Brownies for our soldier

I was going to make cookies for our soldier for this round of Operation Baking GALS. I had a chocolate chip coconut cookie recipe all picked out, and then I had a mishap with the cake mix and the garbage can. Let's just say it wasn't pretty, and I had to come up with Plan B.

It was already getting to be pretty late, and I needed to mail out my package the next morning, so I tried to think of another recipe I could whip up fast. I only had red velvet and spice cake mixes on hand, which wasn't a huge help.

Then I remembered my brownie recipe. They are my favorite brownies, and I've made them so many times that I could practically make them in my sleep, and it would still only take me about 10 minutes.

And, best of all, they are chewy and stay fresh for quite a while. Even when they start to get stale, they're still good. I figured this is key to mailing a package overseas.


Ingredients

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tspn baking powder
1/4 tspn salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 9 baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix oil, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in eggs.

3. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually stir into egg mixture until well-blended. Stir in walnuts, if desired.

4. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until brownie begins to pull away from edges of pan. Cool on wire rack before cutting.

Source: allrecipes.com

For this batch, I took a chance that Sarah likes walnuts. The brownies are great without the nuts, but with the nuts, they're extra awesome. I hope she likes them!