Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Pancakes

I absolutely love finding recipes of some of my favorite foods and turning them healthy, or at the very least semi healthy food.  So what better food to do that with than good ole pancakes!  I love pancakes but I hate the sugar high and sluggish demeanor that follows when I eat them.  So I set out to find a better alternative to one of my favorite things and I came across this amazing blog and ultimately found my new protein pancake recipe!  I did modify the recipe a bit so I will list those below as well.

Banana Chocolate Chip Protein Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 small banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese  (you can use yogurt in its place)
• 2 egg whites (or 1 whole egg)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Place oats in blender or food processor and blend them until they are a gritty flour type mixture.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend well.
3. If mixture is too thick add a bit of milk or water so that it is a medium to runny gruel mixture.
4. Heat griddle on stovetop and use nonstick spray or butter on griddle.  
5. Spoon pancake mixture onto griddle into medium size pancakes.
6. Throw a few chocolate chips onto your pancakes (5 per pancake is plenty!)
7. Flip when surface is starting to bubble.

A Few Side Notes:

• I also tried using a flavored yogurt the other day cause it was all we had on hand (happened to be strawberry) and it was delicious!
• This is a much more dense pancake but still takes care of the craving, fills you up, and there is no sugar high afterwards.  Bonus- because they are much more dense and moist than a regular pancake, you can use very little syrup and cut down your calories and sugar intake as well.  It simply doesn't need all the syrup the fluffier pancakes just continue to soak up!

My guaranteed way to know if a modified healthy recipe is a winner or not is if I get the chef's approval and he did indeed enjoy these and so did our little Sous Chef.....

Do you have a favorite dish that you've found a way to enjoy and still be healthy?  I'd love to hear what it is! 

Bon Appetit! 

Bridget

Baked Breaded Pork Chops

About a month ago I found some pork chops on bargain sale (aka Krogers quick sale meats that are about to expire if not sold by tomorrow.  Did you know you can get meat in this area for typically 1/2 the price if not more and all you have to do is freeze it for future use?  Awesome!  I like meat but I hate the cost of it so count me in!  So I bought them and froze them to use for a meal in the future.  This week I decided to try to do something with them.  

Random side note...for those of you who don't know me from my former life I grew up on a hog farm.  So you'd think, that me, of all people would know what to do with a pork chop.  Confession....I don't have a clue.  I just ate the meat growing up.  I didn't ever have to cook it.  So after looking online for some ideas I decided to try making baked pork chops with breading and wow!  They did not fail to disappoint!  The chef was quite pleased with the results from my new found dinner idea, and I must confess I was pretty impressed that they were as delicious as they ended up being! 

Baked Breaded Pork Chops

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• splash of milk
• Bread crumbs
• Parmeasean
• Italian Seasoning
• Pork chops (how ever many you want)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Beat up egg with splash of milk in bowl big enough to dip pork chops into.
3. Mix a 50:50 ratio of bread crumbs to grated parmeasean cheese, with 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning in separate bowl.  There really isn't a set amount of how much you need to mix together, but if you have a large family make sure you have enough "breading" to coat several pork chops.
4. I like to use one of my cookie cooling racks onto of a cookie sheet to bake things like this.  It makes them crispy on both sides.  Make sure to coat your cooking sheet and cooling rack with cooking spray for easy clean up later.
5. Once all pork chops have been dipped in the egg solution and breading, place on cookie sheet and into preheated oven for 25 minutes or until their internal temperature is at least 145 degrees F.

*For a little bit more tang you can dip the pork chops into dijon mustard instead of egg batter before placing in breading.  I've done this with chicken before and its delicious!

They turned out moist, and delicious!  And since I was out of bread crumbs I even got to learn how to make my own.  More on that in another post!  Another simple, frugal entree from my home to yours!

Bon Appetit!

Spinach Omelet

I am pretty much always looking for ways to fit more vegetables into our diets.  These omelets are delicious, quick, easy, and a side bonus-  we typically buy a bag of spinach at Aldi and use that for salads, so the rest of the bag that is about to go bad can easily get used up in these delicious omelets!

Spinach Omelets

Ingredients:

• 4-5 eggs
• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Spinach (or other veggies of your choice)
• Salt
• Pepper

Directions

1. Turn skillet on to medium heat on stove.
2. Crack open 4-5 eggs in a medium size bowel and whisk together.  You can use egg whites if you want or egg beaters.  
3. Use a small amount of butter to coat skillet when skillet is hot enough.
4. Pour eggs into skillet. Eggs should coat about 3mm deep of entire skillet diameter.
5. Quickly add in chopped up spinach (or veggies of your choice), sprinkle light coating of cheddar cheese over omelet.
6. Sprinkle small amount of salt and pepper over omelet.

Your cooking omelet should look like this in the beginning stages:

Once your omelet is almost done the eggs should look more gel like, not runny, and cheese should be thoroughly melted like this:

Use a rubber spatula to help flip one side of the omelet over and roll it up like this:

Finally, if you are a nice mom, cut off 1/4 of your omelet and share it with your always hungry toddler :) 

Abbie and I probably eat these once a week for lunch on one of my days off.  They are quick, cheap, and healthy.  I'm kind of anti most processed foods so you probably won't see egg beaters in our house...sorry!  Besides if I only use 4 eggs for one omelet and give a portion of it to Abbie, I've really only eaten 3 eggs plus a lot of veggies!

Do you guys have any go to lunch ideas that you love to use on a regular basis?

Blessings,

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Time for another fall recipe!  I love squash!  I know it might not be many peoples favorite food but I encourage you to try it.  If you need to break yourself in then try baking the squash in the oven and putting brown sugar and butter on it.  Not really healthy but at least it will get you used to the texture and tastiness that squash can be!  Squash is a great source of fiber and potassium for your diet. 

 I tend to not actually cook exactly how a recipe says to (unless its baking...you can make huge mistakes in baking if you don't follow exact measurements!) so for this particular recipe I threw in extra celery, and you could even add in some of your own extras that might go well with the rest of the ingredients...nuts, mushrooms, etc.  One other added bonus.....it's an in season fall produce product and you know what that means?  They are cheap right now!!  Hope you enjoy!!

Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ingredients:

• 2 acorn squash
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 medium apple (peeled, cored, diced)
• 1/2 small onion (finely chopped)
• 1/2 celery stalk diced
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried sage
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup apple cider (or juice)

Directions:

1. Pierce acorn squash all over with a knife or fork and microwave on high for 2 minutes.  Remove from microwave oven and let rest for 1 minute.  Cut squash in half from top to bottom (crosswise).  Scoop out seeds and membranes.
2. Place squash halves two at a time, cut side down in a microwaveable baking dish.  Add 1/4 cup of water then cover with plastic wrap.  Microwave on high for 5 minutes.  Repeat with other two halves. Cool and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. In medium skilled saute onions until translucent.  Add in apples, onion, and celery and saute for 2-3 minutes.  Sprinkle mixture with thyme, oregano, and sage.  Stir in cooked rice, dried fruit (I only had raisins and cranberries so I just added more of these).  Add apple cider and cook until almost evaporated.
5. Place cooled squash on large nonstick cookie sheet.  Spoon stuffing into squash cavities.  Bake for 20 minutes.  

**The stuffing mixture should freeze fairly well so make extra and freeze for batches in the future for a quick fall meal***

Bon appetit and Happy Halloween!!
Does your family have any favorite fall meals or fall traditions??  Please share!

Sweet Potato Fries

Sweet Potato Fries

It's no secret that one of my favorite seasons is fall, and fall never disappoints when it comes to food either.  One of my favorite fall foods is sweet potatoes!  So good and good for you.  In fact they are much better for you than regular potatoes.  Why?  Mostly due to their lower levels of sugar than regular potatoes.  They are much lower on the glycemic index (higher levels mean your blood sugar spikes much higher when you eat something) than regular potatoes and in addition great sources of fiber and Vitamin C.  I try to use them in our house as much as I can in place of regular potatoes and besides all that, in the fall you can buy them super cheap!  Now buying sweet potatoes and loading them up with butter and brown sugar isn't really gonna help you much in the health department so here is my Sweet Potato Fry Recipe:

1. Cut sweet potatoes into wedges or long fries.
2. Toss with a little bit of olive oil.
3. Place onto cookie sheet and spread into single layer
4. Sprinkle sweet potatoes with cinnamon (light dusting all over).
5. Sprinkle tiny amounts of cayenne pepper if you want a little bit of kick (a dab will do ya!)
6. Finish with a light dusting of kosher salt and place in oven at 375 degrees.
7. Bake for about 35-40 minutes (until tender) and serve.

Bon appetit!