TGIF. We made it through another week. Mostly unscathed! I am looking forward to the weekend, however. I’m so tired!
I packed brunch for my boys’ lunches tomorrow. I made sunbutter and strawberry jam pancake sandwiches. I stuck tiny dinos on them, just for fun. I also packed colby jack cheese cubes, diced peaches, cotton candy grapes, and a few yogurt covered pretzels for dessert.
** This would also make a fun breakfast bento! **
Happy Friday!
Kristin
I have a very tumultuous relationship with banana bread. I either LOVE it or it just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t know what it is. I love a dense cake, but dense banana bread is sort of meh.
But, I just came across a new recipe…
And it changed me…
…FOREVER.
This Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread recipe yields the perfect balance between dense and fluffy, chewy and crusty.
You simply MUST try it, especially if you are broken up with banana bread, as I was. Now we’re back on. Here’s to a long and successful future!
http://thebakermama.com/recipes/cinnamon-swirl-banana-bread/
** I didn’t use the banana on the top, and I also made two smaller loaves**
Kristin
Well, oopsie. It’s almost been a month since I blogged. What can I say? Summer really took over. Now, it’s coming to a close. My boys go back to school next week ( 😦 ). I’ve so enjoyed my extra time with them, where the days started and ended later, we ate our weight in ice cream, and we did what we wanted. Times are a-changin’! It’s back to the grind. It’s going to be a rude awakening next week, when I’ll be forced to wake them up. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. That “my baby is now going to Kindergarten” bridge will also have to be dealt with. I’m not emotionally prepared to deal with that at this time.
Moving on to what makes me comfortable – food. 😀
I found a recipe for Quinoa Granola Bars and tweaked them a little.
These were so good! The oats made them chewy and the quinoa made them crunchy. The dried fruit made them subtly sweet and the chocolate coating just made them. Chocolate coating makes almost everything. Ask anybody.
You can leave the chocolate coating off, if needed. I can barely come up with a situation where a chocolate coating would not be needed. But, know that option exists.
Quinoa Granola Bars with Dried Fruit & Chocolate
Recipe adapted from: Superhealthykids.com
1 C uncooked quinoa
1 C oats
1/2 C coconut
1 1/2 C combination of nuts and dried fruit (I used a 1/2 each of cranberries, golden raisins, and sliced almonds)
1/4 t salt
1/2 C peanut butter
3/4 C honey
1 T oil (I used coconut)
3 T brown sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 C chocolate chips
1 t oil (I used coconut)
—
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9X13 inch baking dish. Spread the oats and quinoa on a cookie sheet and toast in preheated oven for 8 minutes. Pour the quinoa and oats mixture into a large bowl and add coconut, nuts, and dried fruit. Mix together. In a medium saucepan, combine salt, peanut butter, honey, oil, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat and immediately remove from heat. Add the vanilla extract and mix. Pour over oats mixture and combine until dry ingredients are evenly coated. Pour into baking dish. Press mixture down into pan. Bake for about 15 – 18 minutes.
To make the chocolate, mix the chocolate chips and oil together in a bowl. Microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring until melted. Spread over the top of the bars and let them cool/dry.
Cut and serve.
These are a teeny bit crumbly, but are delicious for snacks (after school, maybe? mid-morning? you decide). You could also individually wrap the slices and freeze and pop into a lunchbox.
Enjoy!
Kristin
It’s summertime and the living’s…definitely busier than our school year! The mornings, especially, have been busy. To ease into my early mornings (sidenote: whyyyyy are my kids waking up so early during summer break???), I’ve been making overnight oats the night before, so that I might have an already-ready breakfast, that is both really delicious and really filling. It’s been very helpful in getting my day moving.
Simply put, overnight oats is (are?) oatmeal, made the night before (or at the very least, an hour before consuming). It is a great time-saving breakfast. Oatmeal is very filling (and high in fiber), and helps me to snack less between breakfast and lunch.
The formula to making overnight oats is very simple – equal part oats and liquids. For my liquid component, I use both unsweetened coconut milk and Greek yogurt. I also like to add chia seeds (high in fiber, protein, antioxidants, and Omega-3 fatty acids) and [golden] ground flaxseed (high in Omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and fiber). The more ground flaxseed I add, I find that I need to add a little more liquid. You can choose whatever toppings you enjoy – fruit, jam, chocolate, coconut, nuts, etc. You can eat it hot or cold. I rather enjoy it cold.
Below are some of the delicious flavors I made this week.
Berry Crumble Overnight Oats
1/2 C oats
1/4 C coconut milk
1/4 C plain Greek yogurt
Almond extract
Strawberries
Raspberries
Mix liquids and oats together. Layer with toppings in a container. Store in refrigerator overnight (or for an hour, at the least).
Peaches and Cream Overnight Oats
1/2 C oats
1/4 C vanilla Greek yogurt
1/4 C coconut milk
Vanilla extract
Chia seeds
Ground flaxseed
Peaches
Sliced almonds
Mango Coconut Overnight Oats
1/2 C oats
1/4 C vanilla Greek yogurt
1/4 C coconut milk
Vanilla bean paste
1 T coconut oil
Chia seeds
Ground flaxseed
Mango
Sliced almonds
Coconut flakes
Blueberry Peach Overnight Oats
1/2 C oats
1/4 C vanilla Greek yogurt
1/4 C coconut milk
Vanilla extract
Chia seeds
Ground flaxseed
Peaches
Peach Jam
Blueberries
Strawberry Nutella Overnight Oats
1/2 C oats
1/4 C vanilla Greek yogurt
1/4 C coconut milk
1 T coconut Oil
Vanilla extract
Chia seeds
Ground flaxseed
Strawberries
Nutella
Enjoy!!
Kristin
It was 5:35pm, and I knew my husband and oldest son would be getting home from karate just after 6:00pm. I had mild Italian sausage (no casing), thawed on the counter. Like usual, I had no idea what to make. And like usual, I made something up on the fly. Unlike usual, it worked. It was a quick and super delicious meal. I decided to make rice bowls, with sausage patties and fried eggs. This was delicious at dinner, but would be incredible for breakfast, as well.
You won’t be disappointed, if you try this.
Breakfast Rice Bowls with Sausage and Fried Eggs
1 lb mild Italian sausage, without the casing (if it is in the casing, just squeeze it out)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 C bread crumbs (I used gluten free)
S&P
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Jasmine rice, cooked as directed
Eggs
Scallions
Red pepper flakes
*any other spices you want can be added in*
*this would be good with almost any vegetable mixed in, or any type of ground meat*
Mix all the above ingredients together. Form into patties and pan fry (I used a mixture of peanut and olive oil). Once seared on both sides, add some water to your pan and cover. This will cook the inside of the sausage patties.
While those are cooking, make your rice. Lastly, make your egg. You can cook it however you want, but for me, a fried egg is magical. The way that the yolk coats everything…incredible.
I hope that you enjoy this as much as we did!
Kristin
Annnnd, one more gratuitous yolk picture…
When I was in high school, I went to France with my parents. While I appreciated it as much as any snotty-nosed punk high school girl who was away from her boyfriend would (aka not as much as I would now), it was an amazing trip. I saw priceless art that I may never have the opportunity to see again, I stood in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, I saw king’s castles, I did loads of shopping (I brought back clothes that wouldn’t even be in style in the States for over six months – sure, many of my classmates laughed at the styles then, but they appreciated it later), I went to a high fashion show, and I ate. Lots of good food, including many delicious crepes – some filled with ham, broccoli, and cheese, and some with Nutella and raspberries. All of them delicious, wrapped up in a cone shape, still steaming in the Paris air.
When I found a crepe recipe in my 100 Days of Real Food cookbook, it brought me back to that fab trip to Paris. While I had never made a crepe before, I thought it would be “similar” to pancakes. Boy, was I “wrong” (I feel like Joey on Friends, using his air quotes incorrectly). After many tries, I was able to make 3 decent crepes that would suffice for my boys’ school lunches (the recipe makes 16-18 thin crepes). Practice makes perfect, right?
For my Bigs, I packed two crepes, some maple syrup, and some raspberry jam for dipping. I also packed a mandarin orange, blueberries, a few cinnamon apple sticks from Trader Joe’s, and a yogurt squeeze.
My Smalls requested peanut butter for dipping, so I packed that and one crepe. I also packed blueberries (he likes those now), raisins, and a few cinnamon apple straws. He will have peanuts and applesauce for snack.
Here is the link to the recipe. I added almond extract.
http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2010/08/16/recipe-crepes-for-breakfast-or-dessert/
Au revoir,
Kristin
Today is Shrove Tuesday. And it coincides with Pancake Day. I read, today, that people who would be giving up sugar, eggs, and/or milk for Lent would feast on pancakes the day before Ash Wednesday in an effort to rid their pantries of those ingredients so that they would not go bad. Is that as fascinating to you as it is to me? What are you giving up for Lent? I have decided to give up desserts (save for a few pieces of birthday cake for a few important birthdays). #amicrazy #yes
To keep with this newly found (to me) tradition, I made gluten and dairy free pancakes for dinner tonight, with a fresh strawberry sauce and creamed honey (from Trader Joe’s – one of the best purchases of my life).
I used a shortcut King Arthur Flour GF pancake mix and made it even better.
These were SO good. I am embarrassed to say that I allowed my Bigs to eat, um, eight of these. Smalls ate a few less and without strawberry sauce (he is on a no strawberry kick).
Gluten & Dairy Free Shrove Shortcut Shortstacks
1 pkg King Arthur Flour GF pancake mix (15 oz.)
2 large eggs
4 T coconut oil (you can use other oils or 6 T melted butter)
2 C milk (I used 1 C cashew milk, 1 C coconut milk)
1 T vanilla bean paste
2 t almond extract
Whisk together the eggs, oil (or butter), and milk. Whisk in the mix. Allow the batter to sit for 10 minutes.
Preheat your griddle pan to 350F. Scoop out the batter and cook for 1-2 minutes on each side (look for bubbles to pop).
Serve with fresh strawberry sauce.
Fresh Strawberry Sauce
2 C fresh or frozen strawberries (I used frozen)
Place in a saucepan on medium heat, until softened. Put into a food processor and whiz until fully processed. Strain to get the larger unprocessed chunks out. Place back in saucepan to thicken.
EAT.
Happy Lent!
Kristin
Have you ever heard of something that is half whole wheat? And that is both cake and a muffin at the same time? Me neither. Until now. These are so good, they’ll knock your socks off! I was inspired to make these for two reasons – 1) I had two completely brown, sad, and huge bananas on my counter (they were so pitiful and self-loathing, that they wouldn’t even hang on my banana hanger anymore), and 2) my oldest son had a craving for banana cake after a classmate brought some in his school lunchbox and who am I to mess with his cake-filled dreams.
These came out so moist and soft, and with a tender crumb, just like cake should be (unless it’s wedding cake. I adore and crave a dense wedding cake.). I used both whole wheat flour and cake flour. I love when healthy and delicious collide.
They are full of cozy, homey banana flavor and spiced with warm cinnamon.
If given the opportunity, I would have eaten the whole pan.
Fortunately enough for me and my waistline, I was not afforded that opportunity.
I also made a few mini muffins, perfect for little hands.
I hope you make these sweet little things and find them to be as easy and delicious as I did.
Half Whole Wheat Banana Cake Muffins
Recipe makes 12 standard muffins, 12 mini muffins, and a little extra for a tasting (I used a mini spring form)
Recipe adapted from: “Banana Upside Down Mini Muffins”, Weelicious Lunches
2 large ripe bananas (or about 3 medium)
3/4 C buttermilk (I made mine with cashew milk and vinegar)
1 large egg
3 T oil (I used peanut, you can use canola, vegetable, or coconut)
1 t vanilla
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C cake flour
1/3 C packed brown sugar
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Preheat the oven to 375F. Place cupcake wrappers in a cupcake tin.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Add the buttermilk, egg, oil, and vanilla, and whisk together.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until just combined.
Pour into the cupcake wrappers, about 3/4 full.
Bake for 12 minutes. Allow them to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the tins.
These are truly bananas! Try them.
Kristin
I packed a brunch lunch for my Bigs’ school lunch. I think everyone likes brunch. I could be mistaken, but I think not. What’s not to love? Breakfast and lunch favorites, all on the same plate, and you don’t have to get up early to eat it. #winning
I made peanut butter and honey pancake sandwiches. I only used a teeny bit of honey, so his little hands don’t get too sticky. I also packed some granola (Trader Joe’s mix – I picked out the nuts because he doesn’t care for those – dried cranberries, granola balls, Greek yogurt chips), freeze dried mango, a mandarin orange, red grapes, and applesauce with flower sprinkles.
Boo-ya, brunch is served.
Kristin
It’s in your head now. Right? You’re welcome. R.E.M. rocks! Do people say “rocks” anymore? Do young people say “rocks” anymore? I wouldn’t know.
So, the end of the week is here (yay). It’s been such a crazy week. I haven’t even had a second. But now I do. So, I’m taking my second to show you food.
Bigs’ Wednesday lunch was a breakfast theme! I packed a pancake “sandwich”, made with two gluten and dairy free pancakes, peanut butter, and honey. I also packed one slice of turkey bacon, cut up, some assorted raisins (Trader Joe’s big bag of assorted raisins ROCKS [#cantstopwontstop #imold]), a colby jack cheese slice, an orange, and granola (Trader Joe’s again).
Bigs’ Thursday lunch was another turkey lunch (this time with ham and cheese!). I used my Food Writers and a turkey cookie cutter to make him so cute (if I can say so myself). His hay bale is crusts. I also packed grapes and applesauce. Bigs told me he was “staaaaarving” after eating this, so I made sure to pack more tonight for Friday’s lunch.
So. For Bigs’ lunch tomorrow (Friday), I was sure to pack more food. I went with a Fallish squirrel theme. I made a ham and cheese sandwich, shaped like a squirrel. I used my Food Writers for his eye detail and cut out a little piece of fruit leather in the shape of an acorn. I also packed pretzels, seasoned corn, grapes and pineapple, an organic yogurt squeezy thing, and Trader Joe’s ginger cookies for dessert.
He’s going to go nuts! Get it? I love a pun.
And for my Smalls’ lunch today, I packed a Mickey Mouse(ish) lunch. And to prove it, here’s a blurry picture:
Three baby Mickey Mouse shaped PB&J’s, some organic Trader Joe’s PB crackers, grapes, and TJ’s school house letter cookies. He ate all the grapes this time!
I also made Thanksgiving this week! I don’t think you can have it enough. I made a meal for a friend and doubled so my family could enjoy it too!
I can’t wait for the REAL Thanksgiving! It’s going to be the bomb! (Do they say “bomb” anymore? Or is that done-zo?) For us, I made gluten free Turkey and Sage Meatballs.
Turkey and Sage Meatballs
1 lb (ish) ground turkey
1/2 C gluten free breadcrumbs
1 egg
S&P
1 1/2 t of ground sage or poultry seasoning
Mix together, roll into balls, place on greased pan, bake for 30 – 45 minutes (depending on size of meatballs) at 350F.
I covered our meatballs with a homemade cranberry orange sauce.
Cranberry Orange Sauce
1 C fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 C frozen orange concentrate
1/3 C water
1 T sugar
1 packet of plain (unflavored) gelatin
Place all ingredients, except for gelatin, in saucepan. Bring to a boil. Whisk in the gelatin and simmer until thick.
Roasted turkey breast for my friend. I seasoned it with S&P, garlic powder, onion powder, poultry seasoning, and olive oil. I roasted it according to directions.
I made green bean casserole, all of which I could have eaten by myself. I love it.
I made sweet potato casserole. I didn’t have marshmallows, but I DID have marshmallow fluff. And being the resourceful woman that I am, I swirled that ooey gooey fluffy goodness around in the sweet potatoes and it came out just fine.
I made cheesy corn and cornbread casserole.
I made my first ever pumpkin pie (weird that it’s my first!). I used a basic recipe. And I overdid it. But I love my friend, she didn’t even care.
And lastly, I made an old fashioned Cranberry Fluff Salad. I took a picture, but it looked awful. Like bad awful. But it was good. SO good. I am on the molded and gelatin based salad train. Doesn’t that sound like a gross train to be on? It’s not. It’s amazing. If you like that sort of stuff. Which I do. I DID have to change the recipe, due to my lack of marshmallows. Again, I used the fluff. I thought it might work since that IS one of the names in the recipe. And it DID work, maybe not as successfully as marshmallows would have, but it was still really good!
Do it. That could be your Thanksgiving, right there.
Have a BLESSED end to your week! We are ending our week right with our church/school’s Fall Festival tomorrow night! It’s going to rock!!
Blessings,
Kristin
Sprinkles in my Lunchbox 