Birthday Party, Brownies and GIVEAWAY

Nope, not my birthday! It was my little cousin's 16th birthday yesterday and of course a party ensued. I snapped a picture of my plate because I wanted to let you guys know that I definitely don't eat healthy all the time. I am a strict believer in the 80/20 rule - if I eat good, wholesome food 80% of the time, I don't feel at all bad about giving into snack attacks and chowing down pizza the other 20% of the time.

My plate was actually underwhelming for my normal party eats, but that was because I had already previously stuffed myself on some other goodies that I'll get to soon enough, don't you worry!

A little pizza, some slice pink lady apple and baby carrots with sour cream dip. Yeahhh buddy. And if you think I didn't snag a piece of the ice cream cake, then we simply can no longer be friends. Because you apparently don't know me at all.

Why hello there you little slice of Dairy Heaven. I topped this off with a few bites of my uncle's homemade chocolate hazelnut gelato. Perfection. I could have died a happy girl.

For breakfast this morning, I needed something nice and clean to settle my partied-out tummy. I really wasn't feeling anything I would normally eat, so I went the savory route (which is totally weird for me, no lie).

A two egg white puff + half slice of provolone + garlic scape pesto/mayo mix = one hunger destroying breakfast.

With a little nectarinage on the side. I think we all know by now I can't go a meal without some type of fruit.

Not as pretty when it's sandwiched together, but I promise it tastes foodgasmic. I've found a lot of uses for this pesto: putting it on toast, in sandwiches and wraps and using it as a sauce for pasta! So versatile and so very very good.

Now that all that is out of the way - on to the REAL reason for this post! And that would be this new little creation of mine. I give you the Chocolate Chickpea Brownie.

My heart is all aflutter. Let me explain how this whole thing came about. Last night, I was really in the mood for chocolate chip cookies. I have been playing around with different flours lately, so I decided to try some chickpea flour as the base. I was also trying to make these as healthy as possible so I used a wide variety of subs instead of butter and sugar. Somehow - this turned the batter a brownish color.

"Oh well," I declared, "I'll just make them chocolate chocolate chip cookies!" Ah, the genius of me. So I added cocoa powder and continued on my merry way. It soon became apparent, however, that the batter was way too thick and there was no chance in hell I'd be turning it into little cookies.

"Fine," I said still trying to retain my optimism, "I can turn you into brownies. Either way, I'm gonna eat you when this is over." Now came the time to taste the batter (a totally crucial step, let's be honest) and there's really just no other way to say it. TERRIBLE. Oh my god, it tasted straight awful! I was thoroughly depressed, but I had come this far and I was baking the freaking things one way or the other.

Now pretty irritated, I went to take out my 8x8 pan. Turns out, I don't have one. Nice. So I was forced to improvise with the lasagna pan. Now they were also going to be really flat brownies. It just keeps getting better.

I slopped the gross brownie batter into the pan, spread it around and all but threw it into the oven. When the buzzer when off about 17 minutes later, I took them out, slammed them on the counter and waited for the disgusting things to cool off. However, when I cut them up and tried a piece just for curiousity sake, something amazing happened. They were freakin awesome. Seriously, they were so good! I inhaled one on the spot and then ate another two seconds later with blueberries and whipped cream!! I have no idea how it happened, but somehow those 17 minutes turned my brownies from blah to bomb!

Moral of the Story: It ain't over till it's over. Or something like that.

Chocolate Chickpea Brownies

1 1/4 cup chickpea flour

3/4 cup raw sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup almond milk

1 Tbsp molasses

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degress F. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Beat in egg, oil, molasses, vanilla and almond milk. Once thoroughly mixed, stir in chocolate chips. Spray an 8x8 (or lasagna) pan with cooking spray and add batter. Spread until it evenly fills the pan. Bake for 15-20 mins or until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Promptly devour.

Wanna take a guess at the calories of these bad boys? Cut into 18 pieces (huge pieces if you're lasagna ready like me), they come in at a mere 100 calories per square! Move over VitaTops - Alycia's in a whole new ball game.

But you know what? I know you're busy and I know not all of you have chickpea flour (I have the Bob's Red Mill variety by the way) so why not let me make them for you? That's right! It's giveaway time!

CHOCOLATE CHICKPEA BROWNIE GIVEAWAY!

Three (3) lucky readers will receive a package of Chocolate Chickpea Brownies

lovingly handmade by yours truly! I might also be tempted to throw some other

goodies in there too if you're lucky (;

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment! If you'd like to earn an extra entry,

just tweet about the giveaway and leave a comment saying you did so!

And that's it! You don't need to add me to your blogroll or friend me on facebook (am I the only one who kind of dislikes those?), just leave a comment and three winners will be randomly selected Thursday, July 15 at 12:00 pm [*extended to make it 24 hours]! Good luck my little love bloggies!