It’s Saturday. And at the moment, I am home alone.

The kids are out, the husband is out, I am in.

With the house cleared out, I opted for a few of my favorite things.

I tested out my knee with a short run (3 pain free miles + 1 naggy mile) on a cool, breezy, temporarily sunny, autumn afternoon.

I listened to The Biggest Loser on Hulu while I stretched out my IT Band and did some unplanned push ups too.  Bob Harper screaming “LAST! CHANCE! WORKOUT!” is curiously motivating.

I then decided that my kitchen was too cold and I needed to do something about that.

My favorite way to heat up the kitchen? With the oven. My favorite thing to make on a Saturday? Something sweet.

Beans just scream “SWEET!”, don’t they?

Today they do.

So I heated up my kitchen with blondies. Yes, blondies made with beans.

Maybe this surprises you, or maybe it doesn’t. I promise you though, you will not taste the beans in these blondies. I’ve served the brown(ie) version of these to a flocks of kids and no kid has ever had any idea until my kids spilled the beans because they too can’t believe that they are eating beans that don’t taste at all like beans.

I really hate to be a sneaky chef, but I hate empty calories more. I figure if I’m going to make a treat and can make some of those calories a little more nutritious without a giant hint that they’re healthy? I’m all over it.

White Bean Blondies

1 can white beans, rinsed and drained (I used Cannellini, but Chick Peas or Navy Beans could work too.)
1/2 c of water
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 c oil (I used coconut, melted)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c maple syrup (if you use sugar, I’d reduce the flour to 1 1/4 c)

Pre-heat the oven to 350, puree beans and water in the pureeing machine of your choice. (You could probably even mash them, but that might leave proof of beany-ness.)

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, stir in bean puree, eggs, oil, vanilla.

Pour batter into a 9 x 9 pan, I like to use parchment paper because:

1.) it makes getting the blondies out of the pan easy as… pie? Bean pie? Bean pie!

2.) it makes clean up a snap. You can just put the pan away once it’s cool!

OK, maybe not. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider it.

Once the blondies are in the pan, I trim the parchment paper to keep it from burning.

Bake for 35 – 40 minutes –

See? Lifted right out! Clean pan!

White bean blondies with ginger tea on a quiet Saturday afternoon.

Drinking tea with a blondie helps ensure that one blondie does not turn into one PAN of blondies with no one here to observe my blondie consumption.

OK, maybe not.  But that “clean” pan does make it easy to hide any evidence.