Banana Carrot Muffins

Have I mentioned that James is a very thoughtful boyfriend? Well, he is. So thoughtful, in fact, that last week he informed me our bananas were getting old and we just so happened to have some leftover shredded carrots and maybe I could bake something healthy with them. For him. And if that wasn't thoughtful enough, I got an email that very same day with a recipe for these banana carrot muffins.

Ingredients:

-1 1/2 C flour (AP or gluten free)
-3/4 C sugar
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1 tsp. baking soda
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
-1/4 tsp. nutmeg*
-2 eggs, separated (or egg replacer if vegan!)
-1 tablespoon honey
-1/4 tsp. grated orange peel
-2 med. ripe bananas - mashed
-1 C shredded carrots
-1/2 C unsweetened applesauce

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350

-In large bowl combine: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg

-In another bowl beat egg yolks. Add in honey & grated orange peel if including. Mix into dry ingredients until just mixed in. Mix in bananas, carrots & applesauce

-In separate bowl beat egg whites until stiff peaks form & fold into batter.

-Fill muffin cups (2/3 full) and bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

-This made ~12 muffins for me with a little batter left over.

**I omitted the nutmeg and grated orange peel.

These were delicious and if I ate 2 for breakfast I wasn't hungry for lunch until noon. That's unheard of for me. Usually I'm starving by 10am. Of course, I also usually just eat some almonds for breakfast once I get to work because I literally lay in bed until the absolute last minute and then have no time for breakfast. So maybe that has something to do with it... Either way, I highly recommend these and I despise most anything that could be considered healthy!

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie - Healthy!

You'll Never Guess What This is Made of...

Have you guys heard of Chocolate Covered Katie? If not, you should go check out her blog right now. It's filled with tons of healthy dessert recipes. I posted already about my love for chocolate chip cookies here so when I stumbled across her recipe for a deep dish chocolate chip cookie pie that was healthy I knew I had to try it. To be honest, I really just tried it as an experiment and to see if anyone would be able to guess what it was made of. For the record, no one did. 

I only have a small 3 C mini food processor so it took way longer than it should have, I wouldn't really recommend trying this unless you have a better food processor than me! I had to make this in several small batches of 'dough' and then combine it all so it was kind of a pain - way more trouble than I'm willing to go through for a cookie. With a larger/better food processor though I think it would be fairly simply and definitely worth a try. It would probably turn out even better than mine did.

Anyway, enough chatting and onto the recipe.

Look at her pictures, they're way better!

Ingredients:

-2 cans white or garbanzo beans - drain & rinse (500g)

-1 C quick oats (I used gluten free ones)

-1/4 C unsweetened applesauce

-3 tbsp oil

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-1/2 tsp baking soda

-2 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp salt

-1 1/2 C brown sugar

-1 C chocolate chips (or more! ;))

Preheat oven to 350F. Dump everything but chocolate chips into a *good* food processor (that also happens to be large enough to hold everything!) and blend well. Then just mix in chocolate chips & pour into greased pan - I just used a 9' round cake pan, but a springform pan would probably be preferable. Bake for 35-40 minutes and let sit before serving.

Eat & Enjoy - and share with others to see if they guess what it's made of! I did sneak 1tbsp butter into mine just because I had to. I did 2 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp butter. I can't help it, I love butter and just had to throw some in. I'm sure it'd be just as good (and even healthier) without the butter. 

**Original recipe post here

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Healthy AND Easy?!?

So, if you knew me you would know that I love sweets and I hate exercise. My hatred of exercise is partially fueled by my inherent laziness. Oh, I don't like vegetables either. Or really anything that tastes remotely healthy (though I'm getting better with that... slowly).

I typically try to balance out my love for sweet and my distaste for exercise by simply baking Sunday nights and bringing whatever I've made into work on Mondays. That way I get to have some, but it also gets out of my house. Most of my coworkers have started eating healthy so when one of my coworkers texted me a recipe she found for some healthy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I decided to give them a try. This recipe combines my love for eating sweets and being lazy (its super easy & delicious) with other people's desire to not eat pounds of butter & sugar all the time. It's a win/win really.

*Excuse the terrible photo, this was taken on my cell phone long before I started this blog!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies:

-1 C peanut butter (recipe calls for creamy or chunky, I've only used creamy)

-2/3 C packed dark brown sugar

-1 1/2 tsp vanilla

-2 large eggs

-2/3 C rolled oats (I used gluten free)

-1tsp baking soda

-2/3 C chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine oats & baking soda in small bowl. Set aside. In larger bowl combine peanut butter, brown sugar, eggs & vanilla. Beat until smooth. Fold in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips. Form dough into balls and place on cookie sheet - dough will be sticky, I just scooped some out with a spoon then flattened it a bit with a fork.

Bake 9-11 minutes or until edges start to turn golden brown. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove and cool completely on wire cooling rack. Makes ~20 cookies depending on size. 

I'm not actually a fan of peanut butter cookies, but these were mild and tasty. I mean, if given a choice I'd probably choose a rich, buttery, barely cooked, REAL chocolate chip cookie but these are a great compromise. They definitely satisfy a baked goods craving with a fraction of all the bad stuff in them. They even have a decent amount of protein in them for a 'cookie' so in my book that pretty much makes them a health food.

What are some of your favorite 'healthy' dessert recipes?