Banana Bread Muffins

The cloudy weather made me wanna bake so I jumped in and made some super awesome banana muffins! I ate quite a few hot out of the oven so I would say they're pretty great!
These are gluten and lactose free! Low FODMAP, those with fructose sensitivities should be careful since they're ripe bananas. So enjoy with much less fear for your tummy!!


Ingredients:
2 c Gluten Free Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
4 Eggs
2 c Mashed Banana (~4 ripe bananas)
1 c Sugar
1/2 c Unsweetened Applesauce
1/3 c Oil (Canola, coconut, whatever you please)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract


Directions
Makes roughly 2 dozen, or 2 loaves

1. Combine Flour, Baking Soda and Salt in a small bowl. Mix well.

2. Combine Eggs, Bananas, Sugar, Applesauce, Oil, Vanilla in Large bowl. Mix Well.

3. Stir in dry ingredients until just mixed.
4. Fill Muffin tins half way.

5. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes (or 55 for a loaf of bread)

BONUS- Drop a mini peanut butter cup in the middle of each muffin

6. Enjoy!!

Sweet Treat for Valentines weekend

Ingredients

• 1 Zucchini, grated (2 cups)
• 4 T melted butter (I used earth balance)
• 1/4 cup Oil (I used coconut oil)
• 4 ounce Plain Yogurt (roughly 2/5 cups)
• 2 Eggs
• 2 T Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated Sugar
• 1/3 cup Shredded Coconut* optional
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose or whole-wheat pastry flour (FODMAP followers Trader Joes Gluten Free Flour)
• 1/2 t Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder 
• FOR GLAZE:
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 tsp + water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease 8 x 8 square pan, or if you don't have one of those (like me) split the batter between 2 bread pans!
3. In medium bowl, add zucchini, eggs, melted butter, oil and yogurt stirring to blend.
   
4. Blend in sugars, coconut, and extracts.
   
5. Slowly add in flour, baking soda, and baking powder blending until incorporated.
   
6. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes.
   
   
   
7. To create glaze: add confectioner's sugar, water and almond extract together in a small bowl. Whisk to create a thick-soup consistency adding more water if needed. Drizzle over cake. Add Sliced almonds if desired, but make sure the add them fast so they can stick to the icing before it hardens.
   
   
   8. ENJOY!!

Low FODMAP Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving is probably the biggest holiday in my family. We always host and with upwards of 15 people, food is always a bit difficult. This year we have the added complication of both my dad and I being on the low FODMAP diet, but luckily we have enough control over the key elements of the meal to change them to what we need. It was a pretty huge success, so here's a little guide to how to make your big autumn meals delicious and tummy friendly!

Turkey- For the brine and stuffing, replace all onions with spring greens of Green Onions and use garlic olive oil when you rub down the turkey.

Dressing- Extra special recipe below!

Veggies- Use any of your favorite veggies dishes! We roasted broccoli and tossed it with lemon juice, zest, Parmesan, and pine nuts.

Potatoes- Bake them, mash them, boil them, just don't use any garlic or cream.

Sweet Potatoes/ Yams- Yams are okay, SP are not for those with polyos sensitivity

Gravy- Use corn starch instead of flour when making your own gravy from the drippings of the turkey.

Dessert- We made an awesome dairy free, gluten free pumpkin chocolate cake! Replace the flour with gluten free flour, butter with fake butter, and buttermilk with a non-dairy creamer option.

Pro-Tips: make your own turkey stock, buy more green onions than you'll think you'll need, make onion and garlic infused olive oil.

So here's the our awesome low FODMAP dressing recipe!

• 10 pieces of Gluten-Free Bread, 5 white and 5 rye, cubed
• 1/3 c minced springs greens of Green Onion
• 1/2 c chopped Celery (1-2 stalks)
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2-3 Tbs unsalted butter (1 in veggies,1 on stuffing balls and 1 to grease muffin tin)
• 2 1/2 tsp of Thanksgiving poultry herbs (sage, rosemary, sage) remove big twigs and chop well
• 1 c diced Butternut Squash
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 Eggs, beaten

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Roast butternut Squash for ~20 minutes, until they are fork-tender.
3. Grease muffin tin generously with butter.
   
4. Saute veggies with 1 tbs of the butter, & olive oil over medium heat in medium skillet for 5 minutes or until veggies fork-tender. Set aside to cool down a bit.
   
5. In large bowl, add bread cubes and drizzle 1 cup of water (or onion free chicken stock) over bread.
   
6. Add eggs to bread and stir to blend in.
7. Carefully add cooked vegetables and squash over bread mixture. Using spoon mix vegetables and bread cubes until resembles stuffing consistency. 
   
8. Add herbs and salt and pepper and mix well.
9. Pack in muffin tin to bake.
   
10. Place a tiny slice of butter on top of each muffin.
11. Add a dash of salt and pepper to top of stuffing ball, if desired.
12. Bake for about 25-30 minutes.
    
13. Enjoy!

Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry

Back on my "creating dinner recipes" grind! The only thing to keep in mind for this is that you'll want the meat to marinate for 15 minutes to an hour. The longer it marinates, the more flavorful it is. So maybe don't start cooking when you're already hangry... Leave yourself a little time and you won't regret it!

Ingredients: 

1 lb Chicken

3 Baby BokChoy

Green Onion

2 1/2 Tbs Soy Sauce

1 1/2 Tbs Sesame oil

1 Tbs Minced Ginger

Cilantro

Directions:

1. Combine Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil ad Ginger with Chicken. Mix Well and leave in fridge for 15 minutes to 1 hour to marinate.

2. Chop Baby BokChoy and Green Onions.

3. Cook Chicken in Large skillet. 

4. Remove chicken and lightly cook BokChoy and Green Onions (til leaves start wilting)

5. Toss Chicken back in and Mix well. 

6. Plate on top of rice, garnish with soy sauce and Cilantro. Enjoy!

Summer Veggie Rice Bowl

      In case you didn't know, summers in Southern California are hot. Like "I don't wanna eat anything kuz I'm about to melt" hot. So I've gotten a bit stuck on what to make for dinner. One night I decided to pull whatever I wanted to eat out of the fridge and figure out a meal to make out of it. Voila! Cold Veggie Rice Bowl. It's colorful, it's yummy, and it'll make you say "Wow, I'm so super healthy!"

Ingredients:
1/2 c Cooked Rice
1/2 Bell Pepper
1/4 Small Jicama
Handful of Cherry Tomatoes (or 1 regular Tomato)
3 basil Leaves
4 Sprigs of Cilantro, just the leaves
2 Tbs Goat Cheese
Drizzle of Soy Sauce

Dressing:
Apple Cider Vinegar
Garlic Olive Oil
Salt Pepper

 1. Dice all the Veggies (Bell Pepper, Jicama, Tomato) and Herbs (Cilantro and Basil) and combine in bowl

 2. Add Oil, Vinegar, Salt and Pepper. Let sit. The longer you let it sit the more water the salt will pull out and the less soggy your bowl will be. Don't understand that? Ask your high school Bio teacher!

3. Prepare Rice according to instructions.

 4. Put rice in a bowl and add a drizzle of Soy (or Soja) sauce. Top with Veggie combo. Do not dump in the extra liquid in the bottom of the Veggies! Unless you want a soggy mess...
5. Crumble Goat cheese on top.
6. Dig in!!

Other Suggestions:
Things to add to the veggie mixture. MAY NOT BE LOW FODMAP
Cucumber, Beans (black, kidney, garbanzo), cold lentils, carrots, mushrooms, any veggie you want!

Rice& Chia Pudding

 I've liked Chia Pudding, but it always seemed a bit thin to me, kind of like eating a clump of frog eggs...theoretically, I've never actually done that. So this pudding includes rice to make it a healthier version of rice pudding! The mason jar is not mandatory, but you will want something that can hold everything with a bit of space remaining and seals well, kuz you're gonna wanna shake it up!  Top the mixture with anything you want! Substitutes at the bottom.

 Ingredients:
1 cup Cooked Rice
1/4 cup Chia Seeds
2 cups Almond Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Coconut Oil *optional*
1 Tbs Maple Syrup
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

 1. Combine Rice, Coconut Oil, Vanilla Extract, and Maple Syrup. Mix Well

 2. Add Almond Milk

3. Add Chia Seeds and Cinnamon. Mix well. Shake it up.
4. Chill for at least an hour to allow the Seeds to expand and get all pudding-ey.
5. Serve warm or cold and Enjoy!

Substitutes:
Almond Milk: Any type of milk, or even water, if you're feeling boring
Maple Syrup: White Sugar, Brown Sugar, Honey, Agave
* not all substitutes are low FODMAP

Enjoy!!

Yummy Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

      Ever since I started the low fodmap diet I've wanted to create a wheat free oatmeal cookies, and now I've finally got a recipe that I think deserves to be shared with you guys! The recipe does make 4 dozen cookies, so share, or don't, but don't be surprised.

Ingredients:

• 3 Eggs
• 1 c Raisins (1/2 c Raisins, 1/2 c Dried Cranberries)
• 1 tps Vanilla
• 1 c Butter
• 1 c Brown Sugar
• 1 c White Sugar
• 2 ¹⁄₂ c Almond Flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 c Oatmeal

1. Combine Raisins, eggs and vanilla and pop in the fridge for 1 hour. This may seem silly, but it is SUPER important for keeping the mixture moist and ending up with great chewy cookies!

 2. Combine sugars and butter. In separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon

 3. Cream sugars and butter

 4. Add Dry ingredients and egg mixture and mix well.

 5. Add Oatmeal and mix well.
6. Dole out tablespoon sized dollops onto non greased trays.
7. Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes, until browned at edges.
8. Enjoy!

Extra things to add: Chocolate, coconut, other dried fruits
Note: this can be made with normal wheat flour if you're not trying to stay wheat free

Citrus Berry Crumble for One

     SO many berries, so little time. As a result I've had quite a few go bad or soft or wrinkly. So here's an easy way to use them! I've been playing with this recipe for the last week and I think I finally like this one best.

Crumble:
Half a Lemon
Handful of Berries
Sprinkle of Sugar

Topping:
1 Tbs Coconut Oil
1 Tbs Almond Flour
1 Tbs Oats
1 tps Brown Sugar


1. Place one thin slice of lemon with skin removed in the bottom of the ramekin

2. Wash blueberries and put them in the ramukin
3. Sprinkle with sugar and mix them up

4. On a seperate plate mix Coconut oil, Almond flour, Oats and Brown Sugar until well combined

5. Crumble over blueberries

6. Top with a little sprinkle of Sugar
7. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until you see purple liquid bubbling up around the sides.

8. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes and top with any yumminess!