I’m back from lunch and ready to share the last part of my week.  Missed the first part? Click here.

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday: Work days.  Get up, go to work, go to bed.  You know the kind. 

Monday, I made spinach & cheese stuffed shells for friends who recently lost their baby.  I made a few extra for myself for dinner that night.  Well worth the 12 points for 3. 

Tuesday, I experimented with my new Hungry Girl Cookbook and made a modified version her Meat-lovers Spaghetti with Tofu noodles.  This is my second time trying the tofu noodles and I must say the first time was MUCH better.  Maybe I couldn’t taste them over the strong flavor of the soup, but this time I wasn’t impressed.  In fact I ate the turkey meatballs and threw the rest away.  I feel like barfing just thinking about it.  Ugh.

Wednesday, we had to eat dinner fast so we grabbed a $5.00 Little Cesar’s cheese pizza.  4 points per slice for cheese is not bad in my book.  Not bad at all.  Obviously, we won’t be making a habit of eating it for nutritional reasons but it’s good once in a while as a treat.

Thursday:  I have Thursday’s off now due to cut backs at work.  I was really sad at first, but I’m learning to love the extra day.  Don’t worry, I’m not sitting around watching Day’s of Our Lives or anything.  Yesterday, I actually babysat a friends daughter while she went to a doctors appointment.  You’ve met her before….remember?  We made cinnamon flax sconeslast time she came over and this time she was ready to bake again!  I convinced her to eat lunch first (I thought this was wise considering we were about to make brownies).  Her mother packed a blue box of spiderman shaped macaroni & cheese and she was more than happy to eat the entire thing.  This kid is an eater! 

 I bought that chef’s hat and apron at a garage sale a few weeks ago.  I though she would love to wear it when she comes to my house to cook.  Boy was I right!   We couldn’t pry it off of her when it was time to leave.

 Carefully mixing the batter.  We made a standard low-fat box brownie mix.  I usually make Black Bean Brownies (2pts), but since we were making these to give away we went with the classic box variety.

Things got a little messy toward the end…

Up next (read: tomorrow):  Chicken Marsala, more creations from the Hungry Girl Cookbook and 5 year Anniversary cuisine. 

It seem that there was a little confusion about this recipe in my last post.  I posted recipes for Black Bean Burgers and Black Bean Brownies in the same post:  Black Bean Bonanza.  Apparently it was confusing because I literally got 64,001  e-mails about it (thanks for the feedback!). 

So here it is.  The black bean brownie recipe, alone, in all it’s gooey chocolaty gloriousness:

INGREDIENTS:
1 Box Betty Crocker Low Fat Fudge Brownie Mix
1 (15 oz.) Can Black Beans, rinsed and drained
1 Cup Water
1/4c. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Puree the beans and water together until smooth in a blender.
3. Stir into the brownie mix until combined.
4. Spray a 9X13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
5. Pour the mixture into the pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.
6. Bake for 25-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 2 inches from the side of the pan comes out almost clean.
7. Cool completely and then cut into 24 pieces.

I PROMISE you can’t taste the beans.  My husband who is the pickiest eater in the world scarfed three of them down before I told him they had black beans in them.  This brownie is more like a dense cake like brownie and is fabulous topped with FREE Cool Whip.

Serves: 24
Points: 2 per brownie

Click here for a printable version of Black Bean Brownies!