Apples and Bananas Waffles

Today the kids are home so it was a great morning to try out a Apples & Bananas Waffles recipe from Bless this Mess.  Earlier this week, I peeled apples that were ripening too much and made homemade applesauce.  Same thing with the bananas.  Some weeks the kids love them.  Some weeks they love something else.

Here is the recipe from Bless This Mess Please

Healthy Banana Waffles
Yield: 6 medium waffles

The What's
2 ripe bananas, ½ cup unsweetened applesauce, 2 eggs, 1 ½ cups almond milk, 1 cup quick cook oats,
1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 Tbsp baking powder, ½ tsp. salt, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, ½ tsp. cinnamon

The How's
Turn on your waffle iron and allow it to preheat while you mix the batter.  In a medium bowl mash the bananas with a fork until they are well mashed and make a smooth paste. Add the applesauce and eggs and whisk to combine. Add the almond milk and combine. Add the oats, wheat flour, baking soda, salt, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Stir until well combined. Cook the waffles according to the manufacturer instructions for your waffle iron.  Serve with fresh banana slices, pure maple syrup, or honey.

I had five taste testers to make this recipe for.  Two of the taste testers did not have an interest in eating this for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Two of these eaters, the more mature eaters, really enjoyed the fruit and cinnamon in these whole-wheat waffles.  I did sneak a bit dipped in warm syrup and it is a great replacement to a boxed breakfast.

Day 1 of The Clean Eating Challenge

Kale and Banana Smoothie starts off my day one!  Five ingredients blended together to make a fantastically green concoction.  Here is the link to the recipe.  Kale, Almond Milk, Frozen Banana, Vanilla extract and Peanut Butter (*recipe calls for almond butter, I am using what I have).  

My husband was the first to leave the house this morning so I offered to make him one.  He tasted it and decided it wasn't for him so off he went with an empty belly.  

To rate these recipes, I will mention ease of preparation, cost of ingredients, satiety, serving size per recipe and flavor.

Ease of preparation:  Scale of 1 (being easiest) to 10, this is a 2; Very easy.  You only need to have frozen unpeeled bananas overnight as well as have the ingredients on hand.
Cost of ingredients:  Inexpensive.
Satiety:  within 20 minutes of eating it, my belly is not stuffed yet full.
Serving Size:  This recipe will yield close to two cups of smoothie, well at least 1.5 cups easy.
Flavor:  This smoothie tastes mostly like peanut butter.  Drinking this was not difficult but the flavor was not sweet.

Next up, is lunch! I had to wait four hours between meals so by the time it came, I was hungry yet still reasonable.  Today's lunch was a Shaved Asparagus salad with Shallots and Fried Egg Salad and the recipe can be found here.

Ingredients for this recipe included eggs, asparagus, arugula, shallots, tomato, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, salt/pepper and feta cheese.  We used the entire container of arugula and we were able to serve three platefuls of salad.  

Wow, what a salad! I like my egg slightly runny and it complimented the warm, al dente asparagus. Did I mention that I didn't think I even liked Asparagus?!  Yep, I asked my husband yesterday if he liked them because in ten years I had never bought them from the store or asked for them in a restaurant.  Neither, had I seen him eat them.

Ease of preparation:  Scale rating:  4. I could not peel the asparagus, as the recipe suggest so I just sliced them lengthwise and cut them in half across. The shallots will cook fast so keep your eye on the pan. Frying the egg, can always go either way; broken or perfect.  If you prefer a runny egg, then opt for what you enjoy!  I love, love, love feta cheese so having it for lunch made my heart sing. This salad is served best when it's warm but not terrible as I had two plates, the second which was room temperature.  I added a little olive oil as a dressing to give it congruence.

Cost of ingredients:  Estimated cost is between $5-$6, mainly due to the amount of arugula you use and the cost of asparagus.  Still affordable.
Satiety:  I was able to suppress my appetite until it was snack time, three hours later.
Serving Size:  This recipe will yield close to six cups of salad and is a great meal to serve to guest, pending you can serve it warm.  You can cook as many eggs as you prefer and I imagine a hard-boiled egg wouldn't be bad here either.
Flavor:  This salad tasted green.  Your body is screaming with joy once you've cleaned your plate and licked your fork.  Favorite meal of the day.

Here is my portion of the salad, in which did not hesitate to help myself to a second serving. 

Guilt-Free, I may add!  

I am omitting the pictures of my snacks.  So far, I've had peeled and sliced whole carrots and red pepper hummus for a snack and soon, it will be a nice pear with peanut butter, or almond butter if you have it.  

Finally, the final meal of the Day 1 Clean Eating Challenge!  

Tonight, I serve you a Roasted Chicken Bowl with Couscous, Kale and Big Orange Vinaigrette.  I was able to use some leftover chicken that I had roasted this weekend in place of baking new chicken, so stay tuned later this week for a review on their Big Batch Roasted Chicken Breast.  I also changed quinoa to couscous because that is what I  had in my pantry!  I am no nutritionist but I bet these two are pretty close nutritionally.

Ease of preparation:  Scale rating: 4.  You should prep everything while your chicken is roasting so you can progress in steps beforehand then bam!   I cooked the couscous first and let it sit on the counter top at least 10 minutes. I made the vinaigrette dressing and let that sit while I finished up the kale.  Steaming the kale was easy but be sure to strain in before mixing it all together.

Cost of ingredients:  Inexpensive.
Satiety:  stuffed.  My palate is fresh, my teeth are happy and life is good.
Serving Size:  This recipe will yield close to six cups. I wouldn't think adding more kale would hurt anyone so be sure if you are adding more kale, that you make more dressing.
Flavor:  The kale was pleasant, not bitter.  I don't know if it was because of the orange vinaigrette that helped or the light steam.  The couscous had no real flavor but I did add some olive oil and salt into the water.

In case you were interested, this is the orange vinaigrette.  My interpretation is to squeeze juice from an orange and not use sweetened orange juice that you would drink. 

The flavor of this was good, not sweet at all.  

Who doesn't love making their own dressings?!

I hope you have enjoyed today's posts and I hope the pictures encourage you to make this your own.  I will not post specific recipes as the link is the best way to organize your week.  I am now off to clean up the kitchen and prep my oatmeal for tomorrow.  I can't wait to see how overnight oats with chia seeds and blueberries taste.