Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I have a pretty serious addiction to bananas. I start every day with green tea and a banana and have done this for as long as I can remember. 

I love Costco because I can get a large bundle of bananas for less than $2. Sometimes though, they can get brown quickly. And I honestly won't eat ripe a banana. I like them when they're still a little green. Which means I make banana bread and muffins quite frequently. This recipe uses Pamela's Gluten Free Baking and Pancake Mix. It's really easy and quick to make. Someone bought this flour for me and unfortunately it contains Dairy. I like baking and am used to not being able to eat everything I make at this point. Therefore, I made these and then gave them to a few friends, some gluten free and some not. I wouldn't be posting this if they didn't approve. 

Ingredients:

- 1 1/4 cup Pamela's Gluten Free Baking and Pancake Mix 

- 1 egg

- 1/4 cup water

- 1/4 cup sugar (Could also use 1/3 cup honey- I've made them both ways and both turned out great)

- 1 tsp gluten-free vanilla

- 3 ripe bananas (or 1/2 cup fruit of your choice)

- 1/4 cup chocolate chips (could eliminate or substitute with your favorite nuts)

Recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together then add to muffin tins. Bake for 15-20 minutes. And that's it! Enjoy :-) 

Rice and Beans - Time and Money Saving Lunch

Lunch for the week prepared on Sunday. Time and money saved.

Buying lunch while you are at work is a huge money suck, not to mention that the food is usually over-priced for the quality that you get.  For our first week in Pittsburgh, I did a great job of making salads the night before work and was extremely healthy.  That quickly turned into whatever leftovers we had in the fridge. And that quickly turned into scrambling in the morning to find something to bring with me.  Not the ideal situation to eat healthy and avoid eating crappy food, plus I would end up "supplementing" my lunch at the cafeteria.

To combat this, we started making a large batch of rice on Sunday that could be taken for  lunch every day of the week. What's that you say? "I want something interesting and rice is boring?"  There my friend, you are wrong.

We add the basics to the rice and then spice it up throughout the week.  Here is our basic recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked brown rice (or white - brown has more fiber and is a little heartier)

1 can sweet corn - drained

1 can chick peas (or black beans)

1 cup chopped jalapenos

1 cup choppen onion (red, white, whatever)

1.5 cups cooked chicken (roasted*, sauteed, whatever)

Seasonings

Recipe:

Put the beans in a small pot over low heat and cover.  Let them cook slow and low.

Heat up some olive oil in a LARGE pan - we use a wok like thingy.  

Throw in the onions, cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add jalapenos and corn.  Add seasonings such as garlic, salt, pepper, chili powder, cumin, oregano; cook for 2-3 minutes.

Drain the beans of their liquid.

Add chicken, rice, and beans to the vegetables - mix thoroughly.

Season as needed.

Multiple Colors = Multiple Flavors = Happy Tastebuds

*Our chicken cooking trick - pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees.  Throw the chicken on a pan lined with foil and season both sides (may we recommend some Montreal Chicken Seasoning?).  Cook for 17 minutes.  The chicken with be slightly crispy on the outside and very juicy inside.  From there, we will finely chop the chicken and add it to the rice mix.

Potential additions to the base mixture include finely chopped ham (left over from Easter dinner), a small can of crushed tomatoes, any other of your favorite vegetables.  

How to keep it interesting throughout the week:

Use the full arsenal of your refrigerator.  Add salsas, hot sauces, soy sauce, whatever you can think of to add a little zing.  Our finding is that flavor is very important in how satisfied we are after lunch.

Sweet and Salty Quinoa with Bacon and Veggies

This dish is a modified version of a Noble Pig recipe.  It's now one of our favorites.

With our version, we combined sauteed chopped yellow onion and green pepper, cooked quinoa and smoked bacon, sugar snap peas and Honey-Lime dressing. The dressing adds a little sweetness, the bacon adds a little saltiness and then we topped ours with Sriracha that added a little spiciness. And that's why it is now one of our favorite recipes. It's got it all. It's pretty healthy (especially if you cut down the bacon or use turkey bacon; either way there's enough going on that the bacon doesn't overwhelm the dish). We ate ours at room temperature with a glass of Pinot Grigio.

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup sugar snap peas
- One green pepper
- 1/4 medium yellow onion
- 1 cup quinoa
- 5 slices smoked bacon
- 1-2 tablespoon olive oil

Honey Lime Dressing:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon lime juice (or squeezed from one lime)
- Seasoning: garlic, crushed red pepper, paprika, salt and pepper

Recipe:
Cook the one cup quinoa per packed directions (one cup quinoa with two cups water). While it was cooking, I continued with the rest of the recipe. Move quinoa to a bowl once complete to prevent drying out/burning. I didn't cover it and allowed it to cool a little.

Mix all dressing ingredients and set aside.

Cook the bacon in a sauce pan. Place the cooked pieces on a paper towel to soak up the excess fat and allow to cool before slicing into small pieces.

Saute the chopped yellow onion and green pepper with olive oil, salt and pepper on medium heat until softened.

Bring a large saucepan to a boil. While that is heating up, prepare an ice bath large enough to submerge the snap peas. Place the sugar snap peas in the boiling water for 1 minute, remove and place in the ice bath for two minutes, then remove and place on a paper towel to dry. Slice into thirds or fourths.

Lastly, combine quinoa, snap peas, sauteed veggies and dressing in a large bowl. Mix well and then add the bacon, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

We topped ours with ground pepper and a little Sriracha. Delicious!

Easy Homemade Hummus

We go through a lot of hummus. It's a great snack that we eat regularly, if not daily. Problem is though, it can get expensive quickly. 

A can of chick peas is cheap and a container of tahini goes a long way. There are a lot of recipes online (most pretty similar) and the ingredients list on our favorite brand is pretty short. One difference between the two is cooked vs uncooked chick peas. We made it both ways. And cooked is definitely what we prefer. It's creamier with more flavor. We add whatever flavors we happened to have a lot of at the time- garlic, jalapenos, hot sauce, onion, etc- and seasonings. Mix it in a food processor/blender or even mash yourself. And that's pretty much it. We usually double the recipe and it lasts anywhere from 1-3 weeks, depending on our carrot supply. We also usually make ours with jalapenos (shocking) but you can substitute with something else or eliminate. 

Ingredients:

- 1 can cooked chick peas

- 2 tablespoons tahini

-  Seasonings to taste: salt, pepper, cumin, garlic

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- 1-2 tablespoon lemon juice*

- 1/4 cup jalapenos chopped*

*Sometimes we'll add jalapeno juice instead of lemon juice. 

Recipe:

Cook chick peas (do not drain) on low for about 30 minutes or until soft. Add to blender, or mash yourself (which is easy if cooked enough) until smooth. Add remaining ingredients (add the olive oil slowly to get your preferred consistency). Taste testing is the best method to determine appropriate amount for each ingredient. 

Enjoy with your favorite snacks!