Well September is finally here… I completely lost August. I went from July 31st straight to September 1st. Or is feels that way. Labor day weekend starts tomorrow at 5:00pm (not that I’m counting….) and we actually don’t have a jammed-packed weekend of activities.
We are hoping to get a bunch of yard work done Saturday and then head to the Rockies game that evening. We were planning on taking it easy Saturday night but then my dad offered a couple free tickets to the game and I haven’t been in a couple years now!
We were originally going to go on a date Sunday and then maybe go see Joan Jett at Taste of Colorado, but now that we are going to Denver on Saturday our schedule has completely changed!
We did draw another restaurant out of our hat (aka Donny’s cigar box). We are going to Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs! It is funny because the last time we drew a restaurant I really wanted to go to Biker Jim’s so we didn’t have to get dressed up. We ended up at Barolo Grill, a pretty fancy place (that we needed to look presentable at)! If you want to read about our trip there it is in my post Chicken Cordon Bleu Grilled Cheese.
This time I was 100% alright if we had to getting dressed up and what did we draw? Biker Jim’s. Hahahaha that is the name of the game though. You can’t use this as a decision maker and then complain about the decision! It worked out wonderfully though because when we originally drew the name we didn’t know we would be going to the Rockies game. Well Biker Jim’s happens to be located right by Coors Field and we can dress casual for both. Perfect.
If we get our yard work done in time we are going to go get pedicures before dinner. I really hope we get our yard work done! My little piggies are looking rough, to say the least.
Are you doing anything fun over the long weekend?
So if you read the name of the post then you won’t be surprised, but the main ingredient to these brownie bites is actually canned black beans! There are recipes all around the internet for black bean brownies, but I wanted to try a raw version… no baking necessary. They turned out great. You cannot even taste the black beans.
Cacao powder is used to create the brownie flavor. It is very similar to unsweetened cocoa powder, but is raw and less processed compared to cocoa powder. It is also a great source of nutrients including magnesium, fiber and iron.
Dates and honey are both used to sweeten the brownie bites. The dates will blend better if they are soaked ahead of time. In the past, I’ve soaked the dates for an hour or two beforehand. Then I read somewhere (I’m awful and cannot remember where I saw this….) that you can cheat and use really hot water to reduce the soak-time for the dates. Our water heater is turned up fairly high so I just used really hot water out of the tap, but you could heat it in the microwave too. It doesn’t need to be boiling, just hot and it will reduce the soak time to 1-2 minutes instead of 1-2 hours. Boom.
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup dates, pitted
- 1/4 cup oat flour
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter
- 2 Tbsp + 1/2 Tbsp cacao powder
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1/2 Tbsp peanut flour, such as PB2
- Soak the dates in one cup of hot water for 1-2 minutes.
- In a food processor, combine the dates and black beans and process until roughly chopped. Add the peanut butter, 2 Tbsp of cacao powder, oat flour and honey. Process until smooth. Transfer to a small mixing bowl.
- Using a large spoon, stir until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Form dough into balls, about 1 tbsp of dough per bite.
- Combine the remaining cacao powder and the peanut flour in a small bowl. Stir to combine. Coat by gently rolling the bites in the mixture, brushing any excess off.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder can be substituted for cacao powder.
