I’ve been watching my weight. Getting thinner, but you still need to have things like chocolate and cheesecake (my two loves aside from garlic). So I set to looking for a way to make something delightful and delicious, that wouldn’t leave me wanting after eating them. That is when I stumbled upon a recipe for cheesecake swirled brownies!

METHOD

1. Preheat your grill to just over 350°F, prepare for indirect cooking.
2. Line a 9 x 13″  baking pan with tin foil and then give it a good coating of nonstick spray.
3. In a small mixing bowl and using a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until it is smooth, then add the sugar, mixing until smooth again. Add the egg, flour, and yogurt and combine all of that. Set aside.
4. Sift together the whole wheat flour, cocoa and salt. In a separate bowl, add milk, eggs, and brown sugar beating until smooth. Add the applesauce*, coffee, and vanilla and beat until it is all well blended. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix them both until they are just combined. (Just like a boxed mix)
5. Pour the brownie batter into the prepared baking pan. Then pour the cheesecake mixture on top of the brownie mixture. You can swirl the two together, but do not mix, you want a separation between flavours.
6. Turn your grill down a little so that it reaches 350°F and place the brownies on the “off” side of the grill. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the top of the brownie is firm.
7. Allow to cool a little and cut into 24 pieces. Each piece is approximately 76 calories.

Okay. So .. not only do these have some protein and fibre and all that healthy stuff in them, they’re unbelievably tasty too! I am really on this greek yogurt kick, and you really cannot blame me! This stuff is a great replacement for sour cream in just about everything, you can put it in smoothies, flavour and freeze it for some fro-yo (which is not cursed)…and well yeah, it’s just good. Sorry distracted, brownies, oh so good brownies. Less calories than those chemically enhanced snack pack low cal thingys you get in the grocery, and you can send them in lunches, the husband and kids and well everyone won’t know that they’re more healthy than the “other” ones. Seriously you can’t go wrong with these brownies.

**Applesauce.
I don’t have applesauce frequently, just something that I never get. But if you run across a need for applesauce and don’t have any, cut a small-ish, about 3″ across, apple and core it. Leave it in the skin and microwave it for about 40 to 45 seconds. This will mush-i-fy the insides, just scrape them out into whatever you’re baking or need the applesauce for. This makes about ¼ cup.

Happy Grilling!