pomegranate-oatmeal snack cups

I recently received an email from MyFitnessPal with a link to a stash of oatmeal-inspired recipes. This immediately made me think of my friend, Stevie, who eats oatmeal just about every morning for breakfast, no matter the season. The girl is an oatmeal fanatic. Perhaps even more so than Kath, the RD whose blog inspired me to begin my own journey into the field of nutrition. But I digress.

So as I perused the list of oatmeal recipe ideas, I came upon these Pomegranate-Oatmeal Snack Cups, for which I already has all the ingredients in the fridge. It was fate. I mean, how often does anyone really have pomegranate arils just lying around?

They don’t come out very sweet, which is just fine by me, and are fantastic topped with a little sunflower-seed butter. These would be a great breakfast or pre-workout snack. Recipe is below and linked above.

Ingredients

Wet

2 eggs
1/3 cup 100% pomegranate juice
teaspoon vanilla extract
1 banana, small
1/2 cup almond milk, unsweetened
2 tablespoons coconut oil, partially melted

Dry

2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cups + 1/4 cup pomegranate arils, separated

Instructions

First, preheat oven to 350ºF and spray a muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.
Then, place banana in a medium size bowl and mash until smooth. Add the rest of the wet ingredients (minus the coconut oil, we will add that very last) and whisk until combined.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Finally add in coconut oil.
Fill muffin tin about 1/3 to 1/2 way full. Sprinkle additional pomegranate arils (about 1/4 cup) on top.
Bake at 350º for about 20 minutes.

Here’s the nutrition information for each serving (2 muffins):

Nutrition (per serving): Calories: 200; Total Fat: 8g; Saturated Fat: 5g; Monounsaturated Fat: 2g; Cholesterol: 71mg; Sodium: 464mg; Carbohydrate: 26g; Dietary Fiber: 4g; Sugar: 6g; Protein: 6g

Cinnabon (at home!)

A number of years ago–like four–I pulled one of those ‘Almost Famous’ copycat recipes out of Food Network magazine and have literally been holding on to it for years. FOR FOUR YEARS. (How, in those four years, I haven’t managed to make it I don’t know, but that’s another blog post in itself.)

They were for Cinnabon’s Cinnamon Rolls.

In an effort to show Andrew my undying devotion and love, I’ve started throwing caution to the wind and NOT making something healthy for breakfast on Saturday mornings…if I make breakfast at all on Saturday mornings. I figured that since I dictate 98% of what we eat around here (most of which are things he may not prefer, like beans or homemade salmon burgers), I could lighten up a bit on weekend breakfasts. That, and he made it clear he didn’t want ‘experimentation’ recipes on Saturday mornings…

ANYWAY.

I recently whipped out the very worn magazine page and–despite having to stay up until 1 a.m. that night to prep them–I was able to present Andrew with these around 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

They were, in a word, delicious.

Of course they were. They were loaded with butter and sugar and eggs. In order to make them a bit more calorically manageable, I made 12 smaller rolls instead of the 6 large rolls the recipe called for. I baked 6 that morning and wrapped the other 6 in plastic for another time. I mean, who is really going to eat just one ooey-gooey cinnamon roll, straight from the oven?? Might as well make them smaller rather than larger, I say.

Overall, I can’t say these were exactly like Cinnabon’s treats, mostly because it’s been so long since I’ve had one I don’t even remember what they taste like! I seem to recall Cinnabon’s rolls having a cream cheese frosting, while the one in the recipe was a traditional butter/sugar/cream mixture.

Can’t wait to enjoy the second half of the batch sometime soon!

dessert for breakfast

Remember that too-healthy apple crisp leftover from St. Patrick’s Day?

Well, the next morning it became BREAKFAST!

To about 1 C of the leftover crisp, I added:

1/2 C plain Greek yogurt

1/4 C Vanilla Soy Milk

1/2 scoop protein powder

1 T chia seeds

So good! Came to about 270 calories and 27 g protein with only 20 g sugar. Not too bad, I’d say 🙂 Makes me want to do it again! (Disclaimer: I have TWO individual, unbaked ramekins of the crisp still in the fridge…insert greedy laugh here.)

And since Andrew said he didn’t like the apple crisp (huff!), they are ALL MINE.

*This morning’s iteration:

Apple crisp topped with plain Greek yogurt mixed with a splash of vanilla soy milk.

Oh, the joy.