Slow Cooker Banana and Coconut Milk Steel-Cut Oatmeal

We've been eating a lot of oatmeal over here.  For a long time, it was one of the only things Logan would eat for breakfast.  We've seen some massive changes in our kids' feeding since I returned from my S.O.S. Feeding Conference.  Probably not only attributable to the conference, but also, I strongly suspect, to our having eliminated gluten and dairy from their diets.  

We had them tested for food sensitivities over the holidays.  Food sensitivities are different from food allergies, in that they do not cause a direct allergic reaction, such as hives, difficulty breathing, etc.  Rather, they cause more subtle reactions, as they tend to be more related to the body's difficulty in breaking down certain foods.  

The testing showed that Logan was extremely sensitive to gluten, dairy and, of all things, oranges.  And Chloé tested extremely sensitive to dairy and oranges.  Yay to the return of gluten in my diet, I thought.  Since I am still breastfeeding Chloé, I have to follow the same diet as her.  However, I am sad to report that within 3 days of me having eating one portion of gluten a day (with Chloé not yet having any), she began waking up between 1 - 3 am for the entire day and would scream and howl in pain for hours on end.  Cut out the gluten and she's back to "normal".   

The nutritionist who tested Chloé suggested that although she's not actually sensitive to gluten, she may just be having a hard time digesting it now, because her system is upset and damaged from her other intolerances.  So we're back off of gluten yet again.  But I did enjoy those three date muffins I got to eat ;)

Ok... so as I was saying... until recently, my kids would only (mostly) eat oatmeal for breakfast.  And I was getting sick of the same old oatmeal every day.  So I thought I would change it up a bit and stumbled upon this recipe here for coconut milk banana oatmeal.  Um... **heaven**  Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I have a thing for coconut milk.

Now, my kids didn't actually eat any of this.  Heaven forbid - there were chunks in it from the bananas.  But whatever.  More for me ;)

Whip this together quickly one evening and you will wake up to a delicious-smelling house.

I tried making this with old-fashioned oats when I was at my sister's place, as they were out of steel-cut oats.  I wouldn't recommend it.  Did not work out.

I typically don't put sugar and butter in my oatmeal, but I do when I make this for a treat.  I've never tried it without, so I can't compare.  But it's darned delicious with! 
 
2 medium bananas, sliced (approximately 2 C)
2 (14 oz.) cans light coconut milk
1/2 C water
1 C steel cut oats
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. butter, cut into 5-6 pieces, optional (I used coconut butter) 
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. ground flax seed
2 tbsp. hemp seed
1/4 tsp. salt

optional garnishes: additional sliced bananas, chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts, toasted coconut, maple syrup, additional brown sugar, additional coconut milk or butter   

1.  Coat inside of a 3 1/2 quart (or larger) slow cooker with cooking spray.  Add all ingredients (except optional toppings) to slow cooker.  Stir, cover, and cook on low for 7 hours.  Alternatively, place all ingredients into a bowl that fits inside your slow cooker and mix.  Fill the slow cooker up to 1/2 - 2/3 the height of the slow cooker with hot water.  Cover and cook on low for 7 hours.

 

 

2.  Spoon into oatmeal bowls; add additional topping, if desired.  Store leftovers in refrigerator.  Freezes well.

To reheat single servings:  Put 1-cup cooked oatmeal in microwave proof bowl.  Add 1/3 C milk or water.  Microwave on high for 1 minute; Continue cooking for another minute, or until hot.

Recipe can be doubled in 6-quart or larger slow cooker.  Increase cooking time one hour.

For a gluten-free version, use gluten-free oats.  
For a dairy-free version, use Earth balance or coconut butter  

Makes 7 servings. 

Difficulty level: easy

Taken from: http://www.theyummylife.com/Slow_Cooker_Banana_Coconut_Milk_Oatmeal

Green Monster Halloween Banana Avocado Pudding

I was inspired to make this pudding after seeing avocado breakfast pudding on theKitchn awhile back.  This corresponded with our naturopath telling me I needed to get more good fats into my two little picky eaters.  I figured that, other than the chocolate avocado ice cream I've been making and have yet to post, this was probably my best bet.

After tasting the original recipe on theKitchn, I decided to throw a banana into ours.  Though I like avocado, the pudding just tasted a little too avocado-y for my likes.  So I figured that there weren't high hopes that the two kiddos would eat it.

I made it pre-Halloween and called it dinosaur pudding, in the hopes that that would make Logan eat it.  Yeah... he didn't fall for it.  Though he did at least try it.  But he was not a big fan.  Chloé, on the other hand, just gobbled it up.

This is super fast to whip up and is healthy enough that you can really serve it for breakfast.  Or for a nice, healthy dessert, as we did.  And it is perfect to serve as a healthy Halloween treat.  Nothing says Halloween more than monster green pudding :)

1 ripe avocado
1 ripe banana
1/2 C milk (I used coconut milk - from the carton, not the can)
1 tbsp. maple syrup

we go through mountains of bananas in our house these days

 

    
Throw everything in the blender and mix.

Chill for an hour before serving, if you prefer it cold.  

Difficulty level: easy

Fat-Free, Sugar-Free Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

This simple recipe is just a twist on the chocolate banana spinach ice cream I recently posted.  Which is based on that delicious banana soft serve.

Strawberry banana is one of my all-time favourite combinations.  Right up there with chocolate and peanut butter.  I'd say that 90% of the smoothies I make are strawberry banana.  Strawberry banana yogurt, ice cream, this delicious strawberry banana bread... you name it.  So I had to tag this in amongst "Lindsay's favourites". 

We've been eating this every single day after dinner since I first made it.  I think I've made three batches in less than a week.

As with the chocolate version, this couldn't be easier to make (or healthier).

All it takes is 4 frozen bananas and about a cup of strawberries.  I used fresh, since they are in season, but I'm sure frozen would work well too.  If using frozen though, I think I would partially defrost prior to using, to be sure that they blend well (unless you want chunks).

First, I just stuck the strawberries in the food processor and blended until smooth.  You can also just pulse if you prefer to leave chunks.  But you know Logan and his food issues.  So no chunks for us.  That's ok.  I prefer it this way anyhow.

Then you throw in the frozen bananas

and mix until smooth.

See?  Couldn't be easier.

I decided to throw some chocolate chips into our first batch for Logan.  See, he's a bit selective in his texture issues.  He will sometimes branch out and try mixing textures if chocolate is involved.  So I am now using this as a way to encourage him to try mixing textures of foods.  Teehee...

I just threw in a handful of dark chocolate chips and stirred with a spoon.

Personally, I much prefer the version without chocolate.  I find the chocolate wrecks the whole delicious strawberry-banananess of it all.  And I've never really been a fan of chocolate chip ice cream anyhow.  Plus, Logan ended up just picking out the chocolate chips and eating only them.  In true Logan style.  So we've been back to the plain version ever since.

Ter, do you like how I'm putting my deli day skills to use?

As with the original version, you can either serve immediately as a soft serve, like in the picture, or place in the freezer to harden.  

Enjoy!!  I'm just back from zumba and think I'm gonna head upstairs to get a bowl of this.

Difficulty level: easy

The Healthiest Ice Cream on Earth: Chocolate Banana Spinach Ice Cream

Now, I know that, having read the title of this post, you're all thinking this has got to be gross. 

Truth is, much like a green monster smoothie, you can't even taste the spinach.  

This isn't true ice cream.  Which is what makes it so healthy.  But it's incredibly delicious and a fantastic substitute for ice cream.  And it's so close to ice cream, your kids may not even notice the difference.  

Mine didn't.

We even did an experiment where we gave Logan a little bit of real chocolate ice cream, followed by this.  And he didn't even notice the difference. 

Maybe I shouldn't be so excited about that???  This may indicate there will be no Nobel-prize winning going on in this household...

Now, I have to share the history of this ice cream in our house.

It seems that in my excitement to use my ice cream maker (see my recent posts here and here), I may have inadvertently sent an unintended message to Logan.  A message that ice cream is a breakfast food.  Since we went through a phase where he was waking up every morning, screeeeeeeaming for ice cream.  

A message that ice cream can be eaten 3 times a day.  Since he was asking for it at every meal.  Every.single.meal.

Wait - I think it may have actually been a message that ice cream can be eaten 5 times a day, since he was also asking for it at each snack too.

The other night after dinner... scratch that... before he'd even eaten dinner, he started screaming "biiiiiiiiig ice cream".  When dinner was finally over and I got him out a little homemade popsicle, he kept loudly insisting "nooooo BIG ice cream". 

Now let's not get all crazy here.  He's not actually getting ice cream 5 times a day.  Nor is he getting the BIG ice cream he demands.  I've been saying an awful lot of no's to him lately.

But when I read recently on Oh She Glows about this banana soft serve ice cream (made only with bananas and milk), I knew I had to start making this for Logan instead.  However, I didn't get around to making it until Angela posted her recipe for her peanut butter, jam and banana popsicles made with banana soft serve. 

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I pretty much dropped everything, ran to the kitchen and whipped up a batch.  And then ate almost half of it.

What???  I'm breastfeeding ;)

So since I already had everything out to make Angela's version of this ice cream (which was delicious beyond words!!), I figured I'd also whip up a batch of something similar, that my sister recommended to me way back when.  This also combines Angela's banana soft serve with her green monster smoothies. 

And this invention is this chocolate banana spinach soft serve ice cream right here.  

Perfect for my little Logan who screams his head off all day long that he wants ice cream.  Here ya go little guy.  Eat your heart out :)  He can now enjoy ice cream whenever he wants.  Even for breakfast.

Best part?

He loves putting tons of "sprinkles" on his.  Which are really chia seeds.  He's so gonna hate me when he gets older! 

Check out this video here to see his excitement over his chia sprinkles. 

And yes - he does insist on eating his ice cream with the ice cream scoop.

As for the recipe, it's super simple.  All you need is:

2 cubes of frozen spinach, defrosted (mine didn't blend well when I didn't defrost them first)

 4-5 frozen bananas

 

1-2 tbsp. cocoa powder

a couple of tablespoons of milk (I used coconut milk, since we're now dairy-free) 

And then you just blend all of it in your food processor until smooth, adding more milk as necessary.  

This makes a delicious soft-serve "ice cream" that you can serve immediately.  Or pop it in the freezer for a harder consistency.  You'll just need to take it out a few minutes before serving to let it soften enough to scoop out.

 

Or you can just eat it out of the mixing bowl.

Just don't forget to add your chia sprinkles for all of these health benefits.

Difficulty level: easy

Waffle Cone Fruit Cups

Logan and I headed to the grocery store yesterday afternoon by bike to pick up some whipping cream for this dessert.  Which turned out to be a bit of an adventure.  

Logan loves being in our bike hitch, so I took biked around for 30-40 minutes before going to the grocery store.  And when we arrived, I realized that my wallet was nowhere in sight.  My last memory of seeing it... had been... when I had placed it next to him in the bike hitch.

SH****!!

This led to a bit of a frantic panic as I snapped Logan back into the hitch and headed out to re-do the bike ride in reverse order, hunting for my darned wallet. 

Which was nowhere to be found.

So I eventually just gave up and headed home to admit to my husband that I had been dumb enough to leave my wallet in the hands of a 2 year old.

Only to find it lying on the end of my driveway.

Not sure which is worse to admit - that I left my wallet with a 2 year old or that I left it on the end of my driveway...

I'm just glad that my neighbours are apparently honest people.

Back to the grocery store we headed, once again.  

My intention had been to buy some whipping cream, ice cream cones and ginger (not all for the same recipe!).  That'll fit easy into the back of a bike hitch, right?

But then I remembered that we were also out of milk.  And cheese was on sale.  And I bought some stuff to make a cake to give Camille some cake decorating lessons when she comes to visit next week.  And then Logan found the pudding, which we were almost out of.  You get the idea.

In the end, I had way more groceries than I should have, given that I was biking home.  I stuck them in the little spot behind where Logan sits.  Only to realize a short moment later that it is only held together by velcro.  Which burst open from the groceries.  Which I realized as my groceries came tumbling out of the bike hitch, all over the parking lot, as I sped away on my bike. 

SH****!!

So I just piled it all in around Logan.  Looked a little something like this:

Though by the time we got back home, it was looking more like this:

Figured we had to cross a bunny on someone's lawn on our way home.  And that I was dumb enough to point it out to Logan.  Who then insisted he wanted out to see.  Who could refuse their child such an experience, even if it meant having to dig him out from under a mountain of groceries to do so?

In the end, everything got home.  Logan, myself, all of the groceries, and even my wallet (and credit card, which the cashier was kind enough to remind me to take with me).  Phew.

After dinner, we made these delicious fruit cups, which Heather had made for us for dessert a couple of weeks ago.  I love the idea.  Relatively healthy, yet a bit of a treat as well.  And super quick and simple to make, which makes them even better.  Plus, they're kid friendly.

You basically just need some waffle cones, mixed chopped fresh fruit and whipping cream.  Be sure to have the waffle cones or bowls, and not the smaller sugar cones so that you have lots of room for the fruit.  

I put a couple of dark chocolate chips in the bottom of the cone for a little treat at the end.  You then just fill the cone with any mixture of fresh fruit - I used chopped strawberries, blueberries and blackberries the first time I made them and then blueberries and bananas the second time.

little monkey hands, sneaking a blueberry as I try to get a picture

Then you just put a bit of whipping cream on top (I used light).  

Just be sure to fill the cones just before serving, as the fruit will otherwise make them soggy.  If you cut your fruit up in advance and have fruit that may discolour (such as apples), just squeeze a bit of lemon juice on it.

Even Logan liked them.  Really, what kid wouldn't?

Difficulty level: easy

Breakfast Faves

So here goes my first 'faves' post.  And I'm starting with breakfast faves because this is undoubtedly by 'fave' meal of the day.  I am drooling over this post, having, yet again, eaten a bowl of Vector for breakfast this morning.

Excepting a couple of these recipes, most are weekend faves, as they're more time intensive than any normal human would have time to make during the week.  

I haven't included any muffins here, even though many of them are healthy enough to be eaten for breakfast.  There are just so many of them that I'll do a favourite muffins post one day. So here goes...


baked brie, potatoes, ham and eggs: this was my very first post and I didn't even take any pictures... darn... though I have the goal of progressively adding missing pictures and updating some of the uglier pictures.  But that's slow-going, as many of my recipes (even the ones I love) barely get made once a year.  Pitfall of having so many of them. I still highly recommend making this, despite not being able to see a picture of it, as it is delicious.  Perfect for big group brunch gatherings. 

finnish apple pancake: 

steel cut oatmeal: 

fiber-full bran pancakes:

ricotta strawberry breakfast cakes:

banana cinnamon waffles: 

toast with apple cider cinnamon jelly:

green monster smoothie:

healthy(er) homemade breakfast sandwiches:

Green Monster Smoothie

I will keep this relatively short, as we've had a busy day.  Zumba in the morning and then off to the Biodome for the afternoon.  We bought ourselves an annual pass so that whenever we're going nuts inside with Logan this winter, we can head out there to keep him somewhat stimulated.

This recipe was inspired by both my sister and Heather, who coincidentally, both started talking to me about green monster smoothies at the same time.  My sister had also mentioned that there are apparently lots of good recipes for green monster smoothies on Oh She Glows, though I have yet to check them out. You can check them out here at the Green Monster Movement. 

This also coincided with another friend asking for more recipes with hidden vegetables in them for her kids.  So it got me thinking that maybe it was high time for me to try hiding veggies in smoothies, given that both Logan and I love them.  Particularly since it's hard to get vegetables in him as a side dish for the time being.
I'm not quite ready yet to do a truly green smoothie like Heather does, with hardly any fruit.  Not sure that I ever will be, to be honest.  But I'll try to sneak more veggies into them over time.

Logan had a blast helping put the spinach in the blender

Though he enjoyed trying to take the strawberries out!

I don't have a specific recipe for my smoothies, but will try to indicate general quantities.  I used a good 4-6 very heaping large spoonfuls (soup spoons) of plain yogurt and then poured in some milk.  Just enough for there to be some liquid for the smoothie to mix.

I then added a frozen banana and a half and two good handfuls of frozen strawberries.  And then filled the rest of the blender with spinach.  Oh, and threw in about a teaspoon of honey, just to give it some sweetness. And this made enough for three of us for a good snack.

It's important that your fruit be frozen, as that's what gives it a smoothie texture.  If you don't have any frozen fruit, you can throw in a good handful of ice cubes instead.  

Ever since my smoothie addiction started many years ago, I haven't thrown out any fruit.  Anything that is going bad gets chopped up and put into little ziploc packages in the freezer for future smoothies. I've tried everything right down to grapes and so far haven't found any fruit that doesn't taste good in a smoothie.  My preference is to always include some banana or pear though, as I like the nice creamy texture these give to smoothies. 

I went through a phase a few years back where I was busting blenders every 6 months or so.  Until I found this wonderful WaringPro blender at Costco.  Just be careful to stay in the room to be sure the blade isn't getting stuck.  And if it is, just pour in a bit more milk or stir it a bit, if necessary.

I should mention that you couldn't taste the spinach in this at all!  This smoothie probably wasn't green enough to really be called a green monster smoothie.  But I'm going to keep adding in more and more greens until you can taste them.

De-li-cious.  Even Jerome drank one and liked it.

Just a little note too that you can clean your blender by putting a bit of dish soap in it, filling it about 2/3 full with water, putting on the lid and turning on the motor for a couple of seconds.  Which makes smoothie making practical even when you have two little ones running around.

And on that note, I'm off to make some homemade chicken fingers with broccoli hidden in them.  They'll be up here shortly if they turn out to be blog-worthy.

Difficulty level: easy