Pinteresting Breakfast Cookies

I have made a handful of things I’ve discovered on Pinterest.  Some with fairly great success, some with utter failure.  Such is the way it goes when trusting instructions found randomly on the internet.

So when I came across this easy-sounding breakfast cookie recipe I wasn’t entirely sure how it would go.  I mean, no sugar…no flour…no butter…what kind of cookies were these?!  But since I had all of the ingredients on hand, including exactly three frozen overripe bananas, I decided to give it go.

And they worked!

Instead of just raisins, I reduced the oats a little bit and added coconut and sunflower seeds…just to make the flavours a little more interesting…but I kept the ratios of wet to dry the same.  Going forward it will be easy to mix up the add-ins with whatever I happen to have in the cupboard at the time. 

These are definitely not a sweet cookie.  The sweetness comes only from the bananas so be prepared when you take your first bite.  More like a dense banana oatmeal muffin, minus the 250 grams of fat.

Michael loves them.  He’s stockpiling bananas just to get them overripe so I’ll make another batch. 

Breakfast Cookies (adapted from Wisebread.com)

yields 13 cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 mashed overripe bananas
• 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup UVAB (or milk of your choice)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 heaping tablespoons unsalted sunflower seeds
• generous sprinkle of cinnamon
• scant pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients together until moist throughout.  Scoop into individual cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
3. Bake 18-20 minutes until bottoms begin to brown.  Let cool on tray 5 minutes.  Finish cooling on counter or rack.
4. Store in an airtight container or zipper bag in the refrigerator.

According to MyFitnessPal this version comes out to about 145 calories per cookie.

Cookies for Breakfast

Did you guys know it was Friday today?  I think I missed that memo.  My week has completely disappeared!  Not that I’m complaining…I’m just realizing that my blog sat empty of posts all week and I didn’t even notice.  Awful I tell you.  Just awful!

Mainly it’s because I’ve been a busy girl, I’ve barely eaten at home let alone create anything delicious to share with you, and the majority of my ‘workouts’ this week have been walking the dog around the block in between work projects.

But not to worry!  Last night after I got through work and a visit with my bestie I rummaged around the kitchen and came up with enough yummy ingredients to invent a quick little breakfast cookie to share.

Of course, you could eat these any time but since I munched down three with my coffee this morning I must refer to them as breakfast cookies!

Blueberry-Apricot Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies

Yields 20 cookies, give or take a few

approximately 110 calories each as per MyFitnessPal

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries
• 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped small
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup butter, melted but not boiling or hot
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp orange juice
• 1 tbsp orange zest, finely minced
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup milk (I used vanilla coconut milk)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper, set aside.
2. In a large bowl mix together all dry ingredients, including coconut and dried fruit.
3. In a separate bowl mix together all wet ingredients, except the milk.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, then mix all together using a fork to ensure all dry ingredients are moistened.  Stir in the first 1/4 cup of milk.  Add more milk if necessary to reach a ‘mucky’ consistency.  (You are looking for the dough to be moist but still holding together to form the cookies).
5. Scoop dough by spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, just until bottoms become golden.  Cool on baking rack.

I didn’t use quite enough butter in mine and then cooked my first batch about a minute too long so they are a wee bit dry.  But I’ve altered the recipe for you all so you shouldn’t have any issues.  These are not a sweet cookie which is what makes them nice for breakfast time, but I’d gobble these up with a cup of tea in the evening too.

There’s just something about fresh and chewy dried blueberries!  Love.

What’s your favourite dried fruit?  I love dried cherries but they are seemingly impossible to find around here!

What I Ate Today

It’s been months since I stopped doing the daily ‘this is what I ate today’ posts and for some reason this morning I picked up my camera after I made my toast and took a picture of it.  I decided it must be my brain’s way of saying I should document a day of eats from time to time.  :)

Breakfast (275 calories):  Since I quit doing the daily posts I eat the same thing probably 4-5 times a week.  Silver Hills toast with Trader Joe’s almond butter and half a banana sliced on top.  Plus coffeeeeee…obviously.  Now with almond milk.

Lunch (380 calories):  I got overloaded on salads a few weeks back and started eating other random things for a little while.  But I have a whole bag of spinach that isn’t going to eat itself so a bigass salad in the big silver bowl it was for today.  Baby spinach, a sprinkle of shredded cheddar, radishes, cucumbers, and tomatoes dressed with olive oil and coarse salt and topped with a perfectly over-medium egg.  Always with a crunchy, carby side dish….today we have Carr’s poppyseed crackers with light herby cream cheese.

Snack time (260 calories):  Having my workouts smack in the middle of my afternoon generally leads me to two snacks these days…depending on when I scarfed down lunch.  Today enough time had passed that I decided to munch on a Kashi granola bar on the way to the gym. 

And when I got home and showered I powered myself back up with a strawberry smoothie. Simply blended four fresh strawberries, ice, vanilla protein powder and UVAB. Refreshing!

Dinner (575 calories):  Brought to you by these yummy little fresh corn tortillas I picked up at one of our local outdoor markets recently. 

I suppose you would call these tacos since after I took this photo I folded these bad boys in half and chowed down.  Sauce running down my fingers and all.  Isn’t that how you know it’s one of the best tacos?

Corn tortillas crisped up in a hot pan with no-stick spray, topped with seasoned chorizo and black beans, a wee bit of shredded cheese, fresh tomatoes and light sour cream doctored up with lime juice and cilantro.  I love it when a random meal idea becomes the tastiest thing I’ve made in weeks!

Dessert (100 calories):  I’m trying to keep sweets and baked dessert treats to the weekends so have starting eating fruit as my evening snack.  The bag of pink grapefruit I bought recently may have been the best pink grapefruits ever!  Sadly this was the last one.  So freaking good.

Now I’m sitting here wishing I had chocolate (thanks to the bag of PB M&Ms I dominated this weekend) but instead I am about to fill my water bottle, get my fuzzy blankey and hit the couch for an hour of chill time before heading to bed. 

What was the best thing you ate today?

Did you #EmbraceMonday?  Post will be up tomorrow morning!

(total calories = 1590: all calculated by MyFitnessPal)

Blueberry Brunch Muffins

When I was a kid my Mom would occasionally make blueberry muffins as a weekend breakfast treat.  Actually, it was probably brunch because I’ve always been a late sleeper but I suspect that when I was 10 I didn’t actually know what brunch was.

Funny how that works because now as an adult brunch is one of my favourite things ever.  Whether that be hitting up a cool restaurant for a plate full of hash browns or chilling in my pyjamas eating homemade muffins with my scrambled eggs.  Either way, brunch is the shiz.

Those little muffins my Mom made were delicious.  I remember them clearly as if it was yesterday.  Sadly there was no recipe (because they came from a package…shhhhhh) so when I got to thinking about them I had to do a lot of searching around to see if I could find something that even came close.

No healthy, flax filled, bran muffin was going to cut it here! 

Once I started looking I became inspired to change things up a little make my own version of brunch muffins.  Sure blueberry is nice…but how’s about something a little snazzier?  Gorgeous navel oranges were on sale this week which made for beautiful inspiration!

Oranges and blueberries piled into a perfect dome topped muffin?  I think so.  And while we’re at it, let’s dig out some almonds and add a little crumble to the top of these.  Oh, and if that isn’t enough let’s add Greek yogurt to the batter to really get things going. :)

Now these aren’t my Mama’s muffins but maybe, just maybe, these are my muffins!  Sunday pyjama brunch, look out.

Blueberry-Orange Yogurt Muffins with Almond Streusel Topping

inspired by My Baking Addiction

yields 12 muffins

Ingredients:

Muffins

• zest of one navel orange
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• juice of two navel oranges
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Streusel Topping

• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 cup almonds
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp cold butter
• pinch of orange zest
• pinch of cinnamon
• drop of almond extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. In a food processor, blitz almonds until coarsely chopped.  Add remaining streusel ingredients and blitz to a combined coarse crumb.  Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. In a small bowl, combine orange zest and sugar. Mix with your fingertips until sugar is lump free and combined. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
5. In large bowl, beat eggs and sugar mixture with a whisk until thoroughly incorporated. Continue beating while slowly pouring in the oil. Stir in vanilla.
6. Whisk dry ingredients into egg mixture alternating with yogurt until smooth. Gently fold in blueberries.
7. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin and top with a heaping tablespoon of streusel topping.  Press lightly with fingers.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until streusel begins to brown.  Do not overcook.  Let cool completely.

Notes:

• No food processor?  No problem.  Just chop your almonds by hand, stir dry ingredients together with a fork, then cut butter in using two knives.  Harder work but similar result.
• Avoid using paper muffin liners.  The blueberries stick and that’s no fun. 
• Mine were slightly overcooked on the bottom.  Ensure you use the middle oven rack (or higher even) and check for doneness at 16-17 minutes.

According to MyFitnessPal these beauties roll in at about 210 calories per muffin with the streusel, and about 260 calories with it.  Treat indeed!

I guess the next project will be to healthy up these little balls of white sugar and all purpose flour.  Or maybe some things just aren’t meant to be messed with.  Next you’ll be asking me to healthy up the bacon in my brunch.

Gasp.

Winning the Grocery War

You know what happens when you meal plan, make a real grocery list, and actually stick to all of it?  You get fresh meals, leftovers, and full use of everything perishable in your fridge.

Bread keeps in the freezer so I stashed the rest of the open loaf away and stuck to yogurt and blueberries with hemp seeds for breakfast yesterday morning.  Sorry toast, but fresh blueberries are winning the breakfast war.

It’s possible to eat pretty much the same salad every day but just changing the dressing makes it seem totally different.

It also helps to use up the leftover rice and tzatziki that wouldn’t last another day in the fridge.

Afternoon sweet tooth.  Still managing one square per day but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been considering mowing through the whole bar.  Nom.

Finally BC nectarines are here. 

With the leftovers all taken care of it was time for a proper dinner.  Seafood was actually on my grocery list but I switched it out for this marinated pork loin chop instead.  Half the price and big enough for two dinners.

All I had to do was cook it up under the broiler.  I matched it up with the rest of Monday night’s zucchini…this time coated with olive oil and sprinkled with s&p and cooked under the broiler with the pork.  Topped it with bocconcini cheese while it was still crazy hot.

Also found hiding in the produce drawer were some new potatoes I didn’t use up last week.  Quartered, boiled, and tossed with butter and fresh parsley and chives from my patio planters.

Easy peasy and comforting.  Not to mention pretty darn tasty.

After dinner Chibi and I headed out to hang out with Michael and Burl for the evening.  Instead of dessert I shared a beer with Michael while we relaxed in the hot tub. 

Yeah.  The hot tub again.  Twist my rubber arm.  ;)

Surrogate Family

So one of the big things that has come along with dating Michael is extra family.  I come from a tiny family (hi Mom!) so his large family has been somewhat of an experience for me.

Sunday afternoon his Mom and stepdad came to stay with him so an impromptu BBQ dinner was planned and the next thing we knew it was a table of eight for dinner.

With quick calls to a couple of family members and a trip to the supermarket for ribs and chicken, Michael had enough food on it’s way to make the meal happen.

I offered to bring something and when he said “beer” I whined and said I wanted to bring food.  haha.  So he assigned me the salad.  Weeeee!  I also had a fresh loaf of Fol Epi ciabatta bread just dying to be used so I toted that along with me too.

His sister-in-law baked a Crustless Coconut Custard Cake for dessert.  It was crazy delicious!

In the morning there were still six of us hanging around for breakfast so we decided we might as well do a sit down meal.  I was the only one having to head off to work (bummer) but I decided to chip in and put breakfast together anyway.  Someone had mentioned French Toast before bed and I had to have it!

Michael hooked me up with a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread and I got to work.  We served it up with butter, syrup, and fresh strawberries right from his garden!

Of course, he ended up having the most genius idea at the table…

How do you score double the strawberries?

Well, you build a French Toast sammich stack of course!

And the best part of helping cook breakfast for six people?

Someone else will do most of the clean up.  :)

Quickie

Hmmm…breakfasts are looking shockingly similar each day.  Yogurt, granola, fruit on hand.  Today we have a baby banana and fresh, not-quite-ripe-enough blackberries.

Coffee photos seem to be getting neglected.  Today: one hot, one cold.

I make good turkey burgers.  Just sayin’.  Leftover on simple salad with avocado.  Sandwich thin & hummus on the side.

This fruit is labelled as a peach…but it tastes, feels and looks remarkably like a nectarine.  I think the hybrid fruit fairy might have made a visit to the orchard.

Flattened almond buttered banana.

You’ll have to wait for tomorrow morning’s post to hear about dinner.  It was so yummy it deserved it’s very own post. 

Teaser.

Workout: 5 minutes Cybex, 15 minutes upper body strength exercises, 5 minutes easiest ab exercises ever + fun wood choppers, C25K Day 2 on treadmill.

The old lady back screams a wee bit in the form of hip pain but I get that if I walk the dog for more than 10 minutes so I’m just going to push on and believe that it will strengthen up and hurt less.

Goodlife finally got keytags here.  So nice not to carry around a ghetto laminated hand written wallet card anymore!