Better Banana Bread

In good news...the hubby found the camera!

So you're probably wondering where it was misplaced...I'll give you a hint: somewhere on the golf course lol.

Not in a golf cart.

Not on the driving range where he was teaching a lesson.

Not in the pro shop where someone turned it in.

Luckily, not with the university students, either!

Where was it?

Hidden in the rough grass beside the driving range. How it got there, I'll never know. But, the good thing is, it's home!

Like I said earlier, I will post a picture from the concert! Only one, I promise!

This is while he's singing one of my fav songs! And there you have it, that's it, I swear! 

Now onto the important part of this post (next to finding the camera, of course). I did some searching, and decided to make a delicious banana bread. I had plenty of rotting bananas and with a move coming up...everything's gotta go!

Better Banana Bread

Adapted from The Kitchen Sink Recipes

Ingredients:

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp almond milk

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1/4 cup liquid egg whites (equivalent to 2 large egg whites)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 medium rotten bananas, mashed

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

2. In large bowl, combine the wet ingredients

3. In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix together with a spatula

5. Pour mixture into a pre-greased loaf pan

5. Bake for 50-55 minutes

Enjoy!

Cut a nice warm slice and add some butter, if you like.

Do you like to add anything to your banana bread?

And now it's time to enjoy some time with the hubby now that he's home! Good night!

Happy October!!

I know I'm a day late with the, 'it's October!' post, but I still can't believe how quickly the months are flying by. October used to be an ok month, but now, it's better than ok! This month I will celebrate my first wedding anniversary and at the end of the month, my husband and I was will leave BC for a while (it's been fun!), go back to Ontario and see our family for a bit!! This is all something I'm reeeeeally looking forward to!

Yesterday did not feel like it was the 1st of October because the temperatures here have suddenly been pleasant, so the high got to about 23 degrees! But, since the colours on the trees are slowly changing (as everyone can appreciate, because they are gorgeous), you still know that fall is here.

I've recently been sick (we're going on day 6 now - come onnnnn immune system!), but did not let that stop me from getting a little exercise...just a little. With the beautiful weather I went for a lovely run on this trail pretty close to my house, that I absolutely love. As a runner, I must say that when your nose is either a) stuffed up; b) running like crazy; or c) a bit of both (sadly enough) it does not make it easy to run!! Mine happened to be a bit of both on Wednesday (hence, only running 5k) and more on the runny side yesterday (hence, only running 6k). Not having a clear nose greatly decreased my focus, energy and endurance!! I was like a 5 year old! I swear for every 6 steps I ran, I sniffled (almost down to a T). On that note, hopefully by tomorrow (when I plan to run next), I'll almost be cleared up and ready to run!

So, my baking adventure from Wednesday seriously bombed...so sadly, I do not want to talk about it, nor post pictures about it *sigh*. But, I was experimenting yesterday and...success!!

I managed to make some delicious muffins that I must share!!

White Chocolate & Mixed Berry Muffins

Adapted from Zoom Yummy

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutues

Makes 12 large muffins, 16-17 medium muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 3/4 - 1 cup of almond milk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 4 tbsp agave syrup
• 1 egg
• 2 cups wholewheat flour
• 2-3 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup white chocolate chunks or chips
• 2 cups fresh or frozen mixed berries (I used frozen)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. In a bowl, add all wet ingredients - lemon juice, milk, applesauce, agave and egg
3. In a second larger bowl, combine all dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, white chocolate
4. Pour the wet mixture into the dry one and mix just until it combines (do not over mix)
5. Finally, add the berries
6. Pour into greased muffin tray or line with muffin tins 
7. Fill each cup, almost to the top and for additional yummyness add a few chocolate chunks to the tops
8. Bake for 30 minutes

I was very impressed!! I love berries and white chocolate, so how would I not be impressed!

There are a few things I would change for next time though:
Add more baking soda (a tsp), and;
Grease the muffin tray vs. lining it (the muffin liners stuck to the muffins too much!)

And then, onto dinner. Complete with garlic broccoli.

Which I simmered in a pot, until tasty! Then, made some homemade cream corn (hubby loves cream corn!)

I tell ya...homemade cream cream corn beats canned cream corn's butt any day!! I would never eat the stuff from a can, but this, I would eat! Then topped dinner off with some delicious balsamic bbq sauced chicken drumsticks. After careful placement on the plate (well, on mine at least), this was our finished product:

Delicious!!!

I definitely need to post my goal's for the month (which I will do later tonight), along with the adventures I make for myself today!!

What's your favourite month?
Any delicious muffin recipes that you enjoy??

It's A New Day

Have you ever heard this song by will.i.am? It's great! If you haven't heard it...then listen!! I think we should treat everyday like it's a new day! This song sticks out to me for 2 reasons:

1) We have to appreciate everyday...even when we think the day 'can't get any worse';
2) After Tyler and I were pronounced husband and wife, we had this song played.



Just make sure you take the time to stop...take a deep breath...and be happy you're here.

On that note, it may be a new day, but it's not a nice new day here. In all honesty, it hasn't been nice here for the past few days. So I took it upon myself to make chili a few nights ago. I decided to just go at it, add whatever and hope that it resembled chili. Guess what...it did!!! Loved every bite of it (and so did the hubby). Because I almost never have a camera available to me (Tyler takes it to work everyday to video golf swings), I make do with what I have -- my BlackBerry camera! Keep in mind: the chili tastes better than it looks (I have a whole new appreciation for good cameras. Man, can they make anything look good!)

Not So Chilly, Chili

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time:  30 minutes

Ingredients:

Spices:

• 1/4 tsp oregano


• 1/2 tsp cumin


• 1/2 tsp curry powder


• 1 tsp cayenne pepper


• 4-6 tbsp chili powder

Other remaining ingredients:

• 5 tomatoes, diced (you can remove peels if you like, I kept them on, but they will roll off on their own in chili)


• 1/2 sweet onion, diced


• 2 small carrots, diced


• 1 small zucchini, diced


• 1 medium sweet potato, diced (once again, your decision for skin on or off)


• 1 cob of corn, kernels removed


• 1 med green pepper, diced


• 1 stalk of celery, diced


• 2 cloves of garlic, minced


• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegetable or chicken stock/broth


• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced


• 1 can each of red kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans, rinsed and drained


• Fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish


• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) In a large pot, add tomatoes and oregano. Cook over med-high heat for 5-10 minutes (or until tomatoes are tender and juices run)

2) Reduce heat to medium, add to pot: onions, carrots, celery, sweet potato, jalapeno, and garlic, and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

3) Add remaining vegetables (zucchini, corn, green pepper) along with remaining spices (the four C's: cumin, curry, cayenne and chili poweder),  cook for another 4-5 mins; at this time, if consistency is getting too thick with all the veggies, start adding broth/stock according to how runny or thick you want your chili to be

4) Add the beans to pot, continuing to cook until everything is well-heated.

5) Add salt and pepper to taste

6) Move to a serving bowl and top with fresh cilantro

This really is hearty and makes you feel good with all the veggies you get to enjoy in it. I had leftovers for a few days after. It's a great recipe to make if you do want leftovers, then there's plenty to freeze and save for another day!

I've been thinking a lot about goals, which is why I even made a tab for them, and how important it is to stick to them!

One of my goals was to cook with a new fruit or vegetable each week, and this week, I have decided to use fennel!

Do you know any good recipes that use this ingredient?

Know what your goals are. Write them somewhere, where you can look at them everyday. The only way to make them happen is to be consistent with them, by keeping them fresh in your mind and vision. Happy Sunday!

What are your goals for the week? Month? Year?

Make The Most Of The Day!

So, like my post said earlier...let's make today as fun as yesterday...I think I'm succeeding. I took it eaaasy this morning (oops), then decided that I needed to get out of the house and do something!!! Also, I needed to pick up a few more things for dinner tonight. I knew I couldn't just make a quick trip to the grocery store then come home, so I geared up and made my way to the running trail.

This is trail is awesome! Lately I've become a picky runner; don't really enjoy running on pavement or in hilly areas (which is nearly impossible to avoid...I live in BC!!!). So, this awesome trail I mentioned is:
1) Not pavement
2) Not hilly

So it wins in my books!! It's awesome, too, because it marks the distance you run/bike/etc every 0.5 km, so it's nice being able to keep track of the distance you go. I kinda like to challenge myself, in the sense that if I ran a certain distance before then I definitely wanna try and beat that previous distance. This could get tough the more and more that distance increases!!! So anyways, I knew that one of the last times I ran the trail, I ran 7 km, so I had to beat that.

In enters the tough part...I didn't even feeeeeel like running when I first drove to the trail. So right there, I thought I would not beat my previous distance. I'm sure other runner's can relate, that once you start running and getting in your groove, you realize that you actually can go for longer than you thought. Good news is that I beat my distance...I made it to 8!!! 8km plus a few new blisters!

So I then came home and had in my mind that I wanted to make some sort of avocado salad. I LOVE spice, so I knew that I didn't just want to make a regular...I wanted some heat! So, here's what I came up with:

Avocado Salad (with a kick)!!

• 1-2 avocados, diced (I used 1 and 1/2 since it's all I had)


• 1/3 cup red pepper, diced


• juice from 1/2 a lemon


• 1/3 cup red onion, diced


• 1/4 - 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped (now, I loooove cilantro, so I added at least 1/2 cup)


• 1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded and minced finely


• 1 tomato, deseeded and diced (deseeded so it doesn't make the salad really runny)


• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced


• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper (depending on your liking for spicy foods!)


• a pinch of salt and pepper

Mix it all around and there you have it!!

I think I'll continue onto making a raw pasta sauce and some homemade larabars, since the weather doesn't seem to be cooperating with me today this week! Until my next need to blog, take care!