Almond Butter Cannellini Blondies.

Wait.

What?

Cannellini blondies.

I get it. It’s weird. Stay with me.

These blondies were never on my radar. I never thought about them nor did I ever dream about them. They just kind of happened.

What I originally wanted to do was make black bean brownies. You have heard of those before, right? The surprisingly delicious and healthy little faux brownies made with black beans and cocoa powder (among a few other things). That was my plan.

But when I went to go grab a can of black beans from my cupboard, I *GASP* didn’t have any. My inventory (which I manually track in my memory) must have been off. Whoops.

(insert nerdy supply chain joke about inventory discrepancies)

I spotted a can of cannellini beans, shrugged my shoulders, and switched directions. If brownies can be made with black beans, then blondies could be made with cannellini beans, right?!

Well…

Sure.

These cannellini blondies aren’t made with butter, flour, egg, or lots of sugar. Instead there is coconut oil, cannellini beans, flax meal, maple syrup, and only two tablespoons of brown sugar. They also have some almond butter, walnuts, and dark chocolate chips, because those things just seem to be involved in everything that I do.

The texture is a lot softer and resembles more of a moist quick bread than a regular blondie (like these brown butter bourbon blondies or these brown butter ginger peach blondies). The taste is, well, different. No, they don’t taste like beans. They taste like a tasty sweet treat that I don’t have to feel guilty about. Not even if I stress eat two in the same sitting.

But who even stress eats? I DO.

I’m running a marathon TOMORROW and kind of have been nonchalantly internally freaking out about it all week. I think I’m in denial that it’s even happening. After doing a bulk of my runs solo and struggling a lot with my performance this training season, it just doesn’t feel like I’ve worked hard enough for the marathon to actually be here. Plus, my recently diagnosed arrhythmia hasn’t helped the situation. I guess my heart beats to it’s own awkward drum?

The Cardiologist gave me a Zio patch (like this) and told me I could run it. I am thankful that none of my other muscles or bones are injured and that my whole family is driving up to Duluth to cheer me on and that everyone else in the Calhoun Beach Run Club is totally going to kill it and that the experience as a whole will be really fun and rewarding.

Annddddd…. Back to the blondies. I am thankful for these too. Did I mention they are gluten-free and vegan (if you use vegan-friendly chocolate chips)? Neat!

I guess I really shouldn’t even call them blondies, but I’m going to anyways. What’s done is done.

Have cherry walnut butterscotch blondies when you ate healthy salads all week and want to delight yourself by eating something sweet and sinful. Have these almond butter cannellini blondies when you want a healthy little treat during the week so that you can save your big indulgence for Friday night pizza.

Different situations, but both are great ideas.

So yeah, cannellini blondies are real and I like them… for regular healthy enjoyment and for stress eating.

Now I’m headed up to Duluth to get ready for a 26.2 mile run tomorrow. Wish me luck??