Breakfast Inspiration

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. You can mask a delicious dessert and call it 'breakfast'. With my sweet tooth, I most definitely need to find a way to make something that feeds my sweet tooth but is healthy at the same time. On my plate every morning you will most likely see waffles, french toast, pancakes, cereal, or yogurt. These are a few of my favorite breakfast combinations. 

{Typical yet yummy breakfast: Special K cereal, Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk, banana, whole wheat toast with Smucker's Sugar Free Apricot Jelly}

{Yoplait Light Strawberry Yogurt topped with kiwi, strawberries, and coffee with whole wheat cookies on the side}

{Homemade Whole Wheat Almond Milk French Toast topped with banana, strawberries, and honey}

{Yoplait Light Strawberry Yogurt topped with banana and slivered almonds, coffee with oatmeal cookies on the side}

{Yoplait Light Strawberry Yogurt topped with Komplete cereal and peaches. Scrambled egg whites with spinach, tomato, and bell pepper on the side}

{Homemade Belgian waffles topped with banana and strawberries with chamomille tea on the side}

{Attempt to homemade Egg Mcmuffins with a healthy twist. Whole-wheat bun with a mini egg omelet with spinach, tomato, and bell pepper; Kraft yellow American cheese, and ketchup. Mango and watermelon on the side.}

{Yoplait Vanilla Greek Yogurt topped with kiwi and whole-wheat toast with peanut butter and jelly on the side}

{Pancakes topped with strawberries and banana with almond milk capuccino on the side}

{Macheteadas topped with strawberries and powdered sugar}

Little Things

It's crazy how a person's life can change in a matter of seconds. I have a strong feeling inside of me that tells me that God is in control. I may not understand why, but the loving bond that has spurred inside my family has filled me with hope. I swear I have the best family in the world. To any teenage girl out there, I promise it gets better. I can't imagine how Christmas this year will be like without my grandfather (nagging about how I'm too young to wear high heels), but whatever God has in store for me and my family, I know that we will be together. Nevertheless, I know my grandfather would like for us to smile through the season. Christmas is right around the corner!  

{Reading Divergent by Veronica Roth on a beautiful Sunday afternoon while being hugged by the wind and kissed by the sun}

{After finishing Divergent, I felt completely lost. Luckily, the next day my super mom surprised me with the next book of the trilogy, Insurgent}

{First batch of Christmas cookies for the season: Butter Lemon Cookies}

{Baking Chilenas de Dulce de Leche (Alfajores) as a Christmas gift for my family. They appear to have been drizzled by snow.}

{Improvised desert: a scoop of vanilla ice cream, sliced frozen strawberries, slivered almonds, and chocolate chips}

Banana Bread

This week started off with my 16th birthday, followed by the most amazing and miraculous news I have ever received, and ended with a Honduras-Costa Rica soccer game on a Friday off from school. The bad news, however, is that i have a seven-page essay due on Monday and it is creeping on my conscience. Sometimes, all I need is a little reality break and spend some time being creative in the kitchen. On Thursday afternoon, I walked into my kitchen trying to look for something to treat my sweet tooth. I found a bunch of ripe bananas and what better way is there to save them than making banana bread? So I got to work and made one of my favorite banana cupcake recipes from the one and only Martha Stewart. However, I decided to make the bread extra special and added a few almonds and raisins to her original recipe.

Ingredients: 

• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 ½ cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
• 2 large eggs
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp raisins
• 1 tbsp almonds 

Directions:

•          Preheat oven to 350 degrees
•          Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt
•          In the center of the flour mixture, mix together butter, bananas, eggs, vanilla
•          Stir together, add cinnamon, chopped almonds, and raisins
•          Bake about 25-30 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
•      Remove from oven and wait approximately 10-15 minutes to remove it from the container you baked the bread in. 
•          Then, you can add cream cheese frosting (optional), Martha Stewart's honey-cinnamon frosting, or enjoy with a nice cup of warm coffee or tea

You can also make a shift to this recipe by adding 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of or along with the raisins and almonds. It's absolutely delightful.