Adventures in Cooking

So for my birthday this year, my future mother-in-law gave me a cookbook (because I'm always going through her cooking magazines when we come to visit, looking for new recipes), and she gave me this cookbook - "Now eat this: 150 of America's Favorite Comfort Foods (All Under 350 calories" by Rocco Dispirito. Of course, I immediately recognized Rocco from the season of Dancing with the Stars when he danced with Karina "My name is a vodka brand" Smirnoff, but apparently he cooks, too! It's a pretty cool book, and since I'm getting ready for a wedding in 4 months, I'm game for eating healthy. I've been wanting to try one forever, so today, I did it. I picked a recipe and went for it. On today's menu? Brownies. How could you go wrong, right?


Of course, this cookbook is a healthy type of cookbook, and I don't necessarily have a "healthy kitchen" so I had to go shop for all of the ingredients on Monday. I spent an hour scouring the aisles of Kroger looking for things like "sugar free chocolate syrup" and "fat free sour cream." I got most of it, except espresso powder. I wasn't sure if that meant actual espresso or what. Who knows. So I gathered the ingredients...



Yep, that's right. You see a can of black beans in there. In brownie ingredients.



I had my doubts, but the recipe says "drain and rinse the beans." So I thought....maybe some of the flavor that you would have with black beans would rinse out. So I followed instructions:



Combined the ingredients in a food processor, which was something, too, because I didn't remember we had one. Truth be told, my Mom gave me her old food processor back in college or law school, which was way too long ago, but I broke it out and used it.



I think the thing is from the 1970s, too, with the look of it, but it also sounds like a drill at the dentist office which leaves much to be desired. (Note to self: Add food processor to the wedding registry).
So I processed everything, poured it into a baking pan and cooked for 25 minutes...

So this is my final product. And I have to say...it doesn't look a damn thing like the one in the cookbook. Nor am I sure that it resembles brownies. And the recipe says you can't taste the black beans, and I think that would be the case if you burned off all of your tastebuds because I sure taste them. (It's a texture thing) T's response to me after it came out of the oven was "Oh that looks like the top of a roof!" I mean, sure, the thing is edible, but this just goes to show the lowfat substitute is never as good as the real thing. I think I might stick to the Betty Crocker next time fo sho. But we technically haven't had a full brownie yet, and I'm sure the thing will taste just fine after I put ice cream and pour chocolate syrup on top of it. Or is that defeating the whole purpose? Would Rocco approve?

Eh...screw Rocco, bring on the ice cream!