Flourless Banana Muffins

Ingredients:
-4 very ripe bananas
-2 eggs
-2/3 C milk
-3 C oats
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 TB cinnamon
-3 oz Chobani Pineapple Greek Yogurt
-half a small can of crushed pineapple with juice
-1 TB baking powder
-Optional addition of chopped pecans,  1/2 cup
-1/2 tsp ginger
-Pinch of salt
-Dash of nutmeg

Mix all of the ingredients well and put them in cupcake liners in a muffin pan.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, until the top starts to brown. I ended up sprinkling mine with cinnamon sugar, but that is completely optional.

These were SUPPOSED to taste more like hummingbird cake, but the crushed pineapple I used just did not quite have the flavor that some name brands tend to have.  I noticed it in the last recipe I used as well.  How frustrating.  Cinnamon applesauce should also be considered if you don't have yogurt on hand.

These can easily be gluten free if you buy the right oats.  But no matter what, without having the sugar in them they are a better option for breakfast than a typical muffin.  I used super ripe nearly black bananas, if you use a less flavorful one you might consider adding a little honey in. 

These raise a little, I filled the wells with about 2.5 TB of batter.  Well, really probably 3 since they were heaping scoops...

Definitely bake these in cupcake liners.  Banana works GREAT in recipes, but it can be a little bit of a pain if you don't grease your pans good enough.  Parchment paper and cupcake liners save you a lot of potential hassle.  Once the muffins cool down they are fine, if you try to get one out of the wrapper while it is still hot it will tear a bit.  Not to mention, these taste so much better when they are cooled down, so just wait.

You could use Banana CHO, the pecans or walnuts, and easily have a banana bread muffin and just 86 the darn crushed pineapple that has let me down. 

Oh well.  I love banana muffins QUITE a bit, so these will be just fine by me.

Happy crafting!  I have some much needed sleep to catch up on.

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Fantastic Crockpot Tomato Dill Soup

Ingredients:
-1 28oz can of diced tomatoes (I used Meijer Naturals)
-3 tomatoes, chopped into 1/8ths or so
-4.5 C chicken broth
-1 TB dill
-2 TB finely chopped onion
-Salt and Pepper to taste

I tossed it all in my crockpot and let it go on low for 8 hours. 

I had boiled some chicken earlier in the week with about 4 TB of butter (for around 5 or 6 chicken tenderloins) and used the leftover broth from that to make this soup.

When I got home from stats I mashed around with my potato masher (I don't have a blender or similar) and then served it with some finely shredded mozzarella and toast.  You could start with tomato juice instead of diced tomatoes if you prefer something a little less chunky.  I love a hearty chunky soup.

The TB of dill looks like a lot when you toss it in but do not be alarmed.  The onion measurement may sound odd, but I really just grab a few slices of the onion I have frozen in my freezer and break it in to little pieces.  I would imagine it comes out to a couple of tablespoons.  You can add more or less to your personal preference, I happen to be a big believer in a little onion goes a long way.  This soup is without a doubt the best soup that I have made in a really long time, if not ever.  I mean my chicken tortilla soup is pretty darn good...but this absolutely hit the spot today.  It is packed with flavor.

AND my crockpot did all the work.

AND I have ample leftovers for the next few days.  Tasty!

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Roasted DELICIOUSNESS: Potatoes, ham, tomatoes, herbs, chicken broth

Some of you might be able to use some leftover Easter ham in this type of dish! Yea right, who ever has Easter ham leftover...

Roasting dishes is what got me through my senior year of college.  If you ever need an easy meal that is pretty much foolproof, the general equation is veggies cut thin + meat + seasoning + a little water and butter = HEAVEN.  Although you have to wait for an hour.

For this particular full glass dish (approx. 13x9ish dimensions) I cut up 5 small red potatoes into cubes, plopped my container of tomatoes in various colors down in it, put a few rings of an onion chopped fine, and 3 slices of hand torn up into bits.

I seasoned mine with basil (a lot), rosemary (a little), seasoning salt (a lot, it's potatoes after all), and pepper (some).  Then I poured in 3/4 C homemade chicken broth, a TB or less of butter in small pieces (as I knew I would get some flavor from the stock, you can use water too just add more butter). 

I roasted it covered with foil at 350 for about an hour.

I used to do this a lot with chicken, usually using closer to a cup of water, and would drain off the "stock" left in the pan after roasting and use it as a base in soup.  Since mine tend to have a medley of veggies and herbs, the juices left behind are perfect to get a small pot of soup going.  I would say that in my senior year, I probably roasted something close to once a week, and always used the broth leftover in some sort of soup concoction.  You can use the broth AND leftover meats and veggies in a soup as well.  Allow me to suggest tortellini in soup.  Yum, now I am hungry again.

It is a really great option for those days when you get back to your apartment, want to just lay on the floor and try to take in the incredibly hectic day you had.  You can throw all this in a pan with very little prep needed, and even take a nap for the next hour as long as you are a responsible human and set multiple alarms and timers so that you don't forget. You can absolutely make similar dishes in crockpots, but for those days that just don't go as you planned and there isn't a crock pot of yumminess waiting for you, it isn't a bad option. 

I usually take roasting times to catch up on dishes or other loose ends as I rarely budget the time to do dishes after breakfast in the mornings.

Foolproof, minimal dishes, minimal work...highly recommended for new cooks, college kids, and anyone who has had a stressful day and just wants some comfort food.

If it was a really bad, terrible day....up the butter.  HAH!

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Taco Bowl

Ingredients:
-1 8" taco shell
-1/2 C-1C shredded chicken
-1/4 C corn
-Lettuce, tomato, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, and desired toppings

We have probably by now all see the idea of baking a taco shell in the bottom of a muffin pan.  I opted to toss mine in a cake pan as well to make it a little easier for me to grab out of the oven.  I put the tortilla shell between the cups and rubbed it with a little canola oil so that it would crisp up in the oven.  I popped it in at 350 until it was golden brown.  I really could have left mine in a few minutes longer, as you can tell it is a very light golden, but I was really hungry...

Earlier I had boiled 4 strips of chicken tenderloins with enough water to cover them, salt, and about 4 TB of butter. 

After they had boiled for about 40 minutes, I was able to shred them.  I ended up with plenty of chicken for this and for the chipotle chicken salad that I will make later this week.  I popped the excess chicken in my freezer so that I did not have to worry about it staying fresh until Thursday.

I also was left with a large container full of chicken broth, which is slated for use in a couple of recipes this week. 

With the chicken I was going to use in this, I popped it in a skillet with a very small pat of butter, 1/4 C water, and a generous sprinkle of taco seasoning.  I also tossed in the frozen corn.  Really everything is already cooked you are just going for seasoning here, so I let it cook on low until the taco bowl was done.

Then I piled on the toppings and stuffed my face.  It was delicious.  The best part about this is the tomato medley pack was on sale for 99 cents as they were starting to get a little soft (perfect for roasting in my Tuesday dinner) and the guacamole was also clearanced out for being close to the expiration date but it will survive substantially longer in my freezer.  This all made my taco bowl delicious and highly affordable.

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Skinny Carrot Raisin Salad (Pineapple Chobani Style!)

I sincerely adore Chick-fil-A's carrot raisin salad.  It is actually my favorite thing on the menu, and I am very sad that the location on campus here does not have it.  I understand that it is a miniature selection of their menu, but everyone should have CRS on demand!

What I do not love, however, is the 12 grams of fat.  At all.  So naturally, I set out to make my own version.  Now, without using mayo this of course does not have quite the same flavor as the original, but this did come out with a fantastically bright flavor that is oh so right up my alley.

I used 3 carrots, 1/4 C golden raisins, 3 oz pineapple Chobani Greek Yogurt (half a container), 1/2 can crushed pineapple, 1 TB honey, a couple drops of lemon extract (feel free to just use a little squirt of lemon juice), and a pinch of brown sugar. 

I finely shredded the carrots and added the remaining ingredients.  I personally did not drain the pineapple and so mine has juiced up a bit, but I am not worried about this one. You can feel free to add regular raisins or a mix of them, I just happen to prefer golden in general so I used what I had.  Also, you can add as many as you like.  I think raisins are especially delicious in this type of dish.

Again, it does not taste identical but I think it tastes delicious!  Instead of the 12 grams of fat, Chobani Pineapple has 2.5 grams for the whole container and we are only using half here.  Not to mention, the yogurt in here alone brings in almost 7 grams of protein itself.  Carrots pack a pretty decent punch when it comes to Vitamin C, and they aren't crunchy and rabbit-y when you shred them finely.

It should hold out fine in your fridge for a couple of days.  I would say this recipe makes a similar amount to what you would get in a large order, my container was pretty full by the time it was done.

If anyone had told me a few years ago that I would be buying 2 pound bags of carrots every couple of weeks at the grocery, I would have told them they had lost their mind.  But as it turns out, they are a lot more versatile than what I think they get credit for, especially when you finely shred them.  Between this and my carrot raisin bites recipe (found here http://greenzebra9.blogspot.com/2013/03/carrot-raisin-bites.html) I definitely can see me going through this bag and a whole lot of yogurt.

Happy crafting!

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Blue Jeans Gift Bag

So many people talk about finding the perfect guy, and that's great and all...but what about finding the perfect pair of jeans? You know that pair of jeans that you put on and instantly feel like you could conquer the world, your sassy levels skyrocket, and you just feel awesome?

Yea well mine died.

I had my beloved "Rockstar" jeans as I called them for five years and I would almost bet my mom washed them at a bare minimum every other week, sometimes probably more.  I wore them all the time.  They fit me through my lowest weights of those years and they fit me in the higher weights (just maybe not as well..).  In some circumstances, they were my Traveling Pants.  Literally, they got a Bachelor's degree with me and made it through the first semester of my Master's degree.

But you can't turn back time and you can't patch a hole when the entire rest of the material around it is completely threadbare.  The hips were starting to thread through, the legs were, and it was just futile.  With my mind completely set against throwing them away, I sought out other things I could do with them.

They were too threadbare to do a skirt, sadly, but I did end up making bags out of them.  I think this one is particularly cute, so though I have posted this once for a different style bag I will do this one as well.

All I did was essentially cut the jeans from the top down on each side of the zipper and cut them across right below the back pockets.  This gave me two sections of jeans to work with, in which I simply only had to sew one side and the bottom.  The top kept its beautiful waistband, the other side kept its professional hem, and Jenna had to sew less.

Which if anyone knows my sewing skills or complete lack thereof, knows that is a good thing.  I have that fancy Singer now in the background, but sadly I have still managed to find ways to screw up most projects...I really should stick to baking and food.

Anyway, I had cut the thick seams out as close as I could on each side to use as straps on some of the bags.  For this little bag, however, I laced the seam through the belt loops and tied it to pull the top together.

You can easily put a gift card in the front pocket, fun stuff in the back pocket, something bigger in the main part of the bag, and come up with a really fun gift in an innovative and very eco-friendly bag. 

This bag is going in my craft studio, however, because it has the precious and most favorite patch I have ever had on a pair of jeans and so I want to reuse it for my very black and white crafty space.  And I always need more organizational things.

So if you just have a pair of jeans that you can't give away because no one else could wear them and they have seen their better days, think about bags! It is a fun way to remember them and pass the fun along to others.

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Lemon Cheesecake Pops

 Ingredients:
-2 8 oz Packs reduced fat cream cheese
-1 6oz container of Chobani Lemon Yogurt
-Zest of 1 Lemon
-1 tsp lemon extract
-2 eggs
-1/2 C sugar
-lollipop sticks
-vanilla candy coating

Mix up all of these ingredients really well in your mixer.  I baked mine at 375 in a glass dish for about 40 minutes, and my sides were really brown when I pulled it out.  I was pretty surprised because cheesecakes tend to take a bit longer than that, but I have also never made one in my oven.  So, with no crust on it and whatnot, maybe start checking it around or a little after 30 minutes, or start it out on 350 so that you don't have to worry about it browning.


You can also use this mix in a crust as a regular cheesecake, just note that you will want to use a water bath and typical cheesecake methods.  For pops, you don't need that color on them you just need them done and holding together, and sometimes slightly formable.

Is formable a word?  Is now.

Anyway pull the cooked cheesecake filling out of the oven and let it cool.  I put a fan on mine so that the heat would dissipate faster, and set it on a cooling rack. 

You can use a cookie scoop if you have one (I would suggest melon baller size instead of really large cookie scoop).  Of course, this is yet ANOTHER kitchen gadget that I do not own.  My birthday list is going to be entirely from a cookware department.  If you are like me and do not have one, I just cut most of my cheesecake into squares and formed the weird shaped edges into balls. 

You might consider just baking it in a square or rectangular size pan to begin with.  The only pan I had that was small enough (maybe an 8 or 9 inch) was a glass baking dish.  My rectangular ones would have made a very thin filling. 

Anyway, put the cubes or balls onto a cookie sheet and stick the lolipop sticks in them.  Freeze them for at least 45 minutes, and then working with a few at a time dip them in melted vanilla candy coating.  I found it easier to use a big spoon and pour the coating over them.  You may find that you need to add a couple tablespoons to your candy coating to get a nice thin coat on these, in which case just add it, give it a good mix, and reheat for another 5-10 seconds if necessary. 

As a general rule, you can pretty much always sub out 1 pack to half of the cream cheese in a cheesecake recipe for greek yogurt.  I have done a pumpkin cheesecake with honey Chobani that went over very well at a Thanksgiving feast, and have done lemon ones like these before.  By far Lemon Chobani packs the most flavor into a little cup, so I highly recommend it in lemon cheesecake ventures if you are looking to lighten one up a bit. 

All in all this made 24 pops.  With the reduced fat cream cheese and the no fat Chobani yogurt, one of these little buggers is not nearly as problematic to a diet.  And the bright lemon flavors just remind me how much I want to see spring...and not more snowflakes....

The NEXT cheesecake I make will be on a homemade graham crust.  We shall see how that turns out.

Happy crafting!

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