Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins (super healthy!)

With four bananas sitting on my counter that no longer looked yellow, I needed to bake! I decided to experiment with my banana chocolate chip bread recipe and fill it with healthy goodness!

The results were so yummy! Thumbs up even from my pickiest eater :)

Banana Chocolate Oat Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup sugar (could substitute honey)

1 egg

½ cup butter

3 ripe bananas

Slightly more than 4 tablespoons milk

2 cups flour blend

1 cup oats

1/3 cup ground oats

3 tablespoons flax seed

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream sugar, butter, and egg until fluffy; set aside.

Combine bananas and milk; set aside.

Combine all dry ingredients.

Add banana mixture and butter mixture together.

Add dry ingredients mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Bake in muffin pan at 350 degrees for 16 minutes.

Check with toothpick.

How We Do Snacks and Dinners..

Psst..we don't buy crackers....Honestly crackers are not "real" food, just filler. And I don't think they keep my kids filled very long. We also don't buy boxes of cookies, waffles, pancakes, or soft pretzels, tubes of cinnamon rolls....

When we started school I decided to do whatever I could to make my life easier and have nutritious (and filling!) food for my family. I started baking the week before and stock piling whatever I could in the deep freezer. Cinnamon rolls and apple cinnamon donuts were made for breakfasts. I made cinnamon ripple muffins and homemade pretzels for snacks. All of these items for breakfast and snacks are loaded with whole wheat flour, ground oats, wheat germ, and flax seed. They keep my kids feeling full for hours :)

I also put together some quick dinners. Most days we finish school at four, which is also the time that Aaron comes home from work. So I needed meals with little to no prep time that take less than 30 minutes of cooking time.

I sliced up chicken and made marinade for fajitas. In no time I had 4 Ziploc freezer bags each containing chicken and marinade for one meal. I also made some hamburger patties (Bay Burgers), and salmon with marinade. And I browned sausage for homemade pizza and omelets. Pizza dough is easy to make ahead of time and freeze until the day it's needed. I pull out the meal I want the night before; by four the next day it is thawed out and ready to cook.

Now for desserts :) My family likes their sweets (in moderation of course!). I made a double batch of Grandma Fosters Chocolate Chip cookies. I stuck those in the freezer as well. That way I can pull them out as a treat rather than have them available at all times.

It has been so easy to keep this system running. One or two days a week I spend the night making muffins, pretzels, cinnamon rolls, and/or cookies (I LOVE to cook and bake so this is a treat for me!). It's also easy to start cinnamon rolls or pretzels at lunch and finish them up after dinner. On the weekend I put together my meals (about two weeks worth).

I always have healthy snacks and meals available! No more wondering what I'm making for dinner and how I'm going to find time to make it.

(Other quick dinner options- pancakes and omelets, homemade pizza)

No one should be allowed to be this pretty, she just takes my breadth away.

Focaccia Pizza with Basil and Mozzarella

I have several pizza recipes that I use regularly but I wanted to find something new that what be special. I found one that fits the bill- Focaccia Pizza with Basil and Mozzarella (from The Food Network). It's a little time consuming but definitely worth all the compliments :)

Focaccia Pizza

Ingredients

Dough:

· 2 cups warm water, about 110 degrees F

· 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus 4 tablespoons for greasing the baking pan

· 1 tablespoon dry yeast

· 1 tablespoon honey

· 6 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough

· 1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt

Pizza:

· 18 Roma or Italian plum tomatoes, thinly sliced (can use pizza sauce)

· Basil

· mozzarella

· pepper jack cheese

· Salt and pepper-

- Sausage

- Diced red and green peppers

R Directions

1. Preheat a convection oven to 325 degrees F or a regular oven to 350 degrees F.

2. To make the dough: In the bowl of a standing mixer, combine the water, 5 tablespoons olive oil, yeast and honey. Allow the yeast to proof for 5 minutes.

3. Add the flour and salt, and mix with a dough hook on medium speed until the dough is pliable and elastic, about 5 minutes. If the dough is a little wet, you may need to add a little more flour. The dough should be moist, but not stick to the hands.

4. Cover with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 20 minutes.

5. Brush the remaining olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet about 18-by-26-inches.

6. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4-inch thick and prick the dough all over with a fork or rolling docker.

7. Brush off any excess flour and transfer to the prepared baking sheet.

8. Bake the dough until lightly browned, about 6 minutes. Cool.

9. When the dough has cooled, evenly top with focaccia with the tomato slices, covering the entire surface and lightly season with kosher salt and pepper. I added diced red and green peppers and sausage to half the pizza, so yummy!!!

10. Sprinkle with the basil and lightly top with the mozzarella. You should be able to see the tomatoes through the cheese.

11. Return to the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and slightly colored.

We ate by candlelight to make the meal extra special :)

Note: The crust is pretty thick and contains more carbs than one should eat normally, but it is great for a special treat.

Homemade Donuts

I am going to admit something that is very shameful, we have been serving our children Eggo waffles for breakfast. I am normally gone from 5 am until 7 am getting in a workout. So having a healthy homemade breakfast ready for the kids has not been an option. I have decided to right this wrong by making homemade donuts and pop tarts. I am making big batches and freezing them.

Homemade Banana Cinnamon Donuts

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup butter

4 bananas

3 tablespoons milk

1 cup unbleached flour (I always use Eagles Mill Ultragrain)

1 cup flour mixture (Mixture made from equal parts-whole wheat flour, unbleached flour, wheat germ)

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1/3 cup ground oats (to make put oats in blender)

2 tablespoons flax seed

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

-Cream sugar, butter, and egg together. Beat until fluffy.

-Add bananas and milk, beat well.

-Combine flours, cinnamon, flax seed, ground oats, baking powder, baking soda.

-Gradually add the flour mixture to mixer.

-Grease donut pan.

-Add batter to donut pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

I purchased this donut maker (by Wilton) at Meijer. This is a picture after I filled them with the batter. You just need to put enough in to reach the top, or maybe even a little under the rim.

Don't they look yummy! I served them with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top, they looked so pretty.

To make Apple Cinnamon Donuts use the above recipe substituting 2 pureed granny smith apples for the bananas (2 apples should yield 1 1/2 cups pureed apples). I used 4 apples and saved half of the puree for another batch of donuts.

Elliana liked the banana cinnamon the best.

The apple cinnamon received a thumbs up from the boys! (they liked both kinds but said the apple was the best)

Amazing Chicken Fajitas!

Our new homeschool year is fast approaching (we start up again on Monday!). Our school day starts 8 am and normally does not end until about 3- 4 pm. That leaves little time to make homemade snacks and dinners. But I am determined to feed my family healthy homemade food. The last few days I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen preparing snacks and meals for my freezer. Yesterday I baked 4 dozen cinnamon ripple muffins and today I made 2 batches of homemade pretzels.

I also cut up an entire bag of chicken into fajita strips, divided them into four freezer bags and added marinade (recipe below). I now have four delicious meals ready to whip up in no time! I thought I would share this recipe because it is so amazing! I found it on allrecipes.com and tweaked it a bit.

Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove, minced)
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken cut into strips
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4- 1/2 cup onion,diced
• 1/2 - 1 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1/2 - 1 red pepper, sliced
• 
  

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, soy sauce, chili powder, garlic a. Place chicken in sauce, and turn once to coat. Marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate for several hours. (or lace in freezer bags and freeze for later)
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add chicken strips to the pan, and saute for 5 minutes. Add the onion and red and green peppers, and saute another 3 minutes.

Note- I used a lot of red and green pepper slices, the more the better!

Bay Area Burgers

I have discovered an amazing burger recipe! I found it on allrecipes and tweaked it a bit for our tastes.

Bay Area Burger

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
• Red Onion chopped fine (between 1/4 and 1/2 a cup)

Directions

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Mix together the ground beef, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, red onion, and basil. Divide into patties.
2. Cook the patties for about 3 to 5 minutes on each side, or to desired doneness. The internal temperature should be at least 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). Remove from grill and place onto hamburger buns. Top with desired toppings and condiments.

Thin Whole Wheat Pizza Crust :)

I found an awesome, healthy pizza crust recipe :)

My entire family LOVED this pizza crust (except for Elliana, who does not eat pizza). The bread sticks were good as well. But the pizza crust was just amazing!

Thin Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Ingredients

· 1 teaspoon white sugar (or honey)

· 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

· 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

· 1 tablespoon olive oil

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 1 tablespoon basil

· ½ tablespoon oregano

· 3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top and let stand for about 10 minutes, until foamy.

2. Place all ingredients into bread machine and start the dough cycle.

3. Divide dough in half.

4. Roll out half of dough into a thin pizza crust; bake at 500 degrees for 4 minutes.

5. Remove pizza from oven, add toppings, and then bake until cheese is melted.

6. To make breadsticks with remaining dough: form into breadsticks and bake at 450 degrees for 3 minutes. Remove from oven. Brush breadsticks with melted butter, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and kosher salt. Bake an additional 4 minutes.

Grilled Salmon

We have never been a big fish eating family. But Aaron and I really want to make healthy eating choices. We decided to step out of our comfort zone and try salmon.

I found a recipe for what looked like a yummy marinade and gave it a try. It turned out fantastic! We have made this recipe twice so far and the second time was even better than the first. The trick was marinating it, putting back in the freezer, and then taking it out to thaw in the marinade.

Grilled Salmon (from AllRecipes)

Ingredients

• salmon fillets
• garlic powder to taste
• salt to taste
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions

1. Season salmon fillets with garlic powder, and salt (I just put this in the marinade).
2. In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, water, and olive oil until sugar is dissolved. Place fish in a large resealable plastic bag with the soy sauce mixture, seal, and turn to coat. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (after this amount of time I put it in the freezer, took it out the next day to thaw in the marinade)
3. Preheat grill for medium heat.
4. Lightly oil grill grate. Place salmon on the preheated grill, and discard marinade. Cook salmon for 6 to 8 minutes per side, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. (I cooked ours 10 minutes on each side and served it with a baked potato)

Great Mom Moment

Asher left me the wrapper of his Reese's Peanut Butter Egg. He told dad that I was a great cook and could use the ingredients on the wrapper to make more :) After such a great compliment I could not drop the ball!

I found a recipe on AllRecipes. Asher came into the kitchen and asked me what I was making, when I responded "peanut butter cups" he smiled so wide. I love making him smile :)

Ingredients

• 1 (11.5 ounce) package milk chocolate chips, divided
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Trim 12 paper muffin cup liners to half of their height.
2. Place 1/2 chocolate chips in a microwave safe container. Microwave for 2 minutes, stirring after each minute. Spoon melted chocolate into muffin cups, filling halfway. With a spoon, draw the chocolate up the sides of the cups until evenly coated. Cool in the refrigerator until firm.
3. In a small bowl, mix together peanut butter, confectioners' sugar and salt. divide into the chocolate cups. Melt the remaining chocolate, and spoon over peanut butter. Spread chocolate to edges of cups.

I did not use muffin cups (a suggestion in the recipe reviews).

Homemade Pop Tarts!!!!

I found this picture and recipe on smittenkitchen.com. It was a hit with my picky eaters :) I tweaked it a bit to add some extra nutritional value.

Homemade Pop Tarts
Pastry1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons flax seed

2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk
1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)1/2 cup (3 3/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
-Whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

Make the dough: Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Work in the butter with your fingers, pastry blender or food processor until pea-sized lumps of butter are still visible, and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. If you’ve used a food processor, transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Whisk the first egg and milk together and stir them into the dough, mixing just until everything is cohesive, kneading briefly on a well-floured counter if necessary.
Divide the dough in half (approximately 8 1/4 ounces each), shape each half into a smooth rectangle, about 3×5 inches. You can roll this out immediately (see Warm Kitchen note below) or wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Assemble the tarts: If the dough has been chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to soften and become workable, about 15 to 30 minutes. Place one piece on a lightly floured work surface, and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8″ thick, large enough that you can trim it to an even 9″ x 12″. [You can use a 9" x 13" pan, laid on top, as guidance.] Repeat with the second piece of dough. Set trimmings aside. Cut each piece of dough into thirds horizontally and vertically – you’ll form nine 3″ x 4″ rectangles.

Beat the additional egg and brush it over the entire surface of the first dough. This will be the “inside” of the tart; the egg is to help glue the lid on. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, keeping a bare 1/2-inch perimeter around it. Place a second rectangle of dough atop the first, using your fingertips to press firmly around the pocket of filling, sealing the dough well on all sides. Press the tines of a fork all around the edge of the rectangle. Repeat with remaining tarts.

Gently place the tarts on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Prick the top of each tart multiple times with a fork; you want to make sure steam can escape, or the tarts will become billowy pillows rather than flat toaster pastries. Refrigerate the tarts (they don’t need to be covered) for 30 minutes, while you preheat your oven to 350°F. After 30 minutes brush remaining egg on top of pop tarts and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon- brown sugar mixture.

Bake the tarts: Remove the tarts form the fridge, and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown. Cool in pan on rack.

Do ahead: The sweet versions should keep at room temperature in an airtight container for a week. If you’d like to make them further in advance, I vote for freezing them unbaked between layers of waxed paper, and baking them as you need.

Alternative filling choices:Jam Filling
3/4 cup (8 ounces) jam
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water
-Mix the jam with the cornstarch/water in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. Use to fill the pastry tarts.

Others: 9 tablespoons chocolate chips, 9 tablespoons Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut paste or 9 tablespoons of a delight of your choice, such as salted caramel or a nut paste

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love cooking and trying out new recipes! I made a white bean puree today and tried it in two different dishes. First, I added 1 tablespoon to Asher's coveted Kraft mac-n-cheese. He did notice a slight change in flavor, but that did not stop him from eating :) Second, and even more successful, I made healthy chocolate chip cookies. Definitely a new favorite at our house!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup flour blend (recipe below)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup rolled oats, finely ground in blender
8 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup white bean puree (recipe below)
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Remove butter from the refrigerator to soften.
In large bowl whisk together flour blend, baking soda, salt, and ground oats. Set aside.
Using mixer, combine sugars and butter until creamy.
Beat in egg, vanilla, and white bean puree.
Add dry ingredients and mix on low speed.
Sir in chocolate chips.
Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.

Flour Blend
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ

Combine all and store in a sealed plastic bag for months.

White Bean Puree
Ingredients:
1 15.5 pounce can of white beans (navy, northern, butter, or cannelloni)
2 to 3 tablespoons water

Rinse and drain the beans.
Put beans into food processor.
Add water.
Puree in food processor until mixture has a peanut butter consistency. If necessary, thin with a little water until there are no flecks of whole beans visible.

Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes

I made another recipe using the "purple puree". This recipe was also in the cookbook "the Sneaky chef". The kids liked them a lot. They informed me that they tasted similar to the brownies. (Which is to be expected, it is basically the same recipe with baking powder added and the amounts of the other ingredients just a tad different.)

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:
4 TB butter
1/3 C semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Lrg egg
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C sugar
3/4 C purple puree
1/2 C unbleached flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
2 TB cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions are the same as for the Brainy Brownies, just add the baking powder to the dry ingredients.

We sprinkled ours with powdered sugar, but there is a frosting recipe.

Frosting:
1 C nonfat dry milk
1/2 C powdered sugar
1/2 C boiling water
1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry milk and powdered sugar in a bowl, then add boiling water and vanilla. Mix very well. If needed add a little more water, half a teaspoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.

I really like the low sugar content of these cupcakes. I also like that they contain even more of the purple puree than the brownies. I will definitely make these for birthdays or special occasions.