Double Chocolate Banana Bread

This is the bomb. That's all. I have always loved banana bread. I'm not necessarily a banana bread maker by any means, but if there's ever banana bread already made, I'm always down for a slice. I've always wanted to try to make a healthy banana bread recipe, but I've never really found one that looks super yummy. I came across this recipe from Bloglovin' and it most definitely wasn't healthy by any means so naturally I made it my own by substituting a lot of healthier options, and I must say it was delicious. Even my husband who isn't a big cake/bread/dessert fan loved it so I took that as a big compliment. You've got to try this! Who doesn't love banana bread and chocolate? Combine the two with a healthy twist and you've got a guilt free delicious treat! Ingredients: - 3 Medium/Large ripe bananas - 1/2 C melted coconut oil - 3 Tbs honey - 1 Large egg - 1tsp vanilla extract - 1tsp baking soda - 1/4 tsp table salt - 1/2 tsp cinnamon - 1/2 C oat flour - 1/2 C coconut flour - 1/2 C cocoa powder - 1 C dark chocolate chips

 Heat your oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with a nonstick baking spray.

Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl. (You’ll have a little over 1 cup mashed banana total.) Whisk in melted coconut oil, then honey, egg, and vanilla. Place baking soda, salt, cinnamon, flours and cocoa powder in a separate bowl as whisk to get rid of any lumps (could also use a sifter), then add to the wet ingredients. Stir dry and wet ingredients with a spoon until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 55 to 65 minutes, until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out batter-free. (A melted chocolate chip smear is expected, however.) Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The banana bread will keep for up to 4 days at room temperature. I keep mine wrapped in foil. It goes without saying that it has never actually lasted that long. Hope you love it as much as I did! 

Teriyaki Chicken Stir-Fry

          I was getting pretty bored of just my usual chicken and rice and broccoli meal so I decided that I needed to switch things up a bit while still incorporating a lot of veggies. I love flavorful food but a big problem with this is that when you go out to eat, a majority of that flavorful food has a lot of excess calories. My goal with this meal was to capture the teriyaki flavor without all the added sugar. Have you ever looked at the ingredients of just a regular bottle of teriyaki sauce? Or any store bought sauce or marinade for that matter? Go ahead and look, you'll find that either the first or second ingredient is HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP. Yep i'm not joking. I went to Smith's the other night and looked at over 7 different bottles and literally each bottles main ingredient was just that. So basically that made me disgusted and that is how I came up with this much healthier recipe for teriyaki sauce.  Ingredients:

Sauce: * 1/2 C Liquid Aminos (soy sauce substitute) * 1 1/2 C Water * 1/2 tsp ginger powder * 2 tsp minced garlic * 3 tbs Truvia  * 2 tsp Honey

Veggies: (you really can use whatever veggies you want or happen to have) * Snow peas * Red, Orange, and Yellow Bell Peppers * Bok Choy (similar to celery) * Red Onion * Broccoli  * Water Chess Nuts

Chicken:  * 3 chicken breasts cut into cubes 

To make the sauce I really just mixed everything together in a pan and simmered on low heat. My Sauce was very liquid-y but if you want it to be thicker or stickier I suggest adding a Tbs of corn starch or arrow root powder. Once the sauce is simmering I put the chicken in a pan and poured a little bit of the sauce over it while I cooked the chicken. While the chicken was cooking I cooked the veggies in a separate pan also cooking them with the teriyaki sauce. Once both are done you can mix them together and pour over rice. That's it! Enjoy :)

Raw Key Lime Cheesecake Bites

I'm a sucker when it comes to anything Key Lime, add cheesecake to that and I'm all for it. Unfortunately both of those things tend to not be very healthy for you. I have been looking at several raw cheesecake recipes for months now trying to figure out how to put my own twist on it and I came up with this treasure over the weekend! You have to try it, they are gluten free, dairy free, and don't require any baking! Sounds perfect right? That's because they are, you're welcome :)

• Ingredients 
• Cheesecake Filling
• 2 1/3 cup cashews
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup maple syrup or coconut nectar (could use honey if you like)
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• about 2-3 tablespoons lime zest (about 6-8 limes)
• 1/4 cup water
Crust
• 1 cup almond meal/flour
• 3-4 medjool dates (or 1-3 tablespoons maple syrup)

Directions

1.  Begin by placing almond meal and dates into a food processor. And pulse until combined.
2. Take crust mixture and spoon into your mini cheesecake pans (or one large pie pan) and press into the pan. Set aside.
3. Next make the cheesecake filling.
4. I recommend soaking the cashews before blending and giving them a nice rinse.
5. Place nuts, maple syrup, lime juice, lime zest and water into blender.
6. Blend for a little bit.
7. Then add in your coconut oil and continue to blend until everything is well blended and the batter is nice and smooth. Adjust lime taste to your liking by adding more lime zest. (I like mine really tart)
8. Spoon lime cream filling on top of crust in mini cheesecake pans.
9. If you want more of a lime flavor, top each one with a little lime zest.
10. Then place in freezer or refrigerator and let set for a few hours.
11. Remove from freezer and pop out the mini cheesecakes and keep in refrigerator until ready to enjoy at room temperature.
12. Recommend freezing leftover slices for longer shelf life.

{side note: I had shallow cupcake/square pans so I had a lot of leftover filling, I just made some extra crust and put a thin layer of the filling in a pie tin, but if you have normal cupcake or muffin tins, it should be just enough filling for those.}

Crock Pot Chicken

Honestly the very best part of this recipe was how little time it took me to make it! Again, I just made it up, the ingredients are very similar to my chicken skewers marinade but this is definitely a lot less work! I've been on a rosemary kick lately, I swear it tastes good with anything, especially chicken of course! I made this in the morning right before heading out the door to work and when I came home I had some delicious chicken waiting for me. Here's what I used:
-6 chicken breasts (frozen or fresh) -lemon juice -balsamic vinegar -garlic -rosemary -red onion

It didn't look as pretty once it was cooked, but it was so delicious. I let it cook for about 10 hours, but I'm sure it would be done after 4-6, that extra time I let it cook though made it super tender and it just melted in my mouth, to die for! This made my meal prep so easy! I just popped some rice and broccoli into the microwave and added it all together to make my lunches for the next few days! I hope you like it! I can't wait to experiment with more flavors with this thing, Crockpot is the best!!

Chicken Skewers

I made some delicious chicken skewers on the grill tonight and I am so happy to share it with you all!

I wanted to incorporate a lot of veggies because I feel like I haven't been eating enough lately. I'm not the kind of person who likes following recipes so I usually just make up my own, because of this I don't have the exact measurements of everything, but I'm going to share the 'recipe' with you anyways cause it was sooooo good! You really can't mess this up so just go with whatever kinds of veggies you have or like, you'll love it! Chicken Skewers - cubed chicken -zucchini -yellow squash -purple onion -red/yellow/orange peppers -rosemary -olive oil -balsamic vinegar -lemon juice -minced garlic Marinate chicken for about an hour in the lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, garlic, rosemary (I like a LOT), and olive oil. (I tend to use very little olive oil, maybe 3-4 tbs for a big bowl of chicken and veggies) While the chicken is marinating cut up all of the veggies and then put them in the same bowl with the chicken and give those a chance to marinate for a little bit as well. Once you can't wait any longer start loading it all up on your skewers! cook until the chicken is done and you've got a delicious meal! We also had some grilled pineapple too which is the bomb! Enjoy! 

Here's the finished product with the pineapple! YUMMMY :)