Banana Bread Pudding and a Long Run

Let's cut to the chase... since once again, I SHOULD be doing homework and am instead writing a blogpost, because the things I made this morning was really, really good.

It was pudding...or maybe more like soft serve ice cream....or a super thick smoothie (you decide!) but it had the taste of banana bread. Really. I kid you not. EXACTLY like it... and then that added cold, frozen dreamy creaminess that 'banana soft-serve' has, for those of you who have just blended up frozen bananas know.

I STRONGLY recommend this. I think it may be my favorite thing I've made thus far! Sweet, refreshing, fruity, and really... banana bready :)

BANANA BREAD FROZEN PUDDING

1 frozen banana

1/3 cup almond milk

1/8 cup rolled oats, ground in food processer to powder

Dash Cinnamon

Dash Nutmeg

OPTIONAL TOPPINGS:

Coconut Flakes

Chocolate Chips

Chopped Almonds

Peanut Butter

Caramel Sauce

1. Put everything into your blender and blend on high until you get a creamy, soft-serve ice cream/pudding consistency.
2. Top with whatever your little heart desires. I went with coconut flakes (overcoming my fear of saturated fats!) and some cocoa roasted almonds, which were awesome because a little bit of chocolate got in there in the almond bites but I also got the plain-banana bread taste in others, which I LOVED. ENJOY!

Here she is! All topped up!

Okay, so I ate the toppings first :)

 At practice today we got the pleasure of getting in a long run. I love long runs, because you can really let loose and get the acid out of your muscles but still get in a bit of a workout. I find that my mind really clears up and I start to get in touch with my body more and more as the run goes on. Plus, you can talk with your teammates! We played a little game in which we speculated where all the people we knew would be in 10 years. It's funny, but according to us, it seems that we will all be doctors or physical therapists or physchologists. That tells you a bit about the kind of girls on our team, haha....fun-loving but also loving. And smart. I love my team. They are always there for me. Plus, when I shared the embarrassing fact that yes, I started a blog, no one laughed. They were very interested in learning how to make a smoothie taste like banana bread, I'll say that!

Question of the Day: Where do you see YOURSELF in 10 years?

Finally Friday: and Some Healthy Chocolate Bread!

It's been a long week. The first week of school often is, of course, but this one seemed especially lengthy. Maybe it's because it's Junior year and I'm starting a whole bunch of new classes and receiving a tornado of new information that I have to keep straight. Maybe it's the difficult XC workouts we've been starting the season out with (they've been pretty monotonous, and I certainly feel the burn. I've also been told by my coach not to put our workouts on the internet for fear that other teams will get them...so I can't actually tell you WHAT we did. Just that it was hard and tiring). Maybe it's the sad fact that I haven't had time to update my blog as much as I really would like to. Or maybe it's a combination of all those things. (I think my vote's on the last one!)

Today is going to be a time to catch up on all the blog posts. It was also a night to spend in the kitchen, experimenting with this and that and whipping up more delicious recipes...or at least I hope they're delicious. It's been hard to try out new concoctions, because I'm paranoid that my recipes are going to fall flat, literally and metaphorically.

The first one tonight didn't.

Chocolate Almond Protein Bread

3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup egg whites

1 oz. cocoa roast almonds

1/3 cup almond milk

1 scoop vanilla (or chocolate) protein powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. almond extract

1 T. Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder

1/4 cup Sugar in the Raw or Agave

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Grind almonds to powder, then keep grinding to a bit of a wet paste in a food processor.
3. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
4. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
5. Cut into slices and remove from pan. Can be frozen and kept well that way! ENJOY!

*A little note here. This ENTIRE loaf of bread has only 735 calories. I cut mine into 8 slices, which came out nice and THICK, and each one has only about 95 calories! And it tastes AWESOME. I'm not kidding. Especially warm....and a little bit gooey....ahhhh

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What's your favorite thing to cook, or at least type of cooking? Mine is probably sauting and stir frying, because it's so involved, but it would have to be followed closely by baking, as you might be able to tell!

A Plethora of Pumpkin

School starts this week, and I cannot believe it! People always say that summer flies by... but they's be right about that. It's a sad, sad story for those of us who want that extra time outdoors in the sun, getting tan and eating ice cream at the beach (by now it's back to being too cold for good old Long Island Sound).

But I'm still excited. I mean, it's my Junior year! Okay, so I'm about to become one BUSY girl between XC and AP homework, but this is going to be the year when you really start to have fun at school: prom, spirit week, SATs, and just being an upper classman! But I'm nervous to see how I do keeping up on the blogging. It's a lot of fun, so I don't want to give it up.

I just hope you're enjoying it as much as I am.

What was I doing to prepare? Oh, you know... cooking.

Lots and lots of cooking.

I figured I could make a plethora of freezer meals/ already cooked oatmeal that will get super thick and creamy in the fridge so I will have another 5 minutes here and there to do other things. It better be worth it...I was cooking for 4 hours. (Who am I kidding? I loved every minute of that four hours. It was like my little present to myself. OF COURSE it was worth it!)

One of my favorite flavors, next to chocolate and peanut butter, would have to be pumpkin. Especially since school is starting up, I can finally say that it's "fallish" enough to start putting the pumpkin in just about everything. Plus, I was trying to be economical by buying the GIANT 40oz can, only to realize that most recipes don't call for more than 1/2 cup or so...

Oh well. All the more pumpkin-y items to make!

Here are the recipes that inspired my little pumpkin party:

• Powered Up Pumpkin Oats by Lindsay at 'A Pinch of Yum'
• Pumpkin Muffins  by Katie at 'Chocolate Covered Katie'
• Pumpkin Protein Pancakes by Julie at 'Peanut Butter Fingers'
• Apple Cinnamon Chobani Bread (which I made pumpkin!) by Kelly at 'The No Sugar Sweet Life'

And best of all... I still have about 1/3 of my can of pumpkin left! Looks like there will be more baking in store for today! Now the awful dilemma as I decide what I want to make... (I'm trying to make things that will keep well or can be frozen so I can heat them up for a speedy pre-school breakfast or workout snack! See my post about what makes good pre-workout fuel here.)

Here's what I did to adapt the recipes:

• Doubled the Pumpkin Oats Recipe so I could eat it TWICE, it was THAT good. Also, substitued 1/2 cup Kashi GoLean for the bran flakes to give it some more clusters, added 1 tsp dark chocolate cocoa powder in at the end, and substituted brown sugar with honey. Also, by leaving it in the fridge overnight, it got MUCH thicker and creamier, so I added another 1/2 cup almond milk before heating again and it was AWESOME. Even better than before, if I do say so myself. You could also eat cold as a pudding and I bet it would be great.
• For Katie's muffins, I actually quadrupled the recipe so I could make 4 muffins and freeze them. Instead of chocolate chips, I added raisins, chopped walnuts, and coconut flakes. As a side note, I had to bake for longer because there were more muffins (about 20 minutes instead of 12).
• For the Pumpkin Protein Pancakes, I subbed Greek Yogurt for the cottage cheese and also added 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder to the mix. I added 1/2 tsp baking soda because I wanted my pancakes even fluffier (it worked!) and then, because I'm a naughty girl, I added chocolate chips to the batter (no measurements here!)
• The Chobani Bread was slightly more work to recreate since I was totally changing the flavors, but I proceeded with as much confidence as I could muster. HA! Recipe, you shall not phase me! Instead of cinnamon, I used pumpkin pie spice (if you don't have this on hand, combine some nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger). I subbed the agave with molasses for a different, deeper flavored sweetener (I used 1/4 cup). Instead of apple cinnamon yogurt, I used plain with 2 drops stevia, and then instead of the applesauce I used 1/2 cup pumpkin puree. I STILL used the softened apple in the bread because pumpkin-apple is actually a very nice combo and it gave the bread the extra lightness a midst a more dense cakey-part. As an attempt to be creative, near the end of the bread's baking I mixed together 1/4 cup oats, 3 T. chopped pecans, and 2 T. brown sugar and took the bread out to sprinkle these on. I then turned the oven to broil and waited to get a nice crust on top. Yumm!

Phew! Well, now you know how I spent a good portion of my day. How was your Saturday? Do you ever get really caught up in the kitchen just going around like a whirling dervish and trying to make 10 things at once? Tell me your story!After all, as I had to remember when trying to make adaptations:

IT IS BETTER TO DO THE WRONG THING THAN IT IS TO DO NOTHING.

What do you think of today's quote? Tell me!

Daddy's Birthday Dinner

Okay, so it's not REALLY his birthday yet, but it's close enough to cook him a new creation, right? Plus, since I have to go back to school the same day as his REAL birthday, it works out pretty well to just make something now while I've got the time on my hands. And maybe, quite possibly, it's my not-so-subtle attempt to coax him into getting a new food processor. But I'm not saying anything. These are all speculations, of course.

Today just felt like a lazy day. Despite much caffineated bliss, I didn't really feel like doing anything but sitting at the computer and drooling over blogs. Working out? Well...

But ALAS! Be proud of me! I got on that elliptical and sweated it out for 30 minutes before deciding I had paid my dues. It was time to get fancy in the kitchen.

So I looked all over my newly cleaned cupboard (hooray!) and figured I'd make a nice, spicy Indian dish for my Dad. He LOVES Indian food. Me? Sorry folks, I've never been able to get on that bandwagon. Curries are NOT my thing. It's blasphemy, I know. Do I get kicked out of the vegetarian blog world now? (Please NOOOO)

Anyway....

PUNJAB PATTIES

( on SALTED QUINOA FLATBREAD with CHILLED YOGURT)

Serves 2-3

For The Patty

1/4 Cup Homemade Chickpea Flour (I finally used it up!)

2 tsp. Kebab Paste

1/2 tsp. Djion Mustard

1/2 tsp. Flax Oil

Pinch Cinnamon

Pinch Cardamom

5-6 Sweet Potato Chips, Crushed

For Quinoa Flatbread

1/4 cup uncooked Quinoa + 1 cup water for cooking

1/4 Cup Flour (can even use Quinoa Flour again for GF)

1/4 Cup Water

1 tsp. Almond Oil

Kosher Salt

For Chilled Yogurt Sauce

1 HEAPING Tablespoon Plain Greek Yogurt

1 Tablespoon Water

Pinch Curry Powder

Pinch Garam Masala

Pinch Cinnamon

1/2 tsp. Kebab Paste

Extras:

Lettuce and Tomato

More Kebab Paste for Sandwich Spread

1. Mix Up all your ingredients for the patty. You may want to add some egg white depending on how dry your flour is... mine was still a tad moist so I didn't need to.
2. Heat up small skillet with oil and lightly pan fry patty until golden and beginning to dry out a little bit. OR if sweet potato chips begin to blacken. Flip and repeat on other side until cooked. Set aside. Mine started to crumble all over but it still worked fine as long as you get those crumbles out of the pan.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook quinoa: (boil water, add quinoa, stir, reduce heat to medium and cover. Leave alone for 5 minutes before returning and fluffing it with a fork. Cook until water mostly absorbed, though still damp.
4. Mix all other flatbread ingredients, except salt, then add cooked quinoa when it cools. Allow to stand for at least 5 minutes.
5. Grease a baking sheet and insert into oven for 1-2 minutes to heat it up. This will help the flatbread to not stick. When it comes out of the oven, lay your 'batter' out in small rectangle, about 4 inches by 10 inches or so (thickness should be maybe 1/4 inch). Put back in oven and bake 9 minutes until it starts to bubble. Take out, flip over, and cook additional 5 minutes if still gooey on other side.
6. When fully cooked, cut in half and toast each slice. Put aside.
7. Mix everything up for your yogurt dressing. Chill at least 5 minutes, or if you make it right ahead of time, there's no need :) Just be sure it's cold when serving.
8. Put everything together; spread a little bit of yogurt sauce and additional kebab paste (if desired) on the bread. If desired, also use lettuce and tomato. Fill with patty/crumbles and top with other bread slice. Serve warm (except for yogurt sauce. If reheating, leave that out of sandwich while heating other elements and then add on).

ENJOY!

P.S. I will continue to be stalking drooling over reading all your blogs out there! Thank you to everyone for making such delicious recipes!

Question of the Day: Do you ever have a 'lazy day'? What's YOUR favorite thing to do when you get in that mood? Mine used to be curling up with a book and then going on Pinterest for hours. (Now it appears to be salivating over blogs. Same difference)

Cauliflower Pizza and Cleaning the Cupboard

Hooray! I did it! My OCD has been temporarily assuaged, until another family member comes along and moves something, of course, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen.
Just like Sonia and Heather challenged today, I reordered my kitchen cupboard. It looks a ton better and should help me cut down on some waste from buying extra packages when I already have some lying around!

See Everything in disarray? The open packages? The similar items on TOTALLY different shelves? Well, it bothered me. It may not look so bad, but IT WAS!

 So, after an intense hour in which I took out empty packages, combined half-full ones, sorted goods by use and flavor, and cleaned some disgusting sticky/moldy junk out (yes...I know. It made me sick to think that was in our cupboard. Maybe take a peek at what's hiding in YOURS...) it was much better.

You can't tell that much has changed in this picture...but it has

The Canned Foods all sorted out

ORGANIZED!

Nuts and Nut Butters...

And a nice little section for the Asian Food!

 I also discovered some nifty things that I didn't realize we had. I'm going to have to find uses for them, obviously :)

Sour Cherry 'Spoon Fruit'

Tikka Masala Mix- okay, so not 'weird' but I could do so many things with this...

Well, after cleaning everything out, my stomach was telling me it was time for dinner. Something that had been intriguing me for quite a while was Cauliflower Crust Pizza. Since we had a head of cauliflower on hand, I decided to give it a try. HOWEVER, I neglected to check and see if we had every ingredient necessary (no eggs or cheese, which make up a good portion of the ingredients!) so I had to make some modifications. Surprisingly, they worked! I felt so proud and creative I almost cried. I'm learning how to actually cook! I never thought I'd see the day!

Chili and Cornbread

It's that universal meal that seems to just find a way to be a staple of meat-eaters and vegetarians alike. CHILI. The little ditty did, in fact, get it right: "Beans, beans the magical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot, the more you toot, the better you feel, so let's have beans for EVERY meal!"

So let's talk about beans. Either you love 'em or you hate 'em. Or you, like me, are on a journey towards loving them after a long journey of hating them. The first positive things I found out about beans are:

1. the fiber. Some types can have as much as 8 grams of the satisfying stuff!
2. the protein. 6 grams or so for a veggie-ish food? Not bad, beans, not bad.
3. the versatility. Some beans, like white beans, can even be mashed up in desserts or in cookie dough for a nice boost and a very silky texture. Who would ever have guessed?

Beans. That's about all I have to say on that front. Except, maybe, that they go incredibly well with...

CORNBREAD!!

For Which I Tweaked Indian Head's Cornbread Recipe! (With Rosemary, Cheddar, and Olive Oil!)

1 Cup Yellow Cornmeal

1 Cup White Flour

2 T. Sugar

2 tsp. Salt

3 tsp. Baking Powder

2 tsp. Rosemary

1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Cup Milk

1 Egg, Beaten

1/3 Cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix together all dry ingredients. In separate bowl, mix together wet ingredients and cheese. Pour wet ingredients into dry and combine until just mixed. It should still be a little lumpy. Pour into greased 9x9 pan and bake 20-25 minutes. ENJOY!

You can even kind of see the little rosemary bits!

AND NOW.....THE COMPLETELY XC Kitchen Made Recipe for

SARAH'S SUPER CHILI! (to be served with said cornbread)

*The one sad note about this is that I never got to eat it. Because I was making dinner for my family, my Dad wanted me to use up the leftover pork and ham from our fridge. THUS, it is not vegetarian :(  *

1 Lb. Dried Black Eyed Peas, Rinsed

6 Cups Water

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

2 tsp. Curry Powder

1/4 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp. cumin

Pinch Mustard

1 tsp. Coriander

Pinch Turmeric

1 Onion, Chopped

1 Tomato, Chopped

1/2 Head Cauliflower, Chopped

4 oz Cooked Ham, Chopped

6 oz Cooked Pork Loin, Chopped

1/2 Cup Ketchup

2/3 Cup Hickory BBQ Sauce

1 Dried Poblano Chili

Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Simmer beans in water over medium heat with all spices for 1-2 hours until soft.
2. Add chopped vegetables (I would probably even add about 2 chopped carrots) and continue simmering, now on low heat, until they get soft (another 30 minutes or so.)
3. Remove from heat and let stand in fridge for 1 day or overnight to thicken.
4. Return to stove at medium heat and add remaining ingredients. Remove the chili when it is soft and begins to 'wilt' in the mixture. You may want to vary the amount of ketchup, meat, and BBQ sauce because I was eyeballing it. If you want it spicier, add another chili pepper. If you want it less sweet, add more ketchup and less BBQ sauce. It's up to you.

You know what comes next.... ENJOY!