Sweet Potato Hash

I love hash! Just saying the word makes me smile... but maybe that is due to the fact that it is such a funny word, especially for a meal...but nonetheless-hash is one of my favorite meals! It can be done in so many ways... In fact, when I was in elementary school we had a breakfast hash every once in a while and I would be soooo excited for days leading up to it! It was dreamingly delicious! But back to the sweet potato hash...

I came up with this recipe due to the overwhelming amount of leftovers in my frig and no desire to eat them as-is. I also had some coconut oil from Tropical Traditions that I wanted to experiment with. A clean frig, 20 minutes and one saucepan later-I was greeted with an amazing new meal that is going to have to find its place in my meal time rotation!

I love how versatile this recipe is-depending on your mood, time of year and leftovers in the frig-you can make many different types of hash... Let my recipe just be your guide-use your creativity and let your imagination flow! And then let me know what great hash variations you have created!

Ingredients:

-1 small sweet potato

-1 small onion

-2 tsp. coconut oil

-a few stalks of asparagus

-a handful of chopped carrots and snap peas

-around 4 ounces of cooked steak

Directions:

1. Melt coconut oil in a small sauce pan

2. Chop all your veggies/protein into small chunks or julienne (peppers and onions)
3. Saute your onions and potatoes (and peppers if using)
4. When those have browned to your liking add the rest of the veggies and protein pieces and cook until all is warm (veggies should be crisp tender)

5. Can be eaten as is or in a variety of creative ways-my favorite is in a whole wheat wrap!

So let me know-what is your favorite leftovers to make into a new meal? I'm always looking for double duty meals with leftovers! :)

Banana Granola

Oh granola... how I hate... love... am confused by you!

Granola-sounds so sweet, so innocent, so healthy... but it LIES! I'm not sure what granola's story is... maybe it started out as a healthy concoction but over time has transformed into a sugar bomb... or maybe secret agent spies were strategically placed around America in hopes to confuse the general public into thinking granola was healthy when it never really was... or maybe-just maybe granola tastes sooo freakishly amazing that we all started lying to ourselves and telling ourselves it was good for us! 

No matter how the granola = healthy equation ever got started-the truth is beginning to come out: (generally speaking) granola was not, is not, cannot be healthy! (Until now-that 'cannot' is going to be changed!)

Most granola starts out with great ingredients-oats, seeds, nuts, dried fruit, etc. but then the fat fairy (ya know-the same one that created Cold Stone Cake Batter Ice Cream and Applebee's Spinach Artichoke dip) came along and dumped in more sugar and oil than you should consume in a week! Now-don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great granola companies out there that supply us with great tasting, healthy granola...but most boxes of granola that line our grocery store shelves are not acceptable to the health conscious individual. 

Pop quiz! What has over 400 calories, 10 grams of fat and 26 grams of sugar? A doughnut? No... Snickers? Nope... If you guessed 1 cup of granola from one of the most popular cereal companies in America (yes-Quaker) you would be correct! That old man on the front of the package may look innocent-but I know he has a secret agenda to make us all chubby!

face of love? I think not!

So what's a granola lovin' girl to do? Make her own healthy/low calorie/high fiber/high protein granola of course! And that's exactly what I did! This granola will blow the roof off your store bought variety (both in taste and nutritional stats!) You can customize it to fit your personal taste buds and my tried and true method is basically fool-proof!

Here we go!

If you want-you can change this up by adding different flavorings/extracts or adding in 1/4 cup nut butter (I really like adding caramel flavoring!)

You can use any mixture of 6 cups of dry components-coconut, fiber one cereal, oats, etc.

Ingredients:
-1 ripe banana

-1 egg white

-1/4 cup sugar free maple syrup

-1/2 cup sugar (or any sugar substitute)

-1 TBSP. flavoring of choice (vanilla, almond, caramel-the sugar free coffee syrups work amazing!)

-Total of 6 cups dry ingredients

Directions:
1. Blend all wet ingredients in a blender/food processor 

2. Add them to dry ingredients and stir until all is wet

3. Add to a cookie sheet and bake on 200* stirring every 20 minutes (will take about 2 hours for a crispy granola)

4. Enjoy on top of yogurt, with smoothies, as a quick snack or even in a bowl covered in milk!

This granola is full of big clusters - not those little crumbles that some other granola is full of! 

Seed Bread

The name of this recipe might be a little bit of a turnoff for some people... In all honesty-I don't really love the vibe the name "Seed Bread" gives off. It kinda sounds like something you'd feed to birds, but don't judge this recipe by the name! I promise you-if you give this recipe an honest try you won't be sorry! 

This bread is very easy to make (thank you 21st century invention-the bread machine!). All you have to do is throw everything in the bread machine and let it do the work for you!

It's also extremely healthy! It uses some of the world's most amazing superfoods- flax seed and sunflower seeds. I'm always trying to find ways to use flax seed-it is full of healthy fats which I always find hard to get enough of! However, sometimes just sprinkling flax seed into yogurt or mixing with peanut butter gets old... and let's be honest-flax is not the most delicious treats in the world. But this bread recipe is! It is so moist and hearty, you can't even taste the flax seed in it (but your body will know the nutrients are there!)

So what are we waiting for?! Let's get down to the recipe so we can all enjoy this soft and scrumptious bread!

Ingredients:

-1 3/4 cup warm water

-3 TBSP. honey

-2 TBSP. butter

-1 tsp. salt

-1/2 cup flax seeds

-2 3/4 cup whole wheat flour

-4 tsp. vital wheat gluten

-1 pkg. yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

-1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Directions:

1. Add all ingredients to bread machine in order listed (you can wait and add the seeds at the 'mix-in' stage if you bread machine has one, but if not don't worry-the bread will still turn out fine if you add all ingredients at beginning!)

2. Place machine on 'whole wheat' setting and let it do its magic!

3. Enjoy slowly with a drizzle of honey 

Blueberry Banana Bread Pancakes

What do you get when you cross my blueberry banana nut bread with my banana bread pancakes?

 +

=

Blueberry Banana Pancakes of course!!!

These breakfast treat are delicious! I may even like them more than my original banana bread pancakes! :0 Crazy... I know...

They are so simple-the recipe is basically the banana bread pancake recipe but with blueberries (obviously) and few flavor additions here and there... The result? A warm, gooey breakfast (or anytime of the day) treat that is sure to please any tummy!

 Ingredients (makes 2 servings) :

-1 ripe banana

-1/3 cup dry oats

-1/4 cup cottage cheese (or yogurt)

-1 egg white

-1 tsp. vanilla

-1 tsp. almond extract (optional)

-1 cup blueberries

Directions:

1. Blend all ingredients except blueberries in a food processor/blender

2. Fold in blueberries

3. Cook on a hot griddle

To answer your question-no, I do not eat my breakfast on the grass! But don't the bright pancakes go perfectly with the sunny morning bouncing off the gorgeous green grass?!

DIG IN! I didn't even need any maple syrup with mine... the juices from the hot blueberries just exploded as I cut into the pancakes! 

Whole Wheat Bagels

Oh bagels... how I love your crisp and perfectly browned outside, matched with your soft, warm and chewy middle... and the unhealthy fats, bad carbs and high sugar content are great too (pause) NOT! 

Who out there loves bagels? Yeah, that's what I thought- everyone! Bagels are great for breakfast, make a fun sandwich and can be customized to fit even the pickiest of palates. Bagels are extremely popular.. they've been around since the 1700's! 

The most common flavor is plain (umm...boring!) But there is an endless list of how you could flavor your bagels! (Ideas following the recipe)

Ok...enough of me rambling on and on about the fun facts of bagels... let's get down to the important business at hand-a healthy AND delicious recipe for bagels!

These bagels are dense and chewy... they are full of good carbs from the whole wheat flour, low in sugar and can pumped up with nutritional additions (i.e. raisins, nuts, etc.)

So let's get baking!

After two hours...

 After 1 hour...

Let rest and rise another hour... then...

To finish: Place on a cornmeal dusted cookie sheet. (If you add toppings-like cinnamon sugar or seeds, sprinkle those on top of bagels now) Bake in a 500* preheated oven. Bake for five minutes then reduce heat to 450* and bake another 5 minutes

~Let cool at least 15 minutes! Then enjoy :) (how could you not enjoy these amazing snacks eh- breakfast um- amazingly delicious treats that are actually good for you! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Here I made peanut butter crunch bagels... Ahhhhhmazing! To the original recipe I added 1/2 cup chopped peanuts and 2 TBSP. chopped peanut butter chips after they had rest and rose in their ball form and before shaping into bagels.

*Tip: Try to make sure all your additions are on the inside of the bagel-not poking out. This will help make sure they don't fall off during the boiling.

Banana Bread Pancakes

Ever been craving some warm, fresh banana bread but didn't want to wait the 45 minutes for it to bake? You just want warm banana bread for breakfast, right NOW! This happened to me so I decided I needed to find a way to crush that craving and fast! 

Viola! Banana Bread Pancakes were born!

...see-sometimes doing whatever you can do to get what you want isn't such a bad thing! So next time you want something-don't settle! Go out there and get it! ...it might just lead to something amazing...like Banana Bread Pancakes :)

if you're anything like me-like the bowl clean!

ENJOY!

I like to top mine with peanut butter and whipped cream! Delicious!

Ingredients (for two servings):

-1 ripe banana

-1/3 cup oats

-1/4 cup cottage cheese (or yogurt)

-1 egg white

-1 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. Blend all in a blender (I used my amazing Ninja!) until smooth

2. Pour onto hot griddle and cook

3. Lick out batter bowl like you're 5 years old (completely optional, but oh so fun!)

4. Top with deliciousness-i.e. peanut butter, jelly, syrup, more cottage cheese, fresh fruit...need I go on?!

Last bite... :'( Tear!

Let me know: What is something that you get a craving for sometimes that just cannot be stopped? Mine is frozen yogurt! Mmmm Mmm Mmm!

Overnight Oats

Yes, I'm joining the bandwagon! I'm sure many (if not all) of you have seen a recipe or two (or ten THOUSAND) for a little thing called 'overnight oats'. But have you tried it yet? NO!? WHAT!? Are you people crazy! Overnight oats are the easiest, healthiest, fastest and one of the most delicious (a close tie with banana pancakes) breakfasts. This simple breakfast is so crazy good for you-full of protein, healthy carbs, healthy fats, fiber, and a bazillion vitamins and minerals! Talk about kickstarting your day!

It's cool, creamy and sweet-not to mention chock full of nutrients! But...it can also be made warm - all you need to do is throw it in the microwave for a few minutes.

So do I have you convinced you need to try it? No?! Wow, you guys are a tough crowd... well maybe this picture will do the trick:

You're ready to try now? ...ya-I thought whipped cream and sprinkles would change your mind :)

Basic Overnight Oats

Ingredients: 

-1/3 cup dry oats (or any other dry 'hot' cereal)

-1 TBSP. flax seed

-1 TBSP. chia seeds

-1 TBSP. wheat germ

-1/2 cup milk (any kind will work just fine!)

-1/2 cup Greek yogurt (but if you only have regular that is fine too! ...man I'm very agreeable today!)

Directions: 

1. Throw everything in a small mason jar and shake to stir it all together! OH WAIT! -be sure to add the jar's lid first! :)

2. Clean up the kitchen if you starting shaking your mason jar BEFORE reading the part about adding the jar's lid

3. Let sit overnight (or at least 6 hours) in the refrigerator

...there are so many variations of this-by adding different milks (almond, soy, chocolate!) or different yogurt flavors. You can also add fruit (fresh, frozen, canned), nuts, or any extracts & flavorings you may be feeling 

For this berry version I added to the basic recipe:

-1/4 cup berry blend frozen fruit

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 tsp. almond extract

-1 TBSP. slivered almonds

topped with whipped cream and sprinkles!

Feel free to mess around with the basic recipe and create some new combos all your own! Leave a comment and let me know your favorite recipe for overnight oats! I'd love to try some new varieties out :)

Nutritional Info: