My 99 cent lunch and the best ever dark chocolate brownies!

Today was the first day of my husband Pat being back at work after Christmas and New Year's Day and also the first day back to school for Corey.  I find a day like today hard to get a hold on what needs to be done and how to get it all done and also be awake enough to get it all done.  We all had to get up earlier than when we had Christmas break to wake up at our leisure.  And of course, to make my day all that more interesting, our dog Mitch got out this morning and I had to chase him and get him back home safely as we have busy roads near our house.  This was before Corey go on the bus this morning.  So as you can imagine, I had to also make sure that Corey knew his dog was ok and it was fine to get on the school bus and make his journey to school.

I had a hard time getting myself in to a productive mode this morning.  I checked Facebook statuses and my email.  It really brightened my spirits to start receiving emails for birthday goodies at different businesses as my birthday is next week.  I used one of those birthday goodies today!  Noodles & Company gives a free bowl of noodles up to a $9.00 value the month of your birthday.  I went and used it today and I got an iced tea along with my yummy noodles.  I paid a whopping 99 cents!  Now that is a cheap lunch on a day when I just really needed a pick me up.  On a day when I was trying to figure out how to get this house back in order and also just catch my breath.  Then I came home and ate one of my favorite brownies!

Here is the recipe for the Best Ever Dark Chocolate Brownies.  I have been using this recipe for about 4 years, but only in the last year have I adapted it to be a tad bit healthier (if that is possible with brownies) by adding the dark chocolate.

Best Ever Dark Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

12 Tablespoons Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate cocoa powder (100% Cacao)

  4 Tablespoons vegetable oil

3/4 cup melted butter

   2 cups of white sugar

   3 eggs

   1 teaspoon vanilla extract

   1 cup all purpose flour ( use unbleached flour)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir together cocoa powder and oil until well combined.  Stir in the melted butter until completely blended.  Stir in the sugar and then beat in the eggs.  ( I do this all without a mixer and it is easy with less clean up!).  Add the vanilla and stir and then the flour.  Pour in to a 9x13 pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake for 30 - 35 minutes.

Recipe adapted from www.allrecipes.com original recipe.