Banana Bread... the healthy way

For some unexplained reason, I had a craving for banana bread. So, I went on the hunt for a "healthy" recipe while my bananas ripened. The bread was better than I had imagined!

Here's what you'll need:

2 C whole wheat flour

1 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1/2 C applesauce (sugar free)

3/4 honey

2 eggs, beaten

3 mashed overripe bananas (I know mine weren't black yet, but I couldn't wait any longer!)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, mix together applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs (beaten) and mashed bananas until well blended. I left the bananas pretty lumpy because I like to actually see and taste them in the finished bread.

Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten.

Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

The finished, yummy product!

Homemade Granola Bars

I simply love granola bars for an afternoon snack. I even found an organic brand I liked! However, it was almost $4 for a box of only 5 bars. That's not going to fit on the budget. So, what's a crafty girl to do? Make her own!!!

Using pantry staple items, I was able to only spend $2.75 for the wheat germ and $1.50 for the chocolate chips (granola bars just aren't granola bars without a bit of chocolate in them). This recipe is great, too, because the base for the recipe is all pantry staple items: flour, honey, brown sugar, rolled oats, and egg. Most of us always have those on hand. Once you have this base, you could add nuts, dried fruit, or anything you think would be yummy!

 So, here's what you'll need:

2 C rolled oats

1 C whole wheat flour

1 C chocolate chips (or 1/2 chocolate, 1/2 peanut butter)

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 C wheat germ

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. salt

1 whole egg, beaten

1/2 C honey

1/2 C oil (I used what I had on hand... olive oil)

2 t. vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Next, combine all your wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened.

Pat the mixture into a foil-lined (and sprayed) 9x13 baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are starting to brown. If you like crunchy granola bars, bake for 20-25 minutes.

Let the bars cool for a few minutes and then slice with a pizza cutter.

Cool completely and then transfer to an airtight container. 

These look and smell delicious!! I got 16 large bars for about $5.00 (using staple items already on hand). You can't beat that for a yummy snack!

Homemade Frozen Pizzas

Confession: I love Totino's frozen pizza. Seriously, I love it. Probably because it is horribly bad for me and I would only eat it every once in a blue moon when I was having a tough day or week. Anyways, in my effort to have enough food and snacks in the house for a big, strong Coastie, I was wracking my brain for something simple but more healthy to have in the freezer. I ran across the idea of homemade frozen pizza on Pinterest. I followed the pin to a blog and loved the writer's idea. However, I tweaked it for my own knowing our preferences.

Here's what you'll need:

Crust:

4 C all-purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

1 t. sugar

1 T olive oil

1 T oregano

1 t. basil

1 T garlic powder

1 T onion powder

1 & 1/2 C very warm water

Toppings:
1 -2 cans of pizza sauce (I used organic sauce at $.99 each and ended up using only 1 can!)
8 oz. mozzarella cheese
1 pckg turkey pepperoni

Directions:

Mix together 2 cups of flour, the salt, sugar, oregano, basil, garlic powder, and onion powder. Pour in the warm water and add the olive oil. Mix well.

Add another cup of flour. Stir until well mixed.

Place dough on a floured (and lightly oiled) counter and knead until smooth, using the rest of the flour as needed.

Shape dough into a ball, then cut into 8 equal pieces.

Roll out each piece of dough into a 7 inch circle. Place on a cookie sheet. Repeat until you have rolled out all the dough. Two crusts fit on one cookie sheet.

Bake the crusts in a 450 degree oven for 2 minutes. Remove and allow them to cool on the sheets for at least 5 minutes.

Now set up your assembly line for the toppings! I chose organic sauce, mozzarella I shredded myself, and turkey pepperoni. You could use any topping you like!!

Each pizza was on its own piece of wax paper. Once they are assembled, wrap in wax paper and plastic wrap. Place all pizzas in a freezer-safe plastic bag. I wrote the directions on the freezer bag:

(Sorry I couldn't rotate the picture)

Bake at 450 degrees for 13 minutes.

Yummy!!! 

My Coastie makes these for snacks after work and loves them. 

I will definitely make this recipe again. However, I will make less, but larger, crusts (my husband is a healthy man!), but this small size is perfect for me or for kids. The crust is like a thin-crust pizza, so if you don't like that type of crust, you can play around with the dough to find what works best for you.

Happy eating!

Going Green: Laundry Detergent

The Preston household is making a commitment to "go green." We want to use more natural, organic, local, and earth-friendly products and food in our home. This is a huge commitment - it takes both time and money. However, in the long run, it makes us feel healthy and good about how we run our home. One of our first attempts at "going green" is laundry detergent. Now, if you are married to man like my husband, he'll go through three outfits a day. Plus, as a military man who works on a ship all day, he comes home covered in grease, oil, and dirt. Laundry time is ALL THE TIME. So, to cut down on our costs, waste, and putting chemicals back into the water, we decided to use an all-natural laundry detergent.

Here's the recipe.

You'll need:

Borax (about $4), Washing Soda (about $3), and Castille soap ($2.50 for 3 bars).

First, in a medium size bowl, add 1 cup Borax:

And 1 cup Washing Soda:

And 1 ENTIRE bar of Castille soap - grated.

It doesn't hurt to have a handsome husband help with the grating, either. He loves being involved! 

Mix all 3 ingredients together and you're done!

Here's the end product. If you are like me, and all your appropriately sized tupperware is holding leftovers in your fridge, just grab a plastic bag. 

Use about 1/4 cup per load. This recipe will do about 15-20 loads.

If you have a particularly oily or greasy load of laundry (like I do a few times a week!), just add a drizzle of your regular dishwashing detergent. It will pull out all the grease! 

I washed our first load with this detergent and it worked perfectly. Enjoy!