Whole Wheat Banana Muffins - with NO sugar!

I've been trying to switch over all my bread recipes to whole wheat and cut way back on the amount of sugar we eat.  Most recipes call for SO much sugar.  What is the point of "homemade" if it isn't any healthier than store bought?  Today I experimented by making whole wheat banana muffins...  without sugar!  Say whaa?

Yep, that's right.  The best part is that they actually tasted good AND my kids loved them too!  Win-win!

Whole Wheat Banana Muffins Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer mixed in 4 Tbs water.  (or just use 2 eggs if you can)
• 3 bananas
• 1/4 cup honey (this is still healthy right? :D)
• 1/2 cup plain soy yogurt
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup coconut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  I mixed all the wet ingredients together then added the dry ingredients one at a time.  I didn't mixed it up super well.  Then pour batter into your muffin pan.  I used my mini muffin pan because these muffins are mostly for the kiddos.  I baked them for about 12 min.  My oven tends to bake things pretty quickly.  Keep an eye on them and they will come out perfect!

This recipe made 39 mini muffins.  Probably would have made 40 if I could have stopped myself from eating the batter...

Mr. T approves!

Eating Eden

One of my new favorite blogs about eating food the way God intended it is by my friend, Mindy, over at Eating Eden. 

 Today, she asked me to guest post my recipe for granola.  Check it out!  Thanks, Mindy, I'm honored!

I've been making several of her recipes and one that I actually took pictures of is of her simple yet delicious idea for Banana Cookies.  My kids love them! (and so do I)

Here is how ours turned out.  Hers look a lot prettier than mine.  :D

Now, I just need to try making whole wheat graham crackers...

Last night I made magic!

Magic shell ice cream topping that is.  I sometimes (always) crave sweets.  Last night I really wanted magic shell topping.  Of course, Miss K can't eat it because it contains milk (or at least I am assuming so).  Anyway, I got what I thought was a wild idea to make it myself using chocolate chips and coconut oil.  I googled it to see if anyone else was crazy enough to try something like that, and sure enough I found an endless number of methods for making homemade magic shell.

I didn't follow any one specific recipe as they were all slightly different in there chocolate chip to coconut oil ratio and method.

Here is what I did:
1/2 cup
1 Tbs coconut oil
Melt in microwave.  Pour over ice cream.  (Almond ice cream in our case.)  Easy!

This turned out YUMMY!  It has been quite a while since I've had the real stuff, but this satisfied the craving.  Perhaps it was even a bit healthier!  It was certainly a healthier portion than I would have eaten a few years ago, prior to spending $6 on a tiny container of almond ice cream!

Honest Advice Appreciated

So, I have been slowly working on the stenciled curtains.  Verrry slooowly!  At my current rate they should be finished in about six weeks...   I need your advice...  from all three of my readers!  haha

Not only are they taking a LONG time, but they aren't turning out as nice as I would like.  The problems:  1. The fabric is a loose weave so the paint spreads a little as it soaks into the fabric.  It isn't really that bad, but I'm not getting a crisp line.  I can probably let that slide.  2. They shrank in the wash, so I am redoing the hem on each one to make it a little longer and the previous hem line isn't disappearing when I iron them.  3.  This is my main problem, and Mr. B's too, the tops are SUPER hard to stencil because of all the fabric folds I am trying to stencil over.  Stenciling over lumps.  So, the paint is bleeding all over the place.

 

So, really, the mistakes aren't too noticeable at first glance, but if you actually look at them there are pretty obvious mistakes which I'm not too excited about.  I really don't want just plain curtains, but I don't want to put up sloppy curtains either.  So, what do you think?  Continue on, accepting a few mistakes?  Or, throw in the towel (curtain?) and then either live with bland curtains, or buy new ones?

Crunchy Granola and Goat Cheese Day

Today, I made granola and a goat cheese pizza.   I never really liked granola until I started making it myself.  Now I LOVE it.  I eat it nearly every morning for breakfast. 

Here is the lose recipe that I use (this changes a little every time I make it)
3 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbs of brown sugar
handful of almond slices
handful of sprouted pumpkin seeds (not sure why sprouted, but that is what Wegmans had)

Line a pan with parchment paper so you don't have to chisel out the baked on granola later.  Bake granola at 350 degrees for um...  well.... no idea, as I rarely remember to set a timer.  I'm thinking it takes about 20 minutes.  Just until it is kind of golden.  As it cools, I like to stir it around in the pan a few times to break it up.  Otherwise it will turn into a big granola brick, which can be a little tricky to eat.

Assuming Mr. B doesn't eat it all, I like to put it in a jar and eat it with soy milk, cinnamon, and raisins or maybe some cocoa nibs. 

Tonight I also tried out goat cheese on Miss K.  I'll admit it was a little risky and I was pretty nervous about letting her eat it.  I rubbed it on her back a few hours before she ate it.  She didn't react at all, so I let her eat some on her pizza.  So far so good!   She was SO excited to be eating "cheese".  I think she liked it!

Miss K also can't let go of Valentine's day. She wanted her pizza in the shape of a heart.  Must be her favorite holiday. 

For the crust I used the whole-wheat crust recipe from one of my new favorite food blogs 100 Days of Real Food.  She has been very inspirational in motivating me to feed my family only real food.  It is a long journey from growing up on hot dogs and soda to eating only "real" and unprocessed foods.  We have been forced to give up a lot of processed foods in the past few years due to my kids allergies, and I really don't miss a lot of it. 

Do you taste that?

Tonight I made brownies... with a can of black beans.  Cue evil laughter.  Yes, I fed my family black bean brownies.  Seems cruel, but we can't use eggs around here due to food allergies.  I am also trying to move our family slowly toward eating only real foods.  And, yes, I know the brownie mix I used does not count as "real" food.  But I'm not going to throw away everything in our pantry just to start anew. 

I used an organic brownie mix and 1 can of black beans.  I rinsed and blended the black beans with a little water, then added them to the brownie mix.  I baked them for 35 min at 350 degrees.

And, no, I can't taste the beans at all.  The only thing I noticed was a slight beany texture, but I wonder if I would really think that if I hadn't known what was in them.  The only draw back to these brownies is that they will likely make me gassier than regular brownies...   :D

40 bags in 40 days

Heard of it? I meant to post this yesterday but I forgot.  Oops.

The idea is during the 40 days of lent, you clean out 40 bags of trash, stuff you don't use, haven't seen in a few years, etc.  This sounds like a GREAT idea.  We were just talking last night about all the stuff we need to get rid of.  We still have several boxes of stuff that we haven't done anything with since we moved.  I think my 40 days will be more of an organizing mission than just getting rid of stuff.


I haven't yet made out my list of 40 areas to organize/clean out, but here is what I have so far:
1.Yesterday, we got a new washing machine and got rid of our two dead ones.  So I am counting that towards day 1!
2. Today I cleaned out all of Miss K's outgrown clothes
3. Organize K's closet
4. Clean out Mr. T's outgrown clothes
5. Organize Mr. T's closet (this may take two days as it is our biggest closet and therefore the junk closet!)
6. Organize mudroom
7. Mudroom closet
8. Clean out all those crazy boxes in the garage!
9. Living room book self
10. Craft area (will likely take more than one day also!)
11. Living room closet
12. File cabinet


It would seem that I don't have enough to fill 40 days, but really I am just feeling too lazy to finish the list right now.  I'm off to bed. zzzzz