Cranberry Banana Muffins

We had a pretty unproductive weekend unless you count all the eating we’ve done, heh. I am currently in a food coma.

On Saturday night Anthony and I went to Fusion Cafe for dinner. I have been insisting that we go here for awhile because I love this restaurant and Anthony had never been. Because we’ve been doing so well with our resolution of eating in more often we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out.

Our date night menu:

Sweet Potato Bisque – this is by far my favorite dish at Fusion. It is made with bacon and jalapenos and it is so creamy and thick that it’s more like a sweet potato mash than a bisque.
Lamb Sliders – these were cooked to perfection, served with tzatziki sauce and feta with a cucumber & onion salad.
Seafood Linguine – linguine served with red pepper-basil cream sauce, spinach, blue crab, bay scallops, shrimp & mussels. This dish was ok but I wasn’t a huge fan of the fact that the noodles overpowered this dish and not the seafood but then again, I don’t normally eat pasta out for this reason. (This was Anthony’s entree)
Maui Waui roll – smoked salmon, mango, avocado, cream cheese topped with shrimp, cashews and mango sauce. This is absolutely incredible, the combination of salmon and mango, mmm.
Coconut cake – I have no idea what was in this cake but it was amazing. It was super dense and it had a caramel sauce drizzled over it. It tasted like it might have some kind of liquor in it though I’m not sure if it was in the icing or the cake.

Overall it was an amazing date night. I would have snapped some pictures but it was super dark inside the restaurant and super intimate; I didn’t want to bother other people eating their dinner. After we ate we walked around the mall where we picked up some hand soap from Bath & Body Works and I picked up some new bras at Victoria Secret (thank you semi-annual sale; $16 bras!). We finished date night by coming home and watching my favorite movie of 2009: [500] Days of Summer. Anthony hadn’t seen it yet and he knew I really wanted to watch it again.

I woke up today regretting not picking up some more things at Victoria Secret last night so I went back to the mall and picked up 3 more bras, some underwear and some t-shirts ($4 a piece!). I have now officially restocked my underwear drawer for the year.

I was in a baking mood this afternoon and I had 3 overripe bananas to use or toss. So I decided to make some breakfast muffins for us for the week. I also wanted to use the frozen cranberries we’ve had for months in our freezer.

Cranberry Banana Muffins: Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1.5 cup whole wheat flour
.5 cup organic cane sugar
.25 cup ground flax
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
0.5 cup organic Cane Sugar
1 Organic Large Egg
2 tsp Lemon Juice
1 cup mashed bananas (approximately 3 bananas)
0.5 cup Organic 2% milk
2 tbsp greek yogurt
1.5 cups Frozen whole cranberries
Honey (for drizzle)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prep muffin tin with paper liners or by greasing the muffin tin.
In large bowl combine flour, flax seed, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
In mixer combine sugar, egg, mashed banana, lemon juice, milk and yogurt. Beat until smooth.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and beat until batter is smooth.
Fold frozen cranberries into batter with spoon.
Spoon muffin mix into muffin tin.
Drizzle honey on top of each muffin.
Bake for 20 minutes or until muffins are done.

These came out yummy. The texture is a little gummy because the bananas were super ripe. The tartness of the cranberries balances out the sweetness of the muffin. I’m excited to eat these this week because of how versatile they are. They can be topped with honey, greek yogurt, cream cheese, almond butter or even whipped cream!

After baking, we hit up Publix for our weekly groceries. I needed to pick up a few ingredients for our dinner as well. A couple of weeks ago I visited Ikea with my friend Mindy and I purchased a wok. I’ve been wanting to use my new wok ever since but haven’t had the time. Tonight I put the new wok to the test and made a chicken stir fry with peanut sauce dish. . I borrowed a peanut sauce recipe from Epicurious.com.

Thai Peanut Sauce:

1/3 cup all natural organic peanut butter
1/4 cup organic chicken broth
2 tablespoons coconut milk
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon tamari (soy sauce)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (nam pla)
1 teaspoon Sriracha

I cooked some whole wheat spaghetti per box instructions. As the spaghetti cooked, I sauteed chicken breasts in a canola oil/sesame oil blend until browned. I removed the chicken and added red onions and garlic and browned those as well. I then added shitake mushrooms, broccoli and green onions and I sauteed the veggies for about 5 minutes. Then I reintroduced the chicken and tossed with peanut sauce until chicken was thoroughly cooked.

I topped the dish with dry roasted peanuts and some additional green onions. I thought this was yummy but Anthony says it wasn’t peanuty enough for him. I guess I’ll have to add more peanut butter next time.

Time to go do the one thing I avoided all weekend; read for my classes. :(

Goodnight!

Jamie