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...

Tasty Fried Zucchini

It seems like zucchini has been all over Pinterest lately. A good reason why is that zucchini is packed full of nutrients for your body! Want to know more? Check this article out on Livestrong.com and tell me you don't want to stuff your face with it! We went borderline "healthy" and decided on a fried zucchini recipe from the Neely's on Food Network. About 4 thick slices is 150 calories, 9 grams of fat but you still get the fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron! So we're still on the board for having a somewhat healthy snack! This is a bit more time consuming for an afternoon snack than I would normally go for but it was completely worth it! Let's get started!

Ingredients: 

Oil For Frying (we used our mini-fryer with Canola oil)

3 large zucchini (slice into small rounds)

1/2 c all purpose flour

1 1/2 c Panko bread crumbs

1/4 c grated Parmesan Cheese

2 TB finely chopped Parsley

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

Salt & Pepper

3 eggs-lightly beaten

1/4 c water

Dipping Sauce

1 c sour cream

2 TB Butter milk 

(I had to make my own which is one cup of milk with 2 TB of white vinegar. Let sit for about 15 mins)

(I didn't have shallots or chives but she calls for them. We thought it tasted just fine without it. I did add a little minced onion in there!)

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Dash of hot sauce

Salt and Pepper

Here is how we did this:

We started with the bowl of flour at one end, followed by the egg and water mixture, and then finally the breadcrumbs with all the seasonings in the final bowl. 

Once your zucchini is sliced into rounds, you're going to want to coat the slices in flour, then dip each round into the egg/water mixture. After you have each piece coated, you're going to add to the Panko and spices bowl and make sure it covered in all the goodies! (I added a little more Parmesan cheese at this point because I didn't think it looked like enough). Once all your pieces are covered we put ours down in the frying oil for exactly 3 minutes. They turned out beautifully! 

Each piece is packed with flavor and the dipping sauce compliments this perfectly!

To make the dipping sauce, all you need to do is mix all the ingredients together and chill in the fridge. It says to chill for one hour, we chilled as long as it took to make the zucchini (about 15-20 minutes). 

Stay tuned tomorrow for the photo challenge update!

Until then..

Pork Tenderloin for dinner

Before our big outdoor weekend, we enjoyed a delicious pork tenderloin recipe from Chef Mommy. This was extremely easy to put together, and we added some cheesy rice and broccoli to serve as a side! I'm all for the recipes that you can throw together and tastes like you spent hours on it! I know I write a lot about the benefits of eating venison because it's healthier for you! On the same note, pork tenderloin is full of goodies that your body needs and loves! If you don't believe me, check out this information on Livestrong. Of course you're not going to want to take down the whole pound of tenderloin for yourself, but it's a healthy meal if you keep your portions adjusted! So let's get started with this recipe!

Ingredients
1/2 c olive oil
1/3 c soy sauce (you can use low sodium)
1/4 c red wine vinegar
Juice of a lemon
1-2 TB Worcestershire sauce
1-2 TB parsley
2 tsp dry mustard
pepper
4 cloves of garlic-minced
1 lb pork tenderloin

You are going to want to start out with the marinade for the tenderloin. Mix all the above ingredients together and place in a Ziploc bag with the tenderloin and place it in your fridge for 3-4 hours! (NOTE: SAVE 3 TABLESPOONS OF THE MARINADE AND SET ASIDE FOR THE PAN SAUCE) You can marinade overnight for extra flavor, just cover the extra marinade with some foil or saran-wrap!

Once you have left the pork in the marinade in the fridge for a few hours, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. In a skillet, you're going to want to sear the tenderloin on all sides. Place it in a pan and cook (uncovered) for 30-40 minutes. Once you pull it out of the oven allow it rest for up to 5 minutes before slicing it!

Now to make the pan sauce here are the ingredients you're going to need:

Pan scrapings from pork 

1/2 c chicken broth

2-3 TB marinade (the reserve)

1-2 tsp butter

Place the skillet over medium heat and add the chicken broth. This will loosen the scrapings from the bottom of the pan and stir together. Add the marinade and simmer for a couple of minutes. Then add the butter and you're done! I kept my skillet over low/medium heat until the pork was out of the oven and I was ready for it! Once your pork has cooled, and you have sliced the tenderloin (see the lines on the tenderloin in the picture above, just slice along the lines for perfect slices) pour the pan sauce over the tenderloin and you're done!! THAT EASY! This tenderloin was full of flavor and we will definitely be making it again soon! 

Tonight, I'm making a chicken and rice soup for us before D heads to work and I head off to a pampered chef party (woo-hoo)! Stay tuned for the recipe!! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

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~