Quick Breakfast Bread - courtesy of Aunt Sandy

So scrolling through Facebook yesterday I came upon a picture of beautiful bread.

Picture Courtesy of my Aunt Sandy

Isn't that bread gorgeous!? Studded full of dried fruit and looking absolutely delicious. I had to know.

So going through the post I discovered that my Aunt Sandy had made this bread, she calls it "Quick Breakfast Bread." In the words of my Aunt "Just made Quick Breakfast Bread - my own creation. This recipe is super easy to make and pretty healthy - no oil, low sugar, and full of healthy fruits and nuts! Took some last night to a gathering and it disappeared! Had to make another loaf this morning for our house."

After that description on top of the picture I had to make it. Of course I'm cheap so I didn't buy any nuts to put in it but I can tell you it would just make it taste even better I'm sure.

So I scanned the ingredients. Flour, check. Brown sugar, check. Baking powder, check. Salt, check. Ground cloves and cinnamon, check. Milk, check. Only thing I didn't have was the dried fruit and nuts.

So after working out and sending the handsome man off to work I headed to Walmart for the missing ingredient and to maybe hunt down a fruit and nut mix.

Upon entering Walmart in any town of any state you are bound to have an adventure. Honesty there really isn't a way not to in some way. You are at least entertained. It's comical to me.

Anyway, my adventure began soon after entering the doors. I had walked in wearing my sweaty workout clothes (they do fit and cover all parts necessary). As I walked in there was this little girl (about 7) who had stopped dead in her tracks as she had been leaving with her mother and her eyes popped out of her head and she started to bounce. She had spotted a friend at the Subway in the entry and was obviously excited. Her mother stated "Well don't have a heart attack" and I proceeded to head for the back of the food section. Then about 20 feet in I hear this LOUD belch come from between the two doors you walk through. I turned around momentarily and just kind of snickered to myself. After walking past the produce this young man looked and me and said "do you run track?"

I had to quickly think, well technically no but I ran track in 7th grade and then in June as well. Mind you this was internal talk to myself. I smiled and said yes, because I do run everyday. The man had this triumphant look on his face as he said "I knew it, I have a knack for these things." I just smiled and kept walking. It was 9 pm and I really wasn't in the mood to chat with someone as I was on a mission.

I found the dried fruits but couldn't find a delicious combo of fruits and nuts that would work in my bread that wouldn't cost me more than $3. (I'm a cheapskate - ask Mike).

So headed home and break out all the ingredients and begin to follow the directions:

It already looked magnificent. Though I changed a few things. I didn't add nuts and I used 1/2 flour and 1/2 oats. Up the fiber a bit since I was using unbleached white all purpose flour.

Then add milk.

It smelled heavenly with the cloves and cinnamon, almost Thanksgiving like.

Now the fun part, deciding on a pan. For whatever reason I have not replaced the loaf pan I used to have and tossed due to wear and tear. So I found this pan hiding under all the casserole dishes.

Make due with what you have. So I do.

The recipe said to bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Well, my electric oven runs a bit hot. Also, on another note, I can't stand electric ovens/stoves. I miss my old gas oven. So I only baked for 20 minutes to start. It wasn't done so I added another 10. It came out perfect at 30 min in a larger pan and my oven.

Anyway, I digress. This came out beautifully. Flat - but beautiful. I think I may have actually forgotten to add the baking powder. Oh well, still amazing.

So this is fresh and smelling wonderful. My kitchen now smells irresistible. I of course, cannot wait to dig in. 1. It's fresh, hot bread out of the oven. 2. Perfect timing to add butter or other toppings as desired. 3. This just looked AMAZING.

So I sliced up a sliver and taste tested.

I must say this is DELICIOUS! Perfection in a loaf. You could of course add any sort of dried fruits you want or any nut. My aunt recommends pecans or walnuts but get creative by all means. The fruits I used were a berry mix (cherries, blueberries and cranberries). I found this combination to be perfect. Though I can guarantee I will try apples, raisins, goji berries etc. Whatever strikes my fancy that time.

I will probably be making another loaf tonight just because I could literally eat this whole pan of bread by myself in one sitting. Hopefully Mike likes it too, he didn't get home until 8 this morning and am unsure if he had some for breakfast or not.

So thank you Aunt Sandy for the delicious recipe :) Keep them coming.

Quick Breakfast Bread
Courtesy of Aunt Sandy

Makes roughly 8 servings

Ingredients
2 cups flour (or 1 cup flour and 1 cup old fashioned oats)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dried fruit of choice (I used cherries, cranberries, and blueberries - get creative with your choices)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I omitted because of cost - that's me)
1 cup milk (I used skim)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Grease a 9 1/2 inch loaf pan (or 8 inch square pan in my case) and set aside.

Mix all ingredients except milk.

Add milk and mix well.

Put batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour. (I baked for 20 to start then had to add another 10 min to that to cook completely).

My aunt recommends toasting and serving with butter or cream cheese.

Also can mix up all the dry ingredients the night before and then just add milk in the morning and bake while you get ready in the morning. Warm breakfast bread fresh from the oven in no time. :)

Now go out and cook!

Peanut Butter and Bananas - and oats, and cinnamon, and sugar

Ok, so quite obviously I'm a bit banana obsessed and this time it involves peanut butter. Which, is one of my all time favorite combos and foods. I love to eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches with a little honey drizzled on them. Mmmmmmm, yum. I know what's for dinner tonight :)

So, what we have here now is a brainstorm of an idea for me to not have to make breakfast in the morning and now that I have time to relax in the AM instead of pop out of bed like a Pop Tart and begin my day with insane amounts of exercise I just want something I can grab and crawl back in bed while watching the news sleepily or talk on the phone with Mike, should he be at work that morning.

I searched the web, and for some reason I was thinking about oat bars, or oatmeal bars. That got me thinking that I wanted something healthy, simple and easy. Nothing pre-packaged but still not so complex it would take me a week to gather ingredients. I finally landed on Gingerbread Bagels blog thanks to Google.

I found her fabulously easy, simple and so very delicious recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Oat Squares, which she says to have gotten from Pinterest. Why I didn't see these I have no idea, since I have this multitude of things I want to try on my Pinterest.

Anyway, so I looked through the ingredients, checking them off as I went to make sure I had them and I did. Hooray for not having to go to the store! So I began, at 10pm. That seems to be normal for me, late night baking. But as they say----

Being proud of myself for buying rolled oats from Whole Foods and only spending $2 for this giant amount I decided that despite what the recipe called for (quick oats) I would use mine instead and hope for the best. As you can clearly see the brown sugar jar is empty, after using it up for these puppies.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and simple this recipe was, I decided to add a protein boost to mine by using some of the whey protein powder I had on hand. I used Naturade with 80 calories per 2 scoops, but you are welcome to use whatever you like, chocolate flavor may even taste good if you want something different.

I of course have now made this recipe twice since Tuesday and love love love it. This second batch I didn't add protein powder due to running out. Guess I should go pick up some more.

Now THAT is a banana,
and yes I have Hippo salt and pepper shakers

So here is the super simple recipe and the calories for the non protein version:

Peanut Butter Banana Oat Squares:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups quick oats (I used rolled, they work fine)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (didn't pack mine and it tasted great)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp Kosher salt (I used iodized table salt)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used imitation no alcohol kind)
1/2 cup milk (I used skim)
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 large banana, mashed (obviously I found an EXTRA large banana)
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter (I used 365 (Whole Foods) Creamy PB as that is my current favorite)

Instructions:
Mix together the quick cooking oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon.

Ad in the vanilla extract, milk, and egg. Mix the ingredients together.

Add in the mashed banana and peanut butter. Combine all ingredients well.

Pour mixture into a lightly greased 8x8 inch metal baking pan (or an 8-inch round cake pan, or a loaf pan). Bake at 350 F degrees for 20 minutes, or until center is no longer gooey.

Cut into square, triangle or slices and enjoy! (I topped mine with butter - YUM)

Now go out and cook!

Nutritional Info Per Above Recipe and it's Ingredients
141 calories
5.5g fat
0.5g saturate fat
0g trans fat
22.2mg cholesterol
279.4mg sodium
129.4mg potassium
16.8g total carbs
2.6g dietary fiber
4g sugar
6.1g protein

0.9% vitamin A
2.9% vitamin C
3.6% Calcium
5.6% Iron

Stuffed Peppers and Bellies

For the past few days Mike and I have been talking health and portions as well as fitness. We both work out regularly and have been talking about how portion sizes and exercise are what being healthy is about.

So the other day - while I ate cereal for dinner - he made stuffed peppers. From the look of the recipe it's his adaptation of "Cajun Stuffed Peppers"

The ingredient list calls for:

1 cup brown rice

1/3 cup quinoa

2 large bell peppers, halved lengthwise

1 Tbsp EVOO

1 medium onion, chopped

1/4 lb andouille sausage, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp dried thyme

Large pinch of allspice (optional)

Salt

1 14 oz can low sodium diced tomatoes

1 small bunch of kale, stems removed, leaves chopped

Chopped fresh parsley, for topping (optional)

This sounds super delicious and very healthy - well, maybe not the andouille sausage but hey. Have to splurge now and then. So here is the ingredient picture to show how he changed it up.

So instead of kale, spinach was used and it doesn't look like any rice was used, just quinoa. Which ultimately is better for you. It's a more complete grain. The protein content is very high (18%) making it a source of complete protein (to all you vegetarians out there - eat more quinoa!) It is also a good source of dietary fiber, phosphorous and is high in magnesium and iron. It also is a great source of calcium (another for those veggies out there or lactose intolerant people). And another benefit is it is gluten free and easy to digest. So this little grain is just superb and superior to other grains (maybe I'm just biased).

Looks like he took the onion and sauteed that up and then added the meat, tomatoes and spinach and cooked it down. The quinoa was cooked separately then mixed together after.

Then of course it's time to stuff the peppers. The peppers were pre-cooked in the microwave for just a few minutes to soften them up. Of course if you prefer your peppers crunchy, cook for less time. As you can see above that just looks amazingly delicious. He can definitely find good recipes and then even adapt them and make them tasty and pretty. He said that he had two servings because of how delicious it was. I don't blame him haha. He said that I can have some Friday for dinner when I come over. :) I'm excited to try. He thinks I'll really like it. It's super healthy and has a great amount of nutrients and is also, protein, carb, and veggies. Can't beat that for a stuffed pepper. I also appreciate that it isn't loaded up with cheese to make it "taste good." If you have to add cheese to make your food taste good, you cooked it wrong.

As you can see, he destroyed them ;) Meaning they were delicious.

Kudos on the healthy and delicious dinner, can't wait to dig in myself.

The recipe even came with nutritional information - here it is:

Per 1/4 recipe:

Calories: 475

Fat: 16g

Saturated Fat: 4g

Cholesterol: 19mg

Sodium: 773mg

Carbs: (I can't see it on the paper)

Fiber: 9g

Protein: 18g

Here is the recipe for those that want the original

Looks to be from Food Network - go check it out