Banana Chocolate Protein Bars

A new recipe!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup mashed banana (I had an 89 gram nana)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
1 cup oat bran
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 scoop (28 grams) protein powder (I have Designer Whey unflavored currently)
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
45 grams dark chocolate chips (1/3 cup or so)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper. In a stand mixer, cream the sugar, banana, and eggs until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and milk and blend.
In a separate bowl, combine the oat bran, wheat flour, protein powder, salt, and baking powder. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry mix to the wet until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Pour into the prepared baking dish evenly.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Don't over bake.
Using the parchment paper as a sling, remove from pan and let cool on a rack.
When cool, slice into 9 pieces.
Store in a covered container in the fridge.

Using my ingredients, the stats are:
211 calories, 4 grams of fat, 35 grams of carbs, 3.5 grams fiber, 8 grams of protein.

These are very, very good. The longer they sit, the more moist they become and the chocolate has a wonderful flavor with the banana. A great snack with a cup of coffee or tea.

Protein Pancakes and Almond Joy Cream of Wheat

Breakfast this morning is one of my other favorites! Protein Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce. I have tweaked this recipe a bit, and now I add protein powder (1/2 scoopish), and today I did 1/4 tsp of baking powder. These puffed up like crazy! Yummers. You can actually see the steam from the blueberries. Served with cafe au lait in my favorite mug. (Go Broncos!)


John had an interesting breakfast today. He decided to make an Almond Joy Cream of Wheat. Cream of wheat topped with unsweetened coconut (toasted), dark chocolate chips, and toasted pecans. It sounded so good I wanted to take a picture of it!

Cafe Beignet

Another New Orleans meal! Good thing we don't live near here, or I wouldn't be down over a 100 pounds!

Cafe Beignet on Bourbon Street. This was Sunday night, and it was quite chilly (to Southerners, we were fine LOL) - so no one was out. There was a jazz trio called Steamboat Willie there, and we basically got a private concert, which was way cool.

I wanted breakfast for dinner, so I ordered a cheese omelet with grits on the side, plus a lovely warm coffee:


My sister had a warm muffaletta - and this was a half portion!!




Dessert was a wonderful strawberry shortbread tart. Two of my favorite things, shortbread and strawberries! Yum!

Nutty nuggets and tuna

For some reason, I bought the store brand of Grape Nuts, which are called Nutty Nuggets. I really don't eat cold cereal, with the exception of granola (which I mix into yogurt). But, this stuff doesn't have sugar (unlike official Grape Nuts), and a good amount of fiber.
So, thought I would try my pumpkin oats with Nutty nuggets added.

1/3 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup Nutty Nuggets
1 cup water
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt.
After cooking, I stirred in protein powder and 1/2 cup pumpkin. Topped with a dollop of cranberry sauce. This breakfast looks a lot like what I have every other day LOL!
The Nutty Nuggets definitely gave the oatmeal more chewiness, and a thicker texture, which I found quite appealing - plus a different flavor that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe more 'wheaty'.

Lunch was tuna salad on my wonderful wheat bread (see post below). With a side of mesclun mix and some clems. Looks so fresh and healthy!

Honey Wheat Bread

I baked a loaf of fresh Honey Wheat bread yesterday. I won't post the recipe, as it came from a book, and I don't know the netiquette for posting that kind of recipe. I did add 1 scoop of Honeyville Oat fiber to it to boost the fiber content since it uses bread flour and whole wheat flour. I love using the bread machine to make the dough - it's so easy!

Here is the nice dough ball:


After shaping and ready for the 2nd rise:


After baking! Funny how it rose a little uneven, not sure why. You can see the book I used for the recipe, too.


This bread is wonderfully moist with a tender crumb. John is very excited to try making french toast with it tomorrow. I will be having some with my tuna salad for lunch!

SoyJoy Bars

I thought I would give a SoyJoy bar a try today. They seem pretty innocent, and made from all natural ingredients. I don't always buy it when a company says "all natural" on their labels (ProMax, I'm looking in your direction!!).
However, SoyJoy has soybean powder, sugar, raisins, butter, eggs - pretty much normal ingredients. I was kind of surprised.

It's a tiny thing, though. This is after I took a bite, but I think it is about the size of 1 Twix bar.

It looks like I ate the bar at midnight, but I really ate it right after the package photo above. The difference between flash on (this pic) and daylight (above pic).

The flavor was pretty good. Kind of cake-like, but firmer. A little sweet though. It only has 4 grams of protein for 130 calories, but way better than a 100 cal snack pack, right?
At least in a pinch I know I could grab this if I don't want a 200 calorie Zone bar.

Red Fish Grill in New Orleans

Probably the best meal we had over the weekend. We went for lunch.
We both wanted a poboy or gumbo. Well, the lunch menu had a combo option, so we were all set!

I got the BBQ Shrimp Po-Boy
Crispy fried Louisiana shrimp tossed in a peppery butter sauce. Served on a Leidenheimer po-boy loaf with lettuce, tomatoes and red onion.
The soup was the de jour, which was a shrimp and corn chowder. Excellent.





My sister had BBQ Oyster Po-Boy
Freshly shucked P&J oysters flash fried and tossed in a Crystal BBQ sauce. Served on a Leidenheimer po-boy loaf with red onions, lettuce, tomatoes and housemade blue cheese dressing. Paired with Alligator Sausage & Seafood Gumbo.


For dessert, we preordered the Double Chocolate Bread Pudding
A Red Fish Grill Signature...
Rich dark and semisweet chocolate bread pudding served with white and dark chocolate ganache and chocolate almond bark. It was divine!


The aftermath: