Berry Banana Baked Oats

    I attempted lasagna last week! It came out pretty good. I used fresh basil to make my own sauce and everything! We had it for dinner on Friday night and I decided I'd throw my oatmeal bake in the oven while the lasagna was cooking! I've been trying to stick to counting my calories for the last two weeks. It's really hard when I love food! But besides my protein shakes in the morning, I've been trying to eat a little something too. This may not be the healthiest oatmeal recipe, but we'll say it's borderline healthy. It definitely tastes great and I decided to stick with my lasagna theme for the night and prepare it in layers! Oatmeal Lasagna anyone?

Berry Banana Baked Oats

Ingredients:

- 3 cups of old fashioned rolled oats

- 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon of salt

- 2 eggs

- 2 and 1/2 cups of milk

- 3 tablespoons of melted butter or coconut oil

- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup

- 1 and 1/2 cup of fresh berries

- 2 medium ripe bananas, sliced

- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (or more!)

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9x13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. In a bowl, toss together the oats, baking powder, and salt until completely combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs. Then, slowly whisk in the melted butter, vanilla, brown sugar, and maple syrup until sugar has mostly dissolved. Next, pour half of the oat mixture into prepared baking dish and top with half of the berries, one of the sliced bananas, and half of the chocolate chips. Spread the rest of the oats over that layer and top with the milk mixture. Shake the baking dish a little bit to make sure all of the oats are moistened. Top with the rest of the berries, the other banana, and chocolate chips. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the oatmeal is tender and has set. Serve warm or chill and reheat for breakfast! 

Banana Zucchini Bread

    I just love this banana bread recipe! No joke, I've made it 4 TIMES this week! well, I've tweaked it and possibly perfected it! It's just so fluffy and moist! I brought my first two batches to work on Wednesday. I'll be bringing the other two batches to church tomorrow. Along with my banana whoopie pies, they will be in the bake sale this weekend!

Banana Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup of coconut oil, room temperature

- 1 cup of sugar

- 2 ripe mashed bananas

- 1 egg

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

- 1 and 1/2 cup of flour

- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

- 1/2 teaspoon of salt

- 1 cup of grated zucchini

- 1 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with tin foil or parchment paper and spray well with cooking spray. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer cream together the coconut oil and sugar. Add the bananas, egg, and vanilla. Next, add the flour mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Once combined, pour mixture into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and center is no longer giggly. Let cool or enjoy warm.

Grating fresh zucchini!

Pork Tacos with Pineapple Cucumber Salsa

    Happy Cinco de Mayo! I made the most fabulous pork tacos for lunch! I'm not usually one to cook with jalapeno peppers but they make this pork really pop.  The cucumber in the salsa was the perfect cool down for the sweet heat of the caramelized pork as well as the spicy sriracha mayo. For the pork, I butchered a pork loin into pieces but it would have been so much easier to slice up some pork chops! This is definitely going to be one of my favorite meals to make!

Pork Tacos with Pineapple Cucumber Salsa

Ingredients:

- 2 pounds of pork loin, cut into thin strips

- 1 tablespoon of olive oil

- 1/2 diced red onion (you'll used the other 1/2 in the salsa)

- 1 diced jalapeno pepper, seeds and ribs removed

- 2 diced cloves of garlic or 1 heaping teaspoon of minced garlic

- 2 teaspoons of fish sauce

- 2 tablespoons of sugar

- 2 tablespoons of warm water

For the salsa:

- 1 cup of diced pineapple, I used fresh

- 1 cup of diced cucumber, seeds removed

- 1/2 diced red onion

- 1 diced roma tomato

- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

- the juice of one lime 

- dash of salt

For the sriracha mayo:

- 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise

- 1 tablespoon of sriracha hot sauce

Serve on warm flour tortillas

    Heat the olive oil in a large heavy pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the red onion, jalapeno, and garlic. Cook for a moment and let the onions sweat. Once they start to get translucent, add the fish sauce and mix well, Next, add the pork. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and warm water until the sugar is dissolved. Once the pork is mostly cooked and you don't see any more pink, turn up the heat to high and add the sugar water mixture. Stir once really well. It will be quite bubbly at first, leave it to cook for a few minutes. Then, the juices will clear, stir, and your pork will start to caramelize. Once it is starting to get golden brown, it is finished. Remove from the heat and serve with salsa and mayo.

    When making the salsa, add all salsa ingredients together and toss until combined. I like to make the salsa before I cook the pork. 

    Whisk the mayo and sriracha together to make the sauce. You can add a little water to make it a little thinner if you prefer. 

    Assemble tacos, serve with lime wedges, and enjoy!!

Beautiful Pineapple Salsa!