Banana Oat Muffins

These muffins are  so d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. and only contain a few simple ingredients. Plus they are low-fat and flour-free, so they are a great snack or breakfast for people with celiac disease, gluten intolerance, heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, and well, anyone!

I should call they lazy day muffins, because they are so easy to make. You don’t have to mix anything yourself and you only have to clean 2 things when you are done – a food processor and a muffin tin. I am pretty sure they took 10 minutes from start to oven.

The recipe is a modification from “Keeping up with the Joneses” blog. I made their original recipe last week – it turned out ok but I knew it needed some tweaking. This version turned out perfect, so give it a try!

Simple Banana Oat Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups of old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tbsp baking soda
• 1 cup of fat-free plain yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 3 ripe bananas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. Place oats in a food processor and pulse until they are very fine chunks – not quite flour, but very small pieces.
3. Add the baking powder, baking soda, and sugar. Pulse a few times to mix.
4. Add the remaining ingredients and then let the food processor do the rest of the work! Process until well blended.
5. Fill the muffin tins nearly full with batter.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the top and edges are lightly browned (I did 25 minutes).

 

Green Smoothies

A few years ago I tried my first green monster. I may have blogged about it in the past. I offered Jason a giant glass of green and for the first time ever in our marriage, he hesitated to taste what I had prepared. He was already wincing as he put the glass to his lips. But, slowly after he took the first drink his face relaxed and he agreed it was delicious.

I first learned about the “Green Monster” smoothie from Angela at “Oh She Glows.” The recipe is simple – 2 cups of spinach, about 1 cup of fruit, a splash of milk, and ice (or no ice if you use frozen fruit). The possibilities and additions are endless. I recently started making these smoothies again as a new way to get my salad in for the day. Just google “green smoothie” or “green monster” and my comments will be confirmed – these are nothing short of amazing and delicious. Why are they so great?

• Make an entire meal in less than 10 minutes
• If you have a mini blender system, you barely make any dishes
• Get 2 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruit without thinking
• Grab-and-go – you can prepare them in advance
• Kids love them – we gave them out at a local grocery store as part of an Outgamine County FAN coalition and CAHL event
• 100% raw for those of you interested in detox or raw food diets
• Fit into ANY diet – gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, vegan-friendly, etc…
• Suprisingly filling – I have had one as a post-bike ride dinner and wasn’t hungry the rest of the night
• Delicious!

There are tons of recipes here. Feel free to share your recipes here or at the previous link!

Lynn’s Favorite Green Monster

Ingredients

• 2 cups spinach
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup blue berries
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• splash of almond milk (you can use any liquid – milk, milk-substitute, juice, water, etc…)

Directions

1. Pour a little milk in the bottom
2. Place spinach in the blender first – this prevents it from flying up into the lid
3. Put fresh fruit on top (set frozen fruit aside)
4. Pulse to see if there is enough milk. If the blender gets stuck, add a little more milk if needed
5. Blend until all of the ingredients are combined.
6. Add frozen fruit. Pulse a few times and then blend until thick.

 

Pineapple Pork Tenderloin

Pineapple Pork Tenderloin by A Year of Slow Cooking

Ingredients

• 3 pound pork tenderloin
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 colored bell peppers, seeded and sliced
• 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 16 ounces frozen pineapple (or a can of chunk pineapple, drained and rinsed)

Directions

1. Spray a 4 qt crockpot to prevent sugar from sticking.
2. Combine meat, sugar, spices, and cornstarch in a plastic zipper bag. Seal and shake well to coat. Pour contents of bag into crockpot. Add garlic and peppers. Pour in soy sauce, apple juice, and pineapple.
3. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours.
4. Serve with rice or shred and serve rolled up in wheat tortillas.

 

Cranberry Roast

Super Simple Cranberry Roast (beef or turkey) by A Year of Slow Cooking

Ingredients

• 2-3 pounds beef or pork roast or stew chunks
• 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes, or 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
• 2 cups whole berry cranberry sauce (canned or homemade)

Directions

1. Add the meat to a 4qt slow cooker. Add the onion, soy sauce, and cranberry sauce and soy sauce. Do not add water.
2. Cover and cook on low for 7-9 hours.

 

Apricot and Date Chicken

Slow Cooker Chicken with Apricots and Dates by A Year of Slow Cooking

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds chicken meat (boneless, skinless)
• 1 large yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup dried pitted dates, coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/4 cup orange juice

Directions

1. Put the chicken into the bottom of a 4 to 6-quart slow cooker.
2. Add diced onion, and spices. Sprinkle on the apricots and dates. Pour the broth and orange juice evenly over the top.
3. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours.  The chicken should be quite tender and shred easily with a fork. If your chicken isn’t tender enough, stir well and cook for a bit longer on low.
4. Serve with quinoa or brown rice with the juices.

 

Teriyaki and Apricot Pork Chops

Teriyaki and Apricot Pork Chops in the Slow Cooker by A Year of Slow Cooking

Ingredients

• 4 pork chops
• 2/3 cup apricot preserves
• 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried ginger
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Use a 4-quart slow cooker. If you only have a super large cooker, that’s okay; you can put an oven-safe dish into your cooker (Pyrex, corningware, baking pan) to create a smaller cooking vessel— then load the porkchops into it.
2. Put the chops into your slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the sauce ingredients and then pour evenly over the top of the chops.
3. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours. Your chops are done when they have reached desired tenderness. Serve with rice and sauce spooned over the top.

 

Berry Trifle

This is a super easy recipe I made for the 4th of July. I didn’t take a picture, but it looks a lot like the picture below from this website.

Ingredients:
-1 tub of low-fat cool whip
-2 boxes of fat-free vanilla pudding
-4 cups of skim milk (for the pudding)
-2 pints of blueberries
-2 pints of strawberries 
-1 ring of angel food cake (purchased or prepared on  your own).

Directions

1. Prepare the vanilla pudding and let set in the refrigerator.
2. Cut up the angel food cake into 1/2″ to 1″ cubes
3. In a large bowl, mix the angel food cake and berries.
4. Begin layering by placing a layer of fruit-cake mixture on the bottom of the dish. Top with dollops of pudding and cool whip. Repeat this layering until you reach the top of the dish.

*If you don’t have a tall dish, you can use a long cake pan and just have fewer layers.

 

Apple Crisp

Again, life is crazy busy and I have no pictures to share with you. I can tell you that every person who has had this dish enjoyed it and I have made it 3 times in the past 3 weeks! Usually I leave my apple peels on for added nutrition, but I eat so well already, I figured why not just peel them for the full apple crisp effect. Apple crisp is one of the healthiest fall desserts if you make it right. Plus, the main ingredient is apple, so you are getting a fruit serving (or two) in with each slice!

Ingredients

• 7 or so medium apples, peeled and thinly sliced (they don’t all need to be perfect slices)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, divided
• Cinnamon, apple pie spice, and nutmeg to taste
• 1/2 cup regular oats
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2-2 tbsp butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9″ x 9″ square baking dish and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, toss apple slices, spices, and 2 tbsp brown sugar*. Pour into prepared dish.
3. In a small bowl, mix flour and oats together. Add remaining sugar and additional spices, if desired. Cut in butter until it resembles a coarse meal. To use as little butter as possible, start with 1 TBSP and add more if needed.
4. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

I just found out that Jason likes his hot with ice cream but if there is no ice cream, he likes it cold…talk about high maintenance! 😉

*the apples are sweet already so you don’t really need sugar in the base. If you want, you can omit the sugar (I have done this and it still tastes great) and either remove it all together or add it to the topping for an extra sweet crunch.

 

Salmon with Sweet and Spicy Salsa

We had some frozen salmon left over that I really wanted to use up. I knew we would need easy-to-transport fruits for camping, so oranges seemed like the perfect pair with the salmon. I made a salsa (or chutney…I am not sure which this would be, if it is even either of these) the morning before we made the salmon. It was extremely hot outside, so I decided to just cook the salmon in a skillet instead of grilling it. In hindsight I think this was best – freezing the salmon dries it out and grilling is a dry cooking method, so by cooking it in a little oil and its own juices probably helped keep the salmon from tasting like jerky.

Ingredients:
– 1 red bell pepper, chopped
– 4 oranges, whole
– 1 medium onion, diced
– 1 yellow pepper, chopped
– 1 tbsp Caribbean jerk seasoning
– 1/4 tsp garlic powder
– 4 salmon fillets
– olive oil
– salt
– pepper
– 1 c. dry brown rice, cooked

Directions:
1. To prepare the salsa, peel 3 oranges and section them from their skins. To do this, cut the orange in half horizontally, so it looks like a halved grapefruit, Begin cutting the wedges out. By using the knife, you will cut the skin and the slice should peel apart from the skin. The flesh should look more like a Mandarin orange at this point. If not, it is okay to just use the whole orange. Add in the onions and peppers. With the 4th orange, use a grate and grate about 1 tbsp orange zest from the rind. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice from each half into the vegetable and fruit mixture. Add the Caribbean jerk and garlic. Mix well and let stand in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
2. To cook the salmon, heat a skillet to medium with a little olive oil. Place each fillet in the olive oil and then flip it and move it from the center. This will make sure each piece has some olive oil on it. Season the pieces with salt and pepper and press in with the spatula. Flip the pieces after 3 minutes or so and repeat with the seasoning. Cook until the fish flakes and the internal temperature is at least 145F.
3. Serve the salmon over brown rice and top with the salsa. Enjoy!

 

Snacks

Plums and Mangoes

Bing Cherries

Veggie Packs