Whole Wheat Banana & Almond muffins

After playing around with several recipes I finally created my version of these very yummy and healthy muffins.  I posted a picture to my facebook page and have since received a ton of requests to post the recipe so here it is... just for you!

Ingredients:
- 1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 cup almond milk
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1 cup chopped almonds (3/4 in batter, 1/4 for sprinkling on top)
- 1/4 cup flaxseed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C)
2. In a bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon and set aside. 
3. I use my Vitamix but you can use a blender for this. Combine egg, sugar, butter, almond milk, bananas and applesauce into blender.  Process briefly until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.

4. Pour batter into dry ingredients and mix with a spoon until combined.

5. Add 3/4 cup of chopped almonds and flaxseed and combine.

6. Pour batter into loaf pan, muffin pan or any pan you want.  I like to sprinkle a little brown sugar and the remaining almond crumbles on top of each muffin before baking. Note: You need to adjust the time you leave it in the oven based on what kind of pan you use.  For example, I use this Flexipan pan that makes 6 mini loaves basically and I leave it in the oven for 35 minutes.  If you use a 12 muffin pan I would leave it for 20-25 minutes and just check them to see when they are done.  If you put it into a bread loaf pan you should start it at 45-50 minutes and then check.

That's it! Hope you enjoy! Feel free to pin it too!

Turkey Bacon Green Beans

With Thanksgiving right around the corner here in the U.S. I decided to post a quick and easy recipe tutorial today for a side dish that anyone can whip up and take to a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.

We make green beans often at my house and my husband loves it with the crunchy bacon bits.  I fool him and use turkey bacon instead of the real stuff.  Once its crispy and chopped up he can't even tell the difference and I cut back the fat by 50%.  Win-win for everyone.

Ingredients:
1-2 lbs of green beans (I use frozen here but fresh works also)
turkey bacon (or bacon of your choice... you can even omit this ingredient altogether)
salt
pepper
olive oil
water


Directions:
Step 1: Crisp up bacon-
- add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a pot on medium high heat
- Chop bacon into bite size pieces and add to pot
- separate bacon with spoon or tongs
- cook on medium/high heat for 8-10 minutes or until crispy
- drain on paper towel and set aside

Step 2: Cook green beans-
- add frozen or fresh green beans to same pot used to crisp bacon
- add 1/4 cup of water and cover
- cook on high for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally
- uncover and cook another 5 minutes until most of water has evaporated
- add some bacon bits and stir
- serve on platter and top with more bacon bits.

Click here to watch the VIDEO RECIPE

Creamy Peanut Chicken Rice

My husband suggested I make this week's cooking tutorial my Creamy Peanut Chicken Rice.  I'm pretty sure he suggested it because he wanted to eat it for dinner this weekend.  He thinks he is slick... but he's not. Either way I did take him up on the suggestion because it's such an easy dish to whip up!  It's great for those days you have left over rice and are not sure how to revamp it.  I especially love it because it's a one pot meal!

On a lazy day we will eat it by itself.  But I will usually pair it up with some sauteed or roasted veggies or a nice salad as well.

I've included the step-by-step video tutorial below!  Hope you give it a try and enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 cups cooked rice
2 chicken breasts
olive oil
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt/pepper
2 tomatoes
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 chilies (optional)
1/2 cup peanut butter
water

Buen provecho!

Happy Fourth of July!

Here is my gift to you!  A new video tutorial on how to make Apple Pie Turnovers! They are delicious and are perfect apple pie substitute because you can eat them on the go!

Enjoy!

Dehydrated snacks!

I finally took the plunge and ordered a food dehydrator! Do you have one? 

After much research I decided on the Excalibur 3900.  It has 9 trays!

I have been having a blast coming up with new goodies to dry.  This morning I put in some banana, pear, and garden-picked roma tomato slices.  Cool, eh?  Now I can make my own "sun" dried tomatoes!

I am also making some strawberry and banana fruit leather.  You know... like the Fruit Roll Ups they sell that are super expensive and filled with who knows what.  I'm making my own and let me show you how easy it was. 

Load 7-10 strawberries and a sliced up banana in your blender or Magic Bullet

and puree until completely smooth. If it needs a little liquid to help it blend I squeeze a little lime juice instead of water.  Then pour half the mixture onto one of the Excalibur Paraflexx sheets (purchased separately) and then I like to tilt the frame around to get the mixture to spread out a bit.  

Repeat on another Paraflexx sheet and frame.  Place into the dehydrator at ~145 degrees F and let it go for about 5-7 hours.  That's it!

Once its dry you can peel it off the Paraflexx sheet and enjoy!

Now if you'll excuse me... I"m off to snack on some yummy dried pears while the fruit leather dries!

Burger Night!

Last night I had a lazy night in the kitchen and wanted to make something quick and yummy!  So, I decided on BURGERS!

I made the bread earlier in the day so it worked out perfectly that I had a few buns just the right size for the burgers.

Burgers are super easy to make and they are the perfect culinary medium for experiments.  New ingredients into the meat, exotic toppings, etc.  Just use what you have or try new ingredients!

For this burger here's what I did:

-In a large bowl I put about 1 1/2 lbs of ground beef.  You can use 80/20 for a fattier juicier burger.  But I used 90/10 beef.
-Grate in 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic and 1 jalapeño pepper.
-Add 1 teaspoon of salt
-Add 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
-Combine with hands until all ingredients are evenly distributed. 
- Make your burger patties and put on a hot grill (or frying) pan and do not move or touch for about 3 minutes. 
-Flip burger over and cook another 3-4 minutes depending on how you like your burgers cooked. 
-Never press on your burgers because that will cause all the juices to run out- resulting in a dry and hard burger.
-When the juices that are running out of the burger are clear (and no longer red) then it has been cooked to a medium-well or beyond.  So, if you want it more on the medium side cook about 3 minutes on each side.
-Remove burgers from pan and let them rest while you prep the buns.
-I like to toast my buns- you can do this in a toaster, toaster oven or on the grill pan.

Topping:
- 2 Tablespoons of cream cheese
- hot sauce of your choice
-2 Tablespoons of chopped cilantro

-Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and spoon on top of burger.  Then top with a few tomato slices and baby spinach. 

Enjoy!

Handmade bread the easy way!

Many of you have asked for a generic bread making recipe and tutorial and here it is! You don't need any fancy breadmaking machine or equipment!  It's so easy anyone can do it.  I'd love to hear from you after you try it out... and let me know what fun ingredients you decided to put in your bread.

p.s.- I'm a semifinalist in YouTube's NextUp Contest! I would really appreciate your votes. It's really simple... Just click this link: http://www.youtube.com/creators?x=nextup_nsFqzT7Iwpc
and give my video a "thumbs up."  You can vote every day until Friday, April 8, 2011. Thank you!

Now... enjoy your breadmaking video!