clean start...but first chocolate peanut butter brownies

I don’t think I’ve ever made a new years resolution. I think there kind of stupid and doubt anyone actually accomplishes anything. And anyway why wait until January 1^st to start over? Why not start today or right now?

So this new years day I was in Philly with my sister Lynn. I believe we had just come back from dinner and had a couple drinks. It was quite an interesting night, for reasons I shall not go into, but in between Lynn pounding beers and violating Sean’s poor toilet we had a conversation that went something like this…

Me: Hey Lynn, I challenge you to go on a raw food diet for one week.

Lynn: You’re on!

Me: There is no way you will be able to do this, even for one day!

Lynn: (in a serious tone) No guys…I can do this. But if I do this for a week you are taking me to Brewers and I am feasting on mac and cheese, beer, and a chilidog.

Me: Haha, ok! I’ll do it with you too!!

And there it was, our plan to follow a raw food diet for one whole week. After a couple days of planning I stared to get cold feet and imagined myself chomping on celery all day long. Excuse my ignorance, I realize that is not what a raw foods diet only consists of! But yesterday I was walking through BJ’s, buying cart fulls of cat food, and saw the book section. I love to collect cookbooks and I could spend hours looking through them at the bookstore. The first book that caught my eye was the Ina Garten book, “Back to Basics”. I love Ina and Barefoot Contessa is my favorite show! I have one of her other books and started to flip through this new one. The first page I flipped to had a quote that is so true, “Simple food has the most style”. Over embellished or complicated food turns me off. Simple and classic recipes that bring out the best flavors of seasonal produce are the best and this book really brings that out. The book has given me lots of ideas and inspiration for future recipes.

The second book that caught my eye was called, “Clean Start” by Terry Walters. The basis of the book is to start eating minimally processed, nutrient rich, clean food that supports good health and balance. The book isn’t pushy or forcing a certain way of eating but simply providing healthy and delicious looking recipes. So a decision was made, we would follow this Clean Start book as a guide to eating healthy and feeling great. And were starting tomorrow! I’m busing planning our menu for the next couple days and I have a feeling this recipes will stay with us for longer than our week challenge.

But, before we get into savory healthful dishes, here’s a sweet and semi sinful dessert I made a couple days ago for a dinner with friends: Chocolate peanut butter brownies.

Instead of baking the brownies in a square pan and making bars, which would work great too, I used a 9-inch cake pan and cut slices. I think it made the brownie a little more fancy and look like a cake.

It's important to not over bake brownies. They become dry and hard, not good. When checking for doneness the toothpick should come out with crumbs on it. If it comes out clean its over baked, so don't let them go too long in the oven. Once the brownie was baked and cooled I spread a peanut butter frosting over top then spread a ganache on top of that. Yum! This is a very rich brownie and best cut in small pieces. But I'm glad to say everyone loved it and had no clue it was both vegan and gluten free. Yay!