Fill-You-Up Breakfasts

I've been trying to broaden my breakfast horizons lately. I want to try to stay away from boxed cereals, frozen waffles, and other foods that my lazy self normally enjoys and stick with whole foods. I'm no hippie (or maybe I'm in denial...) but I like cooking from scratch, so why engorge in boxed foods? I need to embrace my creativity... with minimal work, haha! Anyway...

Usually I use my over-ripe bananas to make banana bread; but, honestly, after a while it gets pretty mundane to just make banana bread all the time!

I decided to come up with a random breakfast food a couple of weeks ago using some bananas that were nearing their end.

Banana Pan-Cakes

Makes 6 Cakes

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup ground flax meal

2 ripe bananas

1/2 tsp cinnamon

a spash of soy milk

I mashed up all the ingredients together. It kind of looked like sticky oatmeal cookie batter while tasting like banana bread!

Form them into 6 patties (or however many you want) and brown them in a skillet. For me this was about 5 minutes on each side. Yum!

Next up, I really enjoy the idea of things cooking themselves while I sleep. A while ago I tried to make crock-pot oatmeal and failed miserably. This time I decided to stay away from the heat as to avoid further disappointment.

Maybe this isn't traditional muesli but it tastes good (and is good for you!) and I don't know what else to call it.

Lazy Girl Tropical Muesli

Makes 2 servings.

Nutrition information is here.

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt

16 pieces frozen mango chunks

3 packets Truvia sweetener

1/4 cup coconut flakes

1/3 cup unsweetened light soy milk

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until thoroughly combined. It'll be really thick. Cover with a lid and refrigerate overnight.

I've made this a couple of more times with fresh diced up strawberries and kiwi, coconut, and sunflower seeds. It's very versatile, so use whatever you have on hand!

Carb Addiction? Maybe!

I'm realizing more and more as I look at the foods I'm eating on my SparkPeople nutrition tracker that I'm totally enamored with carbohydrates. Not necessarily white sugar (as I tend to use Truvia in my coffee, baking, etc.) or breads, but I eat lots of cereal, oatmeal, fruits, and other things that are high in carbs and naturally-occurring sugars.

But, since I've been baking and cooking more frequently due to this blog (more so baking than cooking!) I've been completely carb-crazy beyond what I've been previously!

Anyway, here are some delicious creations that were pretty simple! One is my very own creation, and one is from another blog.

Strawberry-Banana Flax Pancakes

Makes 6 Pancakes

1 cup Heart Smart Bisquick mix

2 tbsp ground flax meal

1 banana, mashed

3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk

4 strawberries, diced

2 packets Truvia sweetener

1 egg white

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Make pancakes with a 1/4 cup measuring cup and cook until brown on both sides.

I don't think these need any syrup because when you get a bite that has a bit of strawberry in it, you get a punch of sweetness! Man, Bisquick is awesome -- perfect for lazy folks like myself!

Cocoa Banana Cupcakes

Makes 12 Cupcakes

Taken from Love and Olive Oil.

This was really simple to make! Substitute apple sauce for the oil and Truvia for the sugar and it will be not-so-bad for you in the end... right? (Haha.)

Flavor-full, photo-full, and recipe-full!

It's been a while since I've posted any recipes, and for that I am so sorry! Despite this, I have been baking like crazy lately, so this post will be full of many delicious recipes!

But, first...

My last recipe that was posted was a layered minty brownie. Despite the components of them tasting very good that night, when I brought them to work it was kind of disastrous. The frosting slowly melted while at work. It only took about 10 minutes out on my desk for it to start getting really messy. My coworkers also gave it mediocre reviews. Edible, but not delicious, so I don't think I'll make these again.

Determined, I continued on with the baking and came up with many other delicious things to compensate for this semi-failure.

Apple Doughnuffins

About 15 Muffins

Based on this recipe.

Full nutrition is here.

For muffins:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
.5 cup sugar
3 packets Truvia sweetener
.25 tsp ground cinnamon
.75 cup light plain soy milk
3 tbsp egg whites
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

For topping:
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp Earth Balance spread, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin tray with non-stick spray.

Mix all wet ingredients until thoroughly combined, followed by dry ingredients. Distribute evenly in muffin tray and bake for 15-20 minutes or until it passes the clean toothpick test.

For topping, melt the margarine. In a separate bowl mix the cinnamon and sugar. When muffins are done baking, brush tops with melted margarine and dunk in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve immediately or let cool.

Fun fact: The apple sauce I used was home-made by a friend's mother! It's so so so yummy! I named them "doughnuffins" because they are extremely airy like a doughnut!

What I learned: These muffins stuck to the paper liners. I never used to use liners, but decided on a whim to try them a few months ago. I loved how little clean-up there was after baking (hell, I'm lazy, so this was great!) but now I know that the less butter there is in something, the more it will stick... and holy crap... these were practically PLASTERED to the liners! Whoops. Now I know.

So, this was a bit of a failure, too, but what you could separate from the liner was yummy!

Mocha Brownies

Makes 32 Squares

Based on this recipe.

Full nutrition here.

Because I precisely followed the recipe (for probably the first time ever!) I'm not going to post the full recipe here. I even used all of the ingredients... even heavy cream! *shock!* The only thing I did differently was use two 8x8 glass dishes instead of one 13x9 dish. Because I'm a dork, I know that the usable square inches is nearly identical so I figured it wouldn't affect it too much... and I was right!

These were a complete and utter success!

What I learned: Firstly, I made ganache for the first time! This taught me patience, yet again.

Heating the cream on medium-low heat took a while, especially staring at it waiting for the bubbles to start forming. Letting the hot cream sit on top of the chocolate for 5 minutes was absolutely painstaking! In the end, it was totally worth it and it yielded a creamy, delicious ganache!

I also used a pastry bag for the first time! I only did some simple dots of ganache with a #4 tip, but it was still fun to use!

In the middle of the large dot in the center is not a jelly bean - it's a Trader Joe's Espresso Pillow! These things are delicious just as a snack, but they totally worked with this brownie treat!

Finally, I learned that sometimes the full-fat, original recipes can be the best. I was told by many of my friends and coworkers that this is the best recipe I've ever made. A few wanted the recipe, too, and I totally gave credit to the original!

Strawberry-Banana Bread

Makes 12 Slices

Loosely based off of this recipe.

Nutrition info is here.

1.5 cups whole wheat flour
.25 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 eggs
1/4 cup agave nectar
1.5 cup diced strawberries
2 tbsp ground flax meal
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 bananas, mashed
2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp light plain soy milk
1 tbsp quick oats

Spray the bottom and sides of a loaf pan with non-stick spray. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, mix the diced strawberries and agave nectar and set aside.

Mix together the mashed bananas, vanilla, flax meal, soy milk, apple sauce, and eggs in a large bowl. When combined, add the strawberry-agave mixture and mix.

Add all remaining ingredients to the mixture except oats. When everything is mixed together, pour into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle oats on top.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cover with foil and bake for another 25 minutes. Remove bread from the pan and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before slicing.

...isn't strawberry season the best season??!! :)