I’ve been working on a healthy recipe for oatmeal pancakes off and on for over a year. You can ask Dan, he’s had to eat most of them. I’ve had the flavors right for a while, but the pancakes still fall apart when I try to flip them. Needless to say, the recipe is not stage-ready.

So there I was this morning, ready to try one more time. I haven’t made the pancakes in months and thought it would be a good time to try again now that it is the new year and we’re all trying to eat healthy (I mean, just because we want to eat healthy doesn’t mean we don’t want treats like pancakes, right?).

Right. But I burned the first 2 pancakes.

I haven’t burned pancakes like that since I was a teenager. Apparently I was off my pancake-game, but rather than throw in the towel, I tried a different approach. I tweaked the recipe to make muffins instead (the theory being I’d have to try a lot harder to burn muffins than pancakes).

So I give you my healthy muffin. They have very little sugar or fat. Chock full of whole grains and fruit. Of course, they do taste better with a little butter but they really don’t need it.

I’ll keep working on the pancake recipe but in the meantime these muffins are a tasty and healthy breakfast treat.

Fruity Oatmeal Muffins

The bananas and yogurt keep these muffins moist and tender without a lot of fat, while the walnuts and blueberries will keep you coming back for another bite.

Makes 6 muffins.

Dry:
1/2 cup oats
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet:
2/3 cup lowfat Greek-style yogurt
1 banana, mashed
1 egg
2 tablespoons maple syrup

Mix-ins:
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
generous 1/4 cup walnut pieces

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 6 muffin cups (or line with paper cups).
2. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir just until mixed. Fold in the berries and walnuts.
4. Divide batter among 6 muffin cups (they will be pretty full). Bake for 18-20 minutes (when you touch the middle of the muffin it should spring back a little, not mush in or jiggle).

[Approximately 125 calories, 1g fat, 5g protein, 3g fiber per muffin]

A note about white whole wheat flour:

White whole wheat It has a similar healthy profile as regular whole wheat, but it is lighter in texture and color which makes it a decent substitute for all-purpose flour.

White whole wheat is milled from a different type of wheat (hard white spring wheat instead of the traditional red wheat of regular whole wheat flour).

I haven’t gone 100% to white whole wheat yet, but I’ve started to substitute white whole wheat in place of all-purpose in some recipes and find the results to be promising. If you haven’t already, give it a try.

For more information see King Arthur Flour and Wikipedia.

This is one of those moments when I feel compelled to make apologies about being a slacker and all around delinquent when it comes to blogging, but I promised myself I wouldn’t say something like “Sorry I haven’t posted in a while”. So I’m not going to say that even if I am a bum blogger.

Instead I am going to distract you with the perfect thing to have in your back pocket: roasted tomatoes. Well, you shouldn’t keep the actual tomatoes in your back pocket, that would be messy. What I mean to say is that this “recipe” for roasted tomatoes is great to have in your arsenal, especially as we head into fall and the tomatoes start to lose their summer glow.

It’s more of a technique really. Extremely easy and forgiving. I’m not even giving you precise measurements, but don’t be scared. I promise this is one of the easiest things you can do with your oven. And if you love tomatoes, it’s a must-try.

Start with some tomatoes. I’ve used cherry tomatoes and roma tomatoes. Roasting concentrates all of the tomato flavor, so romas are a great candidate since the ones at the grocery stores tend to be lacking in the flavor department… it’s a great way to trick the humble roma into being a rock star.

Wash the tomatoes and then cut them into halves or quarters. It doesn’t really matter, but for smaller tomatoes halves work best. For larger ones you decide how small you prefer your pieces.

Toss the tomatoes with olive oil, coarse salt (like kosher or sea salt) and black pepper. How much? It’s a matter of taste, really. But don’t go overboard on the salt because the flavors will be concentrated, including the salt.

Alternatively, you could line up your tomato pieces on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper there. I’ve done it both ways with equal success so again, it’s your choice.

Line up your tomatoes on baking sheets so that the cut parts face up. If you didn’t toss the tomatoes in oil, salt, and pepper, here’s your chance to sprinkle and drizzle away.

Put the baking sheets into a low oven (250 degrees) for 2-3 hours. The tomatoes will shrink by at least half. (for the cherry tomatoes I left them in for about 2 hours, for larger tomatoes I leave them in for 3 hours or possibly longer depending on shrinkage. But I stick to a minimum of 2 hours).

For any of you who read lots of food blogs like I do, kale chips are old news. I first saw crispy kale on Steamy Kitchen in 2009. That’s like so last year.

I wasn’t into the whole kale thing back then. No, I was still making and eating dozens upon dozens of cookies. Ah, yes… those were the days.

Anyway, I do eat kale now. In fact, during the detox I did last month, I ate about a metric ton of kale. Well, maybe it was a little less than that, but still I ate lots of kale and other green things.

Kale is the new chocolate. Okay, that’s a lie. But I do like it. Especially in soups… and now as chips.

Let’s face it, sometimes you just want to munch on something while you’re parked in front of the television. And while potato chips (with a side of M&Ms) might be my first choice in that department, kale chips are a tasty substitute that are easy to make at home (meaning you know what’s in them) and they’re pretty healthy to boot.

What do they taste like? Have you had toasted, salted seaweed? To me, it is a neighbor of that flavor which I love. But even if you don’t like seaweed, don’t be afraid. Dan is not a big seaweed fan but loved these chips (stuffed-them-into-his-face-by-the-handfuls kind of love). He and our friend Tom said the flavor reminds them of pumpkin seeds. I’m not sure where they get that, but whatever they taste like, kale chips are addictive. You have been warned.

Let’s make some…

What you’ll need

1 bunch of kale. I used the curly, purple-stemmed kind (aka red kale for those of you into correct names and stuff), but I’ve seen a few different varieties used by other bloggers (there’s a list at the bottom of this post of other kale chips around the blogosphere).

Olive oil and sea salt (you could use kosher salt instead but be careful how much you use… I did that once and way over-salted)

What you’ll do

Remove the leaves from the tough stems by tearing the leaves with your hands or cut them off with a knife. Either way, just don’t tear or cut the leaves too small and make sure to get the big woody stems out of there.

Wash the kale.

Put it into a salad spinner. Normally I would give you an alternative method because I don’t really believe in buying equipment for a single recipe, but you really do want the leaves to be dry so if you have a good method of drying without a salad spinner, please let me know in the comments. (Besides salad spinners are great for you know, like, salads n stuff…)

Give it a spin. The more water you can get off of the leaves the better. Too much moisture could lead to soggy chips which sort of defeats the purpose.

Move your dry kale to a bowl.

Toss it with 1 tablespoon olive oil

and sea salt to taste (I started with a tablespoon because I figured some of it would stick to the bottom of the bowl which it did)

Spread the leaves onto baking sheets, keep them in a single layer. (I wound up sprinkling a little more salt at this point. I might have gone a little overboard with the salt. Just a little.)

It took 2 baking sheets to fit all of my kale in a single layer. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes (I swapped the pans top to bottom and vice versa halfway through to keep it democratic).

Then I put the chips into a bowl and sat down with the remote nearby, ready to catch up on Top Chef.

Baked Kale Chips

adapted from Baked Kale Chips on Smitten Kitchen and Runnersworld

1 bunch of kale, torn into bite size pieces (stems removed)
1 tablespoon-ish olive oil
sea salt to taste

1. Wash and dry the kale (salad spinners are awesome!)
2. Toss dry kale leaves with oil and salt.
3. Bake at 300 degrees for about 20 minutes
4. Grab the remote and enjoy.

More kale chips

• Baked Crispy Kale on Steamy Kitchen
• Roasted kale chips with sea salt and vinegar on Kalyn’s Kitchen
• Kale chips on Kath Eats Real Food
• Baked kale chips on Gluten Free Girl
• Also seen on Shutterbean, the Kitchn, Epicurious, and Runnersworld (just to name a few).

Kale Chips

Back in May I had turned over a new leaf.  I was walking with a pedometer and eating more veggies and felt pretty good about it.  I had even lost 1.5 pounds.  Soon after, I swapped running for walking and ditched the pedometer (only partly because I felt like a dork wearing a white pod on my pants every time I left the house).  I thought the more intense workouts would quickly show results, but I was wrong.

On the one hand, I was getting stronger.  I could run farther and faster.  And under the layers of cushion, I could feel my muscles getting firmer.  But the cushiony layer was not shrinking.  The scale was not budging.  And my jeans were tight as ever.  Frustration set in, and I may or may not have tried to soothe myself with ice cream and a couple of chick flicks (which I realize does not help the weight loss cause but sometimes that’s just what happens when you’re frustrated).

So one day last month, I was talking to a personal trainer about how I could tell I was getting stronger but my weight was not changing at all, despite progressively healthier eating and increasingly intense workouts since January.  He said I should consider a detox diet to give my metabolism a boost and recommended The UltraSimple Diet by Dr. Mark Hyman, saying that the first time he tried this detox a few years ago he lost 10 pounds in a week.

I don’t know about you, but when someone starts talking about losing 10 pounds in a week warning bells go off in my brain.  But I was frustrated enough to consider it.  I decided to read the book to see what sort of crazy techniques and concoctions the good doctor was trying to sell.  Turns out, it’s not all that crazy.

The idea behind the diet is that our world is full of toxins that we ingest and/or are exposed to and these toxins cause inflammation in the body.  And this inflammation leads to imbalances and diseases and weight gain.  Dr. Daniel Amen, who wrote Change Your Brain, Change Your Body, also talks about inflammation in the body.  And while I am still a skeptic about some parts of the diets and research related to this inflammation theory, I think it is plausible.  I mean, there is a lot of crap in the world and a lot of it is in our food so it is within the realm of possibility.

Anyway, the UltraSimple Diet book is a very dry read with a lot of infomercial-type sales pitches woven into the chapters, but the diet itself is reasonable.  There is a “preparation week” in which you eliminate sugar, flour, alcohol, dairy, and caffeine. Okay, I know, that in itself is a little crazy… I mean, no sugar or flour or dairy means no goodies!  But it’s not really that bad, you just have to be determined to stick to it.  The second week is the actual detox week.  You eat a lot of vegetables, brown rice, and lean protein, supplementing it with smoothies and vegetable broth.

There are other parts of the program that are a little odd like drinking 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the juice of half lemon, which I did a couple of times but ultimately decided it was okay to skip that part and just eat the veggies and brown rice.  And while you do have to be prepared mentally and well-stocked with veggies in the fridge, it is a doable 2 weeks.  Even for me, a confessed sugar addict and lover of butter.

I’m not saying everyone should run out and do this or any other detox.  I’m just sharing my experience. And while I won’t know the long-lasting results until more time has past (I’ll keep you posted), I am wearing my old favorite jeans as I write this.  Jeans I have not been able to squeeze into in over a year.  And that is enough success for me.

By the numbers:

• I lost 5 pounds in 2 weeks.
• My waist is 1 inch smaller
• My hips shrank 0.5 inch

The most visible difference is that cushiony layer got thinner. I’m not necessarily chalking up all of my progress to this detox since I have been running and working out, but I do think it was the boost I needed… if only to relieve my frustration. I broke though the plateau and am now working on getting over the next hump.

One of the pillars of the diet is a smoothie that in the book is called the UltraShake. To me it’s just a smoothie (I have a problem with attaching Ultra to everything). Anyway, the boosted protein content makes this more satisfying than my old standard soy milk + fruit smoothie. There are 3 different versions in the book, using 3 different sources of protein. I went with the silken tofu one because I have an aversion to protein powders.

I found the shake as written in the book had too much of a tofu flavor for me, so I played with the proportions until I had a palatable but still protein rich breakfast smoothie. I’m working my way back to normal meals, but I am eating more veggies than before the diet, and I still have one of these smoothies for breakfast a couple times a week.

Let’s make one now

You’ll need soymilk (as part of the diet I started using unsweetened but in the past have used vanilla soy milk which is also really good but you’ll be getting more sugar).  Almond butter adds a little richness but is totally optional.

To up the protein, use silken tofu.  You’ll only be using a little bit, so have a storage container handy for the extra.

(Totally optional) This is really-good-for-you stuff.  Loaded with omega-3s and fiber. I occasionally added this to my smoothies even before I did this diet. Note: it’s best to store this in the freezer because it can go bad on you very quickly if left out at room temperature.

Measure out 1/4 cup silken tofu into your blender.

2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed if you are using it.

Optional: 1 tablespoon of almond butter

Mix this on low.

Add half a banana.  As you can see from the ice crystals, mine is frozen.  I like to keep frozen bananas around for smoothies and/or banana bread (it’s best to peel them first, then store in a zip-top bag.  I used to store them in the peel but peeling a frozen banana is not fun.  Trust me). If you are using a frozen banana, it’s best to slice it up to make it easier on your blender (I always end up with unblended banana chunks when I don’t slice it but maybe my blender is weak).

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries

1/4 cup frozen cherries

Add 1/4 cup of water (or more if it’s still too thick) and blend until smooth (start at the low speed and work your way up to high).

Cheers.

Breakfast Smoothie

(adapted from The UltraSimple Diet)

I prefer using frozen fruit in my smoothies because my blender doesn’t always handle ice cubes all that well. Note: Frozen fruit is usually frozen at the peak of ripeness so you aren’t sacrificing quality by choosing it over fresh. If you use fresh fruit instead of frozen, add a handful or so of ice to the blender.

1/4 cup silken tofu
1/4-1/3 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 tablespoons ground flax seed (optional)
1 tablespoon almond butter (optional)
1/2 banana, sliced (frozen if possible)
1/4 cup frozen cherries
1/4 frozen blueberries
1/4 cup water (or more depending on your preferred thickness)

1. Put tofu, soy milk, and banana into the blender with flax seed and almond butter if using, and blend on low until it’s mixed up.
2. Add berries, cherries, and water. Blend starting on low and working your way up to high until everything is smooth.
3. Enjoy!

Nutrition Information

• With almond butter: 266 calories, 11g fat, 9.7g protein, 33.5g carbohydrates (7g fiber)
• Without almond butter: 171 calories, 6.2g protein, 30.5g carbohydrates (5g fiber)

Breakfast Smoothie

[I don't want to read all this mumbo jumbo, take me to the recipe]

Can you believe it is almost August? Eep. Where has the summer gone? Even without all the E’s, the last few months have been pretty busy around here. At least it feels like it has been really busy, but I can’t really say what I’ve been doing. Okay, fine… I’ve been spending way too much time at Ikea. There I said it. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, lots of great stuff for organizing for not too much money. On the other hand, I worry that my house will start looking too Ikea, you know? Ah well. The damage is done.

Anyway, the rest of the time, I’ve been daydreaming about wedding details (I just can’t help it). Things like how many cupcakes will I need to make? and should we serve pie instead of cake?. You know, the important stuff. Not that we’ve set a date or decided exactly what we want to do (we have ideas though). And of course I’ve been looking at a lot of dresses. Isn’t this one dreamy?

And I love love love these shoes:

I’m not sure what sort of dress I’ll end up with; I’m thinking something simple, elegant, and not so much of the big princess gown. Still I love looking at all the pretty dresses. But it can be overwhelming. I’ve had white-blindness a couple of times at bridal salons. But dreaming is good for you so I do a little each day.

Something else that is good for you? Hummus. It tastes good too. What’s not to love?

Now let’s make some hummus:

Things you will need: 1 can of garbanzo beans (aka chickpeas), tahini, and a lemon (not pictured). The olive oil and herbs are a nice addition but totally optional.

Drain most but not all of the liquid from the garbanzo beans and throw them into your food processor.

Add some tahini.

Maybe a little more (start with 2 tablespoons and then play around with it. I don’t really measure things exactly when I make this hummus but luckily precision is not necessary here).

Let the food processor whir until you have a creamy hummus. Squeeze in half a lemon and pulse a few times. Taste it. Add more lemon if you like, a pinch or two of salt, and herbs of your liking (I used some basil and parsley here).

Homemade Hummus

Just one more reason to love your food processor. Homemade hummus is easy, healthy, and delicious.

1 can of chickpeas (also called garbanzo beans)
2-3 tablespoons tahini, well-stirred
juice of 1 lemon
salt

1. Drain the can of chickpeas, reserving a little of the liquid (up to 1/4 cup). Put the chickpeas into the bowl of a food processor with tahini and give it a whirl.
2. Add half of the lemon juice and pulse the food processor a couple of times. Taste it and adjust the lemon juice to taste (I sometimes use all of the juice. It makes a tangy hummus but it’s really good with tortilla chips… especially these)
3. Salt to taste and let the food processor whirl for 30 seconds to a minute (the longer you let it go, the creamier the hummus will be).
4. Enjoy!

Variations

• Toss in a handful of basil or parsley from your garden.
• Add a clove or two of garlic (fresh or roasted).
• Drizzle a little of your best olive oil over the top for serving.
• Mix it up with your favorite spices (how about a little star anise or cumin?)

Hummus