Yet another way to combine peanut butter and chocolate

Have I mentioned I have no oven?

Not that I'm terribly sad about that now, as the heat is most definitely upon us this summer.  Still, I am a bit of a baked goods fanatic.  Hardly a day goes by without muffins, cookies or banana bread.  Though the oven isn't really necessary to the feeding of my family, I feel a bit like my left arm is broken.  Sure, I can get by without it, but I really don't want to have to.

The oven should be fixed soon, according to The Man.  Which means anytime between Friday and the year 2013.  Until then, I am making do.

Hey, did you know that you can do more than heat up left over curry in the microwave?  Yeah, big news to me too.  I, on principal, dislike the nuker.  I try to avoid it.  During both my pregnancies, everytime the microwave was turned on I would hide my belly away behind the far side of the refridgerator, trying to block any escaped microwaves from mutating my baby's brain.  I know this is slightly crazy, but I'm still not sure how far down the line and around the bend it is exactly.  I do know that if I became pregnant again I would once again hide from microwaves behind the fridge.  Just in case, you know?

So, not a fan of microwaves.

Yet, here I am, not pregnant and ovenless.  Got to get my peanut butter chocolate fix somehow.  Suddenly the microwave is my best friend.

After some experimenting, I'm finding that some sort of brownie type yummy can bake up quite nicely in the microwave.  The texture isn't quite the same, a bit more smoothish (dare I say, plastic?), but overall it's certainly worthy of a coffee break. 

Are you scared?  Want to try?

Gooey Peanut Butter Brownies

(for the microwave)

In a bowl, combine:

1 mashed banana or 1 egg worth of egg replacer product
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used So Delicious' Coconut milk)


then mix in,

1 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 salt
1/4 cup chocolate chips

When throughly mixed, pour into a microwavable loaf pan.  On top of brownie mixture, evenly spread

1 handful of chocolate chips
1 handful of trail mix (nuts, raisins and seeds)

Microwave on high heat for 6-10 minutes, checking every two minutes for done-ness.  Let cool before serving to children.

I've found that since these can be done in under 20 minutes, it's become the favorite quick treat for when the neighborhood kids come over to play.  I try to balance this out with some carrot sticks and peanut butter (sweet with fat - crowd pleasing combo no matter what) but I've already become known as the mom who ruins everyone's dinner.  And the mom who also taught them to sing 'peanut butter brownie' to this tune.

I can live with that.  As long as I get some too.