Chocolate banana smoothie

Do you smoothie?  I mean...do you make/drink smoothies regularly?  It's not something I've gotten on the bandwagon of though I've seen many tempting versions of them.  But today, I'm tiptoeing into the smoothie world with this 3-ingredient chocolate banana smoothie that's right up my alley.

It doesn't get any simpler, easier than this so this smoothie is perfect for a beginner like me.  Three ingredients: a banana, a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder, and skim milk.  Just blend it up!

I was inspired to make this when I flipped through the current issue of Food Network magazine and saw it mentioned in the January calendar.  Something that doesn't even require a recipe - just a basic instruction to blend 3 ingredients up - totally appealed to me.  Since I eat a banana essentially everyday as a mid-morning snack, I thought I could change things up, swap out my morning frappuccino, and use my blender for this instead.

Can I tell you...I'm a little surprised by how much I liked this!  I literally whipped it up this very morning for breakfast with some toast (that's how fast this is - you can make and blog about it instantly).  It really tasted like a treat.  The one tablespoon of cocoa powder added so much chocolate flavor and the banana provides the natural sweetener you need.  Yes, you can taste banana but the texture is so velvety - kind of pudding like - and the flavor so rich that I really felt like I was having a milkshake. It's great just like this and surely, you could build onto it, maybe adding a spoonful of almond/peanut butter or oats and expanding it to include other fruits, if you like. 

Once again, I've determined that bananas rule.  I think I now have one more thing I have to keep in the freezer...sliced bananas, so I can whip up a smoothie whenever I want.

Whole wheat banana wheat germ muffins with chocolate chips

A month or two ago, I bought a fresh bag of wheat germ to make these blueberry-banana muffins for my husband.  He really enjoys a good breakfast muffin every so often!  I won't say I was left holding the bag but I did wonder what else I could do with all the leftover wheat germ since I hate to waste and always have this burning desire to make use of everything (at least, before their expiration date). I got lucky and spotted this whole wheat banana wheat germ muffin recipe that really caught my eye.

These muffins are made with whole wheat flour and wheat germ, sweetened with honey.  Chocolate chips (somewhat) optional.

It helped that the muffins I spotted were beautiful (with puffy domed tops that I was not able to achieve likely due to my over-zealousness when it comes to adding bananas) and had a Nutella swirl on top to boot (as you can see, I opted for miniature chocolate chips).  The other major selling point was how wholesome these muffins are...dare I say these actually qualify as healthy muffins?

When I say "healthy", I mean they are made with whole wheat flour (I like to use white whole wheat) and wheat germ.  That's it - no other flours.  Aside from the bananas, they are simply sweetened with honey.  There's a bit of canola oil involved, and I opted to include some chocolate chips just to make sure I wasn't being too virtuous.

I can be a little too generous with my banana measurement...my muffins were super moist

I was a little skeptical about the whole wheat flour-wheat germ combo going in but I couldn't resist such a potentially great use of my bag of wheat germ.  And you know what?  These are some good muffins!  They turned out flavorful and very moist - all the more so since I was a little heavy-handed with the mashed bananas.  Though that meant I ended up with rather sunken muffin tops, you won't find us complaining about too much moisture in a muffin!

My husband enjoyed these and even the picky 8-year old was a fan, and he can be rather picky about his banana muffins!  I'm glad he liked these because they are far less sweet and much healthier than his favorite banana muffins.  I would be happy to make these often and feel good about having them for a quick breakfast.  I hope you give it a try if you're a fan of muffins or if, like me, you find yourself with some wheat germ on hand that you need a good use for!

Nutella-banana stuffed French toast

I made this particularly for my husband, who is a big fan of French toast and nutella and banana crepes.  This is something like a marriage of the two: French toast stuffed with nutella and thin slices of ripe bananas.

When the boys (my husband and our 7-year old) took me out for Mother's Day breakfast recently, my husband ordered French toast and it reminded me of how much he likes them.  I actually used to make it for him for dessert sometimes; I haven't done that in a long time given all the "real" desserts I'm often fixing up.  We've also moved more towards pancake territory recently  for our weekend breakfasts so I haven't made a batch of French toast in a while.

So this is just a reminder to make some French toast if you and your loved ones enjoy them.  If you're like me, you probably have nutella in the house at all times.  It's been a childhood favorite of mine and my pantry is never without an extra container.  Also, if you're like me, you're always looking for ways to use ripe bananas.  Bananas are another thing I buy consistently.  This little recipe is a good way to take advantage of all that.