Banana Oatmeal Pancakes

One of my favorite things about breakfast is that it's so versatile! Whether you're in the mood for something sweet, savory, healthy, indulgent, or a mix of everything you can get it for breakfast. Now, I love pancakes as much as the next person, but they're one of those foods that always leaves me feeling overly full. Who wants to start their day that way? (Probably the same people who would actually be willing to give up pancakes!). I decided to go for a healthier version of pancake that has no flour, no sugar, and no guilt. I got it off Pinterest a long time ago and was drawn to it again after going through some of my old pins - and having a craving for pancakes. These pancakes are a healthy alternative that don't actually taste like an alternative. These are the best option for those days that you feel like a big breakfast without wrecking the rest of your day!

What You'll Need:

2 eggs

1 banana (mashed up)

1/2 cup of oats

1/4 cup of applesauce

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

What To Do:

1. In a food processor, grind up your oats until it turns into a fine powder. I used a Nutribullet because I have a special blade for this sort of thing but a magic bullet would work too.

2. Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl, being certain to fully incorporate the oat powder. 

3. Spray a skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Ladle about 1/3 of a cup of the batter into the pan. Once bubbles start to form on the non-cooked side it should be okay to flip.

*If you want to add things to the batter (i.e. fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.) then you can add it to the raw side of the pancake before you flip it. 

4. Once the other side of the pancake is golden brown, serve immediately. 

5. You can use regular maple syrup (like I did) or you can garnish with fruit, walnuts, or whipped cream. Serve with some eggs and turkey bacon (or "Fakon" if that's still a thing) and you have yourself a fabulous, guilt-free, breakfast! ENJOY!

Blueberry Muffins

My favorite part about summer is the excessive amount of fruit that's in season. I went a little crazy the other day buying all of my produce and when I found that the blueberries were on sale I bought 2 pounds of them. Ashamed? Absolutely not! Well, at least not until I realized how much I had to eat. After about a week-and-a-half I still had about 1/3 left and knew I had to act quickly before they went bad. Enter said muffins.

I'm still not big on baking - especially early on a Saturday morning, but I was willing to allow it for the outcome of homemade muffins! Oh these are so incredibly delicious and pretty easy to make. I got the recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and didn't need to change much. I skipped the extra sugar on top because I figured I would have enough sugar in the coffee I would inevitably be pairing these with and found that they were just a good without it. I don't think I'll ever go back to boxed muffin mix again!

What You'll Need:

3 cups of flour

4 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon 

2 eggs

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of buttermilk (or 1 cup of milk + 1 tablespoon of vinegar)

1/2 cup of oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries

What To Do: 

1. Start by pre-heating your oven to 425 degrees. Don't worry, you're going to lower the heat after five minutes of baking. 

2. Carefully measure all of your dry ingredients and mix together in a large bowl. (You'll be adding the wet ingredients to this).

3. In another bowl, mix the sugar and eggs. Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the eggs and sugar. 

4. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and make sure the flour is thoroughly incorporated. When it is, carefully fold in the blueberries. 

5. Line or spray your pans and fill each spot to the top with your mix. 

6. Bake at 425 for 5 minutes. Then for another 13 minutes at 375. Don't worry about taking the muffins out while the oven is cooling. When they're done leave them in the pan for another minute, then place them on cooling racks. 

7. Let them cool for a bit, but they're better when they're nice and warm with a little bit of butter (and the coffee of course!). ENJOY

Granola Clusters

Raise your hand if you're still keeping up with your New Year's resolution. Be honest, now. I have to admit that I got a slow start to mine but I'm still going. After all these years I've finally added the "eating healthy" resolution to my life. It's all part of making a better, happier me. I adapted this recipe from Cookies and Cups after needing more healthy snack and dessert options. Nothing is worse than working out or doing really good with your daily diet and feeling like you ruined everything with an unhealthy snack. Enter GRANOLA CLUSTERS! These little clusters are perfectly crunchy and just sweet enough and fill you up quicker than other junk food snacks! My favorite part was that even though there are quite a bit of ingredients, this recipe is so customizable that you could mix and match the ingredients with things that you have. Here's to us and our New Year's Resolutions!

What You'll Need:

2 1/2 cups oats (not instant)

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 cup flaked coconut

2 cups corn flakes (lightly crushed)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 chopped walnuts

1 beaten egg white

What To Do:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

2. Line a large cookie sheet with non-stick foil or parchment paper and set aside.

3. In a large bowl mix all of your ingredients together. It's sort of a running joke between Mike and I that I never mix things in large enough bowls. So, my friends, use a LARGE bowl because there are a lot of ingredients.

*Spray your measuring cup with a little cooking spray in order to get all of the honey out of it.

4. Put the mixture on you cookie sheet and spread it around evenly.

5. Bake the granola for 25 minutes then turn off your oven but keep your granola in there until the oven cools. This was a great tip from Shelly (author of Cookies and Cups) that makes all the difference in how crunchy your granola gets.

**Her blog also has good tips on how to get less crunchy granola if that's not really your thing.

***As I mentioned, there are a lot of things that would go great in these. I happened to only have walnuts and dried cherries, because I love to snack on them, but cranberries, raisins, almonds, chocolate chips, or a mix of all of these would be a great addition. 

6. Once it's cooled start to break off pieces. The bottom will form a sort of crust that keeps everything together and is insanely delicious.

7. Save the mix in a air-tight container and enjoy throughout your day!

Cake Mix Biscotti

I feel like so many people have been trying to kick the processed foods out of their life. This makes me so happy! Being one of those people who actually can't stomach overly process foods the way I used to, I'm glad to come across more and more recipes that show ways to make this easy and be able to share recipes that can help others do the same. This recipe actually constitutes as semi-homemade rather than from scratch but there's a reason why. About 6 months ago I got pretty fed up with the "food" that was in my pantry. Boxed noodles, potatoes, brownies, cakes, rice, and so on - I had it all! I finally donated all that food because I wasn't eating it anymore and I had found really amazing substitutions that I actually preferred more. HOWEVER I kept a few things (like my boxed cake mix) to see if there was anything I could make with it, besides cake. I decided to make biscotti instead. That's how this cake mix substitution came to be. This is a fun way to clear your pantry of that processed powder you have in your pantry or cupboard and bring new life into foods that you're slowly trying to work your way out of.

What You'll Need:

1 box of chocolate cake mix

1 cup of AP flour

2 eggs

1 stick of butter (melted)

1/4 C of water

Chocolate for drizzling (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

2. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and make a dough. I know it sounds like a lot of butter but it's totally worth it, I promise!

3. Divide dough into two pieces and place on a lightly floured work space.

4. Flatten each piece into a rectangle - 1" thick and 3" wide. You'll end up with two rectangle-shaped chocolate dough pieces. I know you can tell this is going to be good!

5. Bake each rectangle for 25 minutes on a foil lined baking sheet, until it firms up then let cool for a few minutes or until it's cool to the touch.

6. Slice each piece into 1.5" thick pieces and place back on a baking sheet. You'll end up with around 14 pieces. Bake for another 15 minutes to make them really crunchy.

7. Let them cool and drizzle with chocolate or a little powdered sugar. I chose to omit this process because I figured I had my calorie intake for the moment. Sure does sound good though!

8. Serve with coffee and ENJOY!

*Some delicious add-ins are walnuts, dried cherries, or chocolate chips!

A Foodie Goes to Maui

Summer Vacation....
I'M BACK!! Can you believe it? How long has it been? Too long! I'm so excited to get back to blogging my awesome foodie adventures because I have so much to share with you all. I know I have a terrible habit of putting my blog on hiatus while I'm in school but I have to prioritize my time... and be an adult and junk like that. Anyway let's focus on the fact that I'm back! I actually planned on blogging as soon as my summer vacation started at the end of May but I had a little vacation to go on.... a little place called Maui ;)

Pre-vacation Preparations....
As you could imagine planning a week-long trip to another state in the middle of the Pacific takes a lot of planning and a lot of extra hours at work. I decided to start my blog up again with a post-vacation post because how could a food blogger not take advantage of all that great Hawaiian food and other good eats you're allowed to indulge in on vacation? I think I made the right decision.

Maui....
After a rough departure (something about a crappy engine on the side of the plane I was sitting on) and having to turn around back to San Francisco, we finally started our 5 hour plane ride. Our first night was rather uneventful as it was already dark when we arrived to our part of the island. We did pick a burger place to go  to which ended up being a good idea because our waiter gave us some great tips for our trip. The next morning we took a helicopter ride around the island. Along with the ocean and a billion beautiful waterfalls we saw beautiful fields of pineapple and sugarcane.

View from our helicopter

When that was over we headed over to a winery in Ulupalakua where we tried pineapple wine and had lunch at a the Ulupalakua Ranch Store where I was able to try my first plate of real Kalua pork and mac salad! I was so incredibly excited! The store sold local jams, sauces, candy, t-shirts and anything else you want. In the back of the store there was a counter where you could order from a select menu of local food. It's one of the coolest places I have ever seen. The area was full of coconut trees and trees with fruits I didn't even recognize. And the pork definitely lived up to the hype.

That evening, Mike and I went to Lahaina which is the area with all the restaurants, right on the ocean. It's one of the best places to see the sunset if you're ever there! We looked at all the shops, ate gelato, and enjoyed being in Maui. I tried my first macadamia nut and coconut candy that's also known as island crack to the locals. After tasting it I fully agree with the name. We had dinner at a resort that night and listened to a local Hawaiian band while enjoying more cocktails.

Where I fell in love with macadamia nuts!

Front Street

The real deal!

Dinner after our first full day

Our Anniversary....
This is actually the main reason we went to Maui. We wanted to celebrate our four years together while celebrating surviving another semester. The day started bright and early with a walk on the beach that was right behind our hotel (funny how I only get up early on vacations). We went to breakfast and I realized that Maui only has breath-taking views. Since it was our first breakfast on this vacation I was excited to go all out (Kona coffee anyone?) which basically means I started the day with a lot of food.

The beach that I could see from our lovely hotel room!

That night we went to a place called Kimo's on Front Street. We made reservations the previous day to have dinner during sunset. Good call. We got there early and got some Mai Tais and Pina Coladas at the bar and enjoyed the view.

 We got some sashimi as an appetizer then I ordered the cioppino and Mike got the prime rib.

Maui-rita and Mai Tai

Our Maui sunset

Hula Pie: A local piece of magic and the perfect dessert

Road to Hana....
If you don't know what and where Hana is all I can describe it as is an old Hawaiian gem of a town that can only be found by driving on the cliff of a mountain, through jungle and bamboo forests. It's like a concept from an India Jones movie. Jungles, cliffs, waterfalls, a turquoise ocean, falling fruit, a winding one-way road with locals zooming by in the opposite direction and some of the best damn banana bread I've ever had! Let me just say as beautiful as it was I'll probably never drive the whole length of the road - it's just too dangerous BUT I will go half way to Hana just for the banana bread that was sold in some small hut by the nicest locals of a town I've ever met.

Yeah there's a road on that tree-covered cliff and we were on it.

 

Aunty Sandy's Banana Bread stand

 
 

On the road there were some great places to stop to get more local fruits. Once we actually got to Hana we had burgers at one of the few places to eat. The beef was locally raised and really amazing.

   

As "free range" as you can get :)

Local Food....
We went off on our own one day to try some Loco Moco from a place that was down the street. If you're a foodie you probably know this but if not, Loco Moco is a wonderful dish that has a beef patty on top of a bed of either fried rice or white rice, that is topped with a fried egg and slathered (I love that word) with brown gravy. I could definitely see this dish being something that is accentuated at say two o'clock in the morning...

There are no words...

    

When got back from an all day road trip that practically took us around the entire left part of the island Mike and I went out for an anniversary 2.0 dinner. Sushi! We got sashimi and a really fresh "California roll" with fresh crab inside (something I'm not used to) that was topped with tuna, salmon, and avocado! Oh my.... For dessert we got a new favorite of ours. We tried creme brulee our last anniversary so we couldn't pass up the new tradition. Would you?

Luau...

We moved our Luau time to the last night we were there as a sort of farewell to the island. I have never seen anything like it before and the food was, from what I understood, good and traditional. I loved it either way. There was chicken that I would have taken through an IV if I could, there was poi (tarot root), kalua pork, Hawaiian rolls, pineapple and a bunch of other really good things that I fell in love with.

Delicious! Yes I'm talking about the pig....

Another pina colada

Aloha and Maholo....

What better way to say farewell than a goodbye breakfast at one of the most popular breakfast places on Maui? The Gazebo is just that - a gazebo. The line gets long as people wait to grab a seat for probably the best Hawaiian breakfast ever. They are known for their "banana mac" pancakes and ginormous plates of fried rice. I opted for the pancakes. Another good choice.

 

It's right by the ocean

Banana and macadamia nut pancakes

Then there was fish tacos. Since our plane didn't leave until 9 pm, we had some time to kill. I promised Mike I would find him the best fish tacos, so I did just that. Ono Tacos is owned by a couple with a BBQ grill outside of an inn. They use Ono fish and put a chipotle sauce on top. Mmmmm! The fish isn't battered either, it's just grilled and left to be amazing.

 

 

Happy boy

Time was drawing closer to the end and we had time to grab one last island treat before we left. Shave ice is probably one of the best things I have ever tried. It's totally not like a snow cone and is so smooth. It really was a great way to end the trip.

 

I'm glad I got to start this blog up again with food that really has changed how I eat. As a foodie, there is no greater gift than trying something new - and loving it. I'm glad to be back and to share what I've been up to in my kitchen these last few months. Until next time, cheers!

And Happy 4th of July!