Banana Coconut Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes

I made up this cupcake recipe this weekend when I was bored. The ingredients are a little bit random because I just used whatever I could find in my fridge/pantry which lead to surprisingly delicious results.

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 banana

1 cup wheat flour

½ cup almond meal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 stick of butter (room temp)

½ cup shredded coconut

 ½ 4 oz. semi sweet chocolate bar (chopped)

1.       In a medium size bowl mix together all wheat flour, almond meal, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2.       In a separate bowl,  mash banana and eggs together.  Add butter and mix.  Add sugar and mix with an electric mixer until smooth. 

3.       Slowly add in dry ingredients to banana mixture, mixing with electric mixer. When combined and smooth, fold in coconut and chocolate chunks with a spatula.

4.       Pour into cupcake tin, dividing the batter evenly.  This recipe should yield 12 cupcakes with a little bit left over.

5.       Bake for 18 minutes at 375 F or until a toothpick comes out clean.

6.       Top with Chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Spinach Egg Bake

I add chopped tomatoes sometimes after I take it out of the oven.

 This is one of my new favorite breakfasts.  It actually doesn’t take very long to make.  I preheat the oven as soon as I wake up and then wash my face brush my teeth, go back to the kitchen to prep the meal and then I cook it while getting dressed and doing my makeup. See! Not so hard to make on a weekday!

Ingredients (Single Serving)

 One small handful of spinach (chopped)
1 tablespoon onion  (chopped)- I keep a chopped onion in my fridge so that I can just grab a pre-chopped pinch as needed

2 eggs

1 Babybell cheese (chopped)

Coconut oil or butter to grease the dish

Also needed- small baking dish or mini crock pot.  Mine is about 5 inches in diameter and holds a little under 1 ¾ cup of water.

Prep Time: 5 mins            Bake time: 12-13 minutes             Oven Temp: 375 F

1   1.Grease the crock pot with coconut oil or butter. Add chopped  spinach.  Next add chopped onion. 

2.   2. Crack eggs over spinach.

3.    3.Bake in oven on middle rack for 8 minutes.

4.   4. Pull the rack out so you have access to crock pot.  Sprinkle cheese on top and put top on the crock pot or baking dish.  Push rack back into oven and cook for 3 more minutes.  My eggs are still a little runny when I cook them this way but if you want them to be cooked through allow to cook for 2 or 3 more minutes

Variations

Double serving:  I made a serving for two when I made breakfast for dinner the other night for Dano and I.  Egg bake and pancakes- Breakfast for dinner is the best! Here’s how I changed the recipe a little

A larger handful of spinach (chopped)

3 eggs

3 slices of bacon (chopped and cooked 75% through)

2 tablespoons of chopped onion

1 Babybel cheese (chopped)

Coconut oil or butter

Follow the same steps as above but sprinkle the bacon over the spinach BEFORE cracking the eggs. Cook the same way as above and enjoy!

Before I put it in the oven: you can see in the pic that the bacon isn't cooked all the way through.  While baking in the oven, the bacon will finish cooking to a crispy texture.

Two Great Books for Those of us Interested in Nutrition and the Science of FOOD!!

You may have noticed that I include a good amount of gluten-free recipes and Paleo friendly recipes.  I have become interested in the advantages of eating this way through advice from my friend Jill.  Now you can all learn about the advantages of cutting out gluten and grains in general by reading two books that came out on Amazon this month.  

FIRST

 Farewell Club Perma-Chub

(Image courtesy of Amazon.com)

Amazon sums it up best: "Jill Escher takes you on a life-changing journey toward permanent weight loss. After years of yo-yo dieting, she lost 35 pounds by giving up the white stuff and recovering from her sugar and starch addiction. In this book, she gives you all the tools you need to do the same. Get ready to say "Farewell, Club Perma-Chub!"



SECOND 

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health 

(Image courtesy of Amazon.com)

Wheat Belly, written by cardiologist William Davis, explains the adverse health effects we experience from wheat consumption.  He also explains how the wheat of today differs greatly from the wheat from 50,100 or 1000 years ago.  He helpfully provides recipes for a truly heart healthy diet and his idea of heart healthy doesn't mean loading up on the whole grains. The subject matter is more for the scientifically inclined mind but Davis writes in a way that makes the intricate science of food and heart health understandable and approachable for everyone. 

 

I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did and look out for recipes inspired by Wheat Belly. 

 

Graham Cupcakes with Keylime Icing: Basically Key Lime Pie made into a cupcake!

Super cute cupcake gift box- available at Sur La Table

It even has windows so the lucky person who gets these can see the cupcakes!

And Zebra Print Cupcake Liners!

I found this delicious cupcake recipe on ming makes cupcakes.

It’s an amazing cupcake recipe site and that has truly inventive recipes and wonderful presentation.  I made these for my friend’s birthday and they were awesome!

Ingredients for batter

1 Cup flour

½ cup graham cracker crumbs (blend in food processor)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick butter, room temp.

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

½ cup milk (I used soymilk because I don’t usually have reg. milk in my fridge) 

Prep Time: 20-25 mins    Oven Temp: 400 F     Bake Time: 20 mins

1.Mix flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt. Beat in butter gradually. 

2. Beat in sugar and mix thoroughly.  Beat in eggs, then vanilla and milk until just combined.

3. Pour into lined cupcake pan.  Bake for 400 F for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out almost clean

Frosting Ingredients

3      oz. cream cheese

1/2 stick butter, room temp.

2 cups confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons key lime juice

1.    Mix together ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. Frost cupcakes.

2.    Optional- For presentation purposes, top with a sprinkle of crumbs and lime slice.  I didn’t do this step because I was afraid the acid in the lime would disturb the frosting unless they were eaten the same day as I baked them.

 ALSO: I had a lot of leftover graham crackers and icing so I spread the rest of the icing on graham crackers and made cookie sandwiches for my boyfriend. 

I had enough leftover frosting for 4 of these guys!

Sriracha Beef

My dinner plate: Sriracha Beef, Zucchini Noodles and Spinach Salad with Key Lime Garlic Dressing

I’ve made variations of this recipe for the past couple of months and I think I finally perfected it this week. 

Ingredients

1 to 1 ¼ lbs beef chunks (I use chunk roast that my butcher cuts up for me)

2 tablespoon sriracha

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

½ tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon ginger

1.    Mix beef chunks with all ingredients.  Toss so that all of the meat is coated, I usually use my hands to do this.
2. Let marinade in the fridge for 2 hours. 
3.     Grill on high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side.
4.  Serve! 

Meat with Marinade

On my little electric grill....

Yummy Almond Banana Pancakes (Gluten-free of course!)

I found this yummy recipe for banana almond pancakes (gluten free of course) but I needed to tweak and perfect it before I could post it.  My version uses both almond meal and flaxseed meal as gluten-free flour substitute.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups almond meal

¼ cup flax seed meal

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda 

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

Coconut oil or butter for greasing pan

Prep Time: 15-20 minutes               Cook Time: 20 mins (depends on how many pans you have on the stove top)

1.  Mix all dry ingredients in a large size bowl. Whisk to combine.

2. Mix eggs and banana in a separate bowl.  Use the back of a fork or spoon to mash the bananas.  Once the big pieces are mashed, pour the mixture into a blender and blend for 10- 15 seconds or until smooth.
3. Pour banana mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Use a whisk to combine the batter.
4.  Heat pan over medium heat and grease the pan with coconut oil or butter.
5. Use ¼ cup measuring spoon to spoon batter into the pan.  Use the back of the spoon to spread batter a little.  The batter is thick so if you don’t spread the batter with a spoon, the pancakes will be too thick to cook through. Flip the pancakes after 4 minutes, depending on heat.
6.  Transfer pancakes to a parchment lined baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven for 4 minutes at 350 degrees.  I finish them in the oven because gluten-free recipes tend to burn easier and take longer to cook than normal pancakes.  I use the pan to brown each side and cook them about 75% of the way through, the oven just finishes the cooking the middle of the pancake.

Variations
- I also made these with sweetened shredded coconut.  Add 1/4 cup to ½ cup of shredded coconut.  However this addition adds a lot of sugar.  You could try them with unsweetened shredded coconut as well.
- These taste great with blueberries too! I added blueberries to one of my pancake batches because I love banana blueberry smoothies and they turned out great.
- Haven’t tried these with chocolate chips yet but I’m sure they would be amazing!

Hard to tell from the pic but the batter is pretty thick.

YUM!!

Breakfast Fruit Smoothie

I’ve been starting my days with this delicious smoothie.  It’s a quick way to leave the house with a full stomach

Ingredients

3-4 frozen strawberries halved

½ banana

10-15 blueberries or a small handful

½ cup of soy or almond milk

2-3 tablespoons low fat or fat free greek yogurt

a generous pinch of orange zest

½ teaspoon agave nectar.

Place all the ingredients in the blender and blend until combined.

Next up on the smoothie list, almond-banana smoothie and avocado-basil smoothie.  I'm a little scared of the latter but it was featured in bon appetit so I might as well give it a try.

Cauliflower Rice with Linguica, Mushroom, Bell Pepper, and Onion

This is one of my new go to dinners. To save time, I have decided to start making cauliflower rice (raw) in bulk and freezing it so that I can enjoy this meal more often but have less prep time.

Ingredients
1 large head of cauliflower
1- 1 ½ pounds of linguica
3 Portobello mushrooms (chopped)

½ white onion (chopped)
1/2 large bell pepper (chopped)
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon melted coconut oil

Prep time: 10 minutes           Cook Time: 15 minutes            Stove Temp: Medium

1. Cut cauliflower into small chunks, removing about half the stems.  In 3 or 4 batches (depending on the amount of cauliflower) chop cauliflower in a food processor.  I chop each batch 5-10 seconds.  The cauliflower will be closer to the consistency of couscous than traditional rice.
2.  In a large bowl, mix ground cauliflower, garlic powder, chili powder and coconut oil. Set bowl aside.
3. Heat a pan over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of coconut oil.  Add linguica and break up into small chunks with a spoon while cooking.  Make sure to turn chunks over so they cook evenly.
4. Meanwhile, cook onion, bell pepper, and mushroom in a pan over medium heat with ½ teaspoon coconut oil. When cooked through set aside.
5. Remove cooked linguica with a slated spoon so that oil remains in pan.  Place linguica in a separate bowl and set aside. 
6.  Pour half of linguica grease into a small bowl.  Place the pan back on the stove and allow to heat up for a minute. 
7.  Add half of cauliflower mixture to the pan.  Stir every 15 seconds so that cauliflower cooks evenly and does not burn.  It takes about 5 - 7 minutes to cook the cauliflower through.  Add cooked cauliflower to the bowl with the cooked veggies.
8.  Pour remaining grease into the pan and allow to heat for a minute.  Cook the remaining cauliflower with the same process as above. When cooked through, add to the first batch of cauliflower.  Stir well to incorporate onions and mushrooms evenly through.
9. Spoon cauliflower onto each serving plate and top with linguica.

Raw Cauliflower Rice with Chili Powder onto Top

Cooked Cauliflower Rice (Color is a result of the cooking oil)

My Dinner Place: Cauliflower Rice topped with onions, mushrooms and yellow bell peppers, and side salad