Fried Honey and Cinnamon Bananas

Okay, so this isn't exactly a "fried" banana more of a heated through banana! It's delicious and healthy! I pinned this awhile back, and couldn't wait to try it, so today was the day! You can see the health information on this snack at The Crohn's Journey Foundation's website! They break down each ingredient with all the nutritional facts about each one! It's worth the read even if you don't make this yummy snack! Let's get started...

Ingredients

One organic banana

Coconut Oil Cooking Spray

1 TB Organic honey

1/2 TB water

Cinnamon

Cut your banana into small rounds and set aside. In your skillet spray your coconut oil spray, and heat the skillet over medium/high heat. Add the banana rounds and brown on one side. Once they are browned, flip the over (carefully) and start browning the other side. Turn the stove off at this point and add your PRE-MIXED honey and water. At this point it's going to start getting very bubbly, and once that dies down you can sprinkle on the cinnamon. If you LOVE the taste of cinnamon be generous, if you are just adding for a touch of flavor, a light dusting will do! Remove them from the pan and let them cool, then enjoy! 

Honey and water mix

I didn't have the cooking spray, so I added a little bit of coconut oil to the pan! I use this for SOOOO many things including, toothpaste, hair conditioner, lotion, sunscreen, etc etc! It's awesome!

Here is the banana in the skillet getting browned! 

I LOVE cinnamon! If you'll take my advice and read up on the website where this recipe was pulled, you'll find that you might start adding cinnamon to recipes when you can :) I've added it to sloppy joe mix before and it was awesome! If you like Coney Island, did you know they add cinnamon to their chili!? (Not that that will make their coney's healthy lol but they are delish!)

Here it is just finishing up! I can still smell ALL of the ingredients in the house! 

Stay tuned for a new recipe...Shrimp & Grits! 

Until then...

Roasted Chickpeas

So, I'm trying this on my phone today because our computer is up at the office! I cannot get enough of these sweet and salty chickpeas!! They are easy to make, and a great idea for a snack at home or you could double/triple the recipe to take to a party! Lets get started!

Ingredients:
I can of chickpeas
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

To start out you're going to drain the can of chickpeas and then scatter them out on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes. The last can I made I had to bake for about 32-35 (the chickpeas around the edges might get burned, just remove them and pop the sheet back in.) You are looking for them to have a crunch! Once they have roasted let them cool and put them in a small bowl. Add the olive oil, cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt and stir together. Serve and enjoy!! I about took down a whole can by myself the first time I made these! I originally came across this recipe at cupcakeproject.com! If you check out her recipes you will quickly find she puts together things that might seem out of the ordinary, but end up being satisfying and delicious! Stay tuned for more great recipes this week!! Until then...

Happy Eating

Go Green

I'm so proud of myself! I made a green smoothie and I LOVED it! I see these floating around on Pinterest all the time, but the color has always made me second guess the flavor of these drinks. It's kind of like eating green eggs and ham! I just don't think a drink should be quite so "green" especially when I know the green comes from a leafy substance I usually put in salad or something else! So, I decided to give it a try and was very surprised that I couldn't taste the "green" at all. Instead this almost tastes like a banana & cinnamon drink! So let's get started on this delicious and nutritious drink...

Ingredients

2 c Kale

1 c ice

1/2 c almond milk

1/2 c plain yogurt

2 TB peanut butter

1 banana

6 strawberries

1 tsp cinnamon

1 TB Chia seeds

Put all this together in your blender and blend away! 

This smoothie is packed with potassium (660 mg), vitamin A (210% of your daily value), vitamin C (178% of your daily value), among others! It has 276 calories, which made for a great snack because it's about the same as eating 2 small bags of Doritos and much better for you! I wasn't tempted to snack on anything else because it is very satisfying! I came across this recipe at Tone It Up! 

If you want to know more about Chia seeds and their nutritional value you can check out this list on Livestrong. I throw some in to my water bottles and juices sometimes! The "texture" is something I had to get used to, however I barely notice it anymore!    

Stay tuned for the photo challenge update and many more recipes! 

Until then...

Cinnamon Chicken in the crock-pot

Okay, I am a little late with today's blog (12:15 am), but I am still awake because our schedules are all messed up, so to me it definitely still feels like "Friday". I found this recipe on my Pinterest board and thought it sounded great...Crock-Pot Cinnamon Chicken, yum! The chicken was great, what I decided to serve it with, not so great lol. We live and learn my friends! Which is great for ya'll because I can tell you that I did not like it with rice. In my head I was thinking back to those days growing up when you pour milk and sugar with a little bit of butter in with your white rice, which is fantastic to me. So, since this recipe kind of made me think of that, I thought to myself, why not! Nope, the flavors did not mix well and I ended up taking the chicken off the rice and eating it by itself. Since I made this error in your favor (haha), I also decided to throw in a spa dip recipe I found while scouring through a recipe book! YUM! Both recipes are so simple it's kind of ridiculous! I'll start with the chicken and move on from there!

The recipe calls for five chicken breasts. Since there are two of us, I only used two chicken breasts (however they were extremely large and filled up the entire bottom of my crock-pot). I was easily close to a pound and half. You start out by peeling and slicing six carrots. I am not a fan of carrots and Dee Jay is, so I compromised and chopped up the baby carrots and threw them in and made sure to spoon them on top of his plate (yea, I'm a baby about carrots). On top of the carrots you will toss in the chicken. Then here comes the part that will make your mouth water every time you get a whiff of this cooking...spices!!! It calls for one tablespoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon cardamom, 1 (15 oz) can of light coconut milk, and one (15 oz) can of tomato sauce. (I am going to make a side note here: I did not have cardamom and when I went to the store I was sad to see it was almost $15 for one spice bottle. So I made do with what I had and searched for what you can use if you don't have cardamom. I minced up a little bit of ginger and tossed in a sprinkle or two of nutmeg.) You put all this over the chicken (I stirred mine around a little bit), turn the crock-pot on low and cook them for 4-6 hours (until the internal temperature of the chicken is 165 degrees and no longer pink). 

The chicken cooking (I promise it's somewhere underneath there)

Sit back and enjoy the smell that will fill your home, and then serve it up with some vegetables as a side and you have yourself a pretty healthy little meal! This recipe was found on a website called The Gracious Pantry. She has a lot of great recipes I can't wait to try out, and the direct link to the actual recipe can be found here if you missed it up above!

Now, on to the spa dip...I pulled this recipe out of Fellowship Bible Church, Tasteful Traditions, book I was talking about in an earlier entry. The lady that entered this into the book is Hilary Smith, and her spa dip is great!

You start with two (8 oz) boxes Cream Cheese (softened), and add two packages of dry ranch dressing, 4-5 green onions, and 4-5 slices of deli sliced smoked ham. You are going to finely chop the green onion and ham and mix everything together in a bowl and serve it up with some crackers (or whatever your choose).

She noted that it is best if made a day in advance so we threw it in the fridge and ate some the next day and it was delicious! See, I told you there were ridiculously easy recipes!! I know it's Memorial Day weekend and this dip would be great at an event you may be going to! We used Special K Multi-Grain Crackers because they are sooo yummy!

SPA DIP
2 (8 oz) boxes cream cheese, softened
2 pkgs. Dry ranch dressing
4-5 Green onions
4-5 slices deli sliced smoked ham

Finely chop ham and onions. Mix everything together. Serve with crackers. Best if made the day before.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend!!
~Happy Eating~