THE BEST BROWNIES EVER (Seriously)

So, as you may well know, I've recently started a Clean Eating, 4 month challenge (you can read all about it here) Part of this challenge requires that if I'm going to eat "Junk Food" I have to make it myself. I had a particularly frustrating drive home (hello, 2 hours in traffic) and all I wanted was something chocolaty. So, I went to the trusty Google and found this recipe for brownies.BEST. BROWNIES. EVER. No joke.

Since I'm trying to remove certain things like refined white sugar from my diet, I used brown sugar instead. Now they aren't technically "clean" but they are technically "holyeffsofriggingood" soooo, it balances it out. Plus, I made them from scratch, so close enough.

These brownies are fudgy, yet cakey, sweet, yet not too much so, and so so so so so so easy to put together. I'm probably going to make these all the time! For this batch I added in 2 kinds of chocolate chips (not sure the exact measurements) so I'll include the basic recipe here, but feel free to add in your own mixes.

THE BEST BROWNIES EVER

adapted from Allrecipes.com

 Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

Frosting:

3 tbsp butter, softened

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup cream (10% is fine)

1 cup icing sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray or grease with butter

In a medium sized pot, on low heat, melt the butter until JUST melted (don't want the butter to get too hot, you just want it to be liquified). Remove from heat. Next, whisk in the sugar, eggs and vanilla until evenly combined. Next, whisk in the cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking powder until everything is JUST combined. If you want to add in mixings, stir in with a wooden spoon (I added about 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips and 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips).

Pour into your prepared pan and bake for about 25-30 mins. Check the browines at 25 minutes with a tooth pick. I found mine weren't done until about 28 minutes, but every oven is different! Just keep checking because you don't want to burn them. 

While the brownies are baking, place softened butter in a medium bowl and beat with a hand mixer on medium speed until nice and fluffy. Add in the cocoa powder, 1/3 of the cream and 1/3 of the icing sugar and beat until evenly combined. Do this again with the remaining ingredients until your frosting becomes smooth and stiff. If it is too liquid, add in a touch more icing sugar. If too stiff, add in a touch more milk. I find I make icing a little differently each time, so just add a wee bit of whatever you need until it is just right!

Remove brownies from oven when done and let cool for about 30-45 mins. While the brownies are still warm (but not hot) frost them using a spatula. Allow to cool for another hour or so (if you can!)

Enjoy with a big ol' glass of milk, you'll need it!

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The Biggest Winner FOUR MONTH Clean Living Challenge

On Friday I posted on Instagram that I'm taking part in a 4 Month, Clean Eating/Biggest Winner Challenge. Since that post, I've gotten a lot of questions about what this means and how I'm doing it. I figured, I'd write about it here to spread the word (and to keep me honest about the challenge).

Here's how it works (keep in mind, I'm doing this with a group of people in the Durham area, but you can do this on your own or with friends as well!):


Starts: February 1, 2014
Ends: June 30, 2014

Requirements:

1. Eat clean, nutritious food 
• All "junk" food must be made at home, with mostly healthy ingredients 
• Obviously, some days will be better than others, but do your best
2. Complete Canada Health's MINIMUM requirements for exercise weekly: 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity PLUS strength training and balance and flexibility exercises. 
3. Attend monthly challenge and monthly team meeting 
• If you're living far away from me & want to do this challenge, just make sure you have a monthly check-in with yourself to see how you're doing.
4. Make and meet 3 goals each month:
• 1 numerical goal - Example: I want to lose 4lbs or I want to loose 2 inches off my waist
• 1 physical accomplishment goal - Example: I want to be able to do 10 FULL push-ups
• 1 socio-emotional goal - Example: I want to get a mani/pedi with my best friend
5. Complete daily review of your "great things that happened" and your accomplishments.
• Keep a daily journal and write accomplishments or good things that happened that day EVERY DAY, no matter how big or how small

Now for the clean eating part, I'll be real with you. I cannot afford to go completely "clean" so I'm going to do my absolute best to remove any and all preservatives from my diet and make as much possible from scratch. Along with that, I'm going to remove refined sugars from my diet (bye bye sweet, sugary coffee). Also, I know there will be days that I can't stick to the clean eating completely, but again, I'm going to do my very best, every day to eat as cleanly as possible (and post any awesome recipes that I find, here)

For the exercise portion I will be doing Zumba 2 times a week (at 60 minutes a piece) and 30 mins of either running, Tabata (post on this to come soon!) or one other class.

Like I mention above, I'm doing this challange with a group of friends from CORE Essential Fitness but you can do this with your own friends/family or by yourself. I will be checking in here once a month to update you on how it is going, so please feel free to do the same!

For February, here are my goals:

• Numerical Goal - I want to lose 4lbs this month
• Physical Goal - I want to do 10 FULL push-ups by the end of the moth
• Socio-Emotional Goal: I want my hubby and I do go on a REAL date. Get dressed up, leave the phones at home, have a really nice meal and spend the entire evening doing things together. 

Finally, I will be keeping a journal about the good things that happen every day. This can be ANYTHING from a happy moment, to "made it out of the house" today. Anything at all that made you feel good about yourself. It can be one thing or 10 things, whatever will help bring you up! Keep the journal with you as well so that you can write things down as they happen.

That's it for now! If you have any questions at all, please leave them in the comments below! If you want to share your goals as well, please, please feel free to do so! The more the merrier!

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