Banana Nutella Oat Muffins

I had some bananas on the way to brown-town and needed a recipe for something to go with my morning coffee.  Solution?  Wing it with some banana muffins!  I searched pinterest for some basic recipes to get me started and pulled something together with the ingredients I had.  The result was delicious!  I needed to save the recipe for another breakfast in the future.

Banana Nutella Oat Muffins 

1 cup flour
1 cup +2 tbsp oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
4 tbsp butter (melted)
1/4 cup skim milk, frothed
1/3 cup + 1tbsp Nutella
3 mashed medium bananas, about 1 cup
2 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine bananas, milk, vanilla, egg, butter, Nutella and sugar in a large bowl. 

In a separate bowl, add flour, oats, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda and stir.  Slowly add to banana mixture and beat until mixture is fully combined.  Consistency should be in between a cookie and cupcake batter.

Line cupcake tin and add batter, recipe makes 12 muffins.  Cook for about 30 minutes, check that toothpick comes out clean before taking out to cool.  

Enjoy warm or cool, refrigerate extra muffins.

strawberry banana smoothie

i've been on a healthy-kick lately, so my last trip to the supermarket i got plenty of fruit... maybe i went a little overboard.  so i had just what i needed to make a quick and easy smoothie.  i narrowed it down to try out a strawberry banana smoothie.

ingredients are pretty simple... i eye-balled the measurements,
but all you really need is:

20 strawberries (i used a little more than half the pack)
1-2 bananas (i only used one, but next time i'll use another half!)
3/4 cup milk (depending how creamy you like it, and i used 1% to keep it healthy!)
1 1/2 cup ice (depending how icy you like it, i like a lot of ice)

not many ingredients, plus-- quick & healthy!  great for the morning

before work, just cut up your fruit the night before.  

cut up the strawberries & bananas into big chunks and
put everything into your blender.

i wish i left a couple on the side to garnish with-- so don't forget to
put some aside if you want a cute garnish for your cup!

i like to put half the ice i'm going to use so it blends evenly,
then i'll add the rest in once i've blended it a bit.

press the button a few times, and your deliciously simple smoothie is all set!!

drink up!