Healthy-ish

I found an interesting book at the library about a week ago. In hopes of eating healthier (and pretty much cutting all processed sugar out of my diet -- day six of that, baby!) I checked it out. Well the book itself is no good, so I won't give you the title. It did however have an intriguing recipe for banana oat muffins that called for no flour and no sugar. I happened to have all of the ingredients (well, except for the blueberries, but I used raisins instead. . . I know, a strange substitute, but hear me out) and they were good! They were naturally sweetened by the bananas, and for twelve muffins, they only had two tablespoons of oil, two eggs, and lots of GOOD stuff. I decided to make them again, and this time make a few changes. I didn't have any more over-ripe bananas, but I did have applesauce. I also ran out of raisins (and still didn't have blueberries. . . who buys blueberries in January in New England?!) but I had my new favorite dried fruit, dates. Well anyway, to make a long story short, they were BETTER than the original version. . . and I wanted to share. Here's what I like to call. . . Applesauce Oat Muffins. Original, no?

2 c. oat bran
1/4 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon -- the original recipe called for 1/4 tsp., and for the applesauce version I used 1/2 but still couldn't taste it that much. . .
dash of ground nutmeg
1 c. unsweetened applesauce (or naturally sweetened would be yummy too)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. vanilla soy milk -- the original recipe called for plain soy milk and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbs. olive oil -- the original recipe called for EVOO (haha, I couldn't resist) but I thought that would be GROSS if you could taste it
1/2 c. chopped nuts (I used pecans both times)
1 c. dried fruit (raisins or dates)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray or use baking cups. In a large bowl, combine oat bran, rolled oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a small bowl, beat together applesauce, eggs, milk, and oil. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until just blended (though it probably doesn't matter if you over-beat here since there isn't any flour, right? Maybe consult with Alton Brown on that). Fold in the nuts and dried fruit. Bake 18-23 minutes (for me it was no more than 18 both times) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm or cold.

That was this morning. Later on, I was hungry for something a little more lunch-ish or dinner-ish (it was 3pm?) -- AKA "linner," right Michelle? I had bought stuff to make pizza from Trader Joe's so that's what I did. I'm a big fan of their light shredded cheese blends. The one I used for this pizza was with mozzarella, cheddar, and montery jack I believe. YUM! I didn't take a picture of the finished product, but I thought that what happened during the baking process was a little more amusing. . .