Yams, Brussel Sprouts &…Christmas!!!

How are you on this frosty Monday?? Not frozen, I hope. It was freezing but super sunny all weekend. Perfect winter weather in my books.

I’ve talked about my love of Brussel sprouts before, but lately it’s turned into more of an obsession. Of all things, hey? But roasted with some olive oil & sea salt…YUM. I love yams too. The nutritional value of both is way up there, so lots of bonus points right there.Yams are full of the antioxidants beta carotene and Vitamin C, both of which tell the cancer-loving free radicals to beat it. They’re a great source of potassium which works to prevent high blood pressure, and they’re also high in fibre and complex carbs which equals good digestion and stable blood sugar. Loooots of other benefits that i’ll tell you about at some point.

Brussel sprouts are loaded with fibre and antioxidants as well, but that’s not all. They’re rich in a compound called isothiocyanates which not only fight, but possibly even prevent certain cancers and cardiovascular disease. They’re high in lots of other vitamins and minerals that make our bodies very happy :D.

My love for these healthy eats made this happen:

It was on the side of some roasted chicken, which wasn’t really all that picture worthy. But this really does make a fantastic side dish, especially during the holiday season.

Roasted & Sea Salted Brussel Sprouts & Yams ~ serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

• 4-5 small to medium sized yams
• 2 cups Brussel sprouts
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil.
3. Wash yams and dice into bite size pieces.
4. Wash Brussel sprouts.
5. In a large bowl, toss together yams, Brussel sprouts olive oil, and as little or as much sea salt as you desire. I ground about 1 tsp into my bowl.
6. Spread evenly on baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes.
7. Dig in!

My parents are doing a turkey for Christmas so I think i’ll add this to the side. My dad and Duncan will turn their noses up at the Brussel sprouts…more for me!

I put up all of our Christmas stuff over the weekend, basically because it’s never too early for that, in my opinion. As long as it’s after Remembrance Day of course.

Our tree is small, and sadly not real, but it’s a good size for our condo. And as much as I love real trees, I don’t mind not having to sweep up pine needles every 3 minutes. Nothing beats the smell of them though. NOTHING.

I also got a ton of Christmas shopping done on Black Friday at some outlets. The deals weren’t that great, but i’m about 80% done which is kind of a relief. I looked at the calendar and I don’t even think i’ll have time to sit down between now and Santa’s visit from the North Pole ;).

On Wednesday i’m going to tell you about some fluffy, light chocolatey Chocolate Carrot (but you can’t taste the carrot) Mini Muffins that I whipped up. I hope you’ll be back for that :). Have a great day!

Mini Muffins & Weekend Happenings

Did the weekend even happen?? I feel like I blinked on Friday and when I opened my eyes, it was Monday! Well I hope you all had a great weekend anyway, if it did in fact take place ;).

I always buy bananas on Sundays, let them ripen up throughout the week, and bake with them on Fridays. This time around, I made mini banana oat muffins and it was the easiest method possible. I put all the ingredients into the blender (in 2 batches – so I basically divided all the ingredients in half) blended until smooth, and poured into a greased (with coconut oil cooking spray) mini muffin pan. The recipe produced 24 perfectly moist and sweet-but-not-too-sweet 2 bite muffins.

Banana Oat Mini Muffins

• 3 very ripe bananas
• 2 1/2 cups quick oats (you can also use old fashioned oats – use gluten free if you have an allergy)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (melted) or olive oil
• 1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)
• 1 tbsp hemp hearts (optional)
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350º and grease a 24 cup mini muffin pan – I use coconut oil cooking spray
2. Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor and blend well. Depending on the size of your blender or processor, you may want to divide the ingredients in 1/2 or even 1/3’s.
3. Pour batter into muffin tin so that each cup is about 2/3 full.
4. Bake 18-20 minutes. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. These are good for about 3 days so you may want to freeze part of the batch.

**You can add a handful of mini chocolate chips if you’d like, but fold them in after blending.

Replacing regular flour with oat flour means a denser finished product, but I find the blending method makes them a lot fluffier. And the cleanup is so easy!

On to other things.

We had a very rainy Saturday so we did some super exciting indoor activities including Home Depot for wood primer and stain (working on a fireplace mantle), and the mall for some food court lunch and playtime in the kid zone for Ryland. He is obsessed with slides. I need to find one that will fit in our condo, which is already overflowing with toys. Yet all he wants to play with is tupperware, coasters, remote controls and shoes. Seriously though, I don’t think he’s ever had so much fun in his life then he did on that slide. Melts my heart!!

About once a month, Duncan gets up early to make a pancake breakfast. We love pancakes!!

I took Parker for a quick hike after breakfast while Ryland (and Duncan) were napping. I try to spend quality time with just him when I can because I hate to admit it, but he definitely doesn’t get the attention he did before Ryland came along. I promised myself that wouldn’t happen and constantly feel guilty for it. Sometimes I feel like there needs to be two of me.

When we got home, Duncan & Ryland were all geared up and ready for football Sunday. We’re a Packers family while pretty much everyone else we know are Seahawks fans so it was a highly anticipated game. Lucky for us, the Packers cleaned house!

Our little Cheesehead!

We put Ryland to bed after the 1st quarter, but he was right into it for that little bit. Future NFL-er?? I hope not…I’d have way too many heart attacks.

That about wraps up our insanely fast weekend. I hope yours was great and I’ll see ya soon!