Moderation is the Key

Often when a new year starts we all jump feet first into one fad diet after another and after maybe 3 weeks of barely eating the cravings overwhelm us and we end up gorging on junk food until we are right back at square one.

I saw this picture on Tumblr and it really stuck with me.

It makes so much sense really when you think about it, neither of the extremes of eating can ever really be good for our bodies and what is the point of food if you can't enjoy what you're eating along the way?

This links nicely to one of my January goals which was to home cook as many meals as possible. I have decided that instead of ordering a pizza when i get the craving, to try and make one at home instead, that way i can control what goes into it, omitting any unhealthy preservatives and still enjoy some tomato-ey cheesy goodness.

I have already started this idea, i found the inspiration on pinterest here

Source: translate.googleusercontent.com via Selina on Pinterest

and here is what i made

okay so it doesn't look amazing but it tasted fantastic and i made every aspect of it apart from growing the veg myself so i think it was a pretty good start to home cooking my meals.

I have a pinterest board where i am collecting healthy dinner recipes and i would love some reccomendations Do you have any healthy versions of junk food for me to try?

Meet Jello from Jello's Kitchen

hi!

i'm Jello

and i'm soo happy to share Selina's world for a quick bit

because she's such a sweet heart

and

i totally love this blog of hers.

and now you're wondering
who the freak are you???

well, let me tell you this

i’m awkward, a total clums, sometimes crazy and all over the place. i hate capitals but love google and absolutely couldn’t live without spell check. i love chocolate chip cookies, wine, colors, bow ties, butterflies, pizza and i’m a total sucker for buttons. i own an etsy shop which has a lil’ bit of all that in it. my blog is my lil' corner in this giangantic world.

(ya ya, i copied this whole paragraph from my blog's intro...

because i'm lazy that way)

but you can also read this

me. alphabetically.

wanna step into my world?

right this way ---> Jello's Kitchen

but wait!!!!

before you do, here's an awesome and easy

Slow-Cooker Banana Bread

 serves 6-8 servings

preparation time: 10min

ready in: 3hours

ingredients

1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for preparing pan
 3 overripe bananas, mashed
 3/4 cup brown sugar (honey works wonder too!)
1 large egg
 1 tps pure vanilla extract
 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
 1 tps ginger
1 tps cinnamon
 1 tps nutmeg
3 tbsp grounded flax seeds (when grounded the seeds are easier to digest)
 1 tsp baking soda
 1/2 tsp salt
 1/2 cup chocolate chips 

  directions 

1. butter the slow-cooker dish 

2. in a large bowl, mix butter, banana, sugar and egg. stir well 

3. in a separate bowl, mix all remaining ingredients but the chocolate chips. 

4. mix dry ingredients into wet ingredient and mix gently until flour diappear. stir in the chocolate chips.

5. pour batter into the slow-cooker dish. cover top wit paper towel (to absorb moisture) and put the lid on 6. set slow-cooker to low temperature and cook for about 2h30 (or until the knife you insert comes out clean) 

7. let it cook down. slice it and eat it!

tah-dah!

now, come say hi!

 

= )

Jello

Banana Bread Muffins

I LOVE Banana bread with all of my heart. 

I have such fond memories of coming home from school and smelling the sweet bready smell wafting through the halls from the kitchen. I remember arguing with my sister over who would get the end piece (the chewiest and most desirable in our house) often my mum would cut both ends off just to placate us as we slathered butter over the hot slices.

Banana bread never lasted long in our house, the two loaves my mum baked would usually be gone within a couple of days.

Recently i have been craving the sweet buttery taste, so much so that the other night i dreamed about Banana bread no less than three times!

When i woke up this morning and saw that my 4 bananas bought for lunches were black, i knew it was the world giving me a sign....

I don't have any loaf pans here so i decided instead to opt to bake them in a muffin tin! I am pleased to say it worked.

as i am on a health kick at the moment i also

Banana Bread Muffins  

recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

3 or 4 very ripe bananas mashed
70g light margarine (melted or very soft)
10g no added sugar peanut butter (this was just to give it a slight peanutty taste but didn't really add anything - can be substituted for 5 extra grams of light margarine)
1 medium egg
150g sugar (I used white caster as that is all we had but i would recommend soft brown if you have it!)
175g flour (I used a wholemeal rye flour to give it a bit more of a healthy boost)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt


Method:

Preheat oven to 175C (or 350F for you Americans)
Mix the butter into the mashed bananas.
Add in the sugar, egg and vanilla before sprinkling in the baking powder and salt.
Lastly add in the flower and mix together well.

Grease your muffin pan and fill the cups up about 3/4 of the way.
Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden brown on top.
Allow to cool ever so slightly before breaking them open and covering them with butter YUM!

NB to check if they are fully done stick a knife in the middle of the biggest one and if it comes out clean you are good to go!

It makes between 12-18 muffins.

i put this recipe into MyFitnessPal and it estimated the muffins at 106 cals ( i prefer to err on the side of caution so i am assuming these are closer to 150cals) not bad and taste delicious.