Yougurt Parfait

This is a fast, easy, delicious breakfast you can do any morning on the week! I usually hit up the store Saturday and buy my fruit for the week. It can be whatever you like. I use:

-strawberries (or any other berries)

-cantaloupe

-honey dew

-kiwi

Then I cut them all up in to bite-sized pieces and put them into bowls to go in the fridge. I'm a huge fan of cold fruit!! The only thing I ever leave out on my counter is bananas which might be why I don't snack on fruit more often...hum.

Along with the fruit I grab a low-fat flavored yogurt. Nate and I love strawberry but I think blueberry or whatever else is out that would be delish too! Granola is a little trickier if you really want this be super healthy. Most granola cereals have a ton of sugar so the alternative to buying a brand like 100% Natural would be making your own. If you do, good on ya plus you can put stuff in or take stuff out that you want! I just buy the cereal.

In the morning when I get in from teaching seminary I usually only have about 15 minutes before I need to be out that door again and off to work. Since everything is pre-cut I pour a portion into a bowl, couple of spoon fulls of yogurt and crumble some granola over top and I'm good to go!

Delish!!

Hope you enjoy!

Banana Cake Loaf

I forgot to take pictures of this one so sorry about that. The recipe is pretty straight forward though. The trickiest part for me was the sour milk cause I had no idea what that was but it's wicked easy.

-3 cups of flour
-1 2/3 cups sugar
-2 1/4 tsp baking powder
-1 1/4 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp salt
-2/3 cup oil
-2/3 cups sour milk (add 1 tsp of vinegar to the 2/3 cup of milk)
-3 eggs
-4 mashed bananas
-1/2 cup sour cream

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour two loaf pans or one 9x13 baking dish (I use the 9x13 dish).
3. Measure and mix all ingredients. I start with the dry one's first and mix them all up so it's mixed pretty equally. Then I add all the wet ingredients on top one by one and mix together once I've got them all in the bowl.
4. Blend 1/2 minute on slow speed then 3 minutes on high.
5. Pour evenly into pans and bake for approx. 45-50 minutes of until center is done.

For the Topping:
(For cake top once it's done being baked. Maybe let it cool for 10-15 minutes before putting the top on)

This isn't your traditional icing top so it's not going to be a frosting you smooth over the top like the picture (sorry that was kind of misleading). Instead you will mix all the ingredients together to make a crumbly kind of texture and then crumble it over the top. Don't worry too much about how it looks, I just try to get it evenly so most of the cake top is covered. The cool thing is when it's done cooking it kind of spreads out in tiny star shapes.

Double recipe--

-3/4 cup brown sugar
-2 Tbsp. butter (30 ml)
-1 cup coconut
-2 Tbsp. milk

Spread over top and toast under low broil just until the butter and sugar start to get brown. Make sure to watch under your broiler, don't want it to burn! Doesn't taste near as good! Enjoy! :)

Couscous Salad with Sauteed Shrimp Scampi

I think this recipe comes from Rachel Ray but I got it from one of my friends, Julie, when Nate and I spent the summer in Dayton, Ohio. It's been one of our favorites ever since! I have changed a few things in it to work for me better. The recipe originally had the shrimp being grilled which I've only done once because we don't have a grill. I found that the sauteed shrimp is just as easy and might be more tasty then on the grill. Anything I change will be in purple along with the original instructions. (Sorry for any blurry pics, I'm a sub-par photographer)

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp. plus 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb. large shrimp, peeled & deveined
salt and fresh ground pepper
One 10-ounce box couscous (1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups chx broth & water
Juice and grated zest of one lemon
1/4 cup flat or Italian parsley, chopped
1 seedless cucumber, peeled & chopped

1. In a medium bowl, toss half of the garlic with 2 Tbsp. olive oil and shrimp. Heat a sauce pan over medium heat and add the garlic shrimp combo spreading them out so they cook evenly, about 2 minutes on each side. Season with salt and pepper. Or for grill, preheat grill to med-high. Skewer shp, season with s&p and put of grill, about two minutes on each side.

2. In a microwave dish, stir couscous with 3/4 cup chx broth and 3/4 cup of water. Flavor with pepper to taste and microwave on high for 4 minutes. Fluff with fork. At this point I put into whatever dish I'm planning on serving it in.

3. In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice and lemon zest, remaining garlic and the parsley. Whisk in the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil and toss with cucumber. The recipe says to peel the cucumber but I never have. I think I never noticed that it said that. I think the green rind gives it some extra color and texture.


4. Spoon cucumber mixture over couscous and top with shrimp. Give it a little stir to mix everything together and enjoy.

We always just eat this as a main course but you could also serve it along side another main course. Hope you like it! It's yummy! Enjoy!