Peanut butter has always been an essential part of my morning routine.
Whether it be a lightly sugared piece of peanut butter toast (my mom got me addicted to this strange combination long ag0) or peanut butter, crackers and apple sauce (my all-time favourite snack food breakfast), peanut butter makes me feel like I’m ready for the day.
Last week, I decided it was time for me to graduate from the realms of my pre-school peanut butter stylings and try something new. Hence the creation of these peanut butter banana pancakes.
Inspiration was also drawn from my roommate Brittany, who makes the best damn pancakes all the time. The girl is a healthy, pancake making machine. Check these out.
Making pancakes also allowed me to use my fantastic, new non-stick pan. It’s seriously gorgeous and I’m already having a passionate love affair with it. It sleeps in my room (but not actually). The pancakes slip-slided off the pan easily and came out perfectly. Well, as perfectly as they can be when the girl making them has a phobia of flipping food in pans. Really, I’m crippled by my fear. Omelettes and pancakes are my arch nemeses.
Even after these were cooked, they still had a great, peanut buttery goodness to them, which I loved. I ate three and took several nibbles out of the remaining few. Make these. I promise your day will be better because of it.
For those of you who don’t know (which is likely everyone with the exception of my mom and my plentiful list of stalkers), I’ve recently changed student accommodations, moving from a house with one small, shabby kitchen into a house with a fairly decent sized there-is-actually-a-good-counter-per-person-ratio kitchen. Moving has also meant that I’m no longer living with five other girls (all of whom I still love, but living with that many people taunts the very best of co-operators). Rather, I’m now living with two – Brittany and Freya – the most athletically fit and enthusiastically energetic people I know. They’re a wonderful influence on me.
Brittany and Freya at this wicked new gelato place near our house
Their influence prompted the creation of these muffins. Since Britt and the Freymeister are both varsity athletes, it means that their meals are always jam packed with fruits, vegetables, healthy flours and honeys and oils that I only half like. Example: earlier in the day when I made these, Britt madered currant banana muffins with spelt flour (after trying them for scientific purposes, I can certify them as 100% delicious). I’m not sure what exactly spelt flour is or what its benefits are, but if B is using it than it must be good for you.
Point is, she inspired me to go above and beyond my basic all-purpose flour muffins and make them with whole-wheat flour. Yes, I know the use of whole-wheat flour does not automatically nominate me for the “healthy blogger of the year” award. I think Britt already has that one snagged. Rather, it’s just a tiny part of my September resolution to eat healthier at every meal.
Here’s the truth:
Although technically learning how to cook last year, I was terrible in the sense that I would only cook really healthy and good food for myself when I planned to blog about it. This being said, I was basically cooking for my blog, and not for me (my old roommates can vouch for the fact that I frequently had “blog desserts” that I would set aside and they would not be able to touch).
This year, things will be different. At each and every meal, I’m going to make the conscious effort to eat fruit and vegetables with or in said meal. And I’ll try not to snack, although snacking is my oldest and most dear friend. Hopefully from here on in we will just be friendly acquaintances. I’ve already started out on this resolution, with stir frys, smoothies and fruit-buying galore. Lets see if I can keep it up once the real buzz of school begins.
In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy these muffins and revel in the fact that a whole-wheat something is better than a non-whole-wheat one. Heck, I’m no expert yet.
…And Ariel made the fajitas (and Alex hung out with us but ate some vegetarian-friendly meal)!
There is little I love more in life than an impromptu, Mexican-themed meal. Throw a couple of good friends into the mix, and you have the ingredients for a terrific night.
My charming friendsMy fajita, served with a side of iPhone
The dynamics of my friendship with Ariel (I’m in the mood for headings)
This past Sunday, Ariel invited me over to her house (my old house) for a taco dinner. Obviously, I accepted. It was Ariel’s turn to make me something anyways. You see, the two of us have a payback system that never involves the exchange of money. I make Ariel supper? She makes me supper in return. Ariel buys me an oat fudge bar from Starbucks and a fun popsicle after I forget my wallet at home? I buy her a movie ticket at the Mayfair. It’s a good system. Yesterday we even had a muffin exchange at lunch. This is why we are friends.
The appetizer When brainstorming things to make on Sunday, I came across two recipes on Tastespotting.
The first was for a chilled guacamole soup. I was intrigued. I had never made guacamole before, but am passionately in love with avocados. I figured I’d try this one out, and cart it over to Ariel and Alex’s as an appetizer. It was super easy to make (it took 20 minutes + chill time) and gave me an excuse to buy and munch on my favourite fruit.
Please note the metal chunk that was once attached to Ariel's bicycle, Hans
But don’t get me wrong – this soup was not made without sacrifice. Oh whatever do I mean? Well, you know how a few blog posts back I mentioned that you need to wear gloves when you cut jalapeno peppers? I decided to disobey my own advice, promising that I would be careful and not burn my fingers.
Good news: I didn’t burn my fingers.
JUST EVERY SINGLE PART OF MY FACE, INCLUDING EYELIDS, NOSE AND FOREHEAD.
Pain and agony. Whine, whine, whine.
The dessert Okay, I’m over the pepper burns.
I spotted these “muffins” shortly after the soup discovery. Why the air quotes? It’s because these were more or less cupcakes. I’m sorry, anything with the term “double chocolate” in its name has no choice but to be excluded all together from the muffin category. The addition of the chipotle spice was simply an excuse for me to use more of that $8 bottle of chipotle chili pepper that I bought when I made myCinco de Mayo brownies (yes, I realize that these are the muffin equivalent of that dessert, shh).
I decided that if I was going to classify these as dessert, I might as well go all out. I scooped out the top and plopped in a spoonful of ice cream. Great summer dessert. In true west coast fashion, Ariel had blackberries with hers.
Final note: the vanilla I used for the cuppins wasn’t just any old vanilla. When I babysat for this family the other week (the girls and I made 50 cupcakes from scratch for their school classes, but that’s another story…), the mom gave me a bottle of homemade vanilla extract. It was made with boiled down Grey Goose vodka and real vanilla beans (which were still sitting in the bottle). So awesome.
PS: Oh old front porch, it was good to be back. I missed standing on a chair to take photos (not).
[I was supposed to post this last week and then forgot to upload the pictures before going to Toronto this weekend – oops, oops, oops. PS: check back tomorrow for a Toronto post…]
For those too lazy to make themselves a full breakfast (translation: me), muffins* are the best.
The weather was so crummy in Ottawa this past week that I wasn’t able to partake in any of my usual fun after work outdoor activities. Instead, I was cooped up inside eating large amounts of everything and watching way too much Internet tv (if that’s a thing).
The rain, combined with my resulting mood, contributed to my need to make muffins. This being my first week of work, I was also in dire need of an early morning pick-me-up. That’s how I decided on the name of the recipe. I figured if the muffins had the term “glory” in them, I would have no choice but to be cheerful.
I’m really not sure how I decided on the ingredients for these (since I made up the recipe myself!). I think it was inspired by a need for some sort of tropical fruity relief (hence the pineapple) crossed with my enormous craving for apple sauce. Throw in the carrots and a few nuts and you’re set!
As my roommate Lindsay kindly informed me, these muffins could technically be considered fat free, since there was no butter (is it sad that I actually didn’t know a baked good could be produced without butter??) and no oil (it was replaced by the apple sauce). All in all, these were a fantastic success, and supplied me with breakfast and worktime snacks for the entire week. In fact, there is a muffin sitting on my desk right now, calling my name.
Late afternoon snack? Don’t mind if I do.
*lazy breakfasts can also be defined by a Tim Hortons sesame seed bagel slathered in strawberry cream cheese
For the past two years I’ve been living with her, I’ve witnessed my health-nut, super athlete roommate Brittany making fancy, morning-energizer breakfasts. This means that while I’m sitting like a schlump in my purple Asian pajamas (don’t ask) eating Cheerios or peanut butter toast, she is cooking up a storm in the kitchen. At 7:30 a.m. Amazing, right?
Most often, this kitchen mania would result in what I now know to call a breakfast bake.
Informal definition: Breakfast bake (noun) – some huge chunk of baked item that partially resembles a cake; in Britt’s case, this bake often includes spoonfuls of (my forgotten and leftover from making muffins) pumpkin puree, an impressively grainy looking flour, and some strange nut butter and/or coconut substance that she has bought from the food shelves of Winners.
Until today, I had never given these morning meals much thought but, with my rebirth as a fairly healthy person after a month of pure gluttony, I figured I should try one out.
Right as I decided to concoct my own recipe, low and behold, Britt posts hers on her awesome new blog, B Out There. How does that saying go? Oh right, great minds think alike. Even cross continent (B is from Whitehorse), our brains are somehow in sync.
I must also give credit to the originator of the breakfast bake, Ashley from the blog the Edible Perspective. Thank you for bringing this morning meal into my life.
I knew I wanted to include peanut butter and apple in my breakfast bake, so I fiddled around with Britt’s instructions until I got my adapted Hilary recipe. A few key differences involve me using whole wheat flour instead of whole grain flour (this was because I forgot the name of the correct flour in a moment of Bulk Barn panic), my use of normal milk instead of the bizarre I-will-never-buy almond milk, and my addition of chocolate chips as a topping (because COME ON, everything is better with chocolate).
One quick tangent: UH, what the heck are chia seeds? I bought some just for the sake of being fair to the recipe, but they just kind of look like poppy seeds (and I never want to see a poppy seed ever again, for reasons that only my roommates will understand). Okay, Wikipedia tells me that they’re healthy and chalk full of omega-3’s. I guess that’s cool.
End result?
A major case of the omnomnom’s. The bake is the perfect energizer before my morning bike rides, so I am going to make them loads. For the record, this recipe actually makes quite a large breakfast cake, so tiny appetites could probably share. As for me? No sharing. Just me and a very large glass of milk. Mornings just got a hell of a lot better.
As always, see recipe after the jump!
Ensure you mix everything together well with your very own Piggy Wiggy spatula! (see recipe below, you'll understand)
Hilary Makes 