Banana-Berry Applesauce Muffins

Posted: August 21, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Food | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

To say I have a love-hate relationship with banana muffins may very well be an understatement.

Seeing as I eat a banana nearly every day for breakfast (our breakfast bill for the week rings up to about a whopping $2!), there are inevitably some sad, sorry bananas that go brown before they have a chance to be eaten. And so goes my experimenting with banana muffins. (Disclaimer: the photo below was taken a day before I made this recipe. Slightly more ripe is better for the recipe, but not for the eyes.)

See, I didn’t just want to make any banana muffins. I wanted to make super-duper healthy ones. Like with applesauce, or oats, or agave, or Greek yogurt. Yet my tests garnered some less-than-stellar results: some were strange textures, others nearly flavorless, others were even stranger textures.

But, fear not! I am sharing this recipe because it is a keeper. I based it off of this recipe. They are so delicious that I am proclaiming my struggle over and now I’ll have to find a new food to fight. Annnnnd there is no butter or oil, but they are still wonderfully nice and moist.

You’ll need:

2 ripe bananas
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond flavoring
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 heaping cup frozen mixed berries (I used a combination of blackberries, raspberries and blueberries)


To make:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas with a fork and mix in sugar. Holding back the fruit, stir in remaining ingredients until just blended. Fold in berries. Pour batter into greased muffins tins and bake approximately 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. This makes 12 muffins.

It was so hard not to eat them all fresh out of the oven, but those piping hot pockets of berries were a good deterrent for someone who usually breaks the cooling rule.

Yum, yum, yum. And, oh happy day, I’ve finally got the winning banana muffin!

Grown-up Fruit Salad

Posted: July 9, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Food | Tags: , , , , , , | 5 Comments

This fruit dish is the sophisticated older sibling (or rich aunt or something) of the typical 1950s-inspired picnic staple. No marshmallows. No Cool Whip. No fat. No added sugar. It’s filled with pure fresh ingredients like Greek yogurt, agave and lime juice to create the perfect balance of tart and sweet, and it’s just rich enough to feel decadent.

It’s such a perfect way to finish off a fancy meal when the temperatures are too hot to eat anything too heavy, or to bother with cooking at all. Andy and I love ending a meal with sliced strawberries topped fresh whipped cream and balsamic vinegar. Buuuut… heavy whipping cream, no matter how light and heavenly it may turn out to be, is not ideal for watching a swimsuit figure. So I whipped this up sans the whipping. It is honestly just as delicious, if not more so!

What you’ll need:

1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup blackberries
(any berries will work in this, so use whatever you have!)
1 T Triplesec
Juice of 1 lime

For the topping:
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 T agave nectar
1 T honey
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Plus:
Fruit flavored balsamic vinegar for drizzling. We used mango, but blackberry is wonderful as well on fruit. Or simple balsamic would work fine too if you can’t find any flavored variations.

This will make two servings.

Toss fruit with Triplesec and lime juice. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Whisk topping ingredients together and spoon over fruit immediately before serving. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. I promise you won’t miss the Cool Whip or the calories. Nope.

Do you have any favorite super simple after dinner summer favorites?