Apple Cinnamon Pumpkin Oat Muffins!

Merry Christmas y'all! So I've been missing in action via the blogosphere- you'll have to forgive me, my life has been IN-SANE lately. As most of you know my husband returned from deployment last month, I met him in Arkansas where we were stationed (I was in Florida with my mom for the duration of his deployment), we traveled to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's family, we then returned to Arkansas to pack up our belongings and move to Panama City, FL- our new home! We spent a week finding a home, moving our things in and then we drove to Jacksonville, FL to spend the holidays with my family. 2 months, 5 cities, 3 states, no big deal. The good news is I HAVE a home now, I'm just not there currently, hehe. We'll be back and on our way to getting settled after the new year. So that's where I've been...

 In other news, this really cool company "Better Oats" sent me some samples of their instant oatmeal. I was super excited because I love oatmeal, it's such an easy breakfast and it actually keeps you FULL. There's nothing worse than eating and being hungry 30 minutes later. Better Oats are great because they're made with wholesome, honest ingredients- you can read every ingredient on their box and know exactly what you're consuming. Love that. Here's some of the fab flavors they sent me:

You can't really read the flavors in the picture but (from left to right) they are: blueberry muffin, apple cinnamon, pomegranate, bare, & oatmeal raisin cookie (MY FAVE!). They also have ground flax in the mix for some extra fiber & nutrition. The other uhh-mazing thing about Better Oats? No measuring cup needed: you measure the water right in the same package the oatmeal came out of. 

You just pour the oatmeal into your microwave-safe bowl, measure the water in the pouch, stir into the oatmeal & zap away. How cool is that? I'm a huge fan of using the least amount of dishes as possible, sayonara measuring cup! So after the holidays I'm going to make up a little goodie bag of some of these Better Oats to give away to a reader (and maybe a super cute bowl & spoon combo?!) so be on a look-out for that! For more information on Better Oats and to find a location near you where you can purchase them visit: www.BetterOats.com & you can "Like" them on Facebook here (they have COUPONS on the FB page!): https://www.facebook.com/BetterOats

ON TO THE RECIPE: These muffins are so yummy! Low- carb, high protein, easy to throw together, perfect little breakfast treat. I knew I wanted to use some of these Better Oats for a muffin recipe, my hubby asked for the Apple Cinnamon flavor- he loves anything apple! I added the pumpkin for added moisture (they're super light & fluffy!). These are a must try. Maybe a perfect Christmas Eve breakfast?!

Ingredients: 
1 Cup Almond Flour
1 Cup Pumpkin Puree (100% pumpkin, no added sugar!)
1/4 Cup Almond Butter (or your choice of nut butter)
1/4 Cup Honey
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 Packages "Better Oats" Cinnamon Apple Instant Oatmeal

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, grease a muffin pan. Whisk together all of the ingredients except for the oats.

Step 2: Fold in oats, stir to combine.

Step 3: Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full with batter. Batter will be thick- that's okay!

Step 4: Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

ENJOY!

“This sponsorship is brought to you by Better Oats's whom we have partnered with for this promotion.”

Chocolate Almond Butter- Almond Bark

A couple of weeks again my husband and I were browsing the bulk section at Whole Foods when I picked myself up a little snack- Almonds dipped in peanut butter & dark chocolate. Holy moleyyy they were delicious. I'm embarrassed to tell you how many I ate and in how little time, so we won't go in to details. I'll just say that they were uh-mazing and I knew I was going to have to find a way to replicate that flavor so that I didn't have to drive the 45 minutes out to Whole Foods to get my fix. That's how this bark was born. It's a quick and easy little recipe that's super high in protein, gluten- free & dairy- free and UMMM there's chocolate. Need I say more? I made this the day before our road trip to Illinois and packed some pieces up in mason jars for the road. Perfect road trip food! Would also be a great Christmas treat to give out to friends, or to keep in the house for family! Just because it's Christmas doesn't mean you need to look like Santa ;)

Ingredients:
1 Cup Almond Butter (I used Justin's Maple Almond Butter)
1 Tbsp. Agave Nectar (You may not need this, I needed it to thin out the almond butter because mine was so thick it wouldn't melt enough)
1 Cup Unsalted Raw Almonds
1 Cup Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips

Step 1: Measure out 1 cup of almond butter into a glass measuring cup or a microwave safe dish. Microwave the almond butter for a minute and stir.

Step 2: Mine wasn't quite thin enough (you want it melty enough to coat the almonds thoroughly) so I added 1 Tbsp. of agave nectar to the almond butter and stirred until it was liquid-y enough to coat the nuts. This is all going to depend on the kind of nut butter you use- just experiment with microwaving and agave or honey until is thin enough.

Step 3: Put your almonds in to a glass bowl and pour the melted almond butter over top. Stir to coat the nuts thoroughly. Cover and freeze for an hour.

Step 4: Measure your chocolate chips into a microwave safe dish and microwave for 30 seconds at a time until melted completely, stirring between 30 second increments.

Step 5: Pour melted chocolate over almond- almond butter mixture and stir to combine thoroughly.

Step 6: Pour bark mixture onto a lined baking sheet and flatten with a spoon.

Step 7: Pop bark into the freezer and freeze for an hour until the bark has hardened completely. When your bark has hardened completely, pull it out of the freezer and break into pieces. Keep in air-tight containers and enjoy!

 

Crust-less Pumpkin Pie!

A saturday post?! Have I just recently gotten super motivated or what? Well, kinda. Also we're leaving Tuesday for Chicago for the holiday and I'm trying to get all my recipes posted before then :-) Working on a Saturday is super distracting for me though, FOOTBALL IS ON! Luckily my Seminoles already won a blow-out and wrapped up their conference this morning so I have a little downtime before the big games tonight to do a little blogging. Have I talked about my sports obsession before? It's a little out of control. Growing up ESPN was on in my house 24/7 the way that Fox News is in Dr.'s offices. I don't usually think of the year as divided into seasons as much as I think of the sports seasons. Spring is baseball (beginning of anyways), summer continues baseball, Fall is football (YES!), and winter is basketball. Duh. Doesn't everyone think that way? Football season is the most wonderful time of the year, forget Christmas. As mentioned above Florida State football is my college team, and my hometown NFL team would be the Jacksonville Jaguars but they're really not worth mentioning this year. I also have my own fantasy football team, The Lady Bears who are having a pretty okay 5-5 season so far and still have a nice little shot at the playoffs. When it comes to basketball, I root for the Boston Celtics and in NCAA I always pull for FSU. Baseball is probably what I grew up on the MOST and my heart will always be with the Boston Red Sox. Love. Them. Now that I've filled your head with sports nonsense that I'm sure you don't really care about let's talk about pie.

Alright so the pictures kinda suck for this recipe. What had happened was.... this was the very last recipe I made during my "Fakesgiving" feast and I was tired and lazy and I might have had a couple glasses of champagne... so the pictures aren't great. But the recipe is super delish and I would make this not just for Thanksgiving but anytime I wanted a "treat" that really isn't bad for you at all. Sweetened with just 100% maple syrup and containing lots of good fats from coconut milk (Fat isn't bad for you! Just trans fats are... get your fats from natural sources:)) this pie is actually pretty darn good for you. Make some fresh whipped cream from some heavy cream (I meant to do this, but like I said I was tired & lazy) and you'll be in  crust-less pie heaven. :-)

Ingredients:
1 14- oz can 100% pumpkin
1 Tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Eggs
1/4 Cup 100% pure maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 14-oz can  full fat coconut milk (found in Asian foods aisle!)

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together Pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and eggs until fully combined.

Step 2: Add maple syrup, vanilla, and coconut milk and whisk together.

Step 3: Pour into greased pie pan. I didn't have one, so I used an 8x8 brownie pan. Sue me.

Step 4: Now because this is more of a custard than a real "pie" because of lack of crust we want to gently bake it so we need to create a water bath. You'll need a casserole dish type pan large enough for your pie pan to fit into. Fill that casserole dish with about an inch of water, enough to go up about half the side of the pie pan but not enough so that the water will actually get in your pie.

Step 5: CAREFULLY put your pans into the oven and bake 50 min- an hour or until the center is cooked through. Let rest about 5 minutes before you cut into it.

Sorry again for the less-than-stellar pictures but it did taste really good, I swear! Hope everybody is having a great weekend!

Slow Cooker Applesauce!

Guess who's back? Back again? Brittany's back, tell a friend. Okay, sorry I'm no Eminem- but the point is I'm back to blogging! The past couple of weeks have been totally cray cray for me because I was moving my little caravan from Florida to Arkansas to wait for my hubby to come home from his 6 1/2 month deployment to the Middle East. Pretty much all of last week I was just running errands and setting things up for him to have some-what of a stable "home" to come back to. I say "home" in quotations, because we are currently residing in our very generous friends house while we are in limbo until we move to our new base next month. I told you- cray cray! But it's all good now, because my husband arrived back in my arms last Saturday morning! Wahoo! So all is right in my world, I have been cooking up a storm- but most of the meals I've made him thus far are already on the blog! Back to me thinking up new ideas, at least I have a very good recipe tester now! :) Okay, I lured you here with promises of applesauce...

Have you ever made homemade applesauce before? If you answered no, that is a real shame! It is CRAZY easy and the end result is a much healthier applesauce than what you get in those little jars at the grocery store! Bonus, it is apple season and you can get all kinds of apples for super cheap right now. Depending on what kind of apples you get, it will change the taste of your sauce. Like if you were to use some sour-ish granny smith apples, you'd have a more tart applesauce. Use super-sweet Gala & Courtland apples, like I did here, and you'll get a more traditional sweet applesauce! Apples are naturally sweet, so you don't need to add much sweetener, if any. I chose to add a couple of teaspoons of agave nectar. You could sub the agave for honey or for a bit of brown sugar- or you can skip the sweetener all together and have just an unsweetened applesauce. Bottle some of your fresh sauce up and give it to neighbors as gifts! There is nothing better than some fresh homemade goodies, especially when they're secretly healthy ones ;) The kiddos are always applesauce fans (at least all the ones I know...) and this is a recipe you can feed them and feel really good about! Plus... it makes your house smell heavenly while it's cooking! That perfect fall, cinnamon-y fragrance! YUM!

Ingredients:

6 apples of your choosing (I used 3 Courtland, 3 Gala) peeled and cut into wedges
1 Cinnamon Stick (you can buy just 1 in the bulk section @ Whole Foods;))
3 teaspoons Agave Nectar (or honey, or brown sugar)

Step 1: Peel & cut up your apples. Dump them into the slow cooker. Top with agave and toss in the cinnamon stick. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours. Stir every couple of hours.

Step 2: Fish out your cinnamon stick. If you like chunky applesauce- you're done! For a smoother texture mash with an old fashioned potato masher, or use one of those fancy schmancy immersion blenders if you have one! If you have super picky kids who need their applesauce SMOOTH, toss it into a food processor or blender and give it a whirl. 

THAT'S IT. Told you, easiest recipe ever! Keep in an air-tight container in the refrigerator :) ENJOY!

And a little pic of me & the hubbs the day he came home... :)

Paleo Banana Bread!

Good Afternoon everyone! I have a special little recipe today! Before my little paleo adventure began I was somewhat known for my banana bread. I loved to make it as gifts for people, home-made treats always make others feel so special! So, this morning when I walked into the kitchen and saw 2 extra-ripe bananas sitting on the counter I knew what it was time for- paleo-ifying banana bread! It was an experiment that turned out terrific. I am in love with this loaf! Didn't miss traditional flour at all. Plus it's super- low sugar and even packs a little protein! Winning!

On a side note (if you don't care about my personal life and just want the recipe, I don't blame you- just scroll down!) I haven't been posting much lately because my life is extremely hectic right now! After a 6 month deployment my husband is coming home in the next couple of weeks or so! It is very exciting, but also stressful as I have been staying with my mom in Florida for the duration of his deployment and I will have to return to Arkansas this weekend to meet him. We will be there for a period of time and then we will be moving to the Florida pan-handle where we got PCS orders to! It's a very exciting time, but also very busy so I don't know how much blogging time I'll have. I will try my hardest to always post at least 1 new recipe per week though :-) I hope y'all stick with me! Now back to the bread...

Ingredients:
3 eggs (whites and yolks separated)
3 Tablespoons Honey
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 Cups Almond Flour
(Optional) 1/2 Cup chopped nuts (I used almonds!)

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a loaf pan. Separate the eggs, yolks in one medium-sized bowl and whites in another.

The egg whites are in the green bowl to the left, kinda hard to see them! Yolks in the bowl on the right.

Step 2: Add honey to the bowl with the egg yolks and cream with a hand mixer until light and fluffy. You could also use a whisk by hand- but you'll have to work! Mine took about 5 minutes to look like this:

Step 3: Add olive oil, bananas, and vanilla to the yolk mixture. Stir in gently, until just combined.

Step 4: Add baking powder, cinnamon, and almond flour to banana mixture. Stir in gently, until just combined. Do not over-mix.

Step 5: Using the hand mixer again (or a stand mixer, or a whisk by hand) beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. This is important. Mine took about 3-4 minutes.

Step 6: Fold egg whites gently into banana batter mixture. Do not over-mix. Gently fold in nuts if desired. 

Step 7: Pour batter into loaf pan and bake about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan and then remove and serve!

ENJOY :)