It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve baked something – a painstakingly long time. My call to bake always comes at around 9pm on the weekdays for some reason, but then my common sense jumps in and tells me it’s not too long until bedtime, I have to wake up early so should get to bed, and it’s too much to clean up this late in the game.  So I concede and just sift through my Food & Wine or Cooking Light magazines, and pining at the pretty pictures I want to rip out and eat.  Then I’ll head to the fridge and chip off a nice little piece of cheese and share it with my dog (oh, he crawls, lies down, and sits on demand when you have cheese or PB in your hand.  We have taught him well).

So back to baking.  We went to Kym & Randy’s house for a barbeque last night, and knowing how those two love chocolate, I decided to make some brownies.  I had this Neufchatel cream cheese (1/3-less-fat) and decided that a cream cheese swirl would be oh-so fitting.  I got the idea from a recipe from Cooking Light for peppermint cream cheese brownies, but changed many of the proportions to make more brownies with even less fat, added yogurt for moistness, cut the sugar and oil, and nixed the peppermint extract.  Partially because the other day I was making hot cocoa and thought peppermint extract was a good idea.  I put a 1/4 tsp in my cup – way too much – and had the worst bitter taste in my mouth all day long.  Blech.  Like a chocolate mouthwash, except I swallowed it.

But in all seriousness, try these brownies.  Phong said that they were up there on my best desserts, and no one at the barbeque could even guess that they were healthier than your regular brownies (check out the nutrition facts below the recipes – I shaved off about 30 calories, 2 grams of fat, and 1 gram of saturated fat from the Cooking Light recipe)!

And sidenote: Happy 1 year wedding anniversary to me and Phong!  Woohoo!!!  Thanks to all our friends and family who called us today, and thanks to Kym & Randy for singing a hilarious “Happy Anniversary” to us when it was midnight last night.  We are so lucky and humbled to have such wonderful family and friends.  Phong and I are going out tonight – maybe I’ll do a restaurant review on my next blog – stay tuned!

Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies

makes 24 servings

Cheesecake batter:

1 (8-ounce) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Brownie batter:

1 1/2 cups ultragrain flour or all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups brown sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 large egg white

Cooking spray

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.

2.  For the cheesecake batter, place the cream cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer until smooth.  Add granulated sugar and vanilla extract; beat well.  Add the egg and egg white; beat well.  Add 1 Tbsp flour and beat until well-blended.  Pour the mixture into a medium bowl; set aside.

3,  For the brownie batter: In another medium bowl, lightly spoon flour into a measuring cup and level with a knife.  Combine the flour, cocoa powder, and salt; stir ingredients with a whisk.  In a separate medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, oil, yogurt, vanilla extract, eggs, and egg white; beat well at medium-high speed until smooth.  Add the flour mixture to the brown sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until blended.

4.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the brownie batter.  Pour the rest of the brownie batter into a 9×13″ baking pan coated with cooking spray.  Carefully pour the cheesecake batter on top in spoonfuls.  Spoon the rest of the brownie batter, scattering on top of the cheesecake batter.  Using the tip of a knife, swirl the cheesecake and brownie batters together, making sure not to touch the bottom of the pan.  Bake for about 25 minutes, until the top is set and the edges start to separate from the sides of the pan.  Cool completely before cutting into 24 bars.

Nutrition per serving (1 serving=1 bar): 186 calories; 5.2 grams fat (1.5 grams saturated fat); 3.6 grams protein, 30 grams carbohydrate