We’ve recorded ourselves making the basic recipe. Then turned it into chocolate cakes. We also use the batter in the waffle iron and we even made a dipping sauce! Today we tweaked the basic formula a little swapping chocolate almond milk for skim and cinnamon for the nutmeg. Then we added those famous frozen wild blueberries for a twist.

I’ll post the recipe below exactly how me made them today but have fun with it and make it your own. The formula of dry to wet ingredients works perfectly.

Oh! and I almost forgot the best part… The Little Guy’s quote this morning and I’m NOT making this up… “oh mom… they’re so good. I can’t stop eating them.” :)

• 1 overripe banana mashed
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup (4oz) chocolate almond milk
• 3/4 cup (90g) whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• About 1/2 cup frozen wild blueberries

Mash the banana in a medium bowl. Add the egg and milk. Whisk until frothy.

In a smaller bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg. Sift into the banana mixture. Mix until just blended.

I do the wet and the Little Guy does the dry ingredients. :)

Using a soup spoon (what we call our tablespoons) pour the batter by the spoonful in a non-stick skillet or griddle over medium heat sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. The batter is thick so just spread with the spoon. If you like a thinner batter add a splash more milk.

Sprinkle the desired amount of blueberries on top pressing in a bit with the spoon.

Cook about 1-2 minutes a side, small bubbles will form but not as many as traditional pancakes. Just peaked underneath for a light brown color, then flip.

Have I ever told you breakfast with the little guy is by far my favorite time of day. :) I went a little picture happy…

Today we got 8 pancakes. Normally we get 8-10 depending on how big we make them. I calculated the nutritional info for the original recipe based on 9. I’ll do this one for 8 and give you the per cake estimated figures. These are a little higher because of the almond milk and blueberries. The orginal is about 60 calories a cake. (1 WWP)

Sorry, I’m a little excited. I whipped up this chocolate dipping sauce as an experiment for my waffles this morning and it came out better then I expected. It will be awesome as a dip for strawberries. Here’s the story. . .

The little guy and I decided on waffles this morning. So I whipped up a batch of quick whole grain banana pancake mix as I had some overripe bananas on hand. We use this recipe in the waffle iron all the time. While cooking, I glanced online for other ideas to use up the rest of the brown bananas and I came across Thinking Outside the Loaf: What To Do With Overripe Bananas. They talk about melting them in the microwave. Before I even finished the article, I jumped up and made the chocolate sauce.

It wasn’t as smooth as I thought it would be but I’m thinking my banana wasn’t actually ripe enough. Either way, it was absolute chocolaty yumminess. I sat in the kitchen dipping waffle piece after waffle piece wondering why I haven’t thought of this before.

• 1 overripe banana
• 1 tsp Unsweetened Special Dark Hershey’s Cocoa
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Peel the banana and place in a microwave safe dish.

Nuke it for a minute. It will look like this.

mix it up. . .

Add the cocoa and vanilla. If it’s too thick add water at an ounce at a time. I used 1oz. Pop back into the microwave for 30 second.

Whisk to help remove any lumps then dip away! :)

The little guy wanted nothing to do with it. He enjoyed his waffled with low sugar jelly. Honestly, I didn’t force the issue as I kind of wanted it all for myself. ;~P

Here’s nutrition information for the whole batch.

We mix it up now and then. Types of cereal, adding banana, alternating between milks, sometimes skim, sometimes almond and sometimes my new favorite, light chocolate soy.

This morning I wanted a healthy breakfast but, to be honest, I ate so much over the weekend that I wanted to go a little lighter. That’s when this simple idea hit me!

I love the banana chocolate combo and the blueberries, especially the frozen ones, add fun sweetness, even turning the milk a lovely shade of purple (the little guy loves that!) :)

I realize the idea is quite simple but I hope it sparks some ideas for you. Sometimes a simple bowl of fruit is a perfect breakfast for me.

• 1 medium banana cut in half longways and then sliced
• 1/4 cup frozen wild blueberries
• 3oz light chocolate soy milk

Place all ingredients in the bowl and enjoy your fruit filled breakfast! At least that’s what I do. :)

Blueberry Banana Smoothie

• 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries (75g)
• 1 medium banana
• 1/2 cup light vanilla soy milk (4oz)
• about 6 ice cubes

Blend all ingredients until smooth!

You can’t go wrong! :)

This past weekend after a long run (I’m training for a marathon) I wanted, I was craving, fruit. Thankfully we just went shopping so I had lots of options. :)

Of course I couldn’t just grab a banana. The little guy and I had a fun creating (and sharing) a fun fruit salad. Here’s what we did…

• 1 medium Banana
• Handful of fresh blueberries
• About 2 cups of fresh watermelon (need it whole for effect)
• 1/2 oz roasted almonds (I used the Emerald Cocoa Roast Dark Choc. Almonds)

Cut the banana down the middle, lengthwise and place in bowl.

Scoop large circle pieces of watermelon using a tablespoon or ice cream scoop. Place on the bananas. Sprinkle with the blueberries and almonds.

Have fun! :)

You”ll notice sprinkles in some of the pictures. Sad the say the only way I can get the toddler excited about baking with me is to promise a sprinkle session. He still has fun and participates through the whole process…

…but he’s just doing it for the sprinkle pay off. Apparently hanging out with mom in the kitchen just isn’t as cool as it once was. :(

• 1 and ¼ cups (150g) of whole wheat white flour (regular whole wheat works too)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 heaping tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 egg whites
• 1 large overripe banana
• ½ cup plain non-fat yogurt
• 2 tbsp honey (42g)
• ¼ cup applesauce
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup blueberries (148g)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Mix the whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside

In a medium bowl mash the banana with a fork. Add the egg whites, yogurt, honey, applesauce and extract. Whisk until well blended and a bit “frothy”.

Mix the sifted flour with the banana egg mixture and the blueberries until just moistened. Don’t over mix!

Spray a 6 muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Evenly distribute the batter in the muffin tin cups. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon (or sprinkles!) Bake for about 25 minutes.

I made a shake after my workout tonight and I have no problem declaring it my favorite immediately. That is how GOOD it was. However, the toddler did not agree. His exact quote was "it’s yucky." Wonder where he learned that word from. ;~)

Let me start at the beginning. If you’ve been following along I took my hand at some homemade almond milk after trying some store bought and falling in love. Then I tried it again, this time changing up my straining procedure and making some cookies in the process. Well, today, I made the milk the same exact way just adding a little bit of flavoring. Before blending the almonds I added a 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp almond extract and 1/2 tbsp of agave nectar (you could use honey). I was pleasantly surprised! The hint of flavor added was awesome! At least I thought so. The toddler didn’t agree. He prefers his almond milk straight up. That’s cool with me, next time I’ll keep it simple. :)

Ok, back to this shake! When I got home from the gym, I decided to make a quick protein shake. Here’s what I did…

• 4 oz of vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tbsp agave nectar (21g)
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (5g)
• 1 scoop unflavored protein powder (I used Any Whey)
• 4-5 ice cubes

Blend everything until smooth! I used my bullet. Can’t get much simpler then that!

For me the hint of vanilla, almond, banana and chocolate was an amazing combo! The nutritional information is a little shaky as I’m not quite sure how to calculate for homemade almond milk. In my rough estimates I’m getting about 200 calories for the whole recipe, 4 WWPs.

Update 2: Homemade Almond Milk the Video!

The toddler added the sprinkles which creates a nice crunch on top. I think next time I’ll add a handful of chocolate chips for a bonus. Especially now that I calculated the nutritional information to find each muffin is less then 150 calories!

• 5oz dried prunes
• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (45g)
• 1/4 cups cocoa powder (20g)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 1 scoop unflavored protein powder (I used 20g of 100% Any Whey)
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp molasses
• 1 egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a small sauce pan add the prunes with enough water to cover them. Boil for 5 minutes and then simmer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and protein powder. Set aside.

Line a 6 muffin tin with muffin liners. Spray with non-stick spray in desired. (I used aluminum liners, they didn’t stick at all!)

Drain the prunes. They should be soft. Puree them in a food processor (I used my Magic Bullet). Add the banana, vanilla, and molasses, blend until smooth.

Pour the prune mixture in a bowl. Whisk in the egg. Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just combined. If you are adding any chips, do it now.

Divide the batter into the 6 muffin tins and bake for about 17 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Nutritional Information is just the batter, no sprinkles or chips as I would make them plain for myself but they make a great starting point to let the kids have a little fun. I don’t mind adding sprinkles or chocolate chips to a whole grain muffin base with no added sugar. :~)

Then I remembered the Berry Oatmeal Cups and asked the toddler if he wanted to make muffins. Of course he said "Yes!" And so did Irish. :) Notice someone is getting camera shy.

So we (toddler and I) really did LOVE these. I didn’t even bother asking the husband. He doesn’t even like "regular" muffins and I’m not even sure he’s ever even eaten oatmeal. His reaction would have been the standard, "I don’t like it but I can see why others would." And I just didn’t want to deal this morning. As I say… more for us!

• 3 mashed bananas (the more ripe the better!)
• 1 cup vanilla Almond milk (you could use skim but you may want to add a little sweetener)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp Baking powder
• 3 cups (240g) Old Fashion or Rolled Oats
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp (42g) mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Mix all ingredients except the chocolate chips together, and let sit while you prepare the muffin pans.

Spray a muffin pan and/or liners with with non-stick spray.

Stir the chocolate chips into the oatmeal batter.

Divide batter into 15 muffin cups. They should be just about filled.

Bake 20-30 minutes, you’ll see the edges just starting to brown and they will be firm to the touch.

The muffins may stick when hot but are removed easily when cooled for a bit.

Ok, so I am stubborn. I admit it. But I can also admit when I’m wrong. Vanilla is AWESOME!

Anyway, the toddler insisted we make vanilla pudding and as soon as I tried it I knew I MUST pair it with banana. The sprinkles were the toddlers addition. :) (I was also thinking a crumbled graham crackers would be a nice topping too!)

I’m totally making these for my next play date! :)

• 1 package Sugar Free Instant Vanilla Pudding
• 2 cups cold skim milk (I actually use about 1 and 3/4 cups for a thicker base)
• 1 banana sliced
• 1 tbsp colored sprinkles

Make the pudding according to package with the skim milk.

Pour into four individual cups and let sit for 5 minutes. Top with banana slices and sprinkles.

EAT! :)

I always knew the pineapple core was editable but it’s way to hard/chewy for me. I always just threw it away. Which I was never a fan of doing because it seemed like such a waste. It just never occured to me to think of a way to use it until reading about the Bromelain.

Alright this is becoming a very wordy introduction to a very simple idea. Instead of ditching the pineapple core of your next fresh pineapple try this idea to make it into a simple tasty smoothie! The core has an awesome pineapple flavor and a thick almost gritty texture when blended.

You don’t buy fresh pineapple cause you don’t know how to cut it, you say. Ahhh I have a video for you! ;~P

Here’s what the toddler and I did this morning. As you can see.. he liked it! :)

• 1 small-medium naval orange peeled
• 1/2 medium banana
• 1/2 of a pineapple core sliced
• 2 ice cubes

Separate the orange into sections and pulverize in the blender alone. This will give you a liquid base.

Slice the pineapple core to help it blend easier.

Add the banana and pineapple core to the blender . Blend until smooth. Add the ice cubes and blend again.

Drink away! :)

Here’s the toddler waiting patiently and then enjoying (my favorite picture of all time!) :)

When I was little, my grandmother would make this yummy banana bread/cake (whatever) in a bundt pan with chocolate chips. It was one of my favorites. I remember the moistness in each bite with that wonderful chocolate banana combination. I miss it.

I based my experiment this morning on my banana muffin recipe. Which may be why it’s more like a bread or a muffin then a cake. But I don’t care. It was YUMMY! Even the husband who said… "You know I don’t like banana bread." ended with a "…but man that is a good one!"

The toddler? Well as you can see he had a hard time waiting for me to take pictures. Which is why I didn’t get many good shots. :)

Here’s what I did…

• 2 cups whole wheat white flour (240g)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 overripe large bananas
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 2 tbsp honey (42g)
• 1 tbsp molasses (20g)
• 1 cup plain non-fat yogurt (227g)
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (60g) chocolate chips – preferably mini they spread better

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a bundt pan (I used one like this) with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. (note you could probably use a loaf or cake pan but I haven’t tried it yet and I don’t know how to adjust the cooking times… YET! ;~P)

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Sift and set aside.

in a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the applesauce, egg, egg white, honey, molasses, yogurt and extracts and whisk until smooth. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just incorporated. I used my whisk and it took about 10 "spins".

Pour the batter into the bundt pan. It will be thick, just spread it across the bottom with a spatula.

Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit at least 10 minutes before attempting to remove it from the pan.

Now, I’m estimating 15 servings but I could easily get 17 cut as seen in the picture above. But I’ll go with 15 to be "safe". Plus sometimes you just want a bigger piece of cake, I mean bread, I mean… whatever. It’s YUMMY!