I like to drop mad beets!

…into my salads, veggie burgers and for the first time today, brownies! Why? Because my friend Summer told me she makes a mean red velvet chocolate cake using beets as the dye and I didn’t believe her! Then I looked on Pinterest and wow, beets are everywhere! Beets in cakes?! Cookies?! And brownies? That’s just cray, cray. And I love a challenge, hence why my tennis game is still so good even after all these years!

I’ve put a lot of thought and research into the recipes I’ve created on this here blog. I read a baking for dummies-like book and learned the simple chemistry formulas needed to make things rise and even better, cook, because yes, I’ve made un-cooked goodies and then upon first taste, I’ve have to toss them because they’re soggy or need more sugar or just downright stink! But hey, it’s a learning process!

This has been my staple brownie recipe for the past few months for those who are gluten-free, dairy-free, diabetic, or just trying to cut down on crap. Sugar is in everything and unless you make and bake it yourself, there’s no knowing what’s in “there”. Honestly, I never feel bad about eating a little “something something,” as long as there is something of nutritional value in there… and plus, I can’t get enough veggies!

So this recipe, like most of my other’s, has almond butter it in and I swear, as long as that stuff is in your recipe, everything will be all good! Almond butter is an alternative to peanut butter for those of you with peanut allergies. It contains significantly more fiber, calcium, potassium, iron and manganese than peanut butter, and about half the saturated fat, although a slightly higher total fat content. While shopping at Trader Joe’s this afternoon, I noticed they have finally brought back the original almond butter in the glass jar that they used to sell. I’m a sucker for a glass jar. I love to recycle and I can use it for packing cookies and little gifts in!

I already had a bunch of golden beets in my refrig so instead of using a red beet to color the brownies, I used a dairy-free blend of red semi-sweet chocolate chips. Said chips came in a bag with green, red and chocolate colored morsels but I picked out the ones I needed and I’ll save the others for Christmas… which Andy thinks is ridiculous since it’s not even Thanksgiving and undoubtedly, I have a handful of chocolate chips after dinner almost every night! “It’s better than a candy bar though,” said someone at the gym today, and I have to agree with her!

Enjoy these little fellas. They are quite good and I will fool my kids one day with all these veggie baked goods. You will be the talk of the party too… I’m sure everyone will think you’re lying when they learn about the secret beets! Sorry Summer, you were right and I owe you a glass of wine… or two! Oh! And my chef husband has always cooked his beets in red wine to intensify the flavor, so I do too.

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Red Velvet Beet It Brownies- makes 8×8 baking dish or 16 small brownies

Ingredients:

-1 cup or 4 small golden or red beets

-1/2 cup almond butter

-2 mashed bananas

-1 T unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Gheradelli’s)

-1/2 tsp each of baking soda, nutmeg and cinnamon

-1 tsp vanilla

-1 egg

-1/4 cup honey

-1/2 cup chocolate chips

-1/2 cup red wine

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly spray a baking pan and place aside.

2. Cut the beets from the stems and place in a pot of boiling water with the red wine until the beets are soft. Usually around 20 minutes or so. Let the beets cool.