Easy Mini Banana Muffins

Bananas are a staple at our house, but there's always one or two very ripe ones at the end of the week that are too sweet to eat on their own. This is when the brown freckles have taken over most of the yellow skin. At this point, I think many people including my husband throw them away, thinking the fruit has gone bad. Don't do it! It's actually perfect for baking!!!

I toss them in the freezer and when I have 3 on hand, I make this quick mini muffins that my toddler absolutely loves. If you're a parent then you know how fickle toddlers can be with food. She's yet to turn down one of these perfectly sized little snacks!  It's so easy, it makes a great cooking activity to do with a little one on a rainy day! 

Ingredients:

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup melted butter  

1/4 cup raw brown sugar 

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup whole wheat flour

Pinch of pink himalayan salt

1/4 cup peanut butter chips

2 tbsp melted coconut oil

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

2. Using a silicone brush, grease 24 mini muffin pan with coconut oil. Put any leftover oul aside. 

3. In a mixing bowl, add the mashed  bananas, melted butter, egg, sugar, and mix well.

4. Stir in the baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix well until smooth.

5. Using a small cookie scoop, transfer batter into the mini muffin pan. Top with peanut butter chips.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350°F or until a toothpick is inserted into the center and comes out clean.

7. Remove from oven and brush the tops with remaining melted coconut oil. 

Makes 24 mini muffins. 

Thanks for visiting! Let me know how you like this recipe in the comments😊.

Jules ❣

Chicken & Rice Soup

This Chicken & Rice Soup is a variation on a dish called Lugaw, found in Filipino cuisine. A popular childhood comfort food favourite, Lugaw is a simple dish similar to the Chinese congee. Just like me, it's one of my toddler's all time favourite foods! She's popping out her incisors at the moment and dinner has been a challenge lately so I thought I'd make her something not just comforting but also easier for her to eat. 

I used store bought rotisserie chicken, which I deboned and shredded. I only used about a third of the meat and saved the rest to use for chicken salad tomorrow. You can use boxed chicken stock instead of making your own from the chicken carcass, but I didn't have any on hand so I had to make do with what I had. It's an extra step and adds about 20 minutes to the total cook time, but I find homemade stock from rotisserie chicken carcass a lot more flavourful than boxed stock, and it was easy enough to let simmer while I got the vegetables chopped.

I used pre-cooked rice, leftovers from earlier this week which cut about 20 minutes off the cook time so I guess that evens it out with the stock. We tried a new brand and type of rice from our usual brown jasmine. Its sprouted brown & and black japonica rice that I got from Costco. When its cooked, the black rice turns into a purplish colour which was a little odd at first but it tasted pretty good! It reminded me of this sushi place we ate at in Victoria a few years back when we were still kid-free. Can't remember the name of it now but I distinctly remember them using black japonica rice. The owner of the small restaurant touted the health benefits of the black rice so passionatelh he even handed us a pamphlet filled with its health benefits to read while we waited for our order to come! It was a little weird eating sushi with purple rice, but I'm a sushi fiend so that didn't really stop me.  

Ok, enough reminiscing and back to the soup, lol! I topped it with finely sliced Thai basil from my herb garden as garnish since I had no green onions on hand. Traditionally, Lugaw is also garnished with crispy fries garlic and onions, and sliced hard-boiled eggs but I'm too lazy to do that on a weeknight, lol! Its also flavoured with a squeeze of calamansi or lemon before serving, but with my toddler teething, I figured it's best to go without the citrus this time around. 

This recipe is not exactly the old-school way of cooking Lugaw with the shortcuts, the type of rice, the addition of vegetables, and the improv garnish but I have to get those veggies in for the little munchkin and also work with the ingredients I had on hand. 

Ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken carcass

1/3 rotisserie chicken meat, de-boned and shredded

6 cups water

1 tsp minced garlic

1 small onion, chopped

1 thumb size nub of fresh ginger, grated

1 tbsp butter

2 cups diced carrots

1 medium apple, diced with skin on

1.5 cups cooked rice

salt & pepper to taste

finely sliced Thai basil or green onions for garnish

Directions:

1. Simmer rotisserie chicken carcass in water for 20 minutes on high. 

2. Drain stock then set aside.

3. In a soup pot on medium heat, sauteé garlic & onions in butter until transluscent or lightly browned. 

4. Add chicken, carrots, apples, & rice and stir. 

5. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Add stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring regularly until a porridge consistency is reached.

7. Garnish with Thai basil or green onions and enjoy! 

Serves 4-6. 

Thanks for visiting my blog! 

Jules ❣

Sopas (Filipino Chicken Noodle Soup)

It's been very cold here in Calgary, with temperatures hovering between -22°C to -33°C this past week. This has been very fitting considering Gastropost Calgary's mission this week is called "Warm It Up"! So I figured what a great time to make some chicken soup, the quintessential comfort food. 

Fried Calamari with Sautéed Garlic Sesame Spinach

I love fried calamari. I often order it as an appetizer at pretty much any restaurant I go to. It's a common dish usually served with a sauce like marinara or tzatziki. Today, I decided to make some at home. 

Gluten Free Coconut Flour Flax Bread

We often have a full house on NFL Sunday afternoons at home. Today, my partner Jesse had his buddies over and even had a spread of appetizers to snack on. I didn't really like watching football at first. I'm more of the play the sports instead of watch it on TV type but it's grown on me over the years. However, I do have a short attention span when it comes to watching sports on TV. So I usually busy myself doing something else while periodically hanging out and watching snippets of the game with the gang. 

Avocado Shake

Ah, Monday! Many good intentions have started on Mondays. Today is my first day back on the ketosis wagon. I've had a very indulgent carb up weekend while celebrating my cousins' birthday. 

Roast Chicken with Pan Gravy & Swiss Chard with Bacon

I love Sunday dinners. Why? Well, because my partner Jesse usually feels compelled to cook since he would spend most of the afternoon watching football. I'm quite proud of Jesse's cooking skills. He has come a long way! 

Coconut Shrimp with Pineapple Curry Dip

Shrimp is probably the most popular seafood out there. I have a couple of friends who hate seafood (I know, what's up with that???) and they still have at least tried shrimp. As Forrest Gump's friend Bubba said it's the fruit of the sea and you can cook it a million different ways. One of my favourite ways to cook shrimp is to coat it in coconut flakes. I just love the flavour of coconut and shrimp together. It makes me think of somewhere tropical and warm:) 

Easy Spinach Salad

This salad as a meal recipe is so easy to make and prep time is literally minutes! I have made variations of this recipe switching the chorizo with bacon, ham, or whatever protein I may have on hand. 

Carrot Ginger Juice

Happy Sunday! Look at me posting another blog entry a day after my last one...wow! I'm surprised myself. Sundays are usually pretty lazy for me but today I have a few more house projects I need to finish so after an intense hot core yoga class, I'm having myself this perk me up Ginger Carrot Juice. 

Happy, Healthy New Year! Green Juice Recipe

Happy New Year! Wow, where did 2013 go? I've been such a neglectful blogger, my last post was in August! One of the resolutions I have is to blog at least once a month, with a target of once a week. I guess time will tell if I can transform this resolution to a routine.

Spicy Pork Lettuce Wraps with Basil Lemon Aoli

I can't believe how fast time flies! It's been almost a month since my last post! The August weather in YYC has been better than the earlier months of summer and I've been taking full advantage with an awesome tan to prove it. This month has been full of events which included a wedding, a baby shower, & a QOTSA concert amongst others. I've also just gotten back into eating keto as of this Monday. I had a carb up weekend which turned into a carb up week last week...lol! 

Zucchini & Eggplant Lasagna

Growing up in the 80s, I read a lot of comic books. Among those I collected were Tintin, Archie, & perhaps my favourite of all, Garfield. I loved that lazy, cynical orange tabby and his gang of friends. Garfield always tried to blame his shenanigans on Odie, the dumb, loyal dog. Both of them owned by a single guy named John who was very, very dorky and hence, could never get a date. Occasionally, an irritatingly cute kitten named Nermal would show up and Garfield always tried to send him to Abu Dhabi. 

One of the most influencing thing about Garfield for me was his love of lasagna. He always obsessed about it and as a young impressionable kid, I thought, wow, this lasagna dish must be something. So when I finally got a chance to try it, I was sold. To me it tasted just like spaghetti, but fancier, and what kid didn't like spaghetti? Although, I did have a phase where I didn't like eating anything red because I thought it was made out of blood, so I guess for awhile there I didn't like spaghetti, but it was short lived.  Anyways, ever since then, I've loved lasagna.

A few weeks ago, when I posted a pic of my Zucchini & Eggplant Lasagna on Instagram, I had a few requests for the recipe. I made this dish during an impromptu dinner party I had on a weeknight. I had a couple of my BFFs over for a visit & needed something easy to make. It's a little bit labour intensive with the pre-work but if you have a mandolin, you will save a ton of time & have consistency with the zucchini & eggplant "noodles". Once the lasagna is assembled, you can pop in the oven until done. Since all the ingredients are pre-cooked prior to assembly, you're really only imparting the flavors of the meat sauce on the veg and melting the cheese so I guess timewise, it's not that bad.

Please note that this recipe is not really the "traditional" lasagna recipe as I used zucchini and eggplant for the noodles and I had no ricotta cheese so I used feta & mozza instead. I also have some perhaps non-Italian ingredients in my seasoning so yes, it's not authentic but I assure you, it will taste good!

So without further ado, here's my recipe for keto friendly, gluten free lasagna. I hope you enjoy and thanks for reading my blog!

ZUCCHINI & EGGPLANT LASAGNA

Ingredients:

5 baby zucchini

2 baby eggplants

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

2 cups shredded mozza cheese1 kg extra lean ground beef
3 tbsp olive oil
1 orange bell pepper, diced
2 medium roma tomatoes, diced
8 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, diced (any type will do, I used white)
2 cans tomato paste
2 tsp Maggi seasoning
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
seasoning salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Using a mandolin, slice the the zucchini and eggplant lengthwise (about 1/4 of an inch). Brush 2 tbsp of olive oil on each side of the slices and grill on low until grill marks appear. Turn to the other side, then remove and set aside. 

Heat a deep skillet on medium. 

Add 1 tbsp olive oil, ground beef, garlic and onion until browned. 

Add tomato paste, maggi seasoning, worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Stir well (remember the flavour is in the brown bits at the bottom of the pan stir, stir, stir!)

Add tomatoes & bell pepper and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Pre-heat oven to 350°F. 

Now for the assembly. I used a 9 x 13, 3 qt glass pyrex bakeware. Spoon enough of the meat sauce on the bottom of the dish. Spread out to about 1/4 inch. Then add a layer of zucchini and top with some cheese. Repeat this layering, alternating between zucchini and eggplant.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cheese on top is bubbling and melted. 

Serve with your choice of green salad. 

Serves 12

Nutritional info per serving:  190 Calories, 6.5 g Total Fat, 12.6 g Carbs, 2 g Fiber, 6.1 g Sugar, 16.4 g Protein

Chicken Roulade with Roasted Broccoli

Wow, it's been so long since I've done a post!!! I know, I know, I’ve been a bad blogger but I've finally kicked myself into gear and hopefully I can get to posting more regularly. So…what’s new with me?