Cupid's Dark Chocolate Grain-free Brownies

This recipe is the perfect blend of eggs, avocados, black beans, and coconut oil--and no we aren’t making omelettes! We're serving up brownies that will meet all of your chocolate-loving needs while still keeping it nutritious! Whether you are making brownies for yourself or your lover on Valentine’s Day or celebrating an amazing four weeks of the HealthySelf Reset, this chocolaty chocolate brownie recipe will provide you full-fledged joy and happiness! The only added sugar comes from the dark chocolate chips--no other source in the entire recipe! Enjoy this nutrient-dense treat that is gluten-free, dairy-free and grain-free.

Dark Chocolate vs. Milk Chocolate

Dark chocolate has amazing health benefits due to a high flavonoid content in raw cacao (the unprocessed version of chocolate). The biggest perks involve improved heart health and gut health. In order to get the most nutritional bang for your buck you’ll want to make sure that you eat chocolate with the highest cacao/cocoa content. Higher cacao content and less processing/fermenting means more flavanols or antioxidants. In order to get 200 mg of flavanols from chocolate, you could eat 1 ¾ tbsp. cocoa powder (20 calories) or 10.5 oz of milk chocolate (1,580 calories). In other words, always aim for raw cacao powder, cocoa powder or chocolate bars that are >70% cacao. The more cacao and less sugar means greater health benefits for fewer calories! Get excited about these additional benefits of dark chocolate:

Contains Polyphenols that Promote Growth of Good Gut Bacteria

Want a healthy gut? Start eating more dark chocolate. Consumption of dark chocolate has been shown to lead to higher levels of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria (aka the good guys) and less growth of pathogens (aka the bad guys). Throw that cacao powder in your smoothie for some extra gut-healthy benefits! Or chow down on cupid's dark chocolate brownies!

Quenches Inflammation

The antioxidants in dark chocolate can literally decrease inflammation! Not only will it bring you comfort but researchalso shows that dark chocolate scavenges free radicals and can lower a marker of inflammation called NF-kB.

Decreases Blood Pressure

Get your blood flowing by eating some flavanol-rich dark chocolate and it might even help lower your blood pressure! Research has shown that dark chocolate can help reduce blood pressure in patients with hypertension. Load up on your potassium rich foods and a few squares of >70% dark chocolate for healthier blood pressure levels!

Improves Cholesterol Levels

Not only do the polyphenols in dark chocolate improve your blood flow but research shows it can also help lower bad cholesterol that increases risk of atherosclerosis (LDL cholesterol levels). It has also been shown to increase good cholesterol (HDL) which further reduces risk of Cardiovascular Disease.

Let us help you use food as medicine consistently every day with blood sugar balancing meal plans! Our team of functional medicine dietitians would love to support you in The Being Collective, our meal planning and coaching program that includes hundreds of blood sugar balancing recipes, a weekly plan that you create for you and/or your family that generates an automated grocery list and a meal prep plan for the week. This is the best way to improve your efficiency in the kitchen, get DELICIOUS blood sugar balancing meals on your plate, and help you make progress with your health goals.