Power Banana Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

Every day I want chocolate and ice cream, neither of which is a power food.  This recipe is a creative response to both of those cravings.  For years I have used frozen bananas in the food processor to make a sorbet, and one night thought "why not add yogurt and make it frozen yogurt?"  Duh.  Why not?  So simple, but I seriously feel like a genius for this one, and it totally satisfied my cravings.  Any frozen fruit could be used and the cocoa could be left out (or not) to create all sorts of flavors.  Next time I'll be making it with strawberries and vanilla.

To freeze the bananas, peel over-ripe bananas (like what you'd use for banana bread) and place them in a plastic ziploc bag in the freezer overnight.  To make the original banana sorbet, place frozen bananas in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Power Banana Chocolate Frozen Yogurt
2 frozen bananas
3/4 cup plain, fat-free Greek yogurt
1 T cocoa powder
1 t vanilla

Place all ingredients in food processor and process until completely smooth.

Power Indian-Style Pesto, Chickpeas and Rice

Palak Paneer: despite the intimidating name, it's really just spinach and cheese cooked with spices.  It's delicious and it's definitely my favorite Indian dish.  I have a habit of buying too much spinach when it goes on sale, so learning to make this dish myself has definitely saved me from tossing many a bag of soon-to-expire spinach.  When I caught a 77-cent spinach sale at Fareway last week, I came up with this recipe to replace my real palak paneer recipe, since paneer is definitely not a power food.  It reminded me more of a pesto only with Indian spices replacing the Italian ones.  At first I wasn't sure if it would really be that appealing without the big chunks of cheese, but it really is the spices that make this dish.  The chickpeas add a nice texture contrast that distracted me from the absence of the cheese.  I highly recommend using re-hydrated dried chickpeas, as the canned ones add a lot of salt and are more mushy.  This is quite possibly the healthiest dish I'll ever make!

Power Indian-Style Pesto, Chickpeas and Rice
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 8-oz bag fresh, washed spinach
2 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1 t ground turmeric
3/4 cup unflavored Greek yogurt
3/4 cup dried chickpeas, boiled 45 minutes

Spray a large frying pan with cooking spray and place over medium high heat.  When pan is hot, place chopped onions in pan and cook and stir until translucent, about 1-2 minutes.  Add spinach, cumin, coriander, and turmeric.  Stir-fry until spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes.  Add yogurt and stir until well combined.  Serve over brown rice and top with chickpeas.

Power Banana Ricotta-Stuffed French Toast

Another weekend, another craving for a decadent brunch.  This recipe is unbelievably good considering it is almost all power foods and a very lightened version of your typical stuffed french toast recipe.  I did fry the bananas in a little butter because I just couldn't live without the flavor at that particular moment, but the butter could easily be replaced.  If you don't want to use butter, use cooking spray to grease your frying pan and maybe add a a teaspoon of applesauce just to help create a more sauce-like texture for the bananas.

The egg/milk mixture makes enough to coat two English muffins, so consider this if making more than one.

Power Banana Ricotta-Stuffed French Toast

2 t vanilla, divided

1/3 cup fat free ricotta cheese, room temperature

1 egg
1/4 cup skim milk
1 light English muffin, split
1/2 T butter
1 banana, sliced
1/4 t cinnamon


In a small bowl, combine ricotta and 1 t vanilla. Set aside.

Beat egg and milk together in a small bowl until thoroughly combined.  Spray a medium frying pan with cooking spray and place over medium heat on stove.  Dip each half of English muffin in the egg mixture and turn to evenly coat all surfaces of the muffin.  Place coated English muffin halves in frying pan.  Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 3-5 minutes per side.

Melt butter in skillet over medium high heat.  Add bananas and cinnamon.  Stir-fry until bananas are hot and mushy, about 4 minutes.  Add 1 t vanilla and stir until vanilla is incorporated into banana mixture. Remove from heat.

On a plate, place bottom half of English muffin.  Top with the ricotta.  Top ricotta with top half of English muffin, then with banana mixture.