Banana-Bluebery Apple Muffins, aka BBA Muffins

These would have been so appropriate during bowl season... If Pitt winds up at the BBA Compass Bowl AGAIN, you know what I'll be making myself -- Banana, Blueberry, Apple Muffins.  I had some bananas leftover from my baked oatmeal that were headed towards brown, and some blueberries from last week that were calling my name.  I took the banana muffin mix from Skinny Taste and modified it to omit cocoa and chocolate chips and turn it into BBA Muffins :)  Voila

Ingredients
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbl butter
4 very ripe bananas
2 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/4 cup 50/50 white/wheat mix flower
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 pint blueberries


Methods
Start with creaming the butter and sugar.  Once creamed I added the bananas.  Since they were so ripe and I was utilizing my Kitchenaid I didn't pre-mash, but just dropped them in.  Once they were mixed in, add the egg whites, applesauce, and vanilla.

Meanwhile I combined the dry in a bowl on the side and mixed them up.  Combine dry and wet.  Finally, fold in the blueberries. 

I baked for about 30 minutes at 350.   Let them cool, and enjoy. 

First, I'll say it... God Bless Kitchenaid.  Seriously,  the best kitchen toy I own, by far.BBA for the Win. 

These were super yummy.  They were a great way to finish my Meatless Monday.  I will most definitely be enjoying them for breakfast all week.  The blueberries were giant and beautiful, so the muffins are all so blueberry filled that I think even the anti-produce amongst us might like them.  I probably could have made them a little bigger, thereby making a dozen instead of fifteen muffins.. oh well. 

I will note, this is a similar recipe to what I followed for the strawberry muffins.  I noticed the same thing between both muffins -- they are tasty straight out of the oven, but they are not as easy to eat.  once they cool they come out of the muffin liners much better. 

Meatless Monday -- Black Beans and Brown Rice

BTW, I love beans.  Don't know when this love developed, but they are my secret favorite food.  So this made for an awesome dinner with leftovers for lunch.  It is essentially Skinny Taste's Cuban Beans and Rice. I doubled her recipe, used brown rice instead of white, and modified my cooking method/times.

Ingredients
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 small-medium yellow onion, diced
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
about 2 tbl olive oil
2 cans black beans
4 cups water
1 tsp cumin
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp oregano

Methods
1. I heated up some olive oil in the bottom of my heavy bottomed stock pot and softened up the peppers, onions and garlic.

2. I added the black beans, including the juice, brown rice, and 4 cups of water.  I also added the cumin, oregano, and bay leaves at this point.  I brought the mix to a boil, covered, lowered the temp and simmered until the brown rice was cooked.  At that point I took the lid off and boiled off some of the remining liquids to thicken up the sauce.

Opinions
Still love me some black beans.  This was a win.  Full of fiber and protein between the beans and rice.   I turned this into  servings, and they have been filling. The leftovers made for a good lunch too.  It was also not overtly salty, despite using the bean juice (i'm one of those people who ALWAYS rinses her beans).

I made something similar from Our Best Bites a few weeks ago... It was supposed to have chicken, but i felt the beans gave me enough protein.  that one had a nice apple salsa topping... I would be happy to add in the apples to this and make a nice mix between the two.

Chicken and White Bean Enchilladas

It is supposed to be a cold and snowy night in Pittsburgh.  I had a long day at work, and something delicious was on the menu.  You know I love some Mexican, and this was no let down.  I pretty much followed the skinnytaste.com recipe to the T.. except those things I sort of forgot at the store.

Filling
Olive Oil
~1/2 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
1 can chopped green chilis
1 can white beans (great northern) drained and rinsed
1-2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
abt 1.5 cups water
chicken soup base
1 tsp cumin

Sauce
1 tbl  of butter/oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tbl flour
1 cup chicken broth
2 jalapenos, minced
1/2 cup light sour cream

tortillas
cheese

1. Start with oil, onion, an garlic.  Cook to soften. Add remaining filling ingredients and simmer to thicken sauce (~15 minutes).  

2.  Soften onions in butter/oil.  Add flour, stirring to prevent burning (~1 min).  whisk in water to fully mix. Cook about 5 minutes to thicken.  Stir in chopped jalepenos and cook for a minute.  Remove from heat an stir in sourc ream. 

3. Pour a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of a 9 by 13 pan.  Take filling and fill tortillas and lay seam side down.  I had large tortillas, so I could only fit 5 in the pan. Cover with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes and enjoy some ooy gooey yum.

Verdict:  Win.  I really did only eat 1, which was fine for me since it was a little on the late side for dinner.  The tortillas were my favorite super tortillas (whole grain, high fiber).  Add in the beans and chicken and there wasn't need for much more than one.  I did want to eat more because it was so darn good.  It wasn't hot at all since i de-seeded the peppers.  I would add the canned chilis to the sauce, I just had forgotten to get two cans during last weeks shopping trip. 

Definitely repeatable.  I think the human garbage can might even eat this.

Blueberry-Banana Baked Oatmeal

I took advantage of the extra weekend day over MLK weekend to make myself a fun and fancy breakfast for the week.  I had seen the recipe for Blueberry-Bannana Baked Oatmeal over at skinnytaste a few days ago when she posted it.  I've been thinking about it ever since then, so this seemed the perfect day to go for it.  I didn't exactly follow her recipe, but modified it with a few substitutaions based on all the things I forgot to pick up from Giant Eagle and my general disinterest in all things measured. 

Ingredients
2 bananas
the better part of a pint of blueberries
brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup old fashioned oats
fat free milk
1 egg
vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

What I did....

-Preheat oven to 375.

-Spray a 9x9 pan with canola oil

-I sliced the bananas and put them on the bottom of the pan.  Covered the banana goodness with about half the blueberries and covered the fruit with about 1 tsp of cinamon and about 1 tsp of brown sugar (I had no honey at home, oops).  I added a little water (like 1 tbl) and baked for about 15 minutes

-I mixed up the oats, 1 tsp of the cinnamon, baking powder, a handful of pecan pieces, and a dash of salt in one bowl.  In another bowl I mixed up 1 cup milk, 1 egg, about 1/2 to 1 tsp brown sugar, and vanilla extract. 

- After the fruit came out I spread the oats over the top and covered evenly with the liquids.  It seemed like a little more liquid was needed so I added some extra milk (the liquid didn't cover the oats and since I was using regular oats instead of quick cook I thought extra liquid would be needed).  Then i topped with more blueberries and pecans and baked for about 30 minutes. 

I ate this warm.  It was delish.  I love bananas and blueberries, but often am too lazy to eat them.  However, this was a great way to get them into my meal along with some good oaty fiber.  I plan to slice the rest up and microwave them in the morning for breakfast this week.  I would call it a win and be interested in trying with apples and cranberries. 

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Happy New Year

I swear I've been cooking the last  several mos... my pants prove it!  But, I'm back.  With a vengance.  or something :)