Fruit Salad with honey lime chia seed dressing

You can really use any fruit that you like but here's what I did.
about 4 cups diced fruit - 1 small granny smith apple, strawberries, pineapple, purple grapes
1/2 of a large lime juiced
1 big scoop honey (about 1-1/2 Tbsp i'd say)
1 Tbsp chia seeds

Dice up your fruit into nice little chunks and put in a bowl. In another bowl stir up the lime juice, honey and chia seeds, pour over fruit and toss together. You have no idea what you are missing, this is the BEST fruit salad dressing and so healthy!

Chia seeds are loaded with Omega-3 as well as a fair amount of omega-6 and since it's a seed obviously it has tons of fiber. (FYI: 1oz of chia seeds is about 2 Tbsp) I love to put chia seeds in my smoothies and I have a fantastic recipe for raspberry "jam" that takes 5 minutes to make and has no added pectin. Check it out here

Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese

adapted from  http://www.closetcooking.com/2011/08/buffalo-chicken-grilled-cheese-sandwich.html

This shit is awesome! Seriously, talk about amping up a grilled cheese sandwich!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cooked shredded chicken, warm
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon mayo 
• 1 tablespoon carrot, grated
• 1 tablespoon green or red or white onion, diced
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, room temperature, grated
• 2 slices bread
• 1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

Directions

1. Mix the chicken, hot sauce, mayo, carrot, and onion in a small bowl.
2. Butter the outside of each slice of bread, sprinkle half of the cheeses on the inside of one slice of bread, top with the buffalo chicken salad, the remaining cheese and finally the other slice of bread.
3. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.
4. Add the sandwich and grill until golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 2-4 minutes per side.

Banana muffins

Yay muffins! My girl likes to call the chocolate ones happy birthday cakes :) I love that muffins are already portioned and take half as long to cook as a loaf of banana bread. So here are the two versions that I made recently.

Chocolate, Banana  Muffins:

 

• 1/2 cup of butter, softened
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed up
• 2 cups of flour
• 1/4+ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt   
• cream butter and sugar then add eggs, vanilla, and bananas, mix well. Then mix in the remaining ingredients. Optional you can stir in some chocolate chips (regular or white) for some extra umph. 
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then coat a muffin pan with cooking spray. bake 18-20 minutes. makes 1 dozen

Banana nut muffins 

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3 medium)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then coat a muffin pan with cooking spray. bake 18-20 minutes. 

Makes 1 dozen