Chocolate Banana Protein Muffins

I’m always looking for uses for bananas, and I love a good protein muffin. Of course, this often involves lots of googling until you find a recipe for which you have all of the ingredients.

I found this recipe on www.homebeccanomics.com, which I’ll have to spend some more time investigating. I wish the author had listed the nutritional information, but I went ahead and calculated it. Just for you guys.

You’re welcome.

Chocolate Banana Protein Muffins

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, white or wheat
1/2 cup chocolate protein powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 medium Banana
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips, dark chocolate

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, protein powder, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda) in a bowl, set aside.

In your stand mixer, mix the bananas, eggs, yogurt, oil, sugar, and vanilla.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients partially, then add the chocolate chips and walnuts, finish mixing.

Partially fill muffin tins (greased with cooking spray) and bake for 15-18 min. I used a muffin top pan instead of a traditional muffin pan, because that’s how I roll.

Nutritional Info:
Each muffin contains –
330 cal
16g fat
34g carbs
15g protein

Healthier Twice Baked Potatoes

One of my family’s favorite side dishes was the twice baked potato. You see, it is the best of both worlds, a nice salty baked potato shell with soft, fluffy mashed potatoes inside. And cheese. How can you go wrong?

Sadly, it’s not the healthiest thing out there. But fortunately for everyone, this is one recipe that isn’t too bad to healthify. This recipe came from Potatoes Goodness Unearthed, which I discovered via my savior, Google.

These turned out great, and quite healthy. According to the source, 180 calories per serving (which, I think, is two halves of the potato). Now, I only ate half, but I added a bit of cheese on top. Only about a half an ounce.

If I were to make this again, I’d add a splash of milk too, because they were a bit dry.

Enjoy, and get creative! Think of all the things you can do with a blank canvas of a potato you intend to bake twice.

Healthier Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients (makes 8 halves):

1 cup chopped onion
EVOO
4 russet potatoes, washed
1/2 cup plain fat-free yogurt (I used Greek – Chobani)
Salt, pepper, garlic to taste
Shredded cheddar, if you want, only 60 cal for .5 oz on a half a potato!
Chives, for garnish

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a pan, heat the olive oil, then add the chopped onion and cook until slightly brown. Set aside.

You can either bake your potato for the first half (40 min to 1 hour at 400 degrees), or cheat and throw it in the microwave. My microwave has a convenient ‘potato’ button. Make sure you stab it a few times with a knife before you cook it, otherwise it might explode – which is fun but messy.

Once cooked, carefully cut in half and scoop out the good bits, leaving a little bit of potato around the skin (about 1/4″) and set aside. Place the potato goodness into a bowl and add the yogurt, onions, and spices (along with a splash of milk if you want). Mash until creamy, then add back to the potato shells.

Bake for 15 minutes, then add the cheese to the top and bake 5 more minutes.

Sweet Dinner Rolls

I made these for Thanksgiving dinner, but they are nothing more than just awesome dinner rolls for any time of the year. The recipe makes 16 rolls and I plan freeze the lot of them. Well, all but 1… you have to taste test, right?

The recipe is originally from Allrecipies.com. I made them on Tuesday and froze them.

Sweet Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 3/4 cup flour
1 packet rapid dry yeast

Directions:
I used a breadmaker…. but you don’t have to! Follow the instructions of your breadmaker if you have one, up until the dough has risen.

By hand:
*Proof your yeast in the warm water with 1 tsp sugar
*In a saucepan, heat the milk slowly, then add the sugar and butter and mix until melted, then allow to cool to lukewarm
*In a large bowl, mix the flour, milk and yeast together
*Kneed for 8-10 minutes on a lightly floured counter
*Allow to rise for 1 hour
*Punch down and separate into 2 spheres, then cut into 8 pieces using a pizza cutter

*Preheat the oven to 350
*Roll up the dough and stretch the thin part around until it is on the bottom, then place onto a greased pan
*Brush with melted butter
*Bake 15 minutes or until golden brown

If you freeze these, to reheat, place in an oven for 5-8 minutes or until warmed back up.

Hot Pepper Mystery

Today I received about 1lb of hot peppers. 2/3 of it came in my Door to Door Organics delivery and the remainder came from my husband’s coworker’s garden.

The problem: I can’t ID peppers, and I’d like to go in knowing the approximate heat contained in each. I tried to group them based on which looked similar to one another.

So, dear readers, here is your challenge. Identify the peppers, and their approximate heat level. Bonus points for recipes which will best make use of the peppers.

Thanks in advance!

Zucchini Crab Cakes

I have a confession. I am the worst Marylander ever. Not only do I not like crabs (though I have gone crabbing, I just ate chicken for dinner that night) but I am also not a fan of Old Bay seasoning. I don’t know why, most of its ingredients you’ll see me cooking with (from Wikipedia):

“The seasoning mix includes mustard, paprika, celery seed, bay leaf, both black and red pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, salt and ginger.”

I’m not a huge fan of cloves or allspice, so that is likely the problem.

In any case, I decided to make this recipe anyway, with my own spice blend. These are delicious and vegetarian friendly!

Zucchini ‘Crab’ Cakes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup minced onion

1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning (omitted) OR
Stephanie’s Spice Mix (1/2 tsp garlic, black pepper, paprika, 1/4 tsp celery seed, cayenne pepper, salt)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup EVOO (for frying)

Directions:
Mix the zucchini, butter, and egg in a large dish. Add breadcrumbs, minced onion, and spices. The recipe calls for 1 tsp of old bay, but adjust as you’d like.

Mix well and form into patties. Dredge in the flour.

Heat the oil in a deep fry pan to medium/med-high heat. Place the patties in the oil and cook for 3-5 minutes or until golden brown, then flip and brown the other side. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Mashed Purple Potatoes

Look at these beauties that appeared in my organic food delivery this week!

These are local purple potatoes. I was so excited to use these, and I hope to use them again in the future. They provide a lovely color to the plate, and they are just so much fun. Next up, purple gnocchi?

This is, of course, really nothing more than mashed potatoes. I’d recommend adding some sour cream or plain yogurt to these to make them a bit creamer. I had neither in the house, but they were still delicious.

Mashed Purple Potatoes

Ingredients:
Appx. 1 lb purple potatoes
1/3 cup whole milk
2 tbsp butter
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil the potatoes until the skins split. Drain, then immediately put into a bowl and use a masher to smush them. Add the butter and milk, plus pepper (and also, garlic possibly) and mash them some more. Serve immediately.