Week of Eating In – Day One

This week we are participating in Huffington Post’s “Week of Eating In” challenge, which I have outlined in my Monday post at the Green Phone Booth.

The rules are simple, basically stay home and cook all your own food for a week. HuffPost encourages using basic, whole ingredients to prepare food, avoiding pre-packaged, pre-made food, like frozen dinners and ready-to-eat canned goods, but there are no strict rules.

For day one of our “Week of Eating In” and Meatless Monday we dined on leftovers. Nothing fancy nor exciting, but within the rules of the challenge.

To sweeten the notion of eating leftovers I whipped up a batch of brownies for dessert. Keeping in line with the challenge, homemade brownies.

I have always been a cake, brownie, basically-any-kind-of-dessert-from-a-box girl. Except cookies, they have always been homemade.

Homemade brownies are awesome and super-easy to make! The day I thought those words would pass my lips, is the day I would eat my words.

Now, this is our go to dessert when we want something satisfying, quick, easy and with minimal mess.

Aunt Rose’s Brownies

Melt together (microwave) in a large bowl:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 stick butter
10 tablespoons cocoa

Add:
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
Beat well.

Add:
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
Beat well.

At this point you can make any other additions you see fit. We are partial to chocolate chips and nuts, but to each his own. I suggest leaving out the hair. In regards to beat well, we just use a wooden spoon. Everything goes into one bowl and gets mixed with one spoon. Less dishes!

Pour into a 9×13 pan (we use glass), greased or not. (I always forget which it is and have done both.) Bake at 350 about 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Don’t over-bake! (Aunt Rose’s words)