Clean Banana Oat Muffins

I have been messing around with banana everything this year. I found that you can buy 3-6 pounds of bananas at the grocery store for next to nothing. They have to be eaten within a day or so, perfect for baking! The browner the banana the sweeter it is, therefore it tastes amazing when baked!!!

I love love love a good loaf of banana bread or a nice banana nut muffin. I can eat the whole loaf or the whole pan, whatever. I tried subbing the oil for applesauce, and it was ok, a little dense but ok. I tried reducing the sugar while still using applesauce, again it was dense. It just wasn't the right texture for me.

Well after surfing around on Pinterest (what did I ever do before pinterest???) I found a good looking recipe using greek yogurt (instead of oil) and oatmeal (instead of flour!). My interest was peeked.
Jason and I have been trying to move towards an organic lifestyle and I just happened to have some organic oatmeal and organic yogurt on hand, WOOT!

So I gave the recipe a try. It was good, it was still dense though. I know a lot of people do not mind this. My kids and my husband devoured them so I am guessing they don't mind!

I still had a ton of bananas so I decided to make another batch and freeze them for the kiddos. I ground up the oatmeal and went to put the greek yogurt in when I realized "oops, I have no more greek yogurt!". I already promised the kids some banana muffins so I have to improvise. I am glad I did because I finally found the right texture FOR ME! Too bad the kids loved them just as much as I did and I sitting here typing and wishing I had one, they are all gone!!!!

So the recipe I found originally was from this blog, which I love by the way!!! and like I said, her recipe was good, just too dense for this momma. As I just copied and pasted this I realized that I left out the eggs, that was so not on purpose. I wonder if I remake these with the greek yogurt and omit the eggs, I will get the same less dense effect? I am not really a baker though, just a lover of sweets with a strong desire to eat clean.

Here are my modifications:

Ingredients


2 /1/2 cup oats (old fashioned kind, not quick cooking)

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 packets stevia sweetener

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

a bunch of cinnamon (I have no idea how much, I just dumped a bunch in until I liked the color)

3 very ripe bananas

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray tin with non-stick cooking spray- do not skip this step, they will stick. When you are baking with oatmeal instead of flour, they will stick, trust me.   

2. Put the oatmeal in a blender or food processor and grind up.

3. Dump the oatmeal in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, mix up.

4. Add batter to your muffin tin.

5. In a small bowl mix some cinnamon, a tiny bit (maybe a tsp) of sugar and a tiny bit of oatmeal. Sprinkle mix on top of muffins and bake for about 14 minutes in a mini muffin pan or 20ish minutes in a regular muffin pan (or until toothpick comes out clean).

Pull them out and enjoy! Seriously I ate them for dinner.

Tasty Tuesday

Time for some tasty goodness!!! I am going to try and post a family dinner every week. We try to keep our meals simple, low fat and low calorie while still being family friendly.


I also try to let the kids each pick a meal one night.


It usually goes something like


Nylin: Chicken Nuggets (homemade)
Jace: Pizza and Wings (homemade)
Kara: Tacos (homemade).


You think my kids have a slight obsession with take out type food?


Hmph.


At least they like mine better than the take out versions, well I think so anyway, they may just tell me that out of fear of starvation.


This week we made one of Nylin's favorite meals. It is not a spin off of a take out meal but just something my Mom used to make when we complained about spaghetti. Chicken parmesan was like a treat in our family and still is! I have no idea how you replace the ground beef with chicken and get such a different flavor, but you do!




I usually coat my chicken with bread crumb, but we were all out. I used crushed chips instead.

I had 4 big chicken breast but they were really thick. I decided to cut them in half, long ways.

I used to use egg wash too but then I decided to get rid of those few extra calories and just use water. Works great :)

My mom used to brown the chicken in a skillet but I am lazy and I just throw mine in a pan and throw it in the oven. It skips a step and tastes just as good.

I usually cook it at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Here is the cooked chicken, all nice and brown.

You can see where I checked the chicken to make sure it was done.

I always sneak a veggie into the sauce somehow, this night it was squash

I topped the cooked chicken with sauce and baked for a few minutes, then added the squash.

and of course the cheese......

and the finished product.

Normally I would take a picture of it on the plate but you know? My kids love this meal and it hardly stayed on the plate long enough to take a picture. They were really diggin' this dinner!

Recipe:

Breadcrumbs

Chicken

Favorite sauce

Parmesan cheese

favorite veggie to sneak in!

Noodles to serve chicken over.

Coat chicken with bread crumbs, place in baking dish.

Cook chicken on 350 till done.

add sauce and sneaky veggies and top with Parmesan cheese and bake for another 5 minutes.

serve over noodles or as sandwiches, another family favorite.

Thanks Mom for an awesome recipe that I still use today :)

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Have a great day all!

Friday Funny

Conversation from last night:

Me: Honey I have a list of demands for before Peanut gets here.

Jason: ***very nervous*** Uh ok.

Me: Do you want to hear them?

Jason: Not really, this sounds expensive.

Me: It is not too bad, I promise.

Jason: OK

Me: Mexican, Chinese, Chic Fil-A and Fenton Bar and Grill trashed wings.

Jason: ***laughing*** ok honey. I will take care of your list of demands.

I love my husband.

Late night snack

I said I would lay off the late night PB&J's. I have since replaced the PB&J's with peanut butter and fudge brownies.

Goodbye skinny jeans, hello happiness.

Fish for breakfast?

As I am typing I am eating salmon for breakfast! Strange? Maybe. Delicious? Definitely!

My in laws brought some grilled salmon over last night and since I had already had dinner I just popped it in the fridge. I needed a high protein breakfast and this salmon sounded WAY better than egg whites.

I will say that whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner- this is the best salmon I have ever had. Some of the family members caught it while on vacation in Wisconsin. Jason and I still have an entire Ziploc bag full of it to cook- but who needs it when everyone shares theirs when they cook?

A little note to DQ....

Dear Dairy Queen,

Please define "limited time only". The Tag-A-Long blizzard has been out for quite a while. How do I know you ask? The pants that the nutcase I am attached to keeps trying to squeeze over me is cutting off the ciculation of my saddlebags.
I would prefer if you would promptly take these off your menu.

Thank you and have a great day.

Sincerly,
Ever Growing Backside

Pizza, Pizza

We are enjoying a wonderful $5 Hot and Yummy, I mean Hot and Ready pizza from Little Caesers. They just opened one in my area and I am stoked. My waistline is pissed but the kids are happy.

How cool is it that I can walk right in, ask for a pepporoni pizza, pay and walk out in less than 5 minutes?

Freaking cool.