at home with ann

I frequently make scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Thanks to the ever-changing moods of my little diners, there are some days I get zero eggs and other days I eat all three.  Add that to some discarded clementine sections and a few soggy cheerios and I have quite the balanced breakfast.  Feast or famine in the life of a mom. These breakfast bars, however, are always a hit.  They are easy to make, using just one bowl and a baking dish.  They are healthy, containing no added sugar.  Best of all, they taste like banana bread.  We're lucky if a batch lasts us two days. Banana Breakfast Bars recipe modified from Crazy for Crust Ingredients: 2 medium bananas; the riper, the better 1/4 cup coconut oil 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour) 1 cup old fashioned oats Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare an 8x8 pan with parchment or cook...

You knew that I, queen of the muffins with muffin monsters to feed, could not let zucchini season pass by without making muffins one or twelve times.  Some questionable looking bananas on the counter were begging to be added in, and Zucchini Banana Muffins were born. We made these to snack on at a play date this morning. The batter comes together quickly, and thanks to their mini size, they bake in about 15 minutes.  I had just taken them out to cool when it was time to put James down for his nap.  While I was upstairs I heard what I could only guess to be many, many small items being hurled across the floor.  After leaving the baby's room I knew there was some frantic picking up to be done, but also delicious warm muffins as my reward.  By the time I got downstairs Colin had sampled a few, of course, and confirmed they are great. Zucchini Banana Muffins Ingredients: 1 cup banana, mashed (I used two bananas) 1 cup zucchini, shredded, squeezed to remove...

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments and notes from my last post.  It really does help to know Sarah has so many people in her corner! These cookies are so healthy, you can eat them for breakfast.  Plus, they only have four ingredients and come together in less than five minutes, so you could even bake them in the morning.  I made them with the help of my trusty kitchen assistant one very cold morning last week who ate handfuls of batter straight from the bowl.  By lunchtime we had nearly finished off the batch, but it's ok, because they are good for you! Peanut Butter and Jelly Oatmeal Cookies recipe from Skinnytaste 2 ripe bananas, mashed 1 cup uncooked oats 2 Tablespoons peanut butter ~1 Tablespoon jam Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet, either  by spraying or lining with a baking mat or parchment paper. Mix banana, oats and peanut butter together. Drop heaping tablespoons (I like my little cookie scoop for this) onto ...

I make these recipes for Colin, but grown up people might like them too! Colin was never big into baby food purees.  I fed him one jar of food back when he first started eating solids, mostly so that I could have the cute mini jar to use for lotion.  I think those "complete meals in a jar" are kind of creepy.  Chicken dinner puree?  No, thanks.  For the most part he has eaten fruits and vegetables, either raw, steamed, roasted or sauteed.  A few things have been big hits and I use them as staples: broccoli and roasted sweet potatoes.  He's big in picking things up himself.  We can get into ruts, however, one of which resulted in his eating an entire roasted butternut squash over a two week period. He likes to help in the kitchen, which means he wants to see everything that's going on and touch it.  Cooking with one hand while holding him with the other can be a bit of a challenge.  Sometimes I can convince him that the view from his c...

While this is the best banana bread recipe ever, it's good to try new things.  New things that don't have six tablespoons of butter in them.  Especially since we can polish off a loaf of banana bread over the course of a weekend without much difficulty.  Also, I went on an applesauce buying bender for Colin a few weeks ago, so we have plenty around.  I considered trying to healthify up this recipe a bit more by subbing in wheat or wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose and cutting down the sugar, but then I didn't.  I'll let you know if I do, and if you do tell me how it goes.  If you are a fan of AHWA on Facebook (and I hope you are!), you know that I made this in just a few minutes during naptime last week.  Then I thought about using all my extra time to clean the bathtub but opted to complain about it on Facebook instead.  Lower Fat Banana Bread 2 cups flour 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon...

Here's another "recipe" with one ingredient. Freeze banana chunks.  If you have a weird compulsion to buy all the bananas in the "reduced produce" section because they cost something about 5 cents each, you might have some on hand.  Oh, that's just me.  Let's move on.  Place frozen banana chunks in the food processor and let it whirl.  Stop and scrape down the sides every so often.  It will go through a weird banana pellet stage.  Don't be deterred.  Keep scraping it down and pushing the banana into the blade.  It will eventually become the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Eat as is, or add in cocoa powder, peanut butter, strawberries or whatever you like.  This makes the perfect sweet treat afternoon snack. I shared mine with my sidekick, which is why we used this elegant spoon. He loved it, and kind of dominated the spoon. In fact, this was the expression he made every time I deigned to take a bite. I probably...

I am a firm believer in the philosophy that food eaten while standing in your kitchen does not count towards your daily allowance.  This especially applies to anything eaten straight out of the refrigerator.  This can be problematic when you find yourself doing nearly all your eating standing up the kitchen, or when you are supposed to be sharing with your husband and brother-in-law.  I swear I only taste-tested one of these muffins fresh from the oven, but my batch only made 11, so now it looks like I ate two.  But I didn't!  Not yet, at least.  I should have just said the batch only made six.  A few notes, as this recipe is somewhat a work in progress.  I think one egg would be sufficient, the banana works as a binder.  I like chunks of fruit in my muffins, but it doesn't work well for mini muffins.  You end up with no fruit or only fruit.  To make mini muffins, I would try pureeing the strawberries and bananas together before...

Look! I made a smoothie that isn't green!  It does still have vegetables in it, however, so you can count it as healthy. As I've mentioned before, carrot cake is my favorite cake.  I've taken to buying bags of baby carrots for us to snack on throughout the week, and at one point we had three bags (two opened, how does that happen...) in the fridge.  This was the perfect use for a couple carrots. Carrot Cake Smoothie Based on Oh She Glows 1 banana (frozen works best, but fresh is fine) 1/2-1 cup almond milk (any milk will do) 1 carrot, grated (or 4 baby carrots) A few shakes of Cinnamon Dash of Nutmeg A few drops Vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon chia seeds 1 Tablespoon flaked coconut Ice cubes Combine all ingredients in a blend and run until smooth. If you have a fancy, high speed blender like the Vitamix, you could put the carrots in in chunks, but for a regular blender I would recommend grating first. At some point I'll to try adding spinach for ext...

This is yet another Pinterest find.  I spend far too many hours on Pinterest while wearing Colin asleep in his sling. I should be reading.  Or bettering my mind.  Or doing something other than looking at recipes that make me hungry all the time.  While I've gotten pretty good at cooking and eating with him in the Baby K'tan, it's not always ideal, and I don't want to be smashing pots and pans and waking him up.  That's why the food I eat during the day is mostly whatever can be eaten quickly, usually while standing up in the kitchen, and without utensils.  That's where these cookies come in.  They are nutritious, made with whole grains, fruit and some spices.  More like a breakfast bar than a cookie, except without preservatives and added sugar.  They are perfect for snacks, and I'll also keep the recipe for Colin's breakfasts and lunchboxes once he gets teeth.    Strawberry Banana Breakfast Cookies makes 14 cookies recipe in...

That recipe title is quite a mouthful.  Get it?  A mouthful?  I make myself laugh. You probably all think I'm weird. In any case, I had a craving for pancakes last weekend.  The baby and I were on our own for the weekend while Jon went on a ski trip.  It was freezing cold and windy so we stayed cozy and warm inside the whole time.  Such occasions call for pancakes.  Unfortunately, we were out of eggs and I wanted to skip the butter (more on that to come).  I did a few google searches for ideas and came up with Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Vegan Pancakes.  Hardly more ingredients than a bowl of oatmeal, but so much better.  No added sugar or fat make these healthy pancakes perfect for any day.  Or every day, in my case.  Oatmeal Banana Whole Wheat Vegan Pancakes yield: 6 pancakes I'll let you decide how many people that serves.  Ingredients: 3/4 cup milk (I used almond and rice milk- I've made these 4 times in the pa...

I had a couple of bananas on the counter just begging to be baked this weekend.  I made banana muffins last week and we had no trouble polishing them off in a few days, but I wanted to try something a little different, and marginally healthier.  A little internet searching and I came across a couple of good ideas.  These snack bars are a great alternative to store-bought cereal bars, and you can even get away with eating one for a sweet breakfast. Banana Oat Bars Ingredients: 1 1/3 cups old fashioned oats 1/4 cup white sugar (Mushy bananas are pretty sweet to start with, so I would try cutting this out next time) 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2 medium mashed bananas (about one cup) 1/4 cup milk 1 whole egg plus 1 egg white 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 8x8 or 9x9 baking dish with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray. Whisk together oats, sugars, bakin...

This is the time of year when cherries are on sale at the market.  By "on sale," I mean that you can manage to buy a bag for less than $10.  If they weren't so good, I couldn't bring myself to pay so much for them.  The only problem I've found is that if you don't eat the cherries within 2-3 days, they start to go bad.  And throwing away $8 worth of cherries is not good.  I noticed ours were on the verge yesterday, so I spent a good chunk of the afternoon pitting and slicing them to freeze.  My hands and countertops are stained with cherry juice, but I now have a nice big bag of cherries in the freezer for whenever the mood strikes me. I sometimes joke that I could write a cookbook called "what's about to go bad."  I hate wasting food, so whenever some produce is nearing the end of it's life, I come up with some use for it right away.  Smoothies are great for any fruit that's still ok, but you wouldn't necessarily want to eat on it...

While on vacation last week, I indulged in quite a few desserts.  I am never one to turn down key lime pie. As such, I tried to keep my purchases at the market this week a little cleaner, which meant no ice cream.  That's all well and good, but it's only Wednesday and I already found myself digging into the bag of chocolate chips, so I knew I needed to make something.   Oh She Glows No Bake Chocolate Cookies  were the perfect option for chocolately banana goodness with some extra nutrition thrown in for good measure.  The best part was that they took less than 10 minutes to prepare.  The worst part was waiting the hour for them to firm up in the freezer. Frosty No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies recipe from Oh She Glows Ingredients: 1/2 cup rolled oats 1/4 cup chocolate chips (non-dairy if you are vegan) 1 large banana 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Tbsp chia seeds 1 tsp cocoa powder sweetener, optional (I thought they were plenty sweet) In a microwa...

I had a few pretty scary looking bananas in the fruit bowl this week.  They had passed the point of eating on their own, and had even passed the point of freezing for smoothies.  I really had no choice other than to bake with them or toss them.  Instead of my usual banana bread (which you may remember from here ), I decided to go with muffins.  Partly because I've been on a muffin kick, partly because we were about to go out of town and I could smuggle them onto the plane, and partly because they freeze well.  But mostly because some of my college friends reminded me about Muffin Films, which we use to watch constantly.  (My favorite one is Pssst .)  Now you probably think I'm weird.  Perhaps I can draw you back in by buying your friendship with baked goods? I love this recipe, because it always works, and I can practically make it in my sleep.  It's a very simple quick bread, you mix the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients in...

It is no secret that I love pancakes.  Blueberry, strawberry, banana, chocolate chip - all pancakes are good in my book.  While pancakes are a frequent menu item on weekend mornings around our house, it's hard to justify filling up with flour, butter and sugar on a weekday.  Not exactly a breakfast of champions to give you energy.  Yesterday I had a major craving for blueberry pancakes, and came up with this oatmeal bowl as a slightly healthier alternative.  If you read any of the "healthy living blogs," oatmeal is no new thing to you, but I feel like it's sometimes forgotten and considered an unglamorous breakfast (I'm not sure what a glamorous breakfast is).  Old fashioned oats have many great benefits.  They come in that old school canister, they are full of fiber, and have a low glycemic index, which means you digest them slowly and your blood sugar remains steady.  Instant oats, while convenient, taste like glue, so if you have the time, go o...

This should actually be the smoothie of the week, because I ate it for breakfast five days in a row.  It's refreshing, and the tropical flavors are a delicious combination. It used to seem that unless you had access to Trader Joe's, the frozen fruit selection at the market was primarily strawberries, blueberries, and the occasional raspberry.  While those are all great, it restricts smoothie recipes a bit.  Now, even at the regular grocery store, you can find everything from cherries, peaches, pineapple, even mango in the frozen fruit section.  Frozen fruit makes the best smoothies, because blending it results in a thick and frothy drink without the addition of ice cubes.  Of course, you can freeze fresh fruit yourself, which I often do whenever things are getting a little soft in the fruit bowl. This smoothie was a combination of fresh banana, frozen peach, frozen pineapple, and lowfat milk.  So good I photographed it two days in a row. Cup from Qu...

We had a few dicey days when there were no chocolate chips in the house.  I normally keep track of important things like that.  Especially since I'm the only one in this house who eats chocolate.   Be sufficiently horrified at that realization now.  Thankfully, we are now stocked back up and all is well. There's a "recipe" bouncing around the internet for banana soft serve.  All you do is stick frozen banana chunks in the food processor and let it whirl until it makes a creamy frozen treat akin to soft serve ice cream.  I had already dragged my food processor out and put it away today, so I went for the blender out of sheer laziness.   Into the mix went chunks of a frozen banana.  A handful of chocolate chips.  And enough almond milk (any milk will do) to make the blender work. Blend for about 10 seconds until the bananas are all creamy and the chocolate chips are chopped. I topped mine with a few more chocolate chips to pretty it up. ...

I won't post all my smoothie recipes, but just in case you were feeling hesitant about drinking green goo, this combination is delicious! Strawberry Banana Green Smoothie 1 banana 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt a few frozen (or fresh) strawberries - I used 6 a handful of baby spinach 3/4-1 cup milk a few ice cubes Put all ingredients except ice in the blender.  Blend for a few minutes.  Add ice cubes and blend until they are crushed and the mixture looks smooth and frothy. The sweetness of the banana, strawberry and vanilla yogurt counteracts any spinach flavor- really!

Green smoothies (or Green Monster s) are very trendy.  It's just adding spinach or kale to traditional smoothies to make a vitamin packed, super healthy drink.  In my experience, baby spinach is the best green to work with because it has a mild flavor and blends well.  You don't actually want to feel like you're drinking spinach.  I used peanut butter and banana in this recipe because they are both strong flavors, and that's really all you taste when you drink it.  Also, you get the nutrients from the banana and healthy, filling protein and fat from the peanut butter. Ingredients are simple enough, just banana, peanut butter, milk, spinach, and ice cubes. To start, I put a very ripe banana and a couple tablespoons of peanut butter in the blender along with a few handfuls of baby spinach leaves. Then I added about a cup of milk and blended well until completely combined and bright green!  Finally, I added in a handful of ice cubes and ran the blender ...

This smoothie reminds me of a creamsicle.  It's packed full of nutrients, and would be the perfect refreshing drink for a summer's day.  Or the middle of winter when you have a sore throat.  Also, it's a good use for a bunch of oranges on their last legs. Creamy Orange Smoothie Serves 2 ~2 oranges; segmented, and frozen* 1 banana 1-1 1/2 cups almond milk (any kind of milk or orange juice) 1 Tablespoon wheat germ (optional, ground flax would be good here, too) *It's important to use frozen oranges, otherwise your smoothie will be a weird mushy consistency.  Just peel and segment the oranges and stick them in a bag in the freezer. Add all ingredients to your blender. If you have an ice crush button, I would recommend pulsing it a couple times.  Otherwise, just let it go!  You might need to add a little more milk to get it to the desired consistency.   Drink up!