen.


There is one small problem with them, however:

Um, yeah, they are a little messy, especially when it's 85F in Los Angeles in November.  (I sense hostility from across the blogosphere, do I not?)

Even Mom was rockin' the chocolate 'stash:

The boys are well-mannered as well.  Check the "Thank you" cards. Aww.

One of my favorite details:  The portrait of Ellie.

Is it me, or is this picture depicting my precious little kitty farting?

Ok Ok it's true.  Ellie can produce some really lethal, nuclear plume, grab-your-gas-mask, near-Armageddon sized catastrophic farts.  I just didn't know she let rip while they were visiting. 


Upon closer inspection of the card, I think that he drew her in the act of running.   She does that too.


Q:  Do you have any absolute favorite EASY home-made treat recipes?  (One of the all-time best recipes on the planet is from Abby:  pretzel hugs...if they were any easier, they'd make themselves.)  Fun gatherings?  (Like, perhaps Foodbuzz?!)  Does your cat fart?  Or run?