The Pretty Good Brownie (PGB)

Today was a good day. I felt I got a lot accomplished. I ran/jog a 10 mile training run with my one and only sister in the early morning. It's also our time to catch up.


Got home and made a protein smoothie for recovery. The kids were pretty cooperative and fun. Hubby got a long run in (2 more weeks till marathon day). We have to stagger our runs/workouts so there's always kiddo coverage. And unfortunately, I can't keep up with his pace anyway, too fast...maybe one day.


Dinner time came around. "What are we going to do for dinner?" I was a little low on supplies and I didn't feel like going to the store because it was so relaxing just being home. What was in my kitchen...I had lean ground beef, rice and some peppers, so what to do? Stuffed peppers!

Going into oven for the final bake (filling was already cooked)...

Then it hit me, I really wanted a little treat and something to treat the fam. When I get these kicks, I usually make something from scratch. It's one way I show I adore them. So I searched my petite little pantry to see what I had. I had semi-sweet chocolate chips, wheat flour, walnuts, as well as butter and eggs in the fridge. So brownies it was! I kind of made this up as I went along using the guidelines of a basic brownie recipe and below is the impromptu recipe that emerged. I was pleased at the fact that for being a brownie, I did not have to use too much sugar or butter. Next time you need your brownie fix, try making it fresh from scratch. It's so easy! You might already have all you need to put it together in your pantry. The name, The Pretty Good Brownie (PGB), is an inside joke between hubby and I, but some of you hip podcast listeners might get it.

Brownies so simple and easy, my 4 year old helped mix the batter (1 bowl). So good!

The Pretty Good Brownie (PGB)

Ingredients

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. sea salt

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup wheat flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

2-3 tbs. natural peanut butter

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Place semi-sweet chocolate chips and the butter in large microwaveable bowl. Microwave on high 1 min. or untilbutter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar and salt; mixwell. Let cool a bit, so you don't scramble your eggs. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and walnuts until well blended.

SPREAD into greased 9-inch square baking pan. Put peanut butter in a strong Ziploc bag. Make a small cut on the corner of bag. Direct the peanut butter to the cut corner and you'll easily be able to pipe over batter.

*Shortcut Tip: Instead of greasing your baking pan, line your it with foil. Turn baking pan over and mold the appropriate size of foil to the pan. Take foil off and turn pan over right side up. The molded foil should fit the pan perfectly. By doing this there's less clean up.

BAKE 22 to 25 min. or until toothpick inserted in centercomes out with fudgy crumbs. Cut into 2"x2" squares. Makes about 16 small squares.