Squash & Banana Brownies

Hey guys!

Remember me? Lauren, the author of this blog? I've been a bad blogger...can you forgive me?

I hope so.

So let's catch up! Things you need to know about my life so that my posts from here on out aren't totally confusing:

• I'm not a hog farmer anymore! 
• I've moved to West Chester, which is a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio! I'm living in my dad's basement. Woo yay woo.
• I'm a student at the Midwest Culinary Institute in the Pastry Arts Program.  
• I've been a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant since February.
• This week I started training for my second half-marathon. I'll be running the Avengers Half-Marathon at Disneyland in November.

Okay, I think we're all caught up! This week fall classes began at Cincinnati State and tonight is my first baking lab! Fundamentals of baking from 4-9:50! I'll be all dressed up in my whites so I'll be sure to update this with a picture later : D

In honor of tonight, how about a recipe? I was craving chocolate Monday but I didn't want to indulge my sugar demand so I made these brownies. My inspiration came from here but I changed the recipe quite a bit by the time it went into the oven.

Summer Squash & Banana Brownies

What you need:

• 2 bananas - mashed
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 3/4 c sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 c AP flour
• 1c wheat flour - you can use 2 cups of AP flour if you don't have this.
• 1 medium summer squash - this is basically a yellow zucchini so if you can't find one, grab a zucchini!
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts - I omitted these so my nut-allergic friend could eat them.

What you do:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F and grease a 9x13 baking dish.
2. Peel and grate the squash. Transfer grated squash into a paper towel and squeeze out the excess water. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! Your batter will be super soupy(heh heh) if you don't do this.
3. Add mashed nanners, applesauce and sugar together and mix.
4. Add in vanilla and cocoa powder and mix again.
5. Add the your S-es: soda, salt and squash. Mix again.
6. Finally, add in the flour and nuts and give the batter a final mix.
7. Spread the batter evenly into your pan. My batter was a little clingy so you may need to coax it into the corners of your dish. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the brownies spring back when gently touched. I cut them into 20 equal servings.

Yum! These have a great chocolate flavor and won't leave you feeling guilty! I actually did the math and by subbing the applesauce in, these babies come out with .3 grams of fat per serving! Not too shabby! 

Well friends, thanks for reading! It's good to be back!

Until next time,

Lauren