Sunflower Seed Brownies

Breakfast is sort of a daunting task when you take grains out of your diet. Most of the breakfast foods we ate before were grains, and they were filling. I've been looking for things to fill the void now, so the kids will last a little longer without feeling so empty. Kefir smoothies or yogurt and fruit are the standard breakfast staple now. Sometimes we have eggs or nut butter along with it. Protein and fat is what makes you feel full, for a longer period of time. I ran across this recipe in NT, and couldn't wait to try it out. Raw sunflower seeds are really cheap at our HFS. You can soak and sprout them and make your own sunbutter. You don't have to soak them first for this recipe, though, bc they soak as they bake. I replaced the Rapadura called for in the recipe with honey along with a few other substitutions and thought these would make a great addition to our breakfast menu.

Ingredients:
4 cups hulled sunflower seeds, freshly ground
1/2 cup carob powder (I used natural cocoa powder)
1/2 cup Rapadura, organic cane juice, Heavenly Sugar, or honey
1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, preferably soaked and dried
1 TB vanilla extract
3/4 cup water

Grind the sunflower seeds in your blender, food processor or grain mill until it's a fine meal.



Mix the meal with the carob or cocoa powder, sweetener, and chopped nuts. If you are using honey, do not add it yet. In a separate bowl, mix the vanilla (and honey if you are using it) with the water and stir well. Pour the liquid into the seed mixture and blend well. Dough will be thick and sticky. Firmly press the dough onto a baking sheet or 9x13 baking dish lined with parchment paper.




Set your oven temp to 150 degrees. NT says to bake these brownies for 12 hours, turn them over, then bake a remaining 12 hours. I didn't do that. I put them in my stoneware baking sheet and baked them for about 7 hours then took them out and let them cool before cutting. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge.