Lovin' From the Oven

Naked Juice Smoothie

by 2 Comments

greensmoothie-6

You know how everyone’s been on a “green” juice or smoothie kick recently? Well, count me in. I’m a sucker for drinking my vegetables.

greensmoothie

I don’t own a Vitamix or a BlendTec like the rest of the food blogging world (I wish!). I have a little blender that I bought from Costco. Sure, it may not be as powerful, but it gets the job done with a little bit of shaking and stirring. It even ground up the spinach leaves to disappear into the smoothie! That’s all I ask.

greensmoothie-3
greensmoothie-2
As for the little dots in the pictures, it’s nothing other than chia seeds. I found them at Trader Joes and have been throwing them in everything– smoothies, bars, yogurt, cereal… they’re great! They don’t taste like anything, they just add a little texture.

greensmoothie-5

I hear there’s a technique and art to making airy, light smoothies. I still have yet to learn any of it because my method of “throwing everything into the blender and pulse vigorously” works for me.

Print
Naked Juice Smoothie

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients

  • handful of spinach
  • 1 banana, sliced and frozen
  • 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1 cup Power-C Machine Naked Juice
  • 1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
  • 2 teaspoons flaxseed meal

Directions

  1. Blend everything together until you get your desired consistency.
https://lovintheoven.com/naked-juice-smoothie/

Banana Pudding Poke Cake

by 5 Comments

bananapuddingcake-11

Great news!!! My DB was offered a job in downtown LA for next year, which means we will OFFICIALLY be moving back to sweet ol’ Southern California in less than a year!! I’m SO proud of him and how far he’s come. That boy never ceases to amaze me on his accomplishments (mostly because I could never do what he’s doing… and to think that I almost tried!).

bananapuddingcake-12

Things are, slowly but surely, falling into place in this so called life. Secure job gets a checkmark in it’s box, but there are a million of other “to-do” items that need to be checked off.

Get engaged, find a place to live– and where?, buy a home (condo?), figure out what I want to do, get married, have children…. the list is ongoing and new things get added every year. After one hurdle is another to jump over.

bananapuddingcake

I don’t mind it, though. It keeps me on my toes and always leaves something for my DB and I to talk about.

bananapuddingcake-2 bananapuddingcake-3

I really am so ecstatic that we can move back close to our families next year. We’ll no longer be a plane ride away from our nieces and nephew. We’ll just be an hour in traffic, instead! Oh, 405, how are you the worst freeway on earth?

bananapuddingcake-4 bananapuddingcake-5

I found this poke cake on Pinterest and am surprised how I never knew about it before. It’s the ultimate “Sandra Lee” cake.. meaning it’s the ultimate “semi-homemade” cake. Her motto is to “keep it simple, keep it smart, keep it semi-homemade,” and this cake is the epitome of that.

bananapuddingcake-6 bananapuddingcake-7

You can change the flavor of the cake and the flavor of the pudding to make it a little different every time. How about white cake with pistachio pudding? Or chocolate cake with Oreo pudding topped with Oreo pieces? I think I’ve come up with my next baking project for tonight.

bananapuddingcake-8 bananapuddingcake-9

Also, this cake reminded me of Cool Whip. I used to eat that stuff all the time when I was a kid, but I haven’t had it in ten years. Literally.

It’s so dang good.

bananapuddingcake-10 bananapuddingcake-13

Recipe from The Country Cook.

Print
Banana Pudding Poke Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 (10 oz.) box yellow cake mix + ingredients needed to make cake (eggs, oil & water)
  • 2 (3.4 oz.) packages instant banana pudding
  • 4 cups milk
  • 1 (8 oz.) tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
  • 20 vanilla wafers, crushed

Directions

  1. Prepare cake mix according to package directions for a 9x13 cake. Once cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool for just a couple of minutes.
  2. With a wooden spoon handle, begin poking holes in the cake, making sure to poke all the way to the bottom.
  3. In a bowl, make the pudding. Whisk together instant pudding with 4 cups milk. Stir until smooth and there are no more lumps. Let pudding sit for just about 2 minutes so it has just slightly begun to thicken but not fully set. It should still be easily pourable.
  4. Pour pudding over cake, taking care to get it into the holes as much as possible. Place in the fridge to set and cool.
  5. Once your cake has completely cooled, spread on the whipped topping.
  6. Sprinkle crushed wafers onto the top of the cake. You can do this part immediately before serving the cake if you'd like.
  7. Serve with freshly sliced bananas. Keep refrigerated.
https://lovintheoven.com/banana-pudding-poke-cake/

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread made with Greek Yogurt

by 59 Comments

bananachocobread-4

I don’t remember if I told you guys, but I took a little time off work this month and next. I was originally planning on doing some traveling, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to go anywhere too far since my DB has a pretty strict school schedule. Can he be a 3L already so we can travel?

It’s okay, though. I’ve been able to get a lot of Ebaying done. I haven’t Ebayed in months because it’s so time consuming and I’m away from home a lot, but now’s the perfect time to get all of it done.

bananachocobread

Not only that, but now I have time to do things that I didn’t have time to before. I can try new things in the kitchen: working with yeast, cooking fish, and my favorite.. making ice cream! My DB’s mom gave me an ice cream maker and I’ve already started brainstorming all the possibilities. I’m currently freezing my bowl now so that I can use it in the machine tomorrow.

bananachocobread-2

You guys will be the first to know on how my first ice cream attempt turns out. Do you have any tried and true recipes that I can add to my list? I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to making ice cream. Actually, I take that back. I think I might have made it in first grade classroom with a ziploc bag and some salt and ice, but that’s a little different.

bananachocobread-5

But banana bread– that’s something I’m used to and have made plenty of times in my life. There are always brown bananas on my counter that are waiting to be used up. If I can’t use them in before they turn to complete mush, I’ll peel, slice, and freeze them to use in smoothies at another time. That way, no banana goes to waste.

This recipe uses greek yogurt to get that moisture everyone craves instead of the usual oil. To me, this bread wasn’t anything special. It was definitely moist, though. It didn’t rise as much as I would have liked and was a little too dense. I’ll have to experiment baking with greek yogurt more often. Maybe I’ll add that to my list for this month, too…

From No Sugar Sweet Life

Oh yeah, I got a little fancy (thanks to WordPress)! Now you can print and save recipes from my blog. Hope that helps some of you out!

Print
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread made with Greek Yogurt

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

  • 1 1⁄2 cup plus 3 tablespoons Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
  • 1 1⁄2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon Salt
  • 1⁄2 cup Brown Sugar (or 1/4 cup agave nectar)
  • 1⁄2 cup Mini Chocolate Chips
  • 2 Ripe Bananas, smashed
  • 1 Egg
  • 3⁄4 cups Greek Yogurt (I used Chobani)
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a large loaf pan.
  2. Mix together bananas, egg, greek yogurt, vanilla, and sugar.
  3. Gradually stir in the pastry flour, baking powder, and salt. Add in the chocolate chips.
  4. Evenly pour the batter into the pan about 3/4 full. Bake for 45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before removing and cutting.
https://lovintheoven.com/chocolate-chip-banana-bread-made-with-greek-yogurt/

Categories