Banana Nut Bread Granola

I had bananas dying a slow and agonizing death on my counter. Since Bear, it's not very often that bananas get that level of disgustingly ripe (I can't eat a banana unless the yellow peel has some green tint to it, the second they get totally yellow and brownish spots I can't eat them), she usually eats them all. So I was excited I actually had two really gross bananas crying to be put out of their misery to play with. I thought about bread but it was kind of a meh idea. I decided to make some banana biscotti with it but when I was getting the ingredients I saw the oats. And that is how they say is that.

OMB people! This stuff is like crack. I'm completely addicted. It's splendiferous all by itself but add it to some yogurt with fruit (my favorite being vanilla greek yogurt with fresh blueberries) and it's magically splendiferous. I can't get enough of it. It smells and tastes like banana bread with a crunchy granola texture. It's an entire mouth feel extravaganza (yeah, I've been watching cooking shows again...so?).

You should absolutely try this, but know up front you will be addicted. I've already hidden a couple bananas from Bear so they can get super gross ripe so I can make it again and I haven't even finished this batch yet. That's how good it is.

Pineapple-Ginger Chicken

I had planned on just throwing some barbecue sauce onto a couple chicken breasts and grilling them. Nothing fancy. Super easy. I really didn't feel like cooking anyway and calling for pizza for the family and drinking a protein shake was sounding better and better. Then...

My sister called. She started raving about this Bruschetta Chicken recipe she was going to make and how she'd been marinating grape tomatoes in balsamic and something else since the night before and how fabulous it was going to be. And to top it all off the selfish brat wasn't going to bring me any. Can you believe that? We won't talk about how she lives over an hour and a half away. An awesome sister would've said, "I'm on my way." I don't have an awesome sister. I have a selfish selfish selfish one. So no splendiferous Bruschetta Chicken for me and now just plain ol' barbecue chicken wasn't good enough.

It's all her fault. See what I have to live with?

Unfortunately, I didn't have any of the Bruschetta Chicken ingredients and really it wouldn't have done me any good if I had because the grape tomatoes wouldn't have been marinating overnight to be extra delicious (I'm not bitter) so out of what I had in my fridge and cupboards -- I threw together this chicken dish. And while it's not Bruschetta Chicken, it was pretty splendiferously delicious.

I am still waiting for that Bruschetta Chicken though...

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Bananas

I love frozen bananas. I mean who doesn't? Well, those who don't actually like bananas in general but they're just sick and twisted so I pretend they don't exist. Which makes being married to my husband and having a Grumpers hard because they loathe bananas. There is something just not right about that but atleast Bear and 4ft love bananas as much as I do, so I'm not alone in my love affair. But now that I think of it, I kind of wish I was because when I make this snack, I'd get to eat them all myself instead of having to share with my munchkins. It's a good thing they're cute and I love them.

These are a great snack on a hot day (who am I kidding? Any day). You get all the health benefits of a banana, protein from the peanut butter, crunch from the pretzel, and sweet from the dark chocolate -- which actually has health benefits. So, it's like dieting when you eat these. Okay, it's really not but don't you love how I justify some of the treats that I make.

And really they're so good at being filling and silencing the sweet cravings, it's not a problem to share a banana with the kids because I can only eat a couple anyway. And if you need another excuse, other than they're splendiferously delicious, to make these -- it's just fun! My kids love making these with me. They dip their banana slices in chocolate and then add sprinkles -- candy, pretzels, nuts, sea salt, granola, grape nuts, rice crispies, (the list is as long as your imagination).

Apple-Bourbon Barbecue Pork Tenderloin

Drool with me now. Can you say, "Never going to buy store bought barbecue sauce again?" This sauce will blow your mind! (Okay, so I lie when I say I'll never buy the store stuff again -- the husband and 4ft eat a lot of barbecue sauce and I don't want to be chained to my stove making barbecue sauce 24/7) but if barbecue sauce is an ingredient for a dish, you can bet your butt, I will be using this instead of the store bought kind.

I invented this sauce for pork, because really what goes better with pork than apples? But after tasting the final product (it was one of those lets throw a bunch of stuff in a sauce pan and see what happens moments), I would use it on EVERYTHING. At this point the protein is an excuse to get the sauce to my mouth. Seriously, it's that good. 

Because the key ingredient is applesauce it has that consistency and is pretty thick, next time I might run it through a food processor or blender to see if I can break it down a little more -- cooking it down for 10 minutes didn't liquefy it very much. However the bonus of it being so thick, it really stuck to the meat and glazed to it instead of running off into the bottom of the casserole dish. I'd had plans to take the drippings from the meat and the sauce that went with it and reducing it to drizzle over the meat. There wasn't any to reduce. It all stayed on.

(edit: I made the sauce again to put on bacon wrapped stuffed chicken and ran it through a blender, it cut down on some of the consistency but still really thick and still really really delicious.)

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: No words, too busy gobbling it up, making piggy noises and getting seconds! I'll take that as one of the highest compliments ever! 

And these totally happened for dinner the next two nights because I ended up doing two tenderloins because that's how they came packaged and I didn't realize it:

Sliders and Quesadillas oh my....

Carrot Cake Protein Popsicles

So, after making the Peach Pie a la Mode Protein Popsicles with huge success, I decided it would be fun to see what other desserts I could make into popsicles. I've also been dying to use my new juicer. Voila! Wouldn't carrot cake make an awesome popsicle? Well yes, it does.

But Lisa, I'm not the kitchen gadget whore you are (no one is really, don't feel bad) and I don't have a handy dandy new juicer. Never fear, you can still make these. You could use a food processor (O.o what you don't have one of those either?), you can also just grate the carrots and throw the gratings into a blender and blend the crap out of them. I would run the pulp through a fine mesh strainer so you don't get too much juice into the popsicle concoction, and ta da! You have carrot juice and pulp. Yay! 

These are not only deliciously spendiferous but they taste fun too. I love that the flavor is that of cake but frozen into a lickable form. I'm also one of those people who absolutely adore butter-flavored Jelly Belly's also. Mmmmm Jelly Belly. I haven't had any in ages. 4ft's been nagging me to go to the factory. It might be time to make a trip. 

Southwestern Grilled Steak Salad

I eat a lot of leftovers. A lot of them. Which isn't to say a bad thing because thanks to the convenience of a sandwich, if I have leftovers, then I don't get "bread belly." That's an official term by the way (yeah, not so much) but that's what I call it when I eat bread and then deal with the mid back and gut pain for 30 to 45 minutes while I'm digesting it. So leftovers save me from throwing together a half sandwich and then paying for the ease of the meal with the pain of digestion. 

However, because I eat a lot of leftovers I tend to get bored with having the same thing I had for dinner for lunch so I like to change it up a bit. Which is what I did today. There was leftover grilled steak and corn in the fridge so add some lettuce, avocado, salsa, and spicy corn chips and you've got yourself a banging salad of splendiferous proportions. Completely delicious, completely filling, and lacking only in the "bread belly" blues after eating. Yay!

Strawberry Cheesecake Popsicles

I'm going to have to get more popsicle molds. I have all these popsicle ideas whizzing around my brain and not enough molds to hold them. For reals.

Of course, I had to do more than one strawberry popsicle -- it is one of my favorite fruits after all. Strawberry cheesecake is definitely in the running for top 5 favorite strawberry desserts so what better way to celebrate a streak of hot days and my love for strawberries (not to mention they needed to get used before they went bad) than to whip together strawberry cheesecake on a stick.

These are splendiferously delicious. I'd probably do the layers thinner next time as to get more strawberry with cheesecake together action or perhaps even do it as a swirl (which I did with the leftovers and ate as a parfait), but even with the fatty stripes they were still devourable. 4ft really loved these as well but I'm pretty sure if it comes out of a popsicle mold he'd love it.

I really like protein popsicles because it's a great treat, packed with protein, and while they're filling, they're still super easy on the stomach. I wish I'd thought of these when I'd been in the early stages of my bariatric diet and was so tired of pudding and yogurt. So hopefully someone in those stages and equally sick of pudding and yogurt will stumble across this blog and see these. 

Iced Decaf Coffee w/Protein

I'm now seven months out from having surgery and still can't do breakfast in the morning. Every time I try, I get sick. And to top it all off if I take my fist full of vitamins with anything other than a protein drink, I get sick too. So after a lot of trying to eat actual food and take vitamins with water and a lot of time being sick from it, I decided enough was enough.

Meet my breakfast: Iced Decaf Coffee w/Protein. Iced Coffees are like smoothies in that you can change up the flavors and never get bored with them. Add different flavored sugar free syrups and different flavored protein powders and voila, something new. My current favorite (pictured) is Decaf Cinnamon Vanilla Nut coffee, with a splash of sugar free cinnamon syrup, with a scoop of cookies & cream protein powder. It a snickerdoodle you can drink. It's awesome. It doesn't make me sick, I can take my vitamins without getting sick, it counts toward my fluid intake, and it's totally filling  -- keeping me full until lunchtime.

Iced Protein Coffees are especially handy on busy mornings when you've got kids to get ready for school and don't have time to make eggs (blech, eggs. I still can't stand them. I used to at least tolerate them. Now I loathe them. *sigh*). And to be completely honest, I only drizzled the chocolate syrup and dolloped the whipped cream because it makes a prettier picture. I drink it without all the flash and pizzaz that makes it look like it was a professionally made drink. It's delicious with the chocolate and whipped cream, I mean I totally drank it, but it's just as yummy without all the pomp and circumstance not too mention quicker and easier in the morning. 

Szechuan Chicken Chowmein

My family hates Chinese food. I believe I've mentioned this. I believe they tell me all the time, with great passion, how much they dislike and abhor Chinese food which is why I never get to have authentic delicious Chinese wonderfulness. Yet, every single time I make Chinese food at home -- THEY EAT IT! The entire family ate this dish. Yes you read that right. Even Grumpers and Bear ate the noodles. 

After 4ft declared it was seriously the best ever, he decided that maybe he does like Chinese food after all and has graciously offered to go to Panda Express with me. He's a giver, him. I'm sure he said Panda Express because we drive by it all the time and he knows it's Chinese food. Because when I go for Chinese food, I don't go for Panda Express. Not to say that it's not good but since I so rarely get to eat it, I want the splendiferously delicious stuff. You know?

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: 8 Thumbs up, Yummy noises, and a grudging admittance to perhaps liking Asian food after all. 

(And if Szechuan Chicken isn't really Chinese food but from a different Asian culture, I apologize. I didn't know any better.)

Banana/Key-Lime & Strawberry Cream Protein Popsicles

So 4ft talked me into getting popsicle molds. Okay, so he didn't have to talk too hard to get them, it is Sprummer (that's what I'm officially calling this Spring because it's too much like Summer, darn it) after all and nothing tastes so delicious as a popsicle after having walked home in the heat from school. I know this for a fact, as we just got done eating them and it was heaven in my hot, parched, just pushed nearly 100lbs of stroller in the hot hot heat (not to be confused with the band) mouth. 4ft, who only had to carry his backpack, said it was pretty amazing as well. (NooOoooOoo I'm not bitter)

Shhhh, don't tell him there were vegetables in the popsicle he was raving over, okay?

That's right. Vegetables. Kale to be exact. I got a Farm Fresh to You box today and along with all the other delicious goodies was a bunch of kale. So when I blended up the banana and key-lime Greek yogurt, I threw some in. What the heck, it was green already, right? How would he know? He wouldn't. Well, unless someone snitches on me. 

The kid slurped up that popsicle like a man on fire doing the "yummy tummy" dance as he got it all over his face and hands.

Picky Eaters' Seal of Approval: Yummy Tummy dance with a sticky two thumbs up and drippy sloppy faces. 

Chocolate Strawberry Muffins

When it's springtime I can't get enough strawberries. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the fruit year round (it is my favorite), but spring just screams strawberries! (How'd you like that alliteration?) And you really can't go wrong with anything that has strawberries in it. I don't do a lot of baking in warmer weather because it makes my apartment hell hot and me a cranky sweaty evil person, but I had a craving for muffins. Chocolate Strawberry Muffins to be exact. 

So first thing in the morning, while it was still pretending it was going to be a cool and comfortable day, I preheated my behemoth of a hot beast oven and got to work on cranking out some delicious muffins. I hoped I'd get them done and the heat blasting, house heating, make you feel like you were in the seventh level of hell (which is awesome in the winter) oven turned off and the apartment cooled back down before it got unpleasant outside and even a little less so inside. 

Yeah, that didn't work.

And while it feels like summer in my apartment instead of spring, the muffins are more than worth it. They got picky family seals of approval and 4ft wanted to take not only one for snack at school but one for his lunch too. He pretty much told me he wants to eat them for every meal. If that doesn't mean good eating, I don't know what does!

Chicken Asparagus Salad Boats

Who doesn't love a chicken salad on a spring day? Or any day for that matter. Can I get an, "Amen!"? 

Stop drooling. I've already had to wipe up the drool puddle I made.

Now it used to be that I could cheat and use the canned chicken, toss in some "everything but the kitchen sink" type stuff into it, add some mayo and call it a meal. Don't judge. I knew it was cheating and I did it anyway... So there! Anyway, since my surgery I cannot stomach that swill out of a can anymore (which really does hurt my feelings because it was quick protein fix on days when I didn't feel like cooking or eating leftovers, you know?) So now anytime I grill chicken, I grill extra. Which was what I did for dinner the other night. On top of that, I accidentally (on purpose) grilled too many asparagus spears. At first, I thought, well I've got dinner leftovers for tomorrow night so I can make the Husband and ankle biters (Okay so 4ft could totally bite higher than that, but you know what I mean) a no dietary restrictions dinner. Well as I was slaving away on Sloppy Joe's (which are delicious but too much sugar and bun for my poor tummy) I was uninspired with just leftover grilled chicken and asparagus. 

Then lightning struck:

Booyah! Chicken Salad. Even better chicken salad with ASPARAGUS (I kid you not when I make chicken salad I raid the fridge and throw anything that looks delicious into the mix) Heck to the yeah, hook that up. I could've had a sandwich (who am I kidding? just half a sandwich) as I can fin-a-lly eat bread again but spring days and sunny weather just make me want to eat salads. And with the lettuce boats as a vehicle, I could eat MORE of the crunchy, sweet, mayo-ny, chicken goodness without filling up on the bread so fast. Oh yeah, bonus!

Barbecue Chicken Quesadillas

So yeah, these happened by accident. I wanted a barbecue chicken sandwich. Kind of like the charbroiled chicken sandwich from Carl's Jr. Which always looks so delicious but is always such a letdown when you get one and eat it. So I tried slicing my chicken breasts lengthwise, you know to make them thinner. All I can say to that fiasco is I need sharper knives. Yeah, I mutilated the chicken.

No problem. We'll just have loose meat barbecue chicken sandwiches except we didn't have any bread. 

No problem. We have sandwich wrap spinach tortillas. That'd be delicious, except we only have one wrap in the bag. Yeah, that's not going to work there are five of us.

No problem. We have flour tortillas, except for they're taco sized so they won't really do wraps. 

No problem. We'll just have quesadillas. Barbecue chicken quesadillas should be good, right?

So I grab an onion except as I slice into it, I realized I grabbed an apple instead. Oops. What the heck, let's throw that in there. So I actually pay attention and grab an onion and slice that bad boy up too. 

4ft looked at me like I was crazy putting an apple inside a quesadilla and expecting him to eat it. I don't know why he still doubts me. Why wouldn't it be yummy? Absolutely no reason why it wouldn't be. It was splendiferous. The entire fail turned into one heck of a WIN! I'd make these quesadillas next time on purpose. ON PURPOSE I TELL YOU!!!

I could only eat half of it (the front one in the picture) and I had to beat my family off the other half (and they looked at me like I might be feeding them poison) because I'm eating that one for lunch!

Pumpkin Oat Bread

I wish computers had smell-o-vision because you'd be loving the smell right now. A rich spicy pumpkin has permeated my kitchen (which is where my computer is at so I'm loving it) from these pumpkin loaves of wonderful. They're so moist (tell me I'm not the only one that snickers at the word "moist") and full of spicy pumpkin flavor. I can't believe how good they are. I wish I could gobble up a whole loaf (so it's probably a good thing I can't). I know you're licking the screen, don't worry, I won't tell anyone -- just watch the slobber, yeah?

I started experimenting with pumpkin because my BBFF, Gini Koch, loves pumpkin bread and I owe her a birthday present (plus 4ft also killed the rest of the banana bread so I needed another bread for breakfasts). So I started with the banana bread base recipe I came up with the other day (which was amazing) and then tore it apart and put it back together with more pumpkin-y type flavors. The results were equally amazing. I don't have experiment wins all the time but when I do, they're splendiferous, truly.

4ft can't decide which bread he likes more so I'd better wrap up a loaf of it for Gini before he eats it all -- as cute as 4ft is, I don't know if he's cute enough to save us from her wrath if she doesn't get some.

Turkish Pizza - Lahmacun

I've never been out of the country. Okay, I lie, kinda. I was conceived in Germany but my mom came back to the states when she was like 6ish months pregnant so I don't know as if you can really count being a fetus in Germany as being out of the country (she might've visited Italy around that time too, but I don't think that counts either). So to make up for the lack in my world travels, I like to try food from other countries, or as close to them as I can get with my picky eaters. 

Welcome to Turkey and Lahmacun (Turkish Pizza). Well sorta. I cheated and used extra thin corn tortillas as the base for this delicious ground beef dish instead of a crispy flat bread mostly because I knew my stomach could handle the corn tortilla and I wasn't sure about the traditional bread (I still struggle with bread). It's also supposed to be a spicy dish with cayenne pepper and crushed red peppers but as I'm a pansy mouth these days with pansy mouthed kids I morphed the recipe to fit our taste (and tummy) needs. So I'm not sure how much like true Lahmacun it is, as I've never been to Turkey nor eaten at a Turkish restaurant, but it was seriously delicious and those who eat in my family ate it with little piggy snorting noises. So that's enough like it for me.

I was surprised by how much 4ft liked it as it's filled with tomatoes, onions, and sweet peppers (all of which 4ft swears he hates -- so once again I performed magic, according to him). I figured my husband would like it because it's basically a salsa, sans jalapeno and nasty cilantro, mixed together with ground beef and spices. Top it with a squeeze of lemon, some light sour cream, and shredded lettuce and it's a complete meal. I ate the entire thing and had zero tummy problems over it.

Protein Pancakes

Another pancake/waffle recipe? Really? Yes, really. So hush you. 

I still can't eat eggs. I do not like them in a box or with a fox. I do not like them here or there. I do not like them anywhere. (Okay, I think you get the idea.) And after getting my hand smacked by my doctor about relying too heavily on protein shakes for breakfast (oh how I miss my protein mocha decaf coffee), I have to figure out breakfast ideas that are high in protein and low in egg flavor. I also know a lot of people who don't like or are allergic to bananas (a main staple in protein pancakes/waffles) and while I'm not one of them (I heart bananas), I do occasionally run out, so I decided to experiment with pancakes that don't use them.

I really liked how the batter turned out. A lot of the low flour/high protein pancake batter is really thin and runny, but this one was thick and didn't slop all over the pan when I cooked them. I was able to cook four at a time which was pretty cool and meant we got to eat sooner. I'm not sure how it'd work in a waffle iron -- maybe if you added a little soy milk to the batter to thin it out some so it would spread to fill the waffle grids. Mental note: try that. (This is where we all laugh that I'll remember to actually do it)

4ft declared them delicious and I'd have to say I agree. I topped mine with fresh sliced strawberries and didn't need to use syrup at all. 4ft drowned his in maple, of course, because that kid doesn't like strawberries (I'm seriously not sure how he came out of me. How can you not like strawberries? But then how can you not like bananas either?) As for the Littles (Grumpers and Bear), they won't eat pancakes or waffles (not sure how they're mine either, come to think of it) so they wouldn't come near them with a 3ft pole. 

Banana Oat Bread

I had bananas dying a slow death in my fruit basket (but really the second they don't have a tinge of green to the skin, they're too ripe for me to eat plain so I guess they weren't dying by most people's standards) and 4ft wanted to bake something with me so I thought I'd experiment with making a higher protein, healthier banana bread. (insert evil scientist laugh here)

The experiment was a success. 4ft declared this the best banana bread ever and I'd have to agree with him. The banana flavor is intense and the bread is moist, not too sweet, and with just the right density. (if you're looking for super-sweet cake-like banana bread, this is not the recipe for you) The secret to the deep banana flavor is baking the bananas, sweating them, so you can cook down the banana juice which naturally sweetens the bread without adding a lot of sugar and really bumps up the banana flavor. There are a few more steps to making this bread than other recipes, but trust me it's worth the extra effort.

This bread smells amazing while baking and you're going to want to cut into the loaf and start horking it down immediately. Don't do it. Trust me on this. Fresh from the oven, this bread is meh. It's not gross but it's not "oh my gosh this is the most incredible bread ever" either. I know this from experience. I tried it and my heart broke a little. How could something that smells so good taste so meh? I let it cool, remembering that banana bread always tastes better room temp, and tried it again. Holy Banana-moly (new word, yay) I did a little dance and devoured the rest of the piece. So, learn from my mistake -- let it get to room temp, and your taste buds will be blown away. Resist the smell's sirens call and let it cool before eating. You can do it. I have faith.

Garlic Hasselback Potatoes

This is the greatest baked potato EVER! The best part about doing baked potatoes this way is that all the flavor isn't just on the skin -- it's on the inside too. We normally load up a baked potato with butter and sour cream at the very least (sometimes we get fancy and do cheese, bacon, and chives), but these we ate straight from the oven without any additions. They were that good. 4ft especially loved that he could pull them apart and eat them with his fingers (I did too, I love playing with my food and any excuse to do so is awesome).

I don't eat a lot of potatoes because hello starch and carbs and not a lot of protein but if I'm going to eat one, it's this way. Its a definite healthier alternative than loading a baked potato with all the fixings. 

Rosemary Pork Chops

My husband has been pretty easy going about me trying out all these new fangle healthy type recipes on him. So I promised him I'd make him a manly meal of fried pork chops. What I neglected to mention was that I healthied (is that a word? it is now.) it up some. He had no idea that I experimented on him yet again (insert evil scientist laugh here) and he loved these pork chops. They had a crunchy outside and juicy delicious meat on the inside. They didn't need gravy, or ketchup, or barbecue sauce. As a matter of fact, 4ft tried a bite with ketchup (my children put ketchup on EVERYTHING) and declared it better without it.

They were really that fantastic. Yeah they're fried, but really everyone needs a little fat in their life and if the oil is hot when you put the chops in the pan, and you drain them on paper towels after, you'd be amazed how much oil is left in the pan and on the towel and NOT pooled on your plate. I wouldn't eat fried food every night but healthy living is not about going without but instead having it in moderation.

Mongolian Pork

I desperately wanted Chinese food yesterday. I love the stuff soooo much but as many of my readers already know the rest of the family hates it. What really drives me crazy is that whenever I make Asian inspired dishes they inhale it and rave about how wonderful it is. How does that work? I mean, really? I try not to think about it too hard because I don't want my brain to explode. I'm pretty sure it will. 

So back to the food. I really wanted Chinese but I'd gotten a pork roast out for dinner. The closer it got to dinner the more I didn't want to eat a roast. Mongolian beef sounded soooo much better. However I didn't thaw out beef. You see the conundrum, right? If shrimp dishes can be made with chicken then why can't beef dishes be made with pork? Can I get an amen? Thus Mongolian pork was born.

The husband had no idea he was eating pork. He thought he was eating Mongolian beef. How awesome is that? 4ft devoured it and the rice, making snorting little piggy sounds and saying how delicious it was (I may or may not be making up the little piggy sounds). Bear tried a bite and didn't spit it out, so that's a win but Grumpers couldn't even bother to come to the table cuz I'd mistakenly given him a snack earlier and he was "too busy" to eat dinner. His loss. More for me. (and this is where we all laugh hysterically because I seriously can eat only about 2 oz of meat at any given time still.)