Misleadingly delicious

During a routine pedicure (yeah, right), the topic of interesting diet foods came up. I mentioned hearing of black bean brownies, and a 20 minute discussion took place on if you would taste the beans, what would the texture be, how could they be worshiped by the Weight Watchers community (they're ALL over the message boards!) despite their high butter content. This thought stuck with me for a couple of hours, and I decided I wanted to make them. And hit me- Trish would totally love to help me with this challenge. My wonderful friend (and only "known" blog follower) has a blog of her own, chronicling her trials in the kitchen (READ IT. Now. My blog will still be here!) and this odd recipe would be right up her alley. Unknown to me, baking is not Trish's forte- yet she was still willing to help me out and test out her newly acquired kitchen gadgets.

Trish did some research and found that one of the ways people make the brownies was to add a can of pureed beans to a boxed brownie mix- that wasn't going to cut it. She found a recipe at 101 Cookbooks that required cooking, blending, and fluffing eggs. For the details on how the brownie-making worked out, visit Trish's blog (it was fun!). Looking at the recipe, I was concerned that this wasn't going to be diet-friendly. How can it be?! Just look at the ingrediants!

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups soft-cooked black beans, drained well (hs: canned is fine)
1 cup walnuts, chopped (we used pecans)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (granulated) natural coffee substitute (or instant coffee, for gluten-sensitive)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
4 large eggs
1½ cups light agave nectar (we used 1 cup agave nectar and 1/2 cup maple syrup)

I ran the recipe through Spark's recipe calculator, made the brownies a "reasonable" size (the recipe says it makes 48- 2"x2"  brownies- nope. With our pan, it makes about 24 brownies, same size, but they're thicker brownies than the recipe says), and here's the output:

Calories: 174
Fat: 14.6g
Cholesterol: 56.1 mg
Sodium: 13.4g
Carbohydrates: 10g
Fiber: 2.5 g
Protein: 3.5 g
---------> 5 points a brownie

Lesson? Fun and innovative foods are going to cost points. For the record, the brownies are GREAT. And, if we had the right size pan, they would be decent size (but thininsh) brownies. The only suggestion with the recipe would be to use 1/2 of the called-for coffee amount.

I'm feeling all bakey when I arrive at home, so I grab one of the weekly recipes from WW and try making the Mini Chocolate Chip cookies. They weren't kidding by calling them "mini"- a HALF of a teaspoon of dough per cookie?! That's 1 point?! I ended up just making them each a teaspoon of dough each, calling them 2 point cookies, and they're STILL small. I know they say "mini' cookies, but honestly, we're taking 50-cent piece sized.

I'm making their chicken pot pie for dinner tonight, and it's supposed to make enough for 6 servings. After today's lessons, I'm a little leery- but here's hoping...!