KT Cooked It: Sweet and Sour Brussel Sprouts

Today is the end of my first week of training for the Shamrock Marathon Weekend in Virginia Beach on March 18-19. Only 29 more weeks to go before I finish my goal of completing a marathon before my 30th birthday. Trying to train, work and be mommy/wifey is going to take a lot of preparation, sleep, and well, good nutrition (minus a few glasses of wine here and there...and maybe a doughnut or two). So on this episode of "What Can I Make That's Healthy Using Whatever Is In My Kitchen," I took a 2 pound bag of Brussel sprouts waiting to be cooked from the fridge and whipped up this delicious dish. The idea comes from a dish that my older sister makes - shredded Brussel sprouts, corn and black beans sautéed with a sauce that she purchases from her local Wegmans.

Luckily I had the sprouts and corn, but I had to make my own sauce. First I shredded the Brussel sprouts using these instructions that I found on Popsugar.

For the sauce, I combined the following ingredients in a small sauce pan and brought to a gentle boil before taking off the stove top:

• 1/4 cup Ken's Steakhouse Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
• 1/4 cup lite sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

Alright! Next, in a large skillet I sautéed the Brussel sprouts mixed with one can of whole kernel corn in 2 Tbl of olive oil until tender. This would have been even better in a wok. Add that to the Christmas list.

Finally, I added the sauce and sautéed for another 2 minutes or so, mixing well. And that's it. SO good. Next time I will make sure to have a can of black beans on hand!

KT Baked It: Oatmeal Quick Bread

It's time for another episode of using "whatever I can find in my kitchen to make baked goods"! Today I decided to use a trio of over ripe bananas that my hubby stashed in the freezer for me a few weeks ago knowing that I would someday try to make something out of them. The best thing to use ripe bananas for is banana bread, no doubt. Today I decided to try to make a healthier banana bread that I would not feel so guilty about eating for breakfast. I adapted this recipe from a no flour, sugar free oatmeal muffin recipe by Bren Did. It turned out great!

What you need:
2.5 cups Quaker rolled oats
3 over ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/2 cup almond milk
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Toast the rolled oats in the oven on a cookie sheet for 6 minutes.

Take 1 1/2 cups of oats and chop them in a food processor until they are about the consistency of flour.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the oatmeal, baking powder, salt and spices.

In a separate mixing bowl, mash the bananas until there are no lumps. Using frozen bananas helped when it came to mixing. I microwaved the bananas in their peels until they were completed thawed, then mashed them well.

Then I added the remaining wet ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and then allow the oats to "soak" for about 10 minutes.

Put the batter into a greased 9x5 inch bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Cool and serve!