Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins

I had some overripe bananas, no white flour, but the desire for banana bread. I found a recipe online for whole wheat banana muffins which was perfect since I had wheat I could grind. They are even better because they're made with whole foods and sweetened with honey. There's only 4 Tbsp of butter in the entire recipe which made 24 muffins exactly. They taste delicious. The recipe is a keeper!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread and Muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup mashed over-ripe bananas (about 2-3 bananas) -I used 3
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs

Blend in the blender and pour into lined muffin tins until each cup is barely 1/2 full.  Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Makes 24.

For Bread:  Spread batter into a well buttered bread pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Ideas To Lighten It Up

Polynesian food.  Oh! It's soul-transporting to warm, sandy beaches and the cool, moist breezes of the islands every time I savor a bite!  It's also fat capitol of the USA (unverified statistic), weighing in heavily with high-fat meats, Mayo-laden salads, and sugar-saturated sauces. All that served with heaping portions of white rice and other refined starches. No wonder it tastes so good, but it's "auwe" (bad) for the life vessels of the body.

So, let's play "make it better for me!"  Choose a Polynesian food or meal and tell us how you could change or prepare it differently to make it better for the bod!  Leave a comment with your best suggestions and be featured on the next post. So, "go chance 'em!"

Baked Oatmeal PB Breakfast Bites

These are so good! Faster then cooking a pan of baked oatmeal, these breakfast bites are done in 10 minutes! They are naturally sweetened with a mixture of pure maple syrup and sweet honey, and come out warm and crumbly and delicious! 

My daughter says they taste a lot like a peanut butter cookie as she was hurrying back for seconds. these taste like a treat, and you can feel good about eating them because they're made with oatmeal and no sugar!  Another breakfast winner in my book!

Make this! You won't regret it.

Preheat oven to 350. 

Spray a mini muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Stir together the following:

3 tablespoons honey 

3 tablespoons maple syrup 

one egg 

1/2 cup peanut butter 

1/4 cup melted butter

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add to the following to the wet mixture and stir to combine: 

1 3/4 cup quick cooking oats 

a scant teaspoon of salt 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

Batter will be quite wet. Use a cookie scoop to fill your mini muffin tin. Any remaining batter can be baked in a small pan. Place in the oven for 10 minutes and they're done. Enjoy!

My Favorite Fresh Apple Oatmeal

It has been a year since I tried to eat more oatmeal. I admit that I hated it at first, but now I rather like it. It took about 2 to 3 months for me to acclimate to the taste and texture, but I can attest that if you persevere you can train yourself to like something!  Today's fresh apple oatmeal is proof, proof that I'm still going strong.  I was often making blueberry-maple oatmeal, but I recently I made a bowl of hearty oatmeal filled with fresh apples.  This recipe is very, very good, with a wink and a nod to the flavors of your favorite Apple cobbler, only better for you.  It's naturally sweetened with real maple syrup and apple cider, and it's a winner!

I don't use specific measurements, I just do things to taste. 

Here is how I made it today:

-Scant half cup quick oats 

-milk to cover the oats

Combine in a microwave safe large cereal bowl, and cook in microwave for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, or until oats have absorbed the milk and become fluffy.

-One quarter of a fresh apple, diced small 

-a pinch of salt 

-a pat of butter 

-sprinkle of cinnamon

-A splash of apple cider, perhaps 2 tablespoons 

-real maple syrup for drizzling

Add the remainder of the ingredients to your bowl and microwave for 30 seconds more.

Enjoy!

Chicken Fall Salad with Ricotta Basil Vinaigrette

Chicken Fall Salad is what summer harvest time is all about!  I loved when my dad would make this salad for us.  He first tasted a version of it at a restaurant and a week later he made it for us.  That was years ago, and it still remains one of my favorite salads of all time!

I've adapted the original recipe just a touch so that I could use the ingredients that I already had on hand.  This salad features a bed of green leaf lettuce, and is topped with sliced tomatoes, sliced bell pepper, sliced onion, sauteed zucchini, sliced steamed potatoes, shredded basil chicken, and drizzled with a homemade ricotta-basil vinaigrette.  I love this salad!  The warm chicken, potatoes, and zucchini against the crispy cool lettuce, onion, and bell pepper is like a party in your mouth, and the salad dressing makes everything taste delicious- it's sweet, creamy, herbaceous goodness! 

My kids like their salad deconstructed, and they are so proud of their colorful creations that they get to eat!

Make this!  So addictive!

Ricotta-Basil Vinaigrette

• 1/4-1/3 c. ricotta cheese- part skim
• 3 Tbsp. - 1/4 c. olive oil
• 3 Tbsp. - 1/4 c. red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. honey or sugar
• 1-2 tsp. dried basil
• a few dashes of salt, pepper, onion powder

Whisk it all together, add a splash of water to thin it if you desire, and drizzle all over your entire dinner!

Summer Orzo Garden Salad

Uncle Kirk has done it again with a salad of the week! I've got to try this one.

Tossed with a lemon-parmesan vinegarette, this salad boasts a bed of baby spinach, diced cucumber, diced zucchini, diced bell pepper, diced tomato, sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese crumbles, capers, toasted pinenuts, and orzo pasta.  Yum!

Dinner Inspiration- Kabobs!

Much thanks to my sister for taking a picture of her delicious low-fat dinner last night!  I'm super inspired to make one just like it!  I've got zucchini growing in my garden and I LOVE kabobs!

So what veggies do you have laying around that you could skewer and throw on the fire?

Blend It Up- Homemade Tomato-Vegetable Juice

The tomatoes and veggies that went into this drink all came from my garden! All except the celery. Yay for garden produce!

This homemade tomato vegetable juice has the consistency of a smoothie, and tastes great. I think next time I would use tomato juice instead of water for the thinning agent. And instead of blending the mixture with ice I would leave the ice in the glass. It is my hope that the yummy tomato vegetable flavors would be enhanced, rather than diluted.

Steel-Cut Oats

This morning my dad made me a new version of oatmeal. My family is visiting with him for a few days, and he is always wanting to make us some yummy food. I am pretty new to eating oatmeal, but over the course of two months I learned to eat it and not dread every second of it. My dad is aware that I am trying to eat a low-fat diet and he wanted to introduce me to steel cut oats. Unlike the regular rolled oats that I am used to eating, these oats take the grain and cut them in half. It is very similar to oatmeal, however the look and texture is a little different. My impression after eating a bowlful is... it's good. With a little milk and honey, it is creamy and slightly sweet. My dad added raisins and a dash of cinnamon to the entire pot as it was cooking. Eat it like I did, with a dot of butter and a drizzle of honey and milk.

Summertime Smoothie Pops

Fruit and yogurt smoothies make a delicious and healthy breakfast, but they also make a fantastic, healthy, summertime treat!  Just pour any left over smoothie into inexpensive popsicle molds, I found mine at the dollar store, and freeze them!  Voila!  Summertime smoothie pops!

This morning's breakfast smoothie had Nonfat Greek yogurt, low-fat vanilla yogurt, frozen cherries and berries, one super ripe banana, some leftover cantaloupe, old-fashioned oats, and water.  We're talking fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals galore!  Don't you love it when healthy tastes good?

Asian Salad Bar & Potstickers

Homegrown lettuce and cilantro freshly picked from my grandparents garden was the star of tonight's summer meal.

In addition to the garden-fresh lettuce, our Asian salad bar featured Mandarin oranges, sliced tomatoes, thinly sliced carrots, sliced baby yellow peppers, fresh garden cilantro, sunflower seeds, roasted salted almonds, and chow mein noodles, with savory potstickers on the side. Everyone in our family got to assemble their own salads with the amount of toppings they desired. The salad dressing is a low-fat version of our favorite Brianna's poppyseed salad dressing. Her salad dressing is 14 g of fat per serving! We cut that in half by mixing it with nonfat Greek yogurt, a dash of salt and onion powder. It was sweet and tangy and delicious!  

What are your favorite healthy summer meals?

California Sushi Roll Salad

I've got to thank my Uncle Kirk for his latest salad of the week creation. I love salad. I love sushi. I want to try this recipe!

He started with a bed of baby kale and spinach then topped it with chunks of avocado crab and cucumber. Then the genius took it up a notch with the crunch factor using crumbles of sea salt-and-pepper rice cakes. He also made a wasabi-ginger dressing that sounds absolutely killer-good!  How do you make it???  

I inquired for you. You're welcome. His reply is as follows: 

"Super easy.  I bought some wasabi sauce, heavy cream, milk and fresh ginger and just mixed it to taste in my magic bullet blender.  I only made a personal portion for my lunch today so in total I made around a 1/4 to a 1/3 cup of dressing.  Sorry that I don't have specific measurements b/c it all comes down to taste. I personally love wasabi sauce so adding some cream makes it smooth and the ginger adds the perfect sushi touch."  

Are you salivating yet?  

If you are not into making your own salad dressing, I bet a splash of rice wine vinegar would be another tasty dressing option, or perhaps a soy ginger dressing.

Completos and Fresh Sliced Pineapple

Completos are popular street food in Chile. Essentially, they're hotdogs with guacamole and sliced tomato.  There are many variations of the completo, just like the American hotdog.  My healthy version featured a grilled whole wheat bun, grilled turkey hot dogs, organic guacamole, and sliced tomatoes. Simple, but oh so good! If you have a hankering for hot dogs, or need something new to serve at your next BBQ, try these!  Turkey hotdogs are much lower in fat than other hotdogs, and guacamole gives you a good dose of the healthy fat we all need.  

A really refreshing side dish to go along with these is sliced fresh pineapple. If you've never tried it with a squeeze of fresh lime juice, you haven't lived. It also makes a light, yet sweet dessert.

Lemon-Thyme Salmon with Roasted Red Potatoes, and Fresh Apple-WalnutSalad

Need a healthy dinner idea? Let this one that my sister made inspire you.

Easy Smothered Burritos

Tonight's dinner used ready made pantry items to make my life simpler. Each smothered burrito is less van 15 grams of fat , which means you can serve it with a full fat sour cream if you choose.

This is how I made them. For the filling, I sauteed peppers, a tomato, and an onion. When that was soft, I added the black beans and one cup of cheese sauce (Ragu ready-made double cheddar sauce). When the filling was warmed through, it was ready to go into the tortillas. To assemble the smothered burritos, I layered about two thirds of a cup of salsa in the bottom of a square baking dish, then filled the tortillas, rolled them up, and added a third cup of salsa on top. Then I put them under the broiler for a minute or so. See? Easy.  Then you can throw some chopped cilantro on top to be fancy. I served these with corn and sliced English cucumbers.

Savory Turkey Dinner With Steamed Artichokes

A savory turkey dinner is hard to resist. I am so glad that I saved some delicious turkey from Thanksgiving in the freezer and stocked up on boxes of stuffing when they were on sale during the holiday season (my husband loves StoveTop).  It was perfect for dinners like tonight's.  In addition to the turkey and stuffing, I made a warm gravy using the broth that I reheated the turkey in, also steamed yams, and steamed artichokes dipped in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.   Mmmm...  Truly mmmm!

Another Easy Winner-Winner-Chicken Dinner

Chicken breast seasoned with salt, garlic salt, onion powder, and oregano, topped off with sautéed spinach and tomatoes. Served with a side of lightly-buttered carrots coins and baked potato.

That's what we had for dinner tonight. I was able to cook it in 15 to 20 minutes, using very little energy, which is just what I needed for tonight.  My six-year-old really loved the chicken. My eight-year-old plugged her nose when I told her she had to eat the spinach too, but hey, at least she ate it. I count that as a win still.  One day she'll thank me, right?

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Whole-Grain Spaghetti Salad

If you've got any leftover spaghetti noodles, you can make this satisfying spaghetti salad for lunch the next day, like I did today.  It's hardly a recipe, like many of the things I make, but it is tasty and could be used as great inspiration for your own healthy spaghetti salad. For this, I used leftover whole grain spaghetti noodles, some diced tomatoes, diced green bell pepper, sliced oven roasted turkey, a bit of shredded cheese, fresh spinach leaves sliced into ribbons, and an olive oil vinaigrette salad dressing drizzled all over it.  It's quite good and has a healthy balance of whole grains, veggies, protein, and good-for-you fat. 

Mmmmm.... Wouldn't this be good with some avocado, or red onion, or broccoli bits, or...

Honey Ham Sammy

Did you know that honey ham deli meat has less fat than oven roasted turkey deli meat?  And more protein!  At least the brand I bought  does. Reading labels comes in handy. This is good news because my favorite breakfast meat is not bacon or sausage, it is ham :)

Hash browns n ham. Mmmmmm...
Biscuits n ham. Mmmmmmm...
Waffles n ham.  Mmmmmmm...
Eggs n ham, or even green eggs n ham.  Yes, I like them, Sam I Am!  Mmmmmmm...

Enough about breakfast though. Everyone I know knows that I have oatmeal for breakfast. Oatmeal and ham??? Probably not. But ham is great for lunch too! Chopped up in a chef salad, or nestled between sandwich bread , I'm diggin it. Check out my Honey Ham Sammie on soft whole wheat bread with tomatoes, spinach, green leaf lettuce, chopped pepperoncinis, salt, pepper, and touch of vinegar.  Mmmmm...

It was delicious.

A Fun Way To Eat Apples

As a kid, I did not like eating apples. I loved applesauce. I loved apple cobbler. But apples in and of themselves were difficult for my mouth to handle. I always had a hard time breaking through the skin, and sometimes the skin made it a little bitter to me. I love apples now, but I do prefer apples with softer skins still.

Red Delicious apples often have a tougher skin, but they are as their names suggest, d-licious. So eating them is worth a bit of creativity for easier munching, plus who doesn't love eating cute food?  All you do is turn the apple on its side and slice it into discs, then using a tiny cookie cutter or melon baller, cut out the core. Use a heart shaped cookie cutter to send a little message of love, or use a circle shape to make the rings look like apple donuts.  Simple. Healthy. Delicious!

If you're babysitting, having a picnic with your significant other, it's a rainy day, you need to bring a side dish to the office party or the church luncheon, keep things simple, and make these.

And... especially if you have kids of your own, get them involved in making these. Its fun for the whole family!  For breakfast today, I sliced the apples into the discs, and my 6 year old cut out the middle. Family and food are my favorite!