Good Morning Peaches! Today is going to be a great day! I woke up this morning and decided to make some low carb muffins. I used almond flour, pecans, bananas and stevia to sweeten. Igor, the one who doesn’t really like bananas, decided to get two bundles of banana, and even though he will eat them if they are mostly green, still got too many and we ended up with about 4 of them that were browning. Well, in comes me, Bakerwoman, the modern day superhero that brings joy to the world, one baked good at a time. I thought, why not make some banana bread. Well, Igor has been trying to eat less carbs and more lean protein. So, I decided to try some almond flour and stevia instead of regular flour and sugar. Success!! These muffins were delish! So, I decided to use my basic knowledge of baking, mixed with a few recipes and tips I had found online. I am hoping to try these again, as I didn’t really go off an actual recipe. I will say, they are not your granny’s fluffy blueberry muffins. They are a bit dense, but they are moist and tasty. I wanted to be able to make something that Igor could easily take with him to work, as its hard to stop and actually eat a meal while driving on a route. So, see my recipe below.
Ok. So, on to part two. Let me just start out by saying, I am nowhere near the healthiest person out there. I eat junk food, I eat carbs, and I have an insane sweet tooth. However, I do like fruits and veggies. I am not a picky eater, AT ALL. So please do not take this next section as I am some marathon running, clean eating, health machine. I have been juicing. My mom and stepdad juiced for a long while when I was in high school. My alarm clock was the loud whirring on their giant juicer and I would make my way down to the kitchen to find a farmer’s market on the counter, as they pulverized this sea of color to make our morning juices. They were mostly pretty tasty, but honestly, which teenager do you know that wants to down a massive glass of green juice for breakfast? I surely wasn’t one of them, but as I have gotten older, I have gone through my bursts of healthy eating and plenty of fad diets. One thing I have learned, though, is that juicing is a great way to add healthy vitamins and minerals to your daily intake. I have been making a green juice that is lower on the sugar content. From all of the research I’ve done, it seems the best method is to keep your juice 80/20, which means 80% veggies and 20% fruit. That way you are not loading up your body with a ton of sugar, and you add a ton of great nutrients. Now, I do not have a juicer. “But Whitney, how are you juicing without a juicer??” It may take a little extra work, but I use my smoothie blender and simply strain some of the pulp off. To me it not only saved me a ton of money from buying a bulky juicer that I will hate to use, it also allows to me to consume more pulp, that you wouldn’t really get using a juicer. That is added fiber, and it helps me feel fuller. Please, do not get this confused with a green smoothie. I can’t handle the texture of those usually. So, when I am getting ready for a juice, I generally chop up an apple, a couple stalks of celery, half of a cucumber and a big handful each of fresh spinach and rainbow kale. I also juice a lemon, and sometimes add some fresh ginger. Since my little blending is a single serve size, kinda like a magic bullet, I have to do several batches to get all of it into my tiny blender. The other benefit of juicing this way, I feel I can have more control on the left over pulp that comes out of it. I usually blend the kale last, so that I can give some of the other pulp to our pups as a “treat”. They are both garbage disposals, but they LOVE their fruits and veggies. So slowly, but surely I am helping our home become a bit healthier. Igor refuses to drink them. He says if he wanted to eat grass, he’d go mow the lawn. Haha. No worries, I’ll break him down eventually.
On a completely different note, I have not ever really shared this binder with anyone but my mom, but I have a Susan Branch Recipe Scrapbook. I LOVE IT! I am slowly but surely adding all of my recipes to it. Just my favorite meals, or my favorite childhood dishes, like steam burgers. Oh, we’ll get to those on a different day.. It would be wrong to add those delicious sloppy joe like wonders to such a healthy post. But hopefully I will be able to share more recipes from my magical book of recipes as the days go on.
Until next time, Peaches. Keep pushing forward. It’s ok to stumble, but remind yourself, you can do this. Whatever you are working towards, you’ve got this. – PP