Healthy Banana & Oatmeal Cookies

This is the first, and the easiest, of my new banana recipes. I also really like this one because you probably already have the ingredients in your cabinets! They can be made for a snack or even for a quick breakfast on the go. There are also soooo many combinations that you can make.

I made mine slightly differently from the recipe that I found on Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom just because I changed my mix-ins. I just had to include her picture because it is 10x better than mine (definitely need to work on my food pictures) and because they look so good!! Now here comes the picture of my cookies - it may not look like the most delicious, but they were so delicious!

What You'll Need:
1 large mixing bowl
measuring cups (1/4, 1/3, 1 cup)
baking sheet

Ingredients:
4 very-ripe bananas
2 cups quick oats
1/4 cup almond milk
Add ins of your choice (I used 1/3 cups white chocolate chips and 1/3 cups shredded coconut)

Instructions:

1. Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix in the oats and almond milk until well combined.
3. Add your choices of mix ins and mix well.
4. Spoon the "cookie dough" onto a very well greased baking sheet. Make sure to flatten the tops and spread them out evenly (these cookies will not rise like regular cookies).
5. Cook at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cookies look done (a friend at work cooked them for less because she likes them a little gooey-er).

Cornish Hens

This is a new one I tried for the first time - Cornish Hens! I've never made them before so I Googled the best way to cook them and came across a nice easy recipe that came out great! 



I found G. Garvin's Cornish Hens on The Cooking Channel's website. The above picture comes from there, but I think that mine looked pretty good in the picture below. I only needed to make two cornish hens so I cut the recipe in half, so below is the recipe as I used it since I made a few changes based on the ingredients that I had on hand.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cornish hens
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• pinch garlic salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F and place the hens on a sheet pan
2. Combine the rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and sprinkle on the hens
3. Drizzle the hens with the olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt
4. Roast the hens in the oven until skin is golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thigh registers 165 degrees F. about 45 minutes.

Lemon Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry

When I had a long commute home from work the last thing I wanted to do was break out a ton of pots and pans and cook dinner. As tempting as takeout was, I knew I had to find some quick and easy weeknight recipes. This one is great because it is a delicious dish that can be made from ingredients that you probably almost always have on hand - at least I know I do! You can easily substitute the mix-ins too. Plus, one pan = less dishes after dinner and who doesn't like that? I know my fiancé does since he is on dishes duty after I cook!

I wish I could give credit for this awesome recipe, but I've had it so long I can't find the original blog I found it on! I do still have their picture saved so at least we can all admire how delicious it looks! :)

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 1 medium onion, medium-finely diced
• 1⁄2 (12-oz.) pkg. mushrooms, cleaned, de-stemmed, and sliced
• 11⁄2–2 lbs. chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces
• 1–2 lemons
• 12 oz. cooked broccoli
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 1 tsp. dried oregano salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat a large skillet with olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add your onion and mushrooms and let them start to soften.
3. While they are cooking, chop up your chicken and add it to the skillet. Mix well and allow it to cook.
4. When it’s almost cooked through, add in the juice of half a lemon, and your broccoli. Mix.
5. Add your basil, oregano, and juice of another half a lemon to the pan. Add a little more olive oil, salt, and pepper to the pan when your chicken is cooked. Mix it once again.
6. Taste test and adjust seasoning as needed. Depending on how juicy your lemon is, you might need another half or whole lemon’s worth of juice.
7. Enjoy!

Chickpea, Pesto, Tomato & Mozzarella Salad

So now that the weather is getting nicer I am getting excited for some delicious cold salads for lunch. As much as I would love to eat pasta salad every day (because pasta DUH) I have looked for some healthy options outside of a boring grilled chicken salad. This one here is my favorite that is full of lots of protein! 

Ingredients:

• 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup pesto
• 1 cup chopped grape tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mozzarella
• Salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, optional

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas, pesto, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. Gently stir. Season with salt and black pepper, to taste. Garnish with fresh basil, if desired.
2. If using for lunches for week – divide evenly into tupperware.

Vegan Banana Oat Bread

My final banana recipe of the banana fiasco (see a few posts below for the story) is of course: banana bread. I wasn't looking for one that was vegan, but this one turned out to be my choice and I am so happy it was! I liked this one so much - I have actually made 5 banana breads since I discovered this recipe. Everyone I gave them to has had all good things to say!

Credit for this recipe goes to Ceara's Kitchen (credit for the pictures too because I forgot to take any at all - as you can imagine I was very busy trying to make several banana breads).

What You'll Need: 
square baking dish or loaf pan
large mixing bowl
small mixing bowl
wisk

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:
1 tbsp flax seed, ground (+ 3 tbsp water)
5 medium sized bananas, mashed (1¾ cup mashed bananas)

¼ cup maple syrup

¼ cup coconut oil, melted

⅓ cup cane sugar or coconut sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp sea salt

1½ tsp baking powder 

Dry Ingredients:

1½ cup quick cooking or small flakes oats

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup white whole wheat or spelt flour

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 360. Lightly oil a standard square baking or loaf pan with coconut oil or non-stick spray.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flax seed and water. Set aside to thicken while mixing together other ingredients. This is your flax 'egg'.
3. In a large size bowl, mash bananas. Add the maple syrup, melted coconut oil, cane sugar, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, sea salt and baking powder to the banana mixture.
4. Give the thickened flax egg an extra stir if it is not fully combined with water. Add to the wet ingredients. Whisk together with a hand or electric mixture until the ingredients are well combined.
5. Add the quick cooking oats to the wet ingredients. Stir together. Add flour and baking soda to the banana bread batter. Combine the baking soda and flour together on top of the banana bread batter before folding it into the batter. With a spatula, fold the flour and baking soda into the banana bread batter until fully combined. Leave to thicken for a minute before adding it to the loaf pan.
6. Add banana bread batter into the oiled loaf pan. Smooth out the top of the batter with the back of a cold spoon.
7. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clear.
8. Leave to cool down in pan & your banana bread is ready to be devoured and enjoyed!

Frozen Banana Bites

Banana recipe #2 of my banana overload (if you haven't read that post yet, I suggest you take a quick look because it explains why I have so many banana recipes) is a nice frozen treat that will be perfect when the weather warms up!

Is there any combo quite like bananas and peanut butter? Add chocolate in there and you've got me hooked. This was another Pinterest find that had only a few ingredients and not a lot of steps. :) 

What You'll Need:
baking sheet
small saucepan
glass dish
parchment paper
toothpicks
room in your freezer for a baking sheet

Ingredients:
bananas (4 large)
peanut butter  (or your favorite nut butter)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate)
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:
1. Peel and cut the bananas into slices and add a dab of nut butter in the center to create a banana sandwich.
2. Place the banana sandwiches on a parchment lines baking sheet and freeze for 1-2 hours until frozen solid.
3. While the banana sandwiches are freezing, start making the chocolate hard shell by melting the coconut oil and chocolate chips in a small saucepan, stirring constantly.
4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
5. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a small glass dish. If using the chocolate hard shell for dipping fruit, be sure that the dish is deep enough to allow you to completely cover the fruit.
6. Allow the chocolate to cool to room temperature. 
7. Once the bananas are frozen and the chocolate has cooled to room temperature you can start dipping!
8. Optional: after dipping roll in shredded coconut.

Bananas for Bananas

Before I can share my next recipes, I need to tell a quick story...

A few weeks ago, upon checking out at Stop and Shop I received a coupon for $20 off and free delivery for 60 days to try their Peapod delivery service. $20 off my grocery bill? Of course I'll try!

So, my fiancé and I sat down to order our groceries online for the first time. It went something like this:

Apples - 7
Avocados - 3
Bananas (yellow) - 7
Bananas (green) - 7 (we were thinking that these would be ripe by the time we finished the yellow ones)
Baby Carrots - 1 bag
Grapefruits - 4

You get the idea...

So I got the email that the delivery had arrived and texted my fiancé to see if it was there. The response I received was the below picture accompanied with "oh yea it's here and I'm drowning in bananas"

Instead of ordering 7 bananas we ordered 7 bunches of bananas! It was so easy to do especially because for everything else we were ordering we had to enter the exact amount that we wanted. Thankfully, they forgot to bring the green ones! I called and got a refund for those, but I still had way too many bananas for two people to eat.

So I went on a search for some banana recipes to make and bring into work. Pinterest was flooding with them and I haven't really ever baked from scratch so I was looking for some easy options and found quite a few winners! My co-workers loved them all! So much so that last week at the end of the week there were some bananas that were going to become too ripe over the weekend so someone brought them to my attention letting me know "just in case" I wanted make some more treats with them! I got the hint. Monday everyone enjoyed some more banana treats.

As a result of this mistake...I am totally hooked on baking with bananas and wanted to share my new favs with everyone!

Lemon Garlic Tilapia

Here is another Pinterest find – sensing a trend here? I love Pinterest! I also love fish so a super easy fish recipe is a dream come true for me. My fiancé never really ate fish growing up so getting him to eat it makes me a little nervous when I try new recipes, but this one came out great and he loved it! He even asked for it specifically one time! I usually pair it with some rice and serve over a bed of fresh baby spinach. My fiancé prefers to have the broccoli over the spinach, but it is easily customizable!
 

What You’ll Need:
1 baking pan
small mixing bowl

Ingredients:
3-4 tilapia fillets (roughly about 4 oz. each — and I used frozen)
1 T. butter; melted
1/2 t. salt
1 T. minced garlic (or 1 clove garlic)
1 lemon; sliced
Broccoli or other frozen veggie (optional)
cooking spray






Instructions:

1. Lightly grease a baking dish and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place defrosted tilapia filets evenly on the bottom of the pan.
3. In the small mixing bowl, combine melted butter, salt and garlic. Then pour this mixture over the tilapia filets.
4. Place lemon slices over tilapia filets.
5. If you are using veggies, place them around the tilapia before placing in the oven.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Banana Sushi

I found this idea on Pinterest and decided to give it a try. I love this recipe because you can make so many variations of it I made mine with almond butter and granola! It can be a healthy option for an after dinner sweet craving and is super simple to make! 


What you'll need:
A freezer
Parchment paper
 
Ingredients:
1 whole banana
Your choice of spread (almond butter, chocolate spread, Nutella, peanut butter, etc.)
Your choice of topping (crushed pistachios, granola, rice krispies, etc)

 
Instructions:
1. Peel the banana and place it on a piece of parchment paper. Place the banana in the fridge for about 1 hr.

2. Take the banana out of the freezer and spread your choice of spread along the top half of the banana. Then sprinkle on your choice of topping and slice the banana into “sushi”. Place it back in the freezer for about 30 minutes.

3. Take it out of the freezer & enjoy! Maybe add an extra dipping sauce :)

Turkey & Spinach Meatballs

I’ve chosen this as my first recipe because meatballs are my favorite! It also happens to be a big hit with my fiancé! I learned to make these by taking my mom’s Turkey Burger recipe and adapting it to make baked meatballs. One batch will last us several nights. Pair them with pasta, or my favorite, Zucchini Noodles – Zoodles!

What you'll need:

1 baking sheet

1 mixing bowl

½ cup measuring cup

Ingredients:

2 lbs. ground turkey

I envelope Lipton’s onion soup mix

½ cup ranch dressing

½ cup dried bread crumbs

½ bag pre-washed baby spinach

Cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease baking sheet with cooking spray.
2. Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl and stir well.
3. Form balls out of mixture to desired size and place on the greased baking sheet spaced evenly and make sure they are not touching.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cut meatball shows no pink on the inside.(make sure to start checking around 15 minutes because all oven cooking times can vary!)
5. Serve with your favorite sauce & pasta!