Banana Oat Breakfast Muffins

These are delicious and so very simple to make.  Make a lot of them and freeze them ahead of time and heat them up for a super quick super healthy breakfast!  These were inspired by Ashley’s buckwheat muffin bake. 

P.S. no need to go buy the expensive oat flour at the specialty store- you can make your own by putting some oats in your blender or food processor and grinding them till they look like flour!

Banana Oat Breakfast Muffins (makes 2 good size muffins or several smaller muffins if you’d rather make them in a muffin pan)

(Print this recipe!)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oat flour
2 Tablespoons rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 flax eggs (2 tablespoons ground flax + 6 tablespoons water)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Whisk together flax egg (2 T ground flax + 6 T water) and set aside.

In a small bowl mix together oat flour, rolled oats, cinnamon, baking soda, and pinch of salt.

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In a bigger bowl whisk together mashed banana, almond milk, and vanilla.

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Add dry ingredients into wet and stir until just combined.

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Add flax egg to the mixture and stir to combine.

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Pour into two ovenproof containers or a muffin pan and bake in a 350 F oven for 35 minutes. 

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Do try to let them cool a little before you snarf them down!

(I couldn’t decide which of these three pics I liked best, so you have to see all three of them! Smile)

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You could totally eat this as is, or take it to go on a rushed morning OR you could top it with some seriously awesome toppings!  Like almond butter, peanut butter, coconut butter, walnuts, fruit preserves, or shredded coconut to name a few!

 

Happy snacking!

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What’s for dinner tonight?

Last nights dinner was amaaaaaaazing!!  So I’ll get right to it, cause you’re gonna want to come right over and give me a big kiss right on the lips!

Eggplant lasagna bake with garlic cheesy biscuits!

Eggplant lasagna bake

Ingredients:
2 eggplants
a big pile of mushrooms (sorry I didn’t measure, haha!)
1 clove garlic
a jar of your fav pasta sauce
your fav vegan mozzarella cheese
vegan parmesan cheese (optional)

 

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Directions:
Slice your shrooms and sauté them with a clove of garlic.

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Add your pasta sauce, cover with a lid, and turn it down to low to let it simmer while you work on your eggplant.

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Slice a little piece off of your eggplant to give it “feet”- it won’t roll around while you’re trying to slice it, so you won’t have to worry about cutting yourself.

 

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Slice it very thin (you’ll be using these eggplant slices instead of lasagna noodles, so slice them as thinly as you can)

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Time to start layering!  Start with sauce, then eggplant, more sauce, then a little cheese.  Continue until you have used all of the eggplant slices.

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The top layer should be sauce, lots of cheese, and a sprinkle of vegan parmesan.

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Bake in a 400 F oven for about 30 mins (till the cheese is all melty and brown on top)

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We served it with garlic cheesy biscuits(recipe follows) and a kale salad dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, and a little sprinkle of salt and pepper.

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And now the garlic cheesy biscuits! 

 

Garlic Cheesy Biscuits

Ingredients:
1 cup AP flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
5 tsp baking powder
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh parsley
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp Earth Balance
3 Tbsp Earth Balance Shortening
1 cup almond milk
1 cup Daiya Cheddar Style vegan cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 F.

In a large bowl mix together flours, baking powder, garlic, parsley, rosemary, and salt.

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Cut in the shortening and earth balance until it’s crumbly.  You can use a fork or a pastry cutter, but it works best if you just use your fingers!

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Stir in the milk and Daiya.

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Drop by big spoonfuls onto a sprayed baking sheet or a baking stone.

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Bake for 15 minutes until lightly brown on top.

Combine a Tablespoon of earth balance, a clove of minced garlic, and a teaspoon of parsley(you could also use dill for this- it would be amazing as well).  Brush over the tops of the biscuits.

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And voila!  The finished product!

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I had to really restrain myself from snarfing the whole batch down!  Oh. My. Word.  These are amazing!!!

 

Well, I’ll leave you to it!  We’re iced in again today.  Sad smile

But mama pea posted a recipe for toffee bars that look freaking amazing so I think I’m going to get my bake on today!

Have a good one!

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I needa fajita!

Well, we survived the snow-a-thon 2011 here in Texas!  Only we’re supposed to get another dose of it on Wednesday.  Doesn’t good ole jack frost know that I live in Texas so  I don’t have to put up with snow?!

Anyhoo- here’s a great veggie fajita recipe that will make you daydream about sitting out on a patio enjoying a margarita.  Which I’m hoping to be able to do very soon- hurry spring!!

 

Veggie Fajitas

Ingredients for marinade:
2 oranges 
2 limes
1 jalapeno, diced (with or without seeds- your choice)
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Ingredients for fajitas:
3-4 portabellas
1 bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 onion, thinly sliced

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Directions for marinade:
Slice your portabellas.

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Combine your jalapeno with the juices from your oranges and limes

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Add cumin

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And whisk in canola oil.

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Pour marinade over portabellas in a zippy lock bag and let hang out in the fridge for at least 20 mins.IMG_2096

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When you’re ready to make your fajitas, start with sautéing your peppers and onions in a little canola oil until they’re tender.  Set aside.

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Drain marinade from your mushrooms and throw em in the pan!

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When they’re nice and tender add your peppers and onions back into the pan to warm them back up.

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Serve em up however you like your fajitas- we did a little Daiya vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, salsa, and guac on whole wheat tortillas..

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And that my friends is how we do vegan fajitas, Texas style!

Enjoy!! 

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Snow day 2!

We’re on snow day two here and we’re going stir crazy!  We have no nice healthy foods in the house- no salad, spinach, fresh veg of any kind left.  Yikes!  And we’ll be trapped again tomorrow because they’ve already closed campus.

The closest I could get to a healthy lunch was some leftover pizza dough and some cherry tomatoes that were starting to get a bit wrinkly in the fridge.  So I did the best I could, and it ended up being quite tasty!  This would be awesome to serve as an appetizer at a party!

Garlicky cheesy breadsticks with roasted cherry tomato marinara

here’s what you need…

leftover pizza dough
a clove of garlic
big spoonful of Earth Balance
Daiya vegan cheese
cherry tomatoes
italian seasoning
olive oil for drizzling
salt and peper

For the roasted tomato marinara…

Put your tomatoes in a pan and drizzle with a little EVOO.  Sprinkle with italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

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Roast in a 475 F oven for around 20 mins (keep an eye on them!) till the tomatoes look deflated.  There will be some liquid, it’s okay you need it- don’t toss it!

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Get your potato masher out and mash them up.  If you don’t have one you can use a fork.  If you don’t like chunks of tomatoes you can give them a whirl in a food processor or blender.

 

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For the breadsticks…

Take your leftover pizza dough and roll it out into a rectangle and put it in your pan.

Mince a clove of garlic- I used my microplane for it so that I didn’t end up with big chunks of garlic.  Add a big spoonful of earth balance and melt them together.

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Brush the dough with the garlic butter…

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Sprinkle with a little Daiya and put it in the oven (still on 475 F) and bake till golden brown.  (I forgot to put the timer on, my best guess is that it was around 10-12ish minutes)

Cut it into pieces and serve with your dipping sauce!

 

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I’m sure I’ll not only be vitamin deficient, but also insane by the time all this snow business is behind us.  If you don’t hear from me in a few days, send help, but more importantly send some green juice cause I’m jonesing for one bad!

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Snow Day!

No school, classes were cancelled last night so this girl got to sleep in- yipee!

I was craving oatmeal so bad when I got up this morning.  Decided to make my oats taste like starbucks oatmeal this morning. (you know with the brown sugar, mixed nuts, and dried fruit…)

Into the pot… (for me and the hubs)

! cup of rolled oats
1 cup almond milk
1 cup water

Toppings…

handful of chopped dried cranberries and cherries
sprinkle of chopped walnuts and pecans (I pretty much always have these hanging around in my freezer)
sprinkle of brown sugar
sprinkle of ground flax and chia seeds

Better than the bucks!

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With a new local coffee roaster that we just started carrying at the store- Katz coffee.

Texas chocolate mudslide… to. die. for.

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all together…

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Next was a short walk in the winter tundra!  (Hey it’s Texas- this is the winter tundra to us!  Especially since it was in the 70s this weekend and I wore shorts.)

Harley likes the snow, but she has such a thin coat that she starts shivering pretty much immediately.

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From the patio…

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driveway

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The road in front of our house (no sanding/salting trucks in our neck of the woods!).

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Then to do what a Texan does when they get snowed in… crank the heat up, dream about a scorching TX summer, and make some picnic food!

Leftover black bean burgers on sourdough and potato salad!

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Taxes were done, then I started some studying for a test tomorrow that’s postponed because we have ANOTHER snow day tomorrow!  Now there’s nothing left to do but snuggle up with the hubby and watch a movie… wonder if he’ll go for Twilight?

Have a happy snow day!

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