My lovely friend Zoe wanted to share her avocado brownie recipe with you guys and a few tips and tricks she uses with avocados. I know I always look for new ways to make my favorite desserts healthy and this is a great way to cut out the oil!
I enjoy avocado with almost any food. I start many mornings with avocado on whole wheat toast with some onion or tomato. I make a lot of burrito bowls for lunch which is just a combination of whatever is in my fridge, and avocado usually makes its way to the top of it.
Along with being delicious, they are suuuuuuper healthy. They have a lot of fiber. One serving has about 27% of your daily value (25% soluble 75% insoluble) which can help with weight loss and lowering your risk of many diseases. Avocados have more potassium than a banana, (about 14% of your recommended daily value) and about 17% RDV of vitamin C. Avocados are high in antioxidants and can also help with heart disease and cancer prevention. They have high healthy fats and low saturated fats and no cholesterol or sodium.
Finding the perfect avocado always used to be a challenge because they are so temperamental with ripeness. In the grocery store, the avocados were all either very under ripe or very over ripe. I learned a few tricks to help with this. If I want them to ripen faster, keep them in a bag with a few bananas or apples and they ripen really fast because those fruits give off ethylene gas that speeds up the ripening process. If they get a little over ripe don’t freak out. Just cut off the super brown spots and you’re good to go! I kinda like the over ripe ones. I think they start to taste like bacon which goes great on salads. I keep them in the fridge if I’m not ready for them to be ripe. I was surprised to find that they last a really long time in there.
Let’s get to the brownie part. This sounds super weird, but I promise you wont notice the difference and it’s totally delicious. Brownies are my favorite sweet thing to make and avocado is one of my favorite foods. They’re the perfect chocolatey dessert to go with my wine or a glass of almond milk. I’m all about making things easy and healthy, or at least healthier then they were. This is about as easy as it gets.
First you’ll need these things:
A box of brownie mix from the store and whatever ingredients the directions box call for. My favorite is “Betty Crocker -Fudge Brownie Mix” (oil and eggs)
You’ll also need one large ripe avocado. If the recipe calls for butter, you can take out the butter and instead use two medium avocados.
I always add walnuts to my brownies too. If the box comes with nuts I’ll still add more. Walnuts are another super healthy food and I’m all about sneaking as many healthy foods into a dessert.
Grab a big bowl and mash up the insides of the avocado with a fork. Mash it so there’s no chunks or the chunks are smaller than a ladybug.
Add your box mix to the bowl and follow the directions on the box. The cooking temp and time and everything else should be the same.
Remember to let them cool before you cut them and your slice marks will be more even. I keep half on the counter to eat and wrap the other half in tin foil and put it in the freezer for later. Enjoy with a tall glass of almond milk! Bon Appetite!
Zoe
What do you think?