Banana Oat Pancakes

I love cold cereal and milk. I think I could eat some variation of cereal + milk everyday for breakfast for the rest of my life and be happy, but sometimes special occasions call for special breakfast. This past weekend the special occasion was General Conference, and the special breakfast was these banana oat pancakes. Delicious. The perfect combination of soft and chewy.

Banana Oat Pancakes

*Adapted from Dropping Acid: The Reflux Cookbook and Cure

Ingredients

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or another 1/4 C all-purpose)

1/2 cup steel cut oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp nutmeg

2 large eggs

2 bananas, mashed

2 Tbsp plain Greek yogurt or non-fat sour cream

1/4 cup milk (add more if your batter seems too thick)

1 Tbsp butter for griddle

Directions

1. Mix brown sugar, flours, oats, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl.

2. Whisk in the eggs, bananas, and yogurt/sour cream.

3. Add in milk incrementally until the batter moves in the bowl but isn't runny.

4. Preheat a non-stick pan or griddle and grease with butter.

5. Using a ladle, pour some batter onto the pan/griddle.

6. Flip pancake when the underside is golden brown.
7. Cook opposite side until golden brown and no longer wet on edges.

8. Serve warm.

Top with fruit, syrup, or eat them plain like we did. Even Elle devoured these, and she's been rather picky lately. We might need to have these for breakfast again soon.

Pinterest Challenge Wrap-Up

Confession: I just finished the Pinterest Challenge moments ago...but I started a few days after everyone else, so it's totally okay. Honestly, I forgot about my last task, which was adding a "Pin It" button to my blog.

I wrote about the Grilled Malibu Chicken and gave a glimpse of the tab-top curtain and busy box here. I'm still planning to write separately about the busy box and our roadtrip, but realistically, I'm never going to write about the curtains, so here are some pictures of that. ;)

Definitely my most successful sewing project to date, and it was super simple thanks to my friend Audrei and her amazing "sewing computer."

That leaves the scarf headband and the truffle squares. 

I tried the criss-cross headband with scarves/fabric belts that I already had. The material was too slippery and the criss-cross protruded from my head more than I wanted. I think this would've worked better with something with more stretch that would lay flatter.

This story has a happy ending though because while enjoying a cold Spring Break in Arkansas with my family, I happened upon a fabric headband I liked in a little boutique. And it was a handmade, fair trade item benefiting an Indonesian woman. Win-win? I think so.

I made the truffle squares on Good Friday, and they were yummy. I was sad to go into the kitchen this morning and see that Henry ate the last one. If you like chocolate and nuts, I'd recommend this dessert.

I made a few changes (as I'm inclined to do). For one, I only used chopped almonds for my "dough" because I didn't have any pecans. For two, I used agave nectar instead of honey/syrup. For three, I added a layer of melted peanut butter between the nut mixture and the top layer of chocolate. This was a great decision because it held the nutty mixture together better, and it made the bars taste a lot more like Reese's peanut butter cups.

Now that this challenge is over, I'm thinking about what I can work on next. I want to make a wreath for spring...not sure what else yet. What will you work on?

Quinoa Fruit Salad

It seems like once you go public with a goal, the universe makes every attempt to thwart your efforts. Just as I expected, I wasn't anywhere close to weekday veg during my week in Houston. For one, I had no control over the boxed lunch options at my continuing ed conference. Secondly, I ate out a bunch with my parents. This week I'm doing a little better, but I've eaten quite a bit of organic, grass-fed beef we got on sale at Sprouts a few weeks ago. I'm okay with that.

Over the last two weeks I did discover a new vegetarian side dish that I love. The recipe comes from a diabetic cooking magazine my mom has. Unfortunately I took a picture of it with my phone, and now I can't remember or see the name of the source...

Here's what you'll need:

Notes:
*I substituted agave nectar for the honey because that's what I had in my pantry.
*I chose a Granny Smith apple.
*I just bought mixed nuts from the bulk section instead of walnuts and chopped them in my food processor.
*I omitted celery because I think it's gross.
*I recommend adding a little more Greek yogurt than the recipe calls for to make sure everything is nice and coated. 
*Definitely let it chill in the fridge before eating. It will taste so much better.

 

 I've now made this twice, once at my parents' house and once at my own house. Initially I thought it could pass as a dessert, but now I'm reconsidering. Maybe if you paired it with some Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla? Jury's still out. But I do think it would make a very refreshing side for a summer picnic or potluck. Yum.

Crofter's Organic Superfruit Crepes

I didn't have to work on Good Friday, and I wanted to make something special for breakfast to celebrate. So off I went to my kitchen to make crepes for the very first time.

There were two reasons I chose to make crepes:
1. A while ago I received a coupon to try Crofter's Superfruit Spread, and I wanted to do something more with it than put it on toast (though that's a perfectly fine option).
2. I've been wanting to eat at an expensive little crepe trailer in South Austin for several months. Making them at home took care of that craving.

I started with my jar of the North America Superfruit Spread and went to work making the crepes. I made 2 servings, which ended up yielding four crepes. What you see below are basically the ingredients you'll need: an egg, all-purpose flour, milk, water, and (not pictured) butter. I added a touch of vanilla because I already had it out, and who doesn't love vanilla? I mixed those together in my bowl and then stuck it back in the fridge. I read in another recipe that if you let the batter settle in the fridge for an hour, it will make the crepes less bumpy and lumpy.

But I didn't let it sit for that long. I kept it in there for as long as it took me to make some whipped cream (or as we say in my family, "whip cream." Maybe it's a Southern thing.)

If you've never made your own, you really should. It's easy and tastes so good. I probably should've cut this recipe in half, but I didn't. I piled lots of whip cream inside and on top of my crepes and had plenty left over for an impromptu fruit salad.

Once the whip cream was ready, I went back to making the crepes. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I switched up things with the butter. I was supposed to mix melted butter into the batter, but I think I used it all to oil my frying pan. No wonder it seemed like SO MUCH butter. Ha! The crepes tasted just fine though...

I was worried that it'd be tricky to flip the crepes, but that was actually pretty easy because they curled up at the edges. The tricky part was spreading the batter quickly (quickly!) and evenly in the pan before it could really start cooking.

Assembling the crepes was fast. I spread a line of Superfruit down the center, layered some whip cream on top and folded it over burrito style.

Of course I loaded more whip cream on top too. Yumm.

They were rich and filling, so I only ate half of my three. I saved the leftovers for Henry, and when he got home, he said, "These are good. Where'd you get the berries?"

I will definitely make these again. The mix of blueberries, cranberries, red grapes, and morello cherries is on the tart side, so the whipped cream balanced it out with a little (or if you're like me, a lot of) sweet. I liked using the Crofter's Superfruit Spread because I didn't have to prep anything for the filling, yet it packed an antioxidant-filled, flavorful punch. I wish I could have some right now.

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

Our ward had a bake sale a week and a half ago to collect tubes of toothpaste for a service project. What, that doesn't make perfect sense to you?

It worked like this: people volunteered to bring baked goods or offered a service (babysitting, tutoring, tech help, etc.) for the silent auction, and then everyone came in with their toothpaste to purchase or bid on the items. Youth conference is coming up, and the youth in our ward were asked to collect one thousand tubes of toothpaste, which will be added to hygiene kits for people in Haiti and Japan.

Through a friend's blog, I recently came across a cooking blog called Annie's Eats. Let's not dwell on the fact that this woman is a doctor, a new mom, and somehow she finds the time to create and perfect her own recipes. She creates cupcakes for all of her coworkers' birthdays. Oh, and she maintains a really pretty blog, duh. My mind cannot fathom...

Anyway, I chose her Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake recipe for the bake sale. Instead of using the icing she paired with these cupcakes, I chose the one listed here. It tasted like a buttery strawberry milkshake. Henry loved it. I thought it was good, but a little too buttery for me. We still have a baggy of the icing sitting in our fridge, anyone want it? I'm not sure what to do with it.

I didn't get to attend the actual bake sale, but Henry said they sold well. One of our friends bought two. Another family came up and tried one, and then later returned to buy the remaining nine!

As for the toothpaste, I'd say the bake sale/silent auction served its purpose well; we collected 1,467 tubes!

Heart in a Cupcake

I made cupcakes on Friday...because I love cupcakes...and it worked out well to have company over to help eat up the dozen. 

This was my first attempt at baking a shape into a cupcake. I saw this recipe for baking a heart into a cupcake through one of the facebook pages I like and thought it looked really cute. I swapped the cake recipe from that site for Cupcake 23 from Cupcake Heaven. I don't know that I would recommend this cake without a filling because it was a little dry and dense. If you're wondering at this point why I didn't use the Bake it in a Cake recipe, I will tell you: that little half of a vanilla bean. Didn't want to go to the store (possibly multiple stores) to search for it.

As you can see in the left corner, some of the hearts did NOT stay in place

Strawberry Laffy Taffy Buttercream Frosting

Making the hearts was easy, getting them to stand in the cake batter was another story. Making the frosting required a little more effort than I normally put into frosting, but it was yummy. Note: The melted Laffy Taffy + heavy cream hardened a little while cooling in my fridge, even though the recipe said it wouldn't. I reheated it for about 10 seconds before dumping it in with the butter and powdered sugar.

When I iced them, I made sure to keep track of which way the hearts were facing. I put a line of sprinkles across the top to mark where the top of the hearts were...or so I thought...and I put sprinkles all over the ones that I knew were already messed up.

Most of the cupcakes looked like this once we bit into them:

A nice Valentine's quadrilateral. Is that a trapezoid?

But then, yesterday afternoon I cut one in half and spied this.

An almost heart!

So...I can't say I'd recommend baking hearts into a cupcake. Henry and I agreed that these were the most dramatic cupcakes ever. We may or may not have gotten into a little argument while making them. Can't even remember what it was about...but yeah. They took a long time to make, and we were both very tired when all was said and done. 

I would, however, recommend the Strawberry Laffy Taffy Buttercream Frosting. I'm pretty sure I'm going to use this frosting for my niece Laura's bridal shower next weekend. It will be on different cupcakes with nary a heart inside. 

And since it's Valentine's Day (hope you have a good one!), I want to leave you with a lovey song that makes me happy. Click here and press play. =)

Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

So I don't bake much, and I blog about what I bake even less because most of the time, let's face it, the results aren't blog-worthy.

(You know where this is going.)

Last Friday, Henry and I made some seriously tasty cupcakes that the world needs to know about: Vanilla Almond Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting. That's a delicious mouthful, no?

The recipe came from the site Ming Makes Cupcakes, which is now named "Cupcake HEAVEN" in my bookmarks list. You really have to follow that link to see what I'm talking about. Henry's already asking which one we're going to make next, and he's not even the cupcake fan in this household.

I was mostly impressed with the cake portion of this cupcake. Cream cheese frosting, though yummy, is not that exciting to me, but this vanilla almond cake was perfection. Worth every penny for that expensive almond meal.

So go, check out Ming's cupcakes, and let me know if you make any. It will be hard to choose which one to try next!

Hungry Girl: Twice-as-Nice Guapo Taco

We also made these Taco Bell knockoffs from Hungry Girl on Easter weekend.

I'd give it a B+. We basically followed the recipe this time, except we didn't get low carb tortillas or fat free refried beans (is there really such a thing? couldn't find any at our local HEB). I added a dollop of Greek yogurt on top as a substitute for sour cream. That was a good move.

In the process of making this recipe, I found out that my husband does NOT like soy crumbles. I have to admit that I didn't care for the way the crumbles tasted either. It was like they were overly seasoned. Next time I'd probably just use ground turkey or use less of the taco seasoning packet.

Hungry Girl: Upside-Down Chocolate PB Cheesecake

For most of my life I've joked about being somewhat domestically disabled. I didn't learn how to prepare a meal (beyond boxed spaghetti) or do my own laundry until I went to college. Growing up, my mom always worked full time, and she'd usually prepare our one home-cooked meal of the week on Sunday while my dad and I were at church.  It worked for our family, but I wish I had taken more opportunities to assist her with preparing family meals.

I feel like now I want to make an effort to learn how to cook for my family, and as part of that, one of my goals for the year is to get in the kitchen more to try to make new things. In the last few weeks I've tried some new recipes! I'll try to post some of the ones I liked on here. Have you heard of Hungry Girl? I recently saw a TV segment with the author and decided to check out her site. It seems to me that her mission is to find ways to make foods that she enjoys eating a little healthier yet still tasty.

For our Easter dinner I made Hungry Girl's Upside-Down Chocolate PB Cheesecake. It was an incredibly easy recipe, no bake, and Henry and I really liked it. I took it to work and made another batch for my book club meeting too, and everyone loved it and wanted the recipe. I definitely recommend it if you are a fan of chocolate and peanut butter. It had more of a pudding-like consistency than cheesecake, but that didn't matter so much since it tasted good!

Upside-Down Chocolate PB Cheesecake from Hungry Girl

PER SERVING (1/8th of recipe, about 1/2 cup): 143 calories, 3.5g fat, 320mg sodium, 19.5g carbs, 1g fiber, 6g sugars, 6.5g protein -- POINTS® value 3* Super-rich, peanut-buttery, chocolate cheesecake filling topped with a layer of chocolate crunch!?! Yup... Ingredients: 1 packet Swiss Miss Sensible Sweets 25-calorie diet hot cocoa mix **I couldn't find this at the grocery store, so I just used the regular hot cocoa mix I already had at home** One 8-oz. tub fat-free cream cheese, room temperature 2 Jell-O Sugar Free Chocolate Pudding Snacks 1/3 cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granulated) **used regular sugar*** 2 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups Cool Whip Free, thawed, divided 3 tbsp. reduced-fat peanut butter, room temperature **used regular peanut butter** Two 100 Calorie Packs Oreo Thin Crisps or 3 sheets (12 crackers) chocolate graham crackers Optional: Fat Free Reddi-wip Directions: Dissolve cocoa mix in 2 tbsp. hot water. In a medium bowl, combine cocoa mixture with cream cheese, pudding, Splenda, and vanilla extract. Using a handheld electric mixer, whisk until smooth. Fold in 1/2 cup Cool Whip. Transfer mixture to a large pie pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine remaining 1 1/2 cups Cool Whip with peanut butter. Whisk until smooth and uniform in color. Spread over the "pie." Cover and refrigerate until chilled and slightly firm, about 2 hours. Meanwhile, crush Oreo Thin Crisps or chocolate graham crackers into fine crumbs, and set aside. Once ready to serve, top pie with crushed cookies/graham crackers. If you like, top each serving with a squirt of Reddi-wip. Enjoy with a spoon! MAKES 8 SERVINGS