Frozen Banana Bites

A Summer Season's Sensation! My little brother and I made these frozen banana treats the other day, and they tasted good! Actually, they are very similar to my Peanut Butter and Banana Freezer Bars. An old amateur post of mine... *sticks out tongue* But the recipe is good. I should actually re-post some of my favorite recipes; do a little revision. ;) But yeah, I'm supposed to be sharing my little recipe today. So. Here it is.

INGREDIENTS

About 2 bananas, sliced (fairly thick)

1\4 cup peanut butter

1 Tbsp honey

1\2 cup yogurt

1 1\2 tbsp honey

1 1\2 tbsp cocoa

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix peanut butter and yogurt mixtures in separate bowls. Put a bit of peanut butter mixture on a banana slice and top it with another slice. Repeat with all bananas. Dip and cover with yogurt mixture and place on a cookie sheet. Place in freezer until fully frozen.

Enjoy as a healthy little summertime treat!

\\ A great snack for kids\\ A great snack for anyone else\\ Make it easier to eat by cutting them in half after frozen\\ Be cooler than me and try putting a popsicle stick in between the banana slices\\

Tropical Strawberry Yogurt Smoothie

Happy Saturday! Are you burning up from pre-summer heat yet? Well if you are, you're in luck, because I have a five-ingredient smoothie recipe for y'all today. 

I made a smoothie yesterday for me and some of my family members, and decided I might as well take pictures and do a post. I need to get back into recipe posting. :P

Tropical Strawberry Yogurt Smoothie


INGREDIENTS:

About 1 1\2 cups frozen strawberries

About 2 1\2 cups fresh pineapple

Half of a frozen banana

1 cup plain yogurt

1 cup of water *


INSTRUCTIONS:

Throw everything into your blender and blend until smooth.
Enjoy!


Serves: about 7 small glasses- less for large glasses
* If you like your smoothies thicker, I would suggest doing less water.

Cranberry Almond Banana Bread (mini loaves)

    Hello! I haven't posted since last year! Ha... ha... ;P But it IS true. Anyhow, this is my first post of 2017! I think 2016 still sounds a little more right... but it's the New Year non-the-less.

    On with the post. I said in my Reflecting on 2016 post that I wanted to get back into recipe making. WELL, it appears I'm kicking off the year with that. ;) I decided to make some sort of mini bread- banana bread. This is what it turned out to be.

    I used Pecan Banana Bread recipe as a guide, and decided to experiment with cardamon in banana bread. It smelled like nisu, and I was excited to see how it turned out. However, once I mixed the wet and dry ingredients together, the other flavors overpowered the cardamon. :\ Oh well, it turned out good anyhow! And I really like the cranberries in it! :)

CRANBERRY ALMOND BANANA BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups flour                                              1\4 cup crushed almonds

1 1\2 tsp. baking powder                          2 eggs

1\2 tsp. baking soda                                 1 cup mashed banana

1\4 tsp. salt                                               3\4 cup coconut sugar            

1\2 tsp cinnamon                                     1\2 cup melted butter                                                                                                

1\4 tsp. cardamon 

1\4 cup + 1 tbsp. dried cranberries "craisins"

INSTRUCTIONS:

Combine first eight ingredients (from flour to almonds). Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix eggs, mashed banana, and sugar with electric mixer. Stir in melted butter. Pour wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined. Don't over-mix.

Grease four mini bread pans, then divide batter among them. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.

Cool and enjoy with lots of butter! ;D

   By the way, my little brother helped me make these. ;) He helped pour things in, and mix a little. It's fun to bake with little siblings. <3

Season's Sensation: Chocolate Banana Ice Cream Smoothie

 Here with the smoothie recipe I mentioned in my July Currently post! :) Mind you, I'm on vacation right now, and this post was scheduled. :D I'm having fun... hopefully, because I don't know that yet, since I wrote this up the day before we left. :P 

 So anyhow, this is a good recipe for your hot summer days! =D

CHOCOLATE BANANA ICE CREAM SMOOTHIE

3 tbsp cocoa

3\4 cup milk

1\2 tbsp honey

1 1\2 -ish frozen banana

pinch of salt

a little cinnamon (a pinch?)

Blend together in a blender and enjoy! 

(This may be two servings, by the way.) 

 These are some pictures I took sometime before we left. The sun was shining, and it was raining! :) Pretty cool.

Healthy Breakfast Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

 So I recently bought this awesome jar-cup thing at goodwill for 59 cents. :) I thought it would be good for smoothie pics, and I it is- even though my smoothie didn't even fill it over halfway! :P 

   So then a made a banana oatmeal smoothie. :) I let the ingredients sit for awhile in the refrigerator while the bananas were in the freezer, so you can do that if you'd like- I didn't have that in the recipe directions though.  

HEALTHY BREAKFAST BANANA OATMEAL SMOOTHIE

1\2 cup milk

1\2 cup oatmeal

1 tbsp cream cheese *

1\2  tsp cinnamon 

1\2 tsp greek yogurt

1 tsp honey

1 small frozen (or partially frozen) banana

Blend all ingredients together in the blender, pour into a cup, and enjoy! :)

* you could substitute this for more yogurt, I'm sure. :)

Focusing fun. :D

  Isn't it a nice cup? ^___^  

So yea, an easy, healthy breakfast recipe for you if you are in a hurry! ;)

Low Sugar Pecan Banana Bread

  I made banana bread today, and made just four changes to the recipe I used. I added more cinnamon, added pecans, cut the amount of banana (ha, I did this without trying to :P), and cut the sugar by one-fourth cup. So it's really not so low-sugar. It is healthier though. ;)

    Anyhow, it tastes very good, and eating it with butter may possibly make it taste like butter pecan banana bread. :) 

LOW SUGAR PECAN BANANA BREAD

2 cups white flour *

1 1\2 tsp baking powder

1\2 tsp baking soda

1\4 tsp salt

1\2 tsp cinnamon

1\8 tsp nutmeg

2 eggs 

1 cup mashed banana 

3\4 cup sugar

1\2 cup melted butter

1\3 cup crushed pecans

______________________________________________________

  Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients (plus pecans) in another bowl. Mix both together just until combined. Pour into greased loaf pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 55 minutes. **

* Use some whole wheat flour to make this more healthy. :)

** The original recipe says to bake for 55-60 minutes, but mine was done at 55. 

  You should definitely try this if you love banana bread (like me!). :) I didn't even miss the cut sugar- or banana! ;)

Season's Sensation: Frozen Yogurt Waffle Sandwiches

  Here's the recipe(s) for these Frozen Yogurt Waffle Sandwiches. ;) 

  I need to make some waffles to keep in the freezer so I can make these a lot! Just as long as we always have yogurt. 

 It might make a good, light breakfast to make one of these the night before and take it out the next morning to eat. ;) Maybe let it thaw a bit too. It would probably be pretty hard sitting overnight in the freezer. :D 

 But they are definitely good snacks as well. And you know, frozen snacks with summer coming... ;)

FROZEN YOGURT WAFFLE SANDWICHES

  2 waffle squares (2\4 of a waffle)

  1\3 cup plain yogurt

  1\2 tbsp coconut sugar

FOR PEACH VERSION ADD:

2 slices of canned peaches, cubed

a pinch of cinnamon

1\4 tsp vanilla

FOR BANANA VERSION ADD:

1\4 of a banana

1\2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

  Mix everything (except the waffles, of course) in a small bowl, 

then carefully pour on top one waffle square. Put the other on top 

and put in the freezer until frozen. Enjoy!

Banana Prune Oatmeal Smoothie

  Hey, I have another oatmeal smoothie recipe here! :) This is a sweeter one, and it's good. And just so you know, this makes a lot more than the amount in the picture. ;)

BANANA PRUNE OATMEAL SMOOTHIE

______________________________________________________

 1 banana                                       

 1\2 cup oatmeal                             

 1\2 cup milk                                

 1\4 cup water                                 Throw everything in to the

 1 tbsp honey                                  blender and blend until smooth.

 1 tsp vanilla                                   Enjoy! :)

 1 tsp cinnamon

 1 prune

 a few walnuts

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Other Oatmeal Smoothies Recipes:

Peach and Cinnamon Oatmeal Smoothie              Chocolate Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Blueberry Almond Cheesecake Oatmeal Smoothie

Banana Oatmeal Garbanzo Bean Muffins

     Healthy flour-less, nut free muffins... for a yummy breakfast!

       I decided to try making muffins with garbanzo beans. I've eaten muffins made with black beans, and they're quite good... So I made up this recipe, and it turned out great! :) 

BANANA OATMEAL GARBANZO BEAN MUFFINS

______________________________________________________

15.5 oz can of garbanzo beans

2 bananas

3 eggs

2 t cinnamon

1 t b. powder

1 1\2 t b. soda

1\2 t nutmeg

1 C oatmeal

1\4 C coconut sugar

2 1\2 T honey

1\4 C yogurt

1 t vanilla

______________________________________________________

Blend in a food processor until smooth. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners and fill with batter about over 2\3's of the way up.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 17 minutes

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OTHER MUFFIN (OR CUPCAKE) RECIPES:

  

      Plum and Lemon Cupcakes

    Cheddar Cornmeal Muffins