Banana Oatmeal Cake - THM E

     This is a recipe that I've majorly modified from Mennonite Country-Style Recipes and kitchen secrets. While I love this cookbook, I prefer to use less sugar and flour then what most of these amazing recipes call for. I like to make this as breakfast for travel days since it's healthy and fills those little tummies up for at least the first hour (we hope!). It can by made ahead and is so yummy when you drown it with milk!

Banana Oatmeal Cake
1 cup butter
1 cup THM sweet blend*
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups oatmeal, blended finely
2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TAB ground flax seed (optional)
3 cups bananas (6ish)
1/2 cup almond milk (kombucha or water works too)


1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Mix butter and sweet blend well.
3. Blend 2 cups of oatmeal until fine, then add to butter mixture.
4. Toss eggs, vanilla, bananas, and milk into blender and puree.
5. Add everything else, stir, and bake in a 9x13 pan for about 45 min. (My RV oven has a mind of its own and always needs babysitting so I just go by touch :) )

*I make my own sweet blend, using 8 cups of erythritol, 4 cups sugar, and 2 TAB stevia. You can also just use regular old sugar if you prefer.

It's also delicious to add 1 cup of chopped walnuts, pecans, or almonds but that is adding a lot of fats to a carby dish so bear that in mind if you are strict with keeping carbs and fats separate. I've also replaced half of the bananas with blueberries for something different. I'm also no expert on the numbers but I believe this falls squarely as an E dish. Please do correct me if I'm wrong!

The batter from a batch with blueberries added. I blended them because a certain little man thinks he doesn't like them :). It may not look amazing but it's delicious!

German Pancakes - THM S

     I'm not going to go all crazy and turn this into a food blog. Don't worry, I don't enjoy cooking or writing that much. I may however, be posting some recipes from time to time simply to make my life easier. I have a notorious habit of finding a recipe online, revamping it, then losing it. But if I post it here, I'll always be able to find. Also, on the rare occasion someone asks me for a recipe it's as easy as sending a link! 

     We try to eat mostly healthy. By that I mean low-carb, little to no sugar, and heavy on the vegetables. Basically, we follow the Trim Healthy Mama plan for the most part so when you see an S or E, it's referring to that :). 

     German Pancakes is a breakfast food that we all love. Well, we did until this morning when Emily cried because she doesn't like them but thankfully (in this case), her taste buds change multiple times a day. I got the recipe a few years ago at Gwen's Nest.

If you have a spare 6 year old around that spends his free time teasing his sisters, he will work wonderful to measure ingredients. 

Some days he reminds me a LOT of my nephew Dallas.

Blending is especially fun. Note how careful he is to keep a hand on top.

The stick of butter goes in the pan. Don't not read the directions and mix it with everything else. Not that I would ever do that.

The smell is amazing.

This morning we topped it with frozen, chopped strawberries and a little maple syrup.

I don't know why it separated a little but it certainly didn't effect the taste!

And, here is the recipe.

German Pancakes

• 1/2 cup butter (to melt in pan)
• 3 cups oat flour (simple blend oatmeal until fairly fine)
• 12 eggs
• 3/4 cup xylitol 
• 1 tsp stevia
• 4 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1 cup cream or half & half
• 1 tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Place butter into a 9x13 pan (I actually use a 12 inch round) and allow to melt in the oven as you mix up the batter. 
3. Blend oatmeal until fine then pour into mixing bowl.
4. In a blender, combine remaining ingredients, and whisk together until well blended.
5. Add oat flour and stir (or blend) until well mixed.
6. Pour batter into hot casserole dish, and swirl with melted butter to blend it in briefly.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.
8. Serve with fresh fruit and maple syrup.

    This makes plenty for us 1 meal, plus leftovers for the next morning. Just the way I like it! Because I like to save money and calories, I sometimes tweak it a little.
1. Use only half the butter.
2. Use half water for the almond milk
3. Replace the cream with water or kombucha.

Enjoy!

Homemade Granola

I love homemade granola. A lot. But I don't really follow a recipe. Just dump and pour according to my mood. 2 batches ago it turned out.........amazing. The next time I made it I was in a healthy mood. I think it's, well healthy! And I don't mind the taste. Makayla took one bite, spit it out, and said "Wood chips". Eldon tasted it and said "You don't know when to leave a good thing alone." I tried to be annoyed for a little bit but I couldn't help but laugh because it's so true. And I felt kinda bad because he loves granola almost more then me. So the next day I pulled out a cookbook and followed a recipe. Kind of. I didn't have everything. And seriously, I was not going to pull out the 1/2 teaspoon measure for salt, of all things. But I mostly followed it.

Here's my version:

4 cups quick oats

2 cups chopped almonds

1 cup chopped peanuts

1 cup coconut

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup cooking oil 

1/3 cup water

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tab vanilla

We made it with love. You know, licked the spoon and kept mixing.

I resisted the urge to cut the brown sugar in half and use coconut oil instead of vegetable. I also didn't double or triple or quadruple the batch like I tend to do. The whole batch fit nicely in a 9x13, which is all that fits in my oven so it worked out well.

I baked it at 250* for about 3 hours and stirred it whenever I remembered it. It's really good. Every one loves it. And I have still have 20 cups of "wood chips" to eat from the last batch.