Day in the kitchen....

I don't think I realized how productive I was yesterday until I looked at my Instagram feed. I was on a roll yesterday afternoon in the kitchen.  I felt like a domestic goddess! Or since Daniel and I have been watching far too many episodes of "Storm Chasers" in one sitting on Netflix, I could say in the words of Reed Timmer, I "dominated" the kitchen yesterday.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that, I pulled out some cooked chick peas out of the freezer and made some homemade hummus to snack on with veggies. (I use this hummus recipe except I start with dry beans that I cook myself in the crock pot and then I froze them in 1 cup portions to be able to pull out whenever I want them.)

I had some bananas that were going bad, and as opposed to the normal banana bread I make, I was looking for a healthier option and found this whole wheat banana muffin recipe-- it has no added sugar (is sweetened with some honey) and also has oats.  I had one this morning smeared with some peanut butter and it was pretty darn amazing!

Then I was also working on making some yogurt!  This is the 2nd time that I've made our own yogurt and I'm really enjoying it.  It's much more cost effective to make your own, and we can make it organic!  (Or for my raw milk loving friends, I bet you could go that route.)  I use this yogurt recipe with only a few modifications--After the 3 hours of it sitting unplugged, I go ahead and stir in 1/2 cup of honey and a few teaspoons of vanilla extract before placing it in the oven overnight. And I like thick yogurt, like greek style, so I use a little bit more store bought yogurt starter (though this 2nd time I was putting my homemade in) and I also strain mine in the fridge when it's done so that it's thicker. You can make it any flavor that you want, but from what I've read online, if you wanted to mix berries or something into it, you should mix them in with each serving just before you eat so that they don't get soggy, go bad, get gross.  Leeland has been gobbling it up just plain since it's sweetened with honey and has some vanilla flavoring. I usually add a little coconut or some strawberries to the top of mine.

I also hard boiled some eggs.  Now that I've begun p90x, I'm trying to be a bit more diligent in my snacking habits and the things that I choose.  And I happen to like hard boiled eggs and they aren't terrible for you.

And then after spending the afternoon in the kitchen doing all of the above, I cooked us a yummy dinner of teriyaki chicken stir fry and basmati brown rice.  It was DELICIOUS!!  I used sugar snap peas, red bell pepper, yellow squash, zucchini squash, onion, and of course the chicken which I baked prior.

Busy afternoon in the kitchen, but it didn't feel overly exhausting.  I love having healthy items pre-made in the fridge and ready to eat.  And in all honesty, I really love to be in the kitchen and love to bake/cook, the "hardest" part of the day was cleaning up my mess of pots and pans (and blender) once I was done.  Hope you all had a happy Friday and have a safe and blessed weekend!