#1: Root Beer Brownies by Ashley

To celebrate our final day of Curran-ing in Setauket, NY, I decided I would make brownies. I should preface this with two thoughts:

1.) I'm kind of terrible at scratch brownies.

2.) I really wanted to impress Taylor's family in spite of this deficiency.

So, when I saw a box of Fat Free Brownie Mix at Trader Joe's, I decided it was a good jumping off point for my first recipe of the new year. I have experience baking with root beer (from a soda themed cupcake contest I entered) and knew that the soda adds a sweet, spicy note to baked goods. I bought the box, a bottle of root beer, and some white chocolate chips for a crunchy addition.

1 box FF Trader Joe's brownies
1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt (The box suggested vanilla yogurt, but I don't like the artificial flavor of vanilla yogurt, so I chose the protein-laden plain counterpart instead.)
1/2 cup root beer
1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients until a shiny batter is formed. Batter will be thick. Spoon into greased 8 inch brownie pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until knife placed in center comes out clean. Cool and cut. Optionally, you can top with a white chocolate drizzle or serve with ice cream, but clearly, those options significantly decrease the nutritional value of the brownies. Additionally, if you are looking to go vegan with these brownies, you can sub applesauce for the yogurt to make them dairy free.

Taylor's Thoughts:

These were the best brownies I've ever had.  I'm not just saying that to get boyfriend points either. Brownies, especially brownies made from a kit, are usually way too dense and sweet for my tastes.  These brownies tasted more like a really moist cake and the addition of root beer and white chocolate chips helped make these taste less like a solid block of gooey chocolate.  Adding ice cream is a good idea, even if it might "significantly decrease the nutritional value of the brownies."  If you're eating brownies for their nutritional value, you might as well start eating carrots so you can see in the dark.  Eat these because they're delicious, not as a part of your well-rounded diet.