Quick and Easy Protein-Packed Brownies with Cashews and Hemp Seeds

Are you looking for a quick, chocolaty treat that won’t compromise your diet goals? Look no further! These delicious morsels of chocolaty goodness are naturally sweetened and packed with protein. They’re the perfect post workout dessert, and you don’t even need an oven!

What Makes These Brownies Delicious But Healthy For You At The Same Time?

Liquid Stevia

Firstly, these brownies are naturally sweetened with stevia, a healthy sugar substitute derived from a plant that grows in Brazil and Paraguay, where the stevia bush has been used to sweeten food for hundreds of years.

What’s amazing about this natural sweetener is that is has no calories, though it is 200 times sweeter than sugar in the same concentration. Just six to seven drops of stevia sugar has the sweet equivalent to a tablespoon of granulated sugar!

Cacao Powder

This powder, not to be confused with cocoa powder, gives you a chocolate taste, but is not nearly as sweet as cocoa powder. No worries! Stevia’s sweetness makes up for cacao’s more bitter taste.

On the healthy side, cacao powder, unlike cocoa powder, is rich in magnesium, antioxidants and flavonols. Cacao powder can help to support cardiovascular health, boost blood flow, lower blood pressure, it even elevates your mood by boosting serotonin and endorphin levels in the brain.

Cacao powder is a slight stimulant. It contains small amounts of caffeine that will naturally boost your energy levels. If you’re very sensitive to caffeine, you might want to avoid eating this dessert near bedtime.

Protein

The hemp seeds, macadamia nuts and cashews are what make these brownies a great post workout treat. Hemp seeds are known as a vegetable protein superfood because they contain eight essential amino acids as well as vitamin E, folate, iron, magnesium and calcium.

The high fiber content in hemp seeds helps with weight loss, and its high magnesium content helps to regulate blood sugar levels and blood pressure.

Three tablespoons of hemp seeds will give you 10 grams of protein, one cup of macadamia nuts will give you 8 grams of protein, and one cup of cashews will give you 11 grams of protein.

Additional Health Benefits

This recipe also contains three tablespoons of coconut oil, and this superfood has so many benefits that it really ought to be a staple food in your home. To list a key benefit, coconut oil contains medium chain triglycerides, which are healthy fatty acids that are used as a quick source of energy. This makes coconut oil an ideal weight loss food.

Celtic sea salt is a great substitute for table salt because it does not go through the same heating and refining process as table salt, thus preserving all of it’s nutritious value, and celtic salt overall has less sodium than other salts.