Very berry Vegan brownies

I honestly don’t know how some of you work in offices all day surrounded by those cookies, brownies and candy… and yet somehow seem to resist temptation and keep on keeping on! I would crumble! And then probably have a bite of that too if it were in front of me! Meet Kelley and Mikaela- both young, beautiful, strong and devoted yoga students of mine, both in yoga teacher training currently and working full-time at the Mission Animal Hospital in SLO. Every time I walk into that place, there’s something equally attractive and homemade for the dogs and myself… and I succumb and take whatever is being offered and throw some to the pooches. Turns out the owner’s wife is a baker and she delivers these goodies on a daily basis! So now I’m making trips in there when Corduroy and Sugar are totally fine, just so I can chat and snack before hitting up Trader Joe’s (directly next door) for more food sampling. This life!

The Mission Animal Hospital is flipping awesome if you have a critter and you don’t want to spend a lot of money and don’t want to be made to feel bad about not spending it since they’re not human and not meant to live past 40..like I think both my pets will…!! It’s only like $50 for an office visit and they’re quick.. in and out, give me the pills and the shampoo and let me get out of here and over to those cookies ASAP! Sugar got one flea bite.. yes, ONE, and it got infected and she started loosing her hair, weight and appetite… and then she started to smell. Living in Chicago the first six years of her life, she’d never been exposed to those pests before! But, I have this three day rule with my pets- if it doesn’t go away in three days from my homemade remedies (which I have a lot of, I might add) I take them into the Vet. Within 15 minutes, the Vet diagnosed her infection, gave me my papers and set me (us) free! And she’s 100% better now… you can see for yourself! What hospitality.. they truly love animals, Hallelujah, and not just my hard earned money!

I woke her and she wasn’t very happy!

So it was no surprise to me when Kelley told me she was a Vegan yesterday. I capitalize it because it is HARD being a Vegan and they deserve some respect. I tried it once. For like five days. It didn’t work… or that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. I don’t think I missed anything really when I was a Vegan, but I was in college and the food was awful (except for the Roger Williams Dining Hall that is) and when Amy and I weren’t eating that, we were making ramen noodles in our crock-pot. Wicked healthy, I know. There was really no selection of fruits or vegetables. Just pizza, eggs, burgers and crap, or so it seemed. But I was poor and working three jobs; as a reporter at two different newspapers, as the entertainment editor at my college newspaper The Good Five Cent Cigar and as a cashier at Stop and Shop… oh wait, that was four. Then why the heck why I so poor? Oh yeah, books, shoes, gas, clubs in downtown Providence, etc. etc.

Back to Kelley though, she said she can’t ever eat the baked goodies in front of her at work (the wife-baker must love her a mean cow) and that she and Mikaela have been following my blog for recipes! So this here baked goodie is for you girls, thank you so much for curing my Sugar Pinky Ponk Ponk.. she’ll kill me if she reads this (joke) and she thanks you too.. she told me so! Living on the Central Coast there is an abundance of berries so I thought I;d make some special for these girls.

I’ve never made berry brownies before but why not? I found a great Vegan unsweetened cocoa powder made by Gheradelli’s in the dairy-free isle at my local Von’s Supermarket and you don’t need sugar or honey because of the fruit! And because I wasn’t sure if she ate honey, since many Vegan’s do not, I skipped on it. The berries are all fresh, in order to avoid the extra water that frozen berries contain. Enjoy this treat girls and Namaste!