Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

What do you do when you have over-ripe bananas to be used? Bake, of course! But what to bake? Normally I would make these sweet banana cookies, but we are all out of oats! So I browsed the internet hard to find me something on the healthier side that featured bananas. And…drum roll, please…I came up with whole-wheat chocolate chip banana bars (found it from a great blogger’s site)! Banana bars? Sound weird? They’re not. It’s basically brownie-shaped banana bread with chocolate chips. Yeah, they’re good. Hungry brought them to work and he got major points from his coworkers.

The texture of the banana bars are cake-like rather than brownie-like, light and fluffy. Some hybrid of banana bread and cake. It’s yum. What makes this recipe healthier? Whole-wheat flour, no butter, and not too much sugar. Yeah, there are chocolate chips in it, but I mean, you got to live a little. Some baking recipes are complicated. This one is not. It’s basically mix together, put into sheet pan, and bake. And you know I love easy recipes. Alright, let’s make these delicious banana bars.

Jun022018

The Best Food in Ireland

Wow, what a way to highlight the seafood available in Ireland. It is an island, after all.

Americans have a less than favorable perception of food from Northern and Eastern Europe. That includes Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway and every other nation in between. Greece, France, Spain and Italy are given much more love when it comes to highlighting their cuisine in the US, but is that a fair assumption for us to make.

During our recent trip to Iceland, Ireland and Northern Ireland (the UK, technically) we finally had the opportunity to more fairly judge the quality of their food. As a whole, it wasn’t anywhere near as flavorful as Chinese or Mexican food, but it wasn’t terribly bland and it certainly wasn’t lacking in freshness.

May292018

Easy Chickpea Curry

Watch out, another “Indian” recipe! This time from Martha Stewart (ha!). Though nobody would venture to say Martha Stewart is Indian, I also think nobody would say she’s a poor cook. She’s legendary. I’ve wanted to involve more chickpeas in my diet for a while, but laziness prevented me from actually looking up recipes and finding ways to use them. Sure, I could use them in salads, but what about cooked recipes? I did a quick search and came up with Martha Stewart’s EASY chickpea curry. Like really easy. Like just throw spices and cook chickpeas together easy.

I altered Martha’s recipe into my own easy chickpea curry that would fit my needs and–more importantly–my ingredients. This recipe is a great whip-up-at-home-quickly-after-work dish when you don’t have a lot of time but would like to have something tasty and nutritious. I felt great about eating it! And curry is a heavy word for this dish, it’s really just stewing chickpeas in spices and liquid. Let’s get cooking.

May272018

Easy Mushroom Coconut Curry

Yeah, I’ve been on an Indian food kick lately. I mean, I’m always on one as a consumer, but in the past week, I made three different Indian dishes. Hopefully, you already saw the delightfully easy and delicious naan recipe I put out. And today…I bring you a delicious mushroom coconut curry! I really really enjoyed it. We received Vegetarian India (a cookbook) by Madhur Jaffrey, a well-known Indian chef and cookbook author, as a wedding present. I’m really loving this cookbook and can’t wait to try more from it.

This recipe is based off of her recipe called “Kodava Mushroom Curry with Coconut,” though I deviated quite a bit. Get her cookbook if you want the exact recipe–she’s a genius! Apparently, this dish comes from a more meat-eating region in India and thus she was fascinated by their vegetarian dishes. It’s rich, scrumptious, and filling. She suggests to have it with rice, but we had it with quinoa. I think it would go well with anything–rice, quinoa, naan, paratha, you name it!

May062018

Easy Overnight Oats

It’s Sunday! What does that mean? Meal prep time! This is when we prep as much food as we can for the week so that being tired and short of time doesn’t force us into making unhealthy decisions. For this week, I’m highlighting easy overnight oats. There’s actually no cooking required in this recipe, just a tiny bit of prep work (and I mean tiny). What are overnight oats? Dry oats that soak and become edible overnight.

This is a healthy recipe (that I adapted and tweaked from Chocolate Covered Katie) that will get your rear into gear during those sleepy struggle mornings. Basically, you’re just stacking ingredients in a mason jar, putting it in the fridge overnight and then eating it the next morning! I love it because when you actually need it, you don’t have to put any work into making it. The mornings are an important part of my day for personal development and productivity so “hacks” like these are vital! I can just go through my normal routine without spending an extra 10-15 minutes prepping breakfast. Weehaw, more productivity time!

May052018

Healthy Enchilada Quinoa Casserole

Last month, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend a lot of time with my family in Iowa, although it was for the sad reason of my grandfather’s funeral. Funerals are always difficult, especially of a loved one, but there’s that bright side of family and togetherness that makes it bearable. Every meal time we would gather round the table (there were quite a few of us) and eat and laugh and cry. Definitely healing for the soul, I would say.

It was spending this time together that brought this amazing new recipe into my life: my cousin Molly’s healthy enchilada quinoa casserole. I can’t tell you how much I ate of this dish. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. It was filled with such healthy and yummy goodness that I couldn’t stop. Just something about a warm nourishing dish in the last throes of winter (yeah, we got 7 inches of snow DURING APRIL). The dish focuses on latin flavors while boasting healthy nutrition facts. The base of the dish is quinoa, but so many others are invited to the party: beans, corn, cilantro, avocado and more. As soon as I tasted the menu, I begged her to write up the recipe and send it to me! So this one, folks, is all thanks to Molly!

Apr252018

What Makes Someone a Great Cook?

We VERY recently shared an article about Millennials being useless in the kitchen and provided our opinions! It sparked more discussion than most of our posts on the blog, receiving all kinds of feedback. People are defensive about titles that are given to them and are often willing to prove their worth. A handful of Millennials were adamant that they were capable in the kitchen, but even more fascinating was the confusion that came over the key words used in the article.

Apr202018

Millennials Can’t Cook

First and foremost, THIS ARTICLE isn’t going to win any Pulitzer Prizes so don’t think we’re sending you off to read something life-changing. It is extremely short and basically states that a recent poll from an entity that we’ve never heard of conducted a study where individuals from different generations assessed their own ability in the kitchen.

It isn’t very in-depth but it does state that about 5% of millennials rated themselves as “very good” cooks. It also talks about Baby Boomers’ inability to identify a salad spinner (baby boomers are the only population I’ve ever seen use a salad spinner) and millennials’ inability to identify a butter knife.

Apr192018

Dune: LA Restaurant Review

Next stop on our quest to hit the best eateries in Los Angeles was Dune. All four of us enjoyed our food at Dune, plain and simple. One vegetarian and three meat eaters, celebrating a birthday and going to an eatery that came highly recommended from a very reliable source. The food at Dune we would consider to be fresh Middle Eastern cuisine. It has distinct flavors that aren’t afraid to be bold.

Apr162018

S’mores at Home

If you’ve been on social media lately, and you live in the United States, there has been a lot of negativity going around. Normally we have something to fall back on that can cheer us up, like the weather, but that certainly hasn’t given us any relief lately. Here in LA, we’ve had 20 degree temperature changes every few days for the past week. Whether it has been hurricane-level winds or blazing dry heat, we can’t really complain because others have it so much worse. I saw a video from the NYC subway that looked like a scene from Titanic.

Spring is supposed to be one of the loveliest seasons that just about anyone can enjoy. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing and it is warming up enough to start firing up the grill to make some family favorites. That, however, can be quite challenging with a blizzard (bad enough to close airports for days) outside.

We celebrated the Spring Equinox by building a fire in our cast-iron chiminea and making s’mores. It felt so good, and even though it might not be the healthiest treat out there (everyone gets a cheat meal, right?) it is bound to put a smile on your face and relieve some stress. Relaxation is important for finding that hungry and fit lifestyle! So, if you’re fortunate enough to have a gas stove (our ONLY three criteria for apartment hunting in LA is: parking, no carpet, gas stove) you can make s’mores right now!