Banana Muffins

Banana Muffins

½ cup white flour                               3 large bananas, mashed

1 cup wheat flour                               1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder                  ¼  cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda                      ½ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt                                  1 tsp vanilla

¼ cup flax seed                                  ½ cup applesauce

Directions

1.   Prep Work: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat muffin pans with non-stick spray, or use paper liners.

2.   Prepare dry ingredients: Place all purpose flour, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and flax seed into a sifter.

3.   Mix wet ingredients: Mash bananas in a large bowl. Whisk in an egg. Add white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and applesauce. Whisk until smooth.

4.   Sift dry ingredients and mix: Sift the dry ingredients directly into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Stir together until moistened.

5.    Bake in preheated oven. Bake mini muffins for 12 to 15 minutes, and large muffins for 25 to 30 minutes. Muffins will spring back when lightly tapped. (Makes 18 large muffins or 48 mini muffins).

Notes: I use a crank sifter and milled flax seed. If you use a regular sifter with flax seed that isn't super fine, you may want to sift the ingredients (excluding flax seed) in a separate bowl, then add the flax once sifted, and mix all together. Otherwise your flax seed could get trapped in the sifter.

Re-purposing Bottles

Hey guys! I just wanted to do a quick post about re-purposing old bottles and containers. I find that when I make homemade syrup, or ranch or such, I needed bottles to put them in. So lately, my go to bottle is old honey containers. I just run them through the dishwasher and they work great! In the picture above, you can see that I have used an old honey bottle (on the right) to store our extra syrup in the fridge. We just microwave it and viola, yummy warm syrup! On the left is an old glass blueberry juice jar I got from a health food store when I was trying to find juice I could tolerate. Well, I canned some pears in the summer. So I just pour the pear juice from the cans into the old jar and I have wanna-be juice. It is great. The container in the middle is actually a squirt bottle I got from Walmart. I think it cost me about $2. I use it for storing my homemade ranch. And I love that it has a cute little lid too. It can also be thrown in the dishwasher. 

I also use that same ranch 
container for pancake batter. I have two boys and our oldest is only two. So I try to do what I can to get him to eat. So with the small spout, I pour the pancake batter in and I can make fun shapes like the ones to the left of this picture. My oldest is really into dragons right now, so I had to make  him a cute one this morning. And of course, being a mom, I think I have the cutest boys ever, so I put a fun picture of them eating pancakes for you too. Oh, and just a shout out for my recipes, this is the "Healthy and Delicious Pancake" recipe.





Anyway, I just wanted to encourage you guys to think about reusing old containers. It makes life a whole bunch easier when it comes to making everything from scratch. So the next time you want to throw out an old condiment container, hopefully you will give it a second thought :)

Pesto Sauce

Pesto Sauce  

                                                    

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves                   ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

3 cloves garlic, peeled                                   ½ cup olive oil

¼ tsp kosher salt                                          ¼ cup sunflower seeds (optional)

Directions:

In a food processor, blend together basil leaves, garlic, sunflower seeds (if using) and cheese. Pour in oil slowly while still mixing. Stir in salt.

Ideas for dinners using Pesto Sauce:

Pesto Pizza: Use pita bread or homemade pizza crust. Top with pesto sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken, broccoli, olives, etc. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Pesto Pasta: Add chicken, mushrooms, etc. Put on a bed of noodles.

Notes: Most pesto sauces use pine nuts. You can use those in place of the sunflower seeds. We don't use them because my little boy has a nut allergy. Also, parmesan is a "try it" food. So you may or may not be able to tolerate this. You may be able to try subbing mozzarella, though I haven't yet tried that.

Garlic Cheese Fries

Garlic Cheese Fries

3 potatoes cut into fries

1 small garlic clove, minced

¼ cup grated parmesan

½ tsp oregano

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup butter, melted

Directions:

1.   Prep work: Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line two cookie sheets with foil or parchment paper.

2.   Cut up fries: Cut the potatoes up into fry-like pieces. We like them skinnier.

3.   Mix up dry stuff: Mix up parmesan, oregano, salt and minced garlic in a medium sized bowl.

4.   Turn it into a sauce: Add the melted butter, and mix until smooth.

5.   Coat the fries: Add the fries to the bowl and mix until all the fries are coated with yumminess.

6.   Place them on the pan: Place the fries on the cookie sheets.

7.   Bake: Bake them at 425 degrees for about 25-30 minutes. They will seem soft.

8.   Enjoy!

Notes: The Parmesan cheese is a "try it" food for IC patients. So if it doesn't work for you, leave it out. You could just make simple fries, bake them and sprinkle them with a little salt and they would still be yummy :)

Turkey Burgers

Turkey Burgers

1 egg

1 lb ground turkey

½ cup ground oatmeal

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ cup spinach, chopped

1/3 cup cheddar cheese

¼ tsp salt

Pinch of pepper

Directions:

1.   Whisk egg: Whisk an egg in a large bowl.

2.   Mix the rest: Add the other items and mix well.

3.   Form into patties: Roll the mix into balls and form into patties.

4.   Cook: Cook them to your desired level of doneness. You can even add slices of cheese on top if you want.

5.   Enjoy!

Notes: You could just use beef patties if you want, it does hide the spinach better. We just use turkey because it is healthier and better for the hubby's cholesterol levels.

Apple Muffins

Apple Muffins

1/3 cup white flour                         1 egg

1/3 cup wheat flour                        ¼ cup applesauce

1/3 cup ground oats                       2 Tbsp milk

3 Tbsp ground flax seed                 1 ½ cups shredded apples (about 2 apples)

½ cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

Directions:

1.   Prep work: Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray muffin tins with baker’s joy (the recipe makes about 12 muffins or 24 mini muffins).

2.   Mix dry ingredients: Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.

3.   Mix wet ingredients: In a separate bowl whisk the egg slightly. Add the milk and applesauce and mix together. Add the apple and mix together.

4.   Add the wet ingredients to the dry: Pour the wet ingredients in the well of the dry ingredients and mix until moist.

5.   Fill tins and bake: Fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

6.    Enjoy: Remove from tins and enjoy!

Notes: You could probably omit the cinnamon if it bothers your bladder. I have just been doing great lately and have reintroduced it. You also don't have to grind up the oats. I just do that because my little boy is picky. I just blend them up in the blender. You can also omit the flax seed if you don't have it on hand. We just do it so that we have more omegas since we don't eat seafood.

Breakfast Casserole

Breakfast Casserole

3 potatoes, peeled and shredded                                 ½ cup milk

6 slices uncured bacon                                                ½ cup mozzarella

1 small red pepper                                                       ½ cup mild cheddar

6 eggs                                                                           1 tsp salt

Directions:

1.   Preheat oven: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2.   Prepare potatoes: Line a greased 9 x 13 baking dish with potatoes. Bake for 10 minutes.

3.   Prepare other ingredients: Meanwhile, in a large skillet, sauté bacon, and peppers. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk.

4.   Make layers of ingredients: Pull the potatoes out of the oven. Sprinkle the potatoes with cheese, cooked meat and pepper. Pour egg and milk mixture over the top.

Bake: Bake for about 35-40 minutes. Enjoy!

Notes: I'd love any tips on how to make this even yummier. I like it, but feel like something is still missing. Let me know if you have any ideas :)