Mini Bananas Foster Cakes

This year I was planning on making my brother either red velvet cookies or blondies for his birthday. However, I stumbled across this recipe from Dessert for Two and just had to share it with him. I'm so glad he requested this because o. m. g. this was delicious!

Since I don't own a mini muffin pan, I had to borrow one from a friend. So imagine me pulling these out of the oven and seeing this mess! I thought I ruined her pan! Turns out the stuff just peeled right off...whew.

This is what they looked like once popped out of their little holders...nice is caramelized...

And then this is what they look liked glazed...I'm drooling now...ha ha

I can't wait to find another excuse to make these again! Plus, I still have rum left in my little "airplane" bottle that I had to make a special trip to the liquor store for (the things I do for people...ha ha) that I don't want to go to waste. So who wants some?!?!

Overall, the recipe was super easy to follow and pretty quick to whip up. Please go check out  Dessert for Two for the recipe.

30 Day Yeast Free Recap

This recap is way over due! The 30 day yeast free challenge was definitely an eye opening experience. Here are a few things I learned...

1. It's not cheap eating clean!

The first trip to the grocery store to stock up on most of everything I would need drained my wallet. While the next few trips didn't add up to as much it was still more than I was used to spending on just myself. Also, I was visiting the grocery store at least twice a week.

2. Food prep will save your life!



R to L: Roasted Chickpeas, Salsa Chicken, Spaghetti Squash, Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

The first week I was not as prepared as I thought. I had breakfast and lunch prepped for the week, but didn't take time to make dinners. So each night was spent making something in the kitchen instead of relaxing after a long day at work. The next few weeks I got better and did prep some dinners on Sunday night.

3. I love Fruit!



Pumpkin pancakes with pureed raspberries

Blueberry Almond/Oat flour pancakes

Cutting out fruit for the first two weeks was extremely difficult. Yes I craved bread, pasta and rice, but since those were forbidden during the whole challenge I didn't think about them too much. But fruit? I was two weeks away from being able to eat it and that's all I could focus on. That first strawberry I put in my mouth tasted so sweet that I probably could have eaten a whole carton of them.

4. Exhausted!

My energy levels dropped significantly at first. I was coming home and taking naps! And working out? Forget about it. I don't think I went to the gym until the last week (granted the diet isn't the only this to blame since I was fighting/still fighting a knee injury).

5. Dessert!

Since no sugar was allowed, I had to get creative in order to satisfy my sweet tooth. Luckily a co-worker of mine told me about these things called Chocolate Delights that she is allowed to eat on her very strict diet. I don't have a picture of them, but they are on my Instagram account with the recipe. I also discovered a fudge recipe from PurelyTwins that fit the yeast free guidelines (pictured above). It takes coconut oil, cocoa powder, a little bit of stevia and water. Both desserts tasted more on the bitter side...like extremely dark chocolate, but they definitely hit the spot.

Overall, the diet didn't help much with my stomach issues, but I did end up losing about 8 pounds with half of that in the first week. Since ending the diet, I've tried to continue eating clean 80% of the time. I also, finally, went to the witch doctor who congratulated me for accomplishing the diet, but said that yeast was not my problem. He has me on a no starch diet (no bread, pasta, rice or white potatoes) and lots and lots of supplements. With taking the supplements and trying my best to stick to the diet he set out for me, my stomach issues have slowly been getting better!!

Daily supplements from the "witch" doctor...Morning on the left...Night on the right

February Meal: Crock Pot Chicken Curry

While this isn't the prettiest picture, it is best one I could take that actually looked liked food and not weird orange mush...ha ha. This recipe comes from fannetasticfood.com and she has much better pictures so go check hers out!

Minus the orange mush of this dish...I actually quite enjoyed it and it was definitely filling. I tried to stay as close as possible to Anne's ingredients since the title "Chicken Curry" kind of scared me.

Here's what I used...

Not pictured...chicken breasts and pre-cut butternut squash.

Recipe (originally from Anne at fannetasticfood.com)

1 cup Chicken broth
1 can Chick peas (rinsed and drained)
1 can Coconut milk (mine is 13.5 oz.)
2 T Chili Garlic Sauce (I used two heaping tablespoons)
3 Chicken breasts
1 package pre-cut fresh butternut squash (the only pre-cut butternut squash I could find at the store came in an 11 oz package...so just a little less than the original recipe)

Place everything in the crock pot. Stir. I set mine on high for 6 hours...probably should have done less time, but I wasn't hungry at 4 pm so I let it cook longer.

I served mine over a bed of spinach the first night and added a side of broccoli to eat with my leftovers the next two nights.

My biggest complaint about this meal is that the butternut squash became quite mushy. If/when I make this again, I think I will add in the butternut squash half way through.

Weekend Update: 2/14 - 2/16

This picture is actually from 2 weekends ago when I went to the Hill Country to visit my Aunt. This is my new friend, Stormy, the only horse out of 6 horses that came to say hello. I love how we are both actually looking at the camera...ha ha.

Now to this past week/weekend...

I finally found almond milk yogurt!!!! I used it in my red velvet pancake recipe. Let's just say I was a little surprised when I opened it and it didn't look like regular yogurt...ha ha. I haven't tried it by itself yet, but I know there will be a night I forget to prep my breakfast for the morning, so I'm saving it for such an occasion.

As we were all reminded every day since Christmas, Valentines day was this past Friday. I didn't have much planned, other than trying not to eat the entire bag of m&m's sitting on my counter, and was completely surprised when I got this special delivery from a very special guy who is currently half way around the world!! I even rationed the 24 chocolate covered strawberries to last me through Sunday night...trust me that is a lot of self control for me!

Saturday, I did my one and only work out for the week, (shame shame) an hour and 5 mins on the treadmill! Two weeks ago, I instagrammed that I actually ran a mile for the first time since injuring my knee and since I was able to walk after that I decided to up it a little this time. I ran for a total of 1.5 miles and could still walk Sunday...woo hoo! After my workout, I let my heart rate monitor run a little longer and was surprised to see over 1000 calories when I finally stopped it! I've never seen the calories burned number that high, but then again most of my workouts are 20-45 mins. After my workout, I went back home to a pretty sad looking lunch...tuna and apple. I literally had nothing else...ha ha...I needed to go to the store bad!

To avoid eating tuna and apple for lunch and dinner, I went to the store and picked up some quick and easy meal items. Since starting the yeast free diet (which is more like 80/20 yeast free now) I crave Chipotle all. the. time. But my wallet just can't handle their expensive bowls :( So I decided to create my own! I heated up some black beans and pinto beans with a little seasoning, put those over a bed of torn spinach, put shredded chicken over that and finally some avocado...Delicious! Was it as good as Chipotle?!?! Of course not, but it didn't cost me quite as much ha ha. I had it for lunch Sunday as well and will probably eat the rest of it for lunch Tuesday.

After a very lazy Sunday morning of watching movies (I watched American beauty...one of two Oscar best picture movies I watched this weekend...the other one was In the Heat of the Night), I started working on a winter mesh wreath for Barrett's mom. His mom gave me a mesh wreath idea book for Christmas and picked out two that she "wanted" ha ha. Since all the Christmas/winter stuff went on sale right after I received the book, I decided to go scoop some stuff up and make one of the wreaths she liked. I think it turned out pretty decent. I'm going to surprise her with it this weekend when they are in town. Hopefully, I'll have two surprises for her, but the other one may not happen/get spoiled...ha ha The rest of Sunday was spent doing laundry and other chores while my dinner was cooking in the crock pot (more on that later).

How was y'alls weekend?

Red Velvet Pancakes

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Valentine's day so far. Mine has consisted of lunch with a friend and then tonight I plan on making myself a steak dinner while catching up on some Pretty Little Liars (yes I still watch ABC Family shows).  I know I have a few things to catch everyone up on (like the recap of my yeast free diet), but since these pancakes fit the occasion I thought I would share them today and then do a life recap next week (hopefully...no promises ha ha).

I saw a recipe for red velvet waffles over on Fiterazzi and fell in love at first glance. Since I don't own a waffle maker, I had to make pancakes instead. I also didn't want to deal with making sure I had dairy pills on hand so I didn't make the filling, but it looks amazing. Definitely worth checking out if you don't have issues like me. I changed the recipe slightly so below is my version.

Red Velvet Pancakes
**adapted from Fiterazzi**

2 T Oat Flour
2 T Coconut Flour
1 T Ghiradelli Unsweetend Cocoa Powder (I really do think the better quality cocoa you have, the better tasting things will be)
1 T Stevia
1 T Almond Yogurt
3 T Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (I use the Silk brand)
1 Egg
Red food coloring

Directions

Place all dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir to combine/get rid of any clumps.
Make a well in the middle and add your wet ingredients.
Whisk everything together.
If the color is not red enough...add more food coloring (the one I have is gel like)
Heat your skillet or frying pan over medium heat (I use a medium 10 in non-stick frying pan)
Pour the batter into whatever size/shapes you want. I used a metal cookie cutter with some type of coating over it to make the heart shapes.
Enjoy!

I topped mine with a drizzle of melted dark chocolate chips. Feel free to get creative :) If anyone makes these with the filling, let me know how it is!!!

Weekend Update: 1/24 - 1/26

After surviving the ice apocalypse part 1 last Friday, the rest of my weekend looked like this...

We had a beard shaving party Friday night. It was sad to see the beard go :( And yes I did love the crazy beard.



 

Before and After of the beard shaving party

 

 

Saturday, early afternoon, I watched as he left for his grand adventure.

 

Saturday night I finally got around to trying my hand at Cauliflower mashed potatoes again. Having a legit steamer basket and an amazing food processor really helped. I added a little bit of olive oil, almond milk, salt, pepper and garlic powder to the cauliflower. I love that it made my plate look more like a normal meal!

 

 

Sunday I woke up to enjoy a new favorite of mine, a breakfast cookie along with a new tea. The tea is called natural energy (you might have seen a commercial with Kat Dennings for it) and I don't know if it was the tea or just a good amount of sleep, but I didn't feel tired at all yesterday! Maybe it was all mental...ha ha...who knows.

 

After breakfast, I was a good girl and did my knee rehab for the day. I've been battling pain in my knee for a few months now and over the past few weeks it got pretty bad. With the encouragement of Barrett and Elizabeth, I finally went to the doctor. Apparently, I have something called Jumper's Knee. My knee cap has not been tracking properly so the pain I feel when squatting down is because my knee cap slides to the inside of my leg. The doc has given me several exercises to help it not do that anymore and wearing tape is supposed to help as well. Hopefully by the end of next week I will be cleared for running and jumping again. Since starting the rehab, I have noticed it is less painful to walk up and down the stairs! Yay!!

After rehabbing my knee and face timing with Barrett, it was time to start meal prepping for the week. I made pumpkin blueberry pancakes, coconut tortillas, turkey taco meat, guacamole and hamburgers. I may or may not have done a little happy dance when I saw how perfect my avocados looked...it's the little things :)

 

While all my food was cooling, I took advantage of the nice day and sat outside on my balcony and tortured myself by looking through lots of yummy food magazines...ha ha. I tore out a few recipes to save for when I'm not on a super strict diet. Then it was time for dinner and to watch the Grammy Awards. I wasn't too impressed with them this year.

 

How was y'alls weekend? Did you make anything yummy? Did you watch the Grammys? What did you think?

#nomnomnom

Sooooo...I started a yeast free for thirty days diet. I'm one week and two days into this thing and it has not been easy. I'm doing this more to see if this will help any of the stomach issues I have and the minor weight loss is a bonus. This means no sugar, dairy or carbs for thirty days. This includes no fruit for the first two weeks. For the people who have had to put up with me, I applaud you...the mood swings are not fun...ha ha. I'm slowly learning new foods to eat and have found some I'm in love with...



Roasted chickpeas are hands down my new favorite snack. I made them for the first time this past weekend and already went through one batch. I can eat them just like I eat popcorn. They are made with cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Yummy in my tummy.

Next up, we have chocolate delights. These little guys have really helped with my sweet tooth cravings. They are made with coconut oil, cocoa powder and a little bit of almond milk with stevia. These can be catered to any ones taste, it just so happens I like them more dark chocolaty. You could easily make them more milk chocolaty by adding more milk and stevia. You can also get fancy and add things to the middle, but I'm in the super strict phase of the YF diet so they are only chocolate. Oh and yes those are tiki mask molds...ha ha...what can I say I don't have any other flexible ice cube trays.



This last new food item was an absolute life saver last week. This is called a breakfast cookie and it is delicious! The first two days of the YF challenge I just had egg muffins, but then felt so completely disgusting (which happens a lot when I eat eggs) that I just couldn't stomach eating them the rest of the week. So then I tried almond flour pancakes. While they weren't bad, they were super dry and since I can't add any fruit, until January 27th, to help add some moisture to them I decided I needed something else to try again. Then came this cookie! I was a little worried about it since I don't really care for protein powder, but honestly after the initial bite everything was smooth sailing! I ate this Thursday through Sunday. Thank goodness you can have oats in things on this food plan.

I will try to remember to recap my whole experience after the thirty days are up, but don't hold me to it...ha ha.

January Meal: Turkey and Zucchini Noodle Soup

This is a total "what do I have on hand" makeshift recipe...ha ha. Luckily it turned out pretty good!! On the day I made this, I knew three things...I wanted soup, I had fried turkey that needed to be eaten and I had zucchini that was going to have to be thrown out soon. I looked in my pantry and found one can of chicken broth and thought I can make this work.

What I used...

1 regular sized can of Chicken Broth
1 1/2 cups water
3 small to medium sized zucchinis shredded long ways into noodles
1 T garlic powder
6 oz fried white meat turkey no skin
black pepper to taste

What I did...

Combine the can of chicken broth and the water into a medium sized pot and bring to a boil. While the liquid is heating start shredding the zucchini. Carefully add zucchini, garlic powder and however much black pepper you like to the pot. While zucchini is cooking cut up your turkey into small chunks. Add turkey to the pot. Continue cooking until zucchini is tender.

This was pretty good using what I could find, but when I make this again I will definitely be using more chicken broth. :)

New Year's Black Eyed Pea Casserole

Well it's officially 2014!! Seriously how did that happen?!?! While I'm still debating if I want to create a list of 14 goals to complete in 2014, I thought I would go ahead and share my version of my family's Black Eyed Pea Casserole.

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
1 can (15 -16 oz) black eyed peas with jalapeno
2 cups cooked rice
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
Lantana or Tony Chacheres to taste

Directions

Brown ground beef in a large skillet with garlic and Lantana. Mix in the rest of the ingredients in the order given. Bake in a 13x9 casserole dish at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

 
This dish almost completely hides the taste of the black eyed peas for non fans. I also like to top mine with some hot sauce. This year I used Rod Ryan Show Hot Sauce #ghostpepper and it was delicious!!

For those out there that aren't as picky as I am, here is the original recipe...

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
2 cans (15 -16 oz) black eyed peas with jalapeno
2 cups cooked rice
1 can canned tomatoes (2 cups), drained
1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup minced onions
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper

Directions

Brown ground beef in a large skillet with garlic. Mix in the rest of the ingredients in the order given. Bake in a 13x9 casserole dish at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Really I should have used 2 cans in my version, but I was in a hurry at the store and didn't read the recipe right...ha ha. Other than that, I don't care for onions or chunks of tomatoes so I omitted those.

December Meal: Salsa Chicken

It's the last day of the year and time for my very last recipe post of 2013!! Where did the time go?!?! 

I know I say this quite a bit, but this was probably the easiest thing I've made. 2 ingredients!! That's it!

You need chicken and a jar of hot sauce! I used 3 chicken breasts and a jar of Hot Pace that I blended ( no me gusta chunky bits). All you do is put your chicken in the crockpot and pour the entire jar of hot sauce over it and let it cook. I cooked mine on low for about 9 hours.

I separated it into 3 containers since there were 3 chicken breasts, but turns out that is way too much for one serving. I'm not even sure how many meals I got out of this since I ended up having to toss some out, but that's what happens when there is only one person eating it. 

I ate it with black bean quinoa chips, sweet potato chips and corn tortillas...it even tasted good on its own. I will definitely be making this again!

Hope every one has a happy and safe New Year's Eve tonight! See ya in 2014!! 

Cran-Apricot Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Bake

I've been looking for new hot breakfast recipes (since I've been told to stop eating my oatmeal with peanut butter in the mornings) and came across a quinoa bake from Fitsugar and decided to try out my own version since I'm not a huge fan of hot apples, raisins in anything or syrup.

Ingredients...

1 cup uncooked quinoa (rinsed)
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup Craisins
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots 
2 eggs
2 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup slivered almonds
splash of vanilla

Mix together the quinoa, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves in a small bowl and pour into a greased 8x8 baking dish.

Sprinkle the craisins and apricots on top of the quinoa

In the same bowl the quinoa was mixed in, whisk together the milk, honey, eggs and vanilla. Pour the mixture on top of the quinoa and fruit. Sprinkle the almonds on top of everything and bake it for an hour at 350 degrees F. 

Let cool a few minutes then serve. If you make it at night and want it the next day, heat it up in the microwave for a minute. This should make 4-6 servings (depending on how hungry you are and if you are adding anything on the side).  Enjoy!

**check out the FitSugar link at the top for the original version made with apples and raisins**

Pumpkin Sopapilla Cheesecake Fail

I mentioned a few weeks back that the last week of November had lots of birthdays and one special birthday girl had requested a pumpkin sopapilla cheesecake. I searched the internet for a simple recipe and came across one from Six Sisters Stuff that made a smaller cheesecake with pretty much the same ingredients as the regular version I make every year.

It smelled amazing while baking in the oven and looked pretty delicious when it came out of the oven (picture above). I let it cool for an hour and then when I tried to cut it disaster struck and it ended up looking like this...

 

It completely fell apart! I was only able to salvage the 4 corner pieces...I was so mad. I believe I've used a Six Sisters Stuff recipe before and I'm pretty sure it didn't turn out either. To me this recipe had too much pumpkin in it which in turn made too much filling and a very thin filling. Everything tasted really good, but I will never make this recipe again. I would, however, like to try my hand at making a pumpkin cheesecake again, but instead of pumpkin puree I've thought about pumpkin cream cheese or finding a recipe with pumpkin butter.

Has anyone else made a pumpkin cheesecake? Did you like the recipe you used? 

November Meal 2: Italian Parmesan Garlic Chicken

With my new suggested eating habits, I've been trying to think of different ways to make chicken. My favorite will always be sweet chipotle chicken, but I can't eat that everyday boo. A few Fridays ago I decided to make a recipe similar to one I found on pinterest.

The pinterest recipe called for an Italian seasoning packet, but I didn't have one on hand so I went into my spice cabinet and found a good ol' Penzeys spice jar, Bouquet Garni.

1/2 c Parmesan Cheese
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 T Bouquet Garni (or any Italian-ish seasoning)

I mixed all 3 ingredients together and then coated my chicken (wet with only water) in the mixture.  I then baked it at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes.  I served my chicken with a side of roasted garlic quinoa (I love garlic if you couldn't tell).

I really liked how this chicken turned out...especially that crispy little end you see up there in the picture. Yummy!

November Meal: Shredded Chicken Taco Chili

Yay for using my crockpot again!! Woo Hoo! I had pinned this recipe a long time ago and re discovered it this weeknd. I decided to give a go since it was perfect for my new no grain low grain (let's be honest I love me some cupcakes) diet.

The original pin included 1 can of corn, 1 can of diced tomatoes and 1 packet of taco seaoning instead of homemade taco seasoning. The pin also did not specify whether to drain the beans or not. I did not drain the black beans, but did drain the kindney beans.

This was pretty good. I'm not used to such a bean-y flavor (fun fact: traditional Texas chili does not have beans), but it wasn't bad. I would, however, like it to be spicier next time. Maybe with some extra cayanne pepper?!?! Yum!