Nutrition and training go hand in hand, but that doesn't mean everything you eat has to be miserable
We all deserve a treat, especially if you're working hard in the gym or training, and with JOE's tasty paleo brownie recipe, you don't have to be too worried about piling on the calories and fat, but you still get a tasty chocolate treat.
These are great for the time of the afternoon where you start to get that snacking sensation when you're having a cup of tea, so come to work equipped with these and you'll be sorted.
What you'll need:
- 3/4 cup rice flour
- 1/4 cup ground almonds
- 1/3 cup 100% raw cacao
- 2 eggs (beaten)
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil (around 3 heaped tablespoons)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 tbsp almond butter
- 7 dates (make sure they've been pitted!)
- Pinch of sea salt
- Optional: chocolate chips if, you feel like you've earned an extra reward
There's a lot going on in that ingredients list, but most everything can be found in a well stocked supermarket near what we like to call the "hippy section", where they stock wholefoods and healthy stuff.
If you have no luck there, any decent health food shop will have the cacao and the coconut oil, or else they're not doing their job right.
First things first anyway, put the rice flour and the ground almonds in a large mixing bowl and add the baking soda and salt. Next mix up the dates, vanilla essence, almond butter and honey in a food processor until they make a paste. Once that's done, add it little by little to your mixture, while also adding the beaten eggs and coconut oil gradually so that it has the texture of moist sand. You need to keep folding it as you gradually add everything to the bowl.
Preheat the oven to 170° and grease a baking tin with either coconut oil or butter to make sure they don't stick, and spread the mixture evenly around the pan. Put it in the oven and bake for ten to fifteen minutes, but you really need to keep a close eye on them as if they're left in too long they'll burn or they'll dry out and won't be half as nice. Once you can smell them, it's time to take them out and stick a fork in them. If it comes out clean then they're done.
It's a little bit of work, but as they say, no pain no gain. It will also hit that chocolatey sweet tooth that sometimes only the real deal will satisfy, but this way you're not setting yourself back after all your hard work in the gym.
