Winter got off to a late start here, but I think we are all caught up! The chilly air and snow does make for a beautiful landscape, but after weeks of plowing, that pretty blanket of white gets brown, black and muddy looking. Sometimes this type of weather can put me in a gloomy mood, which isn’t good for my “New year, New me” mindset! Once in a while I need a little pick me up and something bright to start my day while still staying on track with my food choices. Sipping on these delicious Tropical Mango Smoothies for breakfast takes me away to the islands and starts my day off on the right foot.

Just because it’s winter, doesn’t mean that you can’t get ingredients for a fresh tropical smoothie. When I’m grocery shopping at Walmart, I can find tasty bananas all year round and there’s always sweet fresh pineapple available too.

As far as the mango, I like to head to the frozen food section and purchase big bags of frozen mango. You can always use fresh mango, but I think it’s really convenient to have perfectly ripe, cut up pieces on hand and read to go for recipes like this one!

Don’t forget to grab a half gallon of Silk Unsweetened Almond Milk at Walmart too so you can blend all of these delicious fruits together in this Smoothie.

Silk Almond Milk is a delicious non-dairy milk, with 50% more calcium than dairy milk, and absolutely no cholesterol and no saturated fat.  It’s perfect in cereals and is a smart swap for milk in recipes or shakes.

If your mornings are busy- you can blend everything together the night before and have these smoothies ready to go in the refrigerator. Easy peasy!

For those really crazy mornings, grab a Silk yogurt to go! With 6 grams of soy protein per serving, and available in several different varieties, Silk yogurt (just like Silk Almond Milk) is creamy, delicious, dairy free, lactose free and not made with any artificial flavorings or colors!

Don’t just make one of these yummy smoothies for yourself though! The whole family will love them. These keep my husband & I on track and focused on healthier eating while my kiddos get excited to have these as an after school treat! If you need a little something sweet to brighten up your mornings this winter, blend up a batch of these smoothies! Enjoy!

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I have been baking and sharing a lot of breakfast food this month with you all because September is Better Breakfast Month!  It has always been very important to me to make sure my children eat a nutritious breakfast every single day.  I believe that breakfast IS the most important meal of the day and making time for breakfast and choosing to incorporate ingredients like peanut butter which is high in fiber, protein and good fats can play a role in maintaining your diet.

These soft, thick and chewy Peanut Butter & Banana Breakfast Squares are a tasty breakfast that the whole family will love.  These on-the-go breakfast squares are full of peanut butter, bananas, and old fashioned oats that will keep you full until it’s time for lunch.  That’s always important to me.  I would hate to have my children come home from school and say, “Mom, I was so hungry today.”  I love adding peanut butter to many of the breakfast items I bake regularly because peanut butter is a natural, plant-based source of eight grams of protein and more than 30 essential nutrients and phytonutrients.   Peanut butter is also a very budget-friendly ingredient for your morning meals. On average, peanut butter costs 16 cents per ounce, which is enough peanut butter to make one sandwich!

If I am serving these bars warm, right out of the oven, I usually bake them with a few fresh slices of banana on top.  They kind of melt into the bar and just add a sweet gooey topping to these.  If I am baking them to freeze ahead of time, I simply skip that step!

If you have hectic mornings, or sometimes forget to eat breakfast yourself, then these wholesome bars are for you!  With simple ingredients and the convenience of making them ahead of time, how can you go wrong?  This month challenge yourself and your family to eat breakfast everyday.  See the difference in your children and yourself.  Have Peanut Butter for Breakfast! Breakfast can even be as easy as a toasted English Muffin topped with your favorite peanut butter and fruit or even a waffle topped with peanut butter instead of syrup.  Give it a try!  You owe it to yourself to feel your best!

Since I love peanut butter, I wanted to share some of my favorite Peanut Butter Fun Facts!

• It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter
• Peanuts contribute more than $4 billion to the USA economy each year
• The average child will eat 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before he/she graduates high school
• Peanut butter is consumed in 90 percent of USA households

Find more here: National Peanut Board and Follow Along on Twitter and Facebook

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Bananas on my counter usually equals- you guessed it…Banana Bread!  Not that good Old Fashioned Banana Bread is bad, but I like to try switching my banana recipes up a bit.  I don’t wait too long either.  Since our home is surrounded by vineyards of grapes, pesky little fruit flies seem to easily make their way to my kitchen counter at the first sign of ripening bananas.

These Banana & Cinnamon Crumb Muffins are a real treat!  These aren’t my usual, go-to, fairly healthy, breakfast and snack type muffins I usually make.  Nope.  These are for pure enjoyment.  A moist, delicious, cinnamon and banana buttermilk muffin topped with a brown sugar crumble topping that’s perfect for the weekends or if you want to make something special.  These muffins aren’t fancy by any means, but they aren’t an everyday muffin either.

My husband injured his hand this past weekend and has had to take a few days off from work.  I felt really bad about it, so I made these yummy muffins to enjoy with our morning coffee after our kiddos got on the bus the other day.  The morning air was cool and it was nice to start a weekday kind of like a weekend…in quiet too!

If you don’t like to see bananas go to waste, give this tasty recipe a try!  The crumble topping does make these a little on the messy side, but it makes them very good too.  My children just loved these because of the topping and I think because they made a mess!  My children by the way, think they are professional recipe critics.  My oldest son took a few bites, moved the food around in his mouth and said, “Mmm, the perfect amount of brown sugar.”  My youngest son came in the house from playing outside and said, “What smells like beautiful muffins?”, so you don’t have to take my word for it… just take theirs!

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This week my children are off from school on Spring Break, which means my kitchen has been very busy!  My growing kiddos seem to be hungry all of the time and when breakfast, lunch or dinner is not being served, they are looking for a snack.

The weather the last few days here was just beautiful.  It was 70 degrees on Sunday and in the 60’s yesterday before a cold front moved in.  It was so nice to finally get outdoors and play, but today is a whole different story.  We are covered in a wet snow and we are all staying cozy inside.  It seemed like good baking weather, so I decided to make some yummy muffins for my hungry little ones.

These moist Banana & Macadamia Nut Muffins are simply delicious!  Each muffin is bursting with banana, white chocolate chips and crunchy macadamia nuts.  These freshly baked muffins came out of the oven just before lunch time, so we decided to eat a few of them for our meal with a glass of milk.  The left over muffins will make a great quick snack or breakfast for the rest of the week and they are even freezer friendly!  This recipe is very simple to make and would be a really fun activity to do with your children in the kitchen if they are on break this week.  I think it’s safe to say that these won’t last very long and I will probably be making another batch of these later in the week!  Yum!

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I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned how much my family loves oatmeal on this blog before.  In case you are new here, well, we just love it!  I use it in anything I can and besides being good for us, it keeps my growing children, with hearty appetites, nice and full.

Warm breakfasts were on the menu last week because of the frigid temperatures, and we just finished up the last of the Banana Bread Baked Oatmeal that I had stored in the freezer.  Because of the cold weather, our furnace has been running more than usual, and I have been doing extra baking, so that has left me with yet another bunch of very ripe bananas on my counter.  To be honest they were getting pretty darn black, so they needed to be turned into something yummy immediately!  I was pretty sure my children would be looking for something a little different than the baked oatmeal we’d been eating for the past week, so I decided to add those bananas and a mixture of other ingredients to a cookie type batter.  A breakfast cookie!  Of course these were going to be pretty healthy, but I knew everyone would be excited about having a “cookie”  in the morning for breakfast.

These crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside Loaded Banana & Coconut Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies not only have a great banana flavor, but they are made with organic extra virgin coconut oil, and are also loaded with walnuts, golden raisins, shredded coconut and ground flax seed.  These cookies are perfect for breakfast or for a snack on the go.  These tasty cookies would also be a great snack to bring along with you if you are traveling this Spring.   If you are looking for something different to do with your ripe bananas, give these breakfast cookies a try!

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This morning I woke up to an unseasonably cool breeze that felt like fall, and I loved it.  I know it’s summer, but I love fall.  I love the crispness in the air and sipping my coffee on the front porch with my sweater on.   Most of all, I love baking.  I couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen this morning.  It’s so nice to turn the oven on and bake when it’s not hot outside.   I love a warm breakfast, but I think it always tastes better on a cool morning.  This Peanut Butter & Banana Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal is like a warm oatmeal cookie.  It is a hearty breakfast that will keep your family full until lunch time, so it’s also great back to school breakfast.  This recipe makes a lot of oatmeal, so if you have a smaller family or a family with really young children, you may want to freeze half of this recipe for later.  My family sometimes pours a little milk over the warm oatmeal and it’s very good served this way too.  What are some of your family’s favorite warm breakfast meals?

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Muffins are my favorite food to make when my family has a busy week.    They work wonderful for breakfast or even a quick snack.  These Banana Walnut Chocolate Chip Muffins are delicious with a hot cup of coffee and are also freezer friendly.  If you have a day when you are doing some baking, whip up a batch of these and freeze them.  With all of my efforts to be organized and have most of my family’s meals planned for the week, sometimes things don’t go as planned and it is always nice to have something quick to eat available right in your own freezer.  What foods do you make at home in preparation for a busy week?

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My children love snacks!  I mean these little kiddos can really eat!  Sometimes I look at them and think, “How much am I going to have to make when they are teenagers?!”  I don’t mind though, they are growing:)  It is important to me to make sure that they eat a good snack, but that it be pretty healthy too.

I had these big Banana Split parfaits waiting on the table for my children after school yesterday and they were beyond excited about this yummy snack!  These parfaits are very filling and are made with vanilla Greek yogurt, fresh strawberries, fresh pineapple, bananas, chopped walnuts, a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips and of course a cherry on top!  I used this as a snack, but these could easily be served for breakfast.  This recipe made 4 large parfaits in Pint sized Mason Jars .  While I assembled these parfaits, I think it would be fun to set up a “Sundae Bar” with yogurt and fun, healthy toppings on special day or even for a party.  What fun snacks do you like to make for your children?

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Good Morning!  I hope that you are enjoying Spring in your neck of the woods.  I did see my daffodils finally starting to come up yesterday, but  today is a wash out here.   The wind is whipping around and there are puddles everywhere!  I don’t mind though because I do love the coziness of  being inside and snuggling with my family on a a rainy, stormy day.   I decided that a hot cup of coffee with a piece of this warm freshly baked Banana Blueberry Bread was the best way to start my day today!  I did all I could to grab myself a slice and get a quick picture of this before my 4 growing children gobbled up the whole loaf before school this morning!  They thought this was the best breakfast.  If you have ripe bananas on your kitchen counter and want to try a different type of banana bread, this recipe is amazing!  The fresh blueberries are wonderful in this bread and you get a burst of sweet blueberry in every bite.  This bread also freezes great so you may want to bake 2 loaves and freeze one for later.  Enjoy!

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Eating a bowl of oatmeal in the morning is a wonderful way to start the day.  It is packed with fiber and protein that will keep you full until lunch time.  The weather forecast for our area the next few days is rain, rain, and more rain.  Along with the rain, we are going to have cooler temperatures so I thought this warm Banana Chocolate Oatmeal would be nice this morning.  It was delicious!  The steel cut oats, with their chewy texture, combined with the chocolate and banana make for a  filling breakfast.  I like to slice fresh bananas and sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top of the oatmeal for an extra special treat.  You can’t go wrong with this simple recipe and who doesn’t love chocolate in the morning?

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