White Chocolate Banana Scramble

Yum.

If this is not one of your new favorite breakfasts, I'll...well, that's not going to happen. Thank you so much to Ashely and Ashley for the idea!

You can use this base and put in your favorite add-ins, but I am a sucker for white chocolate.

Make this now. (Sorry to sound pushy, but this is just sooo good.)

White Chocolate Banana Scramble
3/4 banana
a small glob of better n pb
1T rolled oats
1T wheat bran
1-2T unsweetened almond milk (Almond Breeze or Silk are great.)
about 1/2T white chocolate chips

Mash banana really well (a fork works nicely for this.)

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well.

Spray a skillet (or pot) with nonstick spray. Add banana mixture and form a thin pancake (again, a fork does a good job too.) Wait until that is slightly browned on the bottom.

Meanwhile, I made a pb sauce. I love the combo of pb + banana, so this works well for me. Scoop some better n pb (or regular pb) into a small bowl or cup. Add a small amount of unsweetened almond milk (do not drown it.)

Nuke (covered of course! no electromagnetic waves for us) for 25 seconds and stir well.

Once browned, start stirring, sorta like you would with scrambled eggs. The Ashlies' original recipes were more like pancakes, but mine are more scrambled. If you really, really want a pancake thing, I guess you can try to form it like a pancake, and very carefully flip it.

I have tried doing it like that in the past, but it doesn't turn out quite right. Maybe it will be different for you, though.

You can cook it to how you like it, but I am in love with the taste of caramelized bananas, so that's what I cook it to.

I like to eat this scramble by flattening it against the bottom of the bowl with my trusty fork, spreading my better n pb sauce on top, and sprinkling it with additional white chocolate chips. 

I love these so much I eat them pretty frequently for dessert. I'll be back with my experiments with different flavor combos in later posts. 

Okay, now you can go make these. (Seriously.)

Enjoy!

-Kelly M.

The Smiling Banana

Hello all!

I am a little behind on my updates (sorry!) I'm still getting the hang of my blogging schedule, but I'm so excited to really reach out to people through the kitchen and the quest for good health!

Sorry to get all cliche on you, but I really mean it. So anyway, here's my edible recap for, um, I think it was Thursday. But I'm not totally sure.

So I got up, made my perfected microwave oats, and topped it with...

...banana slices to form a smiley face. (I know it's corny, but isn't it nice to dive into a happy looking breakfast?)

I also topped it with some AMAZING organic strawberries I got at the Farmer's Market a few days ago. (I took pictures, and I hope I can get them up soon.)

My oats are still smiling, but they're just smiling under a layer of strawberries. No problemo.

So anyway, I went to school and basked in the fact that school was almost over but, since I'm not even sure what day this was, I'm also not too sure what else I did that day. I had a Fuji apple for lunch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with some of that amazing peanut butter I made yesterday.

But for dinner, my mom comes home with a bunch of red snapper and asks me to do something with it. Great.

Not that I had a problem with that, I love cooking for my mom and snapper is such a great ingredient. So I got creative. 

My mom loves Rice Krispy cereal, so I thought I'd crust it with that. This can either turn out really well, or in a frantic call to the local Chinese takeout place. Here goes nothing...

Krispy Krust Snapper with Lemon Dijon Dipping Sauce

1/2 lb. of Red Snapper

1 cup of Rice Krispy Cereal (or any other crisp rice cereal)

1/4t salt

1/2 cup liquid egg whites (or about 2-3 actual egg whites)

1/2 lemon 

Dijon mustard

salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Place cereal and salt in a blender or food processor and pulse until slightly more than coarsely chopped. Transfer to bowl or shallow dish and set aside.

Pour egg whites into a bowl or shallow dish and set aside. Season snapper with salt and pepper. Coat both sides of snapper with egg whites and dredge in cereal mixture. 

Transfer to a baking dish coated with nonstick spray. (I used nonstick tin foil to avoid cleanup.) Bake in oven at 450 degrees F for 20-30 minutes, or until fish flakes with a fork. Sorry to be so vague about baking times, but my oven is kinda old. It's a trooper, but the baking temps and times are kinda off, so I usually can't be overly precise about baking times. As long as you check pretty frequently around the time it should be done, you should be fine.

To make sauce, squeeze the juice from the half lemon into a small dish or bowl. Feel free to use a schmancy juicer, but I just held the lemon over the dish and juiced it the old fashioned way. (I just squeezed it until it looked like the juice was out of the lemon. Easy-peasy.) Either way, just make sure there are no seeds in the dish. 

Zest about a teaspoon of the lemon ring into the dish. The reason I didn't give a measurement for the Dijon is because I just stirred it into the lemon juice until it reached a pretty thick consistency. 

Serve snapper with some kind of veggie and the sauce for dipping. Dig in!

Notice how I tried to make my sauce look fancy. You decide if I was successful. (I kinda think it looked nice ;)  )

Enjoy!

-Kelly M.

Mega Microwave

Breakfast can be hectic at my house.

I don't like getting up early, so getting up and throwing something together isn't always easy (or doable.) I usually soak the oats in the fridge to make overnight oats (I'll post about it later,) but, being the organized person I am, I forgot last night. 

 So I decided to just nuke one of my go-to oatmeal recipes to see what would happen. Here's what I combined in my oat mug: (I love eating food in mugs!) 

Banana Microwave Oats

1/4 rolled oats

3T wheat bran

1 cup water 

1/2 cup milk

1/2 banana, thinly sliced

Simple right? Well...

I know the microwave's electromagnetic waves is supposed to turn you into a mutant (or just do weird things.)

But... if I put a plate over the mug (or container of some sort,) my chances of turning into a mutant are significantly decreased. 

Because I'm a very interesting person, I have the same thing every day for lunch, a pb and j sandwich with  this Sara Lee bread, strawberry preserves, and some better n peanut butter.

My ingredients (I should probably clean that up... oh well.)

All combined and ready roll. 

And that's when it happened. What I watching like a good girl? No.
Should I have been watching like a good girl? Maybe...

Poor oats. They were perfectly fine before they met me. So I cleaned up the side and decided to put in some of the honey I got yesterday.

What's wrong with this picture? I'll tell you. See that lid on the plate next to that glob of goo? I tried to put some honey in my oats, and, well, it fell in.  

So I got the honey that I could out of there, and stirred the rest of it around.

It doesn't look so bad, does it? (I'm in denial, I know.)

My very interesting lunch.

Who knew? The honey actually made the oatmeal SOOO delicious. Of course, most of sunk to the bottom, but I just didn't eat it.

It was really hot today, so I poured additional almond milk in top to cool it down. THat may sound wierd, but it's a great trick on hot mornings, and the oats are still super creamy. I tried to top it with more banana, coconut, and pb, but the oats were too liquid-y because of the additional almond milk.

So that was my breakfast. Yeah, I know I know I can be a klutz, but at least y'all probably got a kick out of it, and I got a sweet (pun intended) breakfast.

Enjoy!

-Kelly M.

I Heart My Oatmeal!

Morning! (Yes, it's still morning to me.)

 Because I just got up, I am just about to make breakfast before I do my hooping and head off for any excursions I may have today. Before we go any further, I need to express my love for oatmeal. Ready? Ok.

I LOVE OATMEAL SO VERY, VERY MUCH!!!!!!

I was considering putting that in bold, but I didn't want to freak any of you out (I may have still done that anyway...)

I know what you're thinking. Oatmeal? But isn't oatmeal boring and gross? No. No it it not.

For those of you out there who already love oatmeal, congratulations! Oatmeal is one of the best possible breakfast you can eat. It's wholesome, full of fiber and protein, and has been tested to have all kinds of health benefits!

But...if it doesn't taste good at the end of the day, who wants it? Right? Well, if you think oatmeal "doesn't taste good" then something is very seriously wrong. Seriously.

My guess is that it's a combination of two things: Bad memories and bad preparation.

Bad memories? With oatmeal? Yes. Most people have childhood memories of their mother trying to shove oatmeal down their throats.

"But MOM, I don't wanna eat it."

"But HONEY, it's good for you. Open up the tunnel, here comes the train, choo choo!"

I feel for you. But that doesn't totally get you out of this. Oatmeal can be very decadent, but you have to know how to prepare it that way. Don't you worry, I've got you covered.

I'm going to create a hypothetical oatmeal non-believer for demonstrative purpose and for you amusement.

So there's this guy. Let's name him Bob. Bob doesn't like oatmeal, and he blames it on two immediate, and very valid excuses. He loves sweet things, and he has the appetite of Micheal Phelps. No problem.

So the answer to Bob's oat-y dilemma is quite simple. Actually, the answer is contained in my breakfast.

It's super rich and chocolate filled, and calls for twice the amount of liquid than traditional oatmeal recipes, which, when cooked the proper way (explained below,) amounts to a fantastic portion size!

Keep scrolling! :)

Super Creamy Cocoa Oats
1/4 cup rolled oats (not instant, do not assume instant)
3T Wheat bran (Trust. Have trust.)
1 cup milk (Any kind. I LOVE unsweetened almond milk.)
1 cup water

Put milk in pot.

Add water.

Milk+water in pot.

Here's your wheat bran.

Here are your oats. (I love target.)

In this lovely mixture, we have milk, water, oats, wheat bran, cocoa powder, and I think there's cinnamon in there somewhere.

My unmeasured bucket of stevia.

Bring it to medium high heat.

My very photogenic banana.

I had to make sure it wasn't poisonous.

Wait until the mixture starts to bubble like this...

...then add your sliced bananas.

Stir pretty consistently until thick.

Keep going...

...you're almost there...

...Yumminess!

That's my friend Priscila posing with the oats. Oat model! :)

Sampling.

She's smiling. This is good.

My almost empty pumpkin butter (recipe to come.)

All dressed up and ready for my mouth. It's topped with coconut, freeze-dried strawberries (I'll explain later,) banana slices, and the last of my pumpkin butter.

My empty pot.

 

Cleanup may seem crazy, but sooo worth it. Just soak the pot, plop in some soap, and go!

So there you have it! Oatmeal is super versatile, and the topping and add in ideas are seemingly endless! I have more flavored and topped oatmeal recipes to come, but check out my list of oatmeal topping ideas.

Oatmeal Topping Ideas
banana
peanut butter
almond butter
better n peanut butter (explanation later)
pumpkin butter
coconut butter (hang on for the recipe)
jam
jelly
coconut
chocolate chips
freeze dried fruit
granola
rice cake granola (future recipe)
dried fruit
cold cereal
other nut butter
additional milk (great for hot days!)
canned pumpkin
honey
flax seeds
chia seeds
berries
and more!

Enjoy!

-Kelly M.