Sweet, Healthy Breakfast Treat

Step 1: Spread natural peanut butter or other natural nut butter on one half of a whole wheat tortilla shell (in a half moon shape.)

Step 2: Slice banana and put on peanut butter. (I cut them pretty thick so I could use the entire banana. It was then messier to eat but delicious and nutritious!)

Step 3: Fold in half to cover toppings and cook in a skillet on medium heat.

Step 4: Let cook until there is browning; flip and cook other side the same way.

Step 5: Drizzle with honey and cut into easier-to-eat slices.

Step 6: EAT AND ENJOY!

I have seen an idea for chocolate chips inside with the peanut butter and banana; I didn’t have chocolate chips so I didn’t try that. I added honey instead for the sweetness factor.

Have you ever thought of using tortilla shells as part of a breakfast? 

Green Smoothie update!

I make my green smoothie every weekday as part of a balanced breakfast. Fruit, vegetables, dairy, protein. I made a post about the green smoothie back in April but I am updating the information because I have gotten into a good groove. I wanted to share that with you all.

• 1 cup of milk (or 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup milk) goes in first. There are measuring lines on my blender so I don’t need my measuring cup for this. I use almond milk. The original recipe called for unsweetened almond milk. You can use 1 cup of only water but the smoothie turns out awfully runny.
• 1/2 cup of yogurt. I use a large spoon (the kind I would eat with) and take 2 heaping spoonfuls of the yogurt.
• 1 TBSP of peanut butter. I use the same spoon for the yogurt – just 1 spoonful though.
• 1 frozen banana. I freeze the bananas peeled, but not cut up. When frozen in a freezer-safe bag, I am able to break the frozen banana into many small pieces with my fingers as I put it into the blender.
• 2 cups of green leafy vegetable. I use spinach, and I take 2 very large handfuls (fills my blender to the top.) I have tried kale as well – it was tougher to blend up and little pieces remained with my old blender.

I turn the blender on and while it runs I put away all my ingredients and materials.

Still delicious and very nutritious. Again, you don’t taste the spinach but it does turn the smoothie a lovely green color. I taste the peanut butter and the banana. I like that taste so I’m okay with that!

One last note… It is important to rinse your blender after using it, if you can’t wash it right away.

Breakfast of Champions to keep you Fuller Longer

I work for the public schools, and while I’ve worked on and off doing various things since summer school ended July 3rd, I haven’t had a steady 8-hour job where I have to get up early etc. Today I substituted at a preschool at 7am. Today was the test!

I was able to fit in oil pulling and while I was doing so, I made breakfast. 

Green smoothie + 2 over easy eggs with onions + water. 

Recipe for the green smoothie can be found here. 

Result? I was able to fend off hunger until lunch time at 11:30! (I ate breakfast around 6am.) I’m very pleased. If I eat just one of these items by itself, especially just the onion-y eggs, I get hungry in a few hours. That will NOT fly with my regular job. 

Easy way to make onion-y eggs: 

I keep cut onion in a glass container in my fridge. It’s cut in slices, so in the morning I just cut into little pieces straight into the pan that I’ve greased with a tiny bit of organic, unrefined coconut oil (the same stuff I use for oil pulling.) Then I crack the eggs into the pan (it’s heated up by that time.) Sometimes I make them scrambled, but I’m working on my over-easy skills for my husband’s sake (that’s his favorite). 

Tomorrow I might add toast, because I know you’re supposed to consume the majority of your calories at breakfast time. I just have to make sure nothing too sugary is on the toast so my blood sugar doesn’t crash. 

What do you eat for breakfast? How long does it last?

Product Review: Yonanas

Last Christmas, J bought me a Yonana. I have the regular version, which costs $49.99 on their website.

Yonanas is a product made by Dole – you know, they put out fruits and vegetables, etc. They also make Yonanas, which the website describes as “The healthy dessert maker”. I used to be addicted to ice cream. I ate a cupful nightly. I saw recipes for banana in a blender and I tried to make it, but it didn’t work out that great. J bought me Yonanas to try their one-ingredient ice cream.

Ingredients: Frozen banana.
That’s it.

So all you do is feed the frozen banana into the machine, and out pours a creamy substance with consistency similar to ice cream. But no cream, no ice. Just banana.

Even neater, you can add other frozen fruits and make different desserts. The Yonana came with a few recipes. Strawberries and bananas is a simple one. I liked it even better than the banana only!

The banana dessert alone is amazing, though. And so easy. I recommend peeling and cutting up the banana into a few pieces (I’ll do 4) before freezing. Just makes things even easier. Also, you are supposed to use a ripe banana.

I will warn though, cleaning a Yonana can be a little obnoxious. The machine breaks into several pieces so you can scrape out all the banana-y goodness; this also makes cleaning easier. You have to clean the pieces almost immediately because if creamy banana dries in all those nooks and crannies, it’s a major pain later.

These are the pieces you wash:

Regardless, I am in love with Yonanas and I still use it 6 months later. It’s small and easy to store. I like to use lots of bananas at once and put what I don’t eat in the freezer to save. That way I don’t have to clean the pieces of machine as often. (Cleaning really is the only complaint I have. I also dislike cleaning my blender.)

This is what one banana made, which looks small but it’s so creamy and rich it is a good amount:

Here’s 1 and a half bananas with 5 frozen strawberries, which was way too much to eat at one time:

I give Dole 5/5 stars for their Yonanas product, because the desserts made are healthy (as advertised) and delicious. Clean up takes time but that is expected, and clean up is made considerably easier by the parts that come apart. Also, as I mentioned, Yonanas is very easy to use. Love it!

 

*This post is not sponsored or promoted by Dole. I did not receive compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.*

 

Recipe: Spinach smoothie

I have updated this post here.

I bought some spinach at the farmer’s market because I had the idea in my brain that I wanted to make some spinach smoothies. For a few reasons:

• I am experimenting with cutting out added sugar from my diet.
• I LOVE the thickness of yogurt and ice cream etc, sometimes the thickness is what I actually crave rather than the flavor, so I wanted to try smoothies.
• Spinach is a great source of vitamins (http://www.mamanatural.com/top-9-leafy-greens/ spinach ranked #4) so I thought I’d try the green smoothie route, rather than all fruit, because fruit has more sugar than spinach. Even though it’s not added or refined sugar, might as well give it a try!

These were my ingredients (listed below picture):

1 frozen banana
1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
2 cups small leaf spinach (pictured: 4 cups)
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 TBSP peanut butter

I freeze the banana already cut up so it’s easier for me. The recipe I was using called for 4 cups of spinach, so that’s what I’d portioned out at first, but I decided to try just 2 because of this chart I found on pinterest: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ee/53/3f/ee533f99ff62af50d2cba06acf6202c1.jpg

I combined everything with spinach on top. Our blender is pretty old and weak, but to my surprise, it blended beautifully! I had to stop once to scrape some yogurt off the side before blending one final time. LOVELY!

This is how much it made:

Trying it out. The straw went away after this picture. It was a little thick for a straw, but not impossible.

Delicious! All gone! I didn’t taste the spinach at all. I tasted the banana and peanut butter more than anything, which I loved. It made 1 serving.

I won’t take the credit for creating this smoothie. Though I’m sure it’s pretty common, my inspiration was from this site. (Like I said, I changed it slightly.)

If you like my blog, check out my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/OrganizationLove

Recipe: Easy Cheesy Rice and Broccoli

This is my favorite side to make. Of course, grocery stores sell pre-made cheesy rice and broccoli, but I prefer to use my own ingredients – and know what’s going into my dish!

Whole grain rice. I used instant. (1 cup) *note: Once opened, I keep my rice in a zipper bag with the directions cut off of the box also in the bag.

Broccoli. I used frozen broccoli cuts. (1/2 bag)

Cheese. I used sharp cheddar and grated it myself.

I cooked half a bag of frozen broccoli on the stovetop (directions on bag). I cooked 1 cup rice on the stovetop, too (directions on box). Then I used a slatted spoon to add the cooked broccoli (leaving the water it cooked in) to the cooked rice. Grated cheese right into the pot and stirred up while still warm.

Every ingredient I used was generic and inexpensive.

Easy cheesy!

Serves 2 with some leftover.

Easy Breakfast for the Week: Baked Oatmeal

Every morning during the week I eat an apple and a piece of toast with peanut butter and honey. It keeps me full until my lunch break. But I wanted something more fun and different, so I made baked oatmeal.

The recipe I used is this one:

http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Baked-Oatmeal

and I strongly recommend it!!

I had a lot of oatmeal because I stopped eating it regularly, and this recipe uses 3 cups. YAY! Now it’s almost gone.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups oats (I used Old Fashioned Oats rather than Quick-Cooking; it worked fine)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs (I used cage free)
• 1 cup milk (I used organic whole milk)
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• Pan greaser (I used olive oil spray)

Materials:

• Large bowl
• Medium bowl
• Big spoon
• Whisk
• 1 cup dry measuring cup
• 1 tsp measuring spoon
• Liquid measuring cup
• 9×9 square baking pan
• Dull knife to cut from pan after cooked

The directions are super simple – I wrote them out differently so it’s easy to read:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS: oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. Melt butter. (I chopped up 1 stick (1/2 cup) and put it in a microwave safe bowl. Microwaved for a little under 1 minute and stirred.)
4. In another bowl, whisk eggs, milk and melted butter. Stir into oat mixture until blended.
5. Spoon into a greased 9-in. square baking pan. Bake 40-45 minutes or until set.
6. (Serve warm with milk.) Yield: 9 servings.

I forgot to grease the pan until the mixture was in the pan, so I had to dump it BACK into the bowl, wipe out the pan, spray the oil, and then re-empty the bowl into the baking pan. Whoops! (I’m still new at this baking thing. At least I remembered in the end – what a nightmare that would have been!)

I cooked for about 43 minutes before checking, and it looked done, so I took it out and let it cool. I ate a couple of pieces warm, and a piece this morning after refrigerating and did NOT heat it up – it was still delicious cold!

As you can see I have already enjoyed 3 pieces. I found it difficult to cut into 9 pieces; I did 12 (3×4) instead. They are good sized.

This morning’s piece! Mmmm! APPROVED. I’ll probably eat this for dessert some days too. I’ll try to update again with how long I stay full!