Monkey Bread and Summer Fruit Salad

I fell in love with monkey bread (aka cinnamon pull-apart bread) when my Aunt R and Uncle R made it for me and my sister one morning. We had a sleepover at thier house many years ago, just me and my oldest sis, it was so fun! I almost hesitated to share this recipe since its kind of my secret "thing" I like to pull out and impress people with. Like BAM! Look at me I'm as good a chef as Emril! Haha. But who am I to keep the world from this delectable goodness? So here you go, enjoy!

Ingredients
2 cans Pillsbury refridgerated biscuit dough (flaky works best)
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 stick butter

Mix together sugar and cinnamon. I estimated the amount of cinnamon but I usually eyeball it. You can add more or less depending on how strong you like the cinnamon taste.

Cut the biscuit rounds into 4 pieces like so.

Roll each piece in the sugar/cinnamon mixture until well coated. Set in bundt pan. Make it even all the way around and don't press down.

Next melt the butter and add in the remainder of the sugar/cinnamon mixture. I usually add in a bit more sugar and cinnamon at this step so it makes a nice glaze, but not too thick. Pour all over the top.

 Bake at 325-350 for 20 min or until the top is browned and bicuits are no longer doughy.

Flip the bundt pan over onto a plate and let cool. Now you have a nice cake looking thing! Mmm so good! The outside will be sweet and crunchy and the inside is soft and warm. Loooove this stuff, my stepsons always beg me to make it when they visit! (And I just have to add that no this is not healthy at all, which is why I only make on special occasions hehe!)

Now onto the fruit salad. This is actually incredibly easy.

1 can pinapple with juice
4 tablespoons vanilla instant pudding powder
Strawberries
Bananas
Grapes
Blueberries
Any other fruit you want

 

First add the pinapple with juice and stir in the instant pudding powder. Cut up and add in all the fruit you want. (I had strawberries, apples and bananas in mine because thats what was on sale)

Healthy Oatmeal Banana Muffins

Well heyy looky here! I found an old post I never published. With the busy-ness of the move it got lost and forgotten. (Which is why my counters look different, I made this in our old house)

Here is a great muffin recipe that requires no flour, butter or oil. These muffins are delish and a perfect take-along snack or lunch item. My hubby even liked them! (Which is a big deal considering he rolls his eyes at anything containing the word "healthy")

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup greek yogurt (I used the Chobani chocolate because I was curious how the chocolate would taste with the banana. It was a good choice, but the plain will work just as well)
2 eggs
1/2 cup of sweetener- brown sugar, honey, stevia (Although I have regular brown sugar in the pic, I've switched to using all natural unprocessed cane sugar or Stevia.)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 ripe bananas mushed

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray muffin tin with non stick spray or use foil liners. (For some reason paper liners do not work well with oatmeal.)

2. Place all ingredients in blender and blend until oats are smooth. I have actually made this once in the blender and once just mixing ingredients by hand. Either way tastes good, but blending will make the texture smoother.

3. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

 

Baked Oatmeal Muffins

Tomorrow we will be up at 4am and getting ready for the Color Me Rad 5k. Today I made some baked oatmeal muffins for a quick, healthy breakfast before our race. I made these with the intention of freezing some, but since half of them are already gone it looks like I will be making another batch next week. They were a hit!

Ingredients

3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup brown sugar (Use sucanat if you are going sugar-free)
1 sliced banana
1 cup of fruit (frozen or fresh blueberries, cranberries, mango, sliced strawberries ect)
OR 1 cup unsweetened or semi sweet chocolate chips

5 cups old fashioned oats (I used quick oats and it turned out fine)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 1/2 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In large bowl mix eggs, vanilla and applesauce. Add sugar, banana and fruit.
3. In another bowl mix oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and flax seed.
4. Combine wet and dry ingredients until well mixed. Add milk and stir.

5. Spray muffin tins or line with paper bake cups.
6. Bake 30-40 minutes for regular muffins and 15 minutes for mini muffins. Make sure middle of muffins are set.