Tag Archives: chia seeds

Green Monsters Galore

Apparently, “no pain, no gain” applies to comp sci homework as well – my head hurts from staring at my screen and praying for the right numbers to come up in Terminal. Who knew CS was so similar to [insert violent sport where they use that saying here]. Or really any of those sports with the big burly men who roar about how if they’re not in agony, they’re not doing it right. (In my opinion, they’re doing it very, very wrong, but what do I know?)

What makes up for it? I had two green monsters enter my life today :)

ANDROID PYJAMAS YO!

God, I’m such a Google fangirl. I think I actually disgust myself sometimes.

I’m part of a mentorship program for Google, so they sent me some pretty sweet pjs for helping them out. I may work for the best company ever. And nobody could ever deny that the little green android robots are freaking adorable. (Should I mention I have two sitting on my desk..?)

My second monster of the day:

My first green monster smoothie! I’m trying to be a little more conscious of what I eat during the day – mostly so that when I go out I don’t feel so guilty about it – and jumping on the smoothie bandwagon seems to be a good way to get more fruits and veggies in my diet. Despite the fact that it looks like something Frankenstein might drink, this was actually really delicious! I guessed at my ingredient proportions, but this is roughly what I put in:

Green Monster Smoothie

2/3 cup chocolate almond milk

1 frozen banana

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp peanut butter

2 handfuls spinach

Smoothies are pretty easy to tweak – I used chocolate almond milk because I happened to have some on hand, but you could probably throw lots of things in there: any type of milk, yogurt, berries…the key seems to be banana and spinach though. Nom. My new breakfast. Plus, I’m usually a zombie in the mornings, but I had a ton of energy this morning despite poor sleep. Coincidence? Or green monster superpower? Or perhaps I was simply all energized because I was excited that my pjs were arriving today. Knowing me, that’s totally plausible.

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“Twee” just seems appropriate.

I think I’ve discovered my new obsession: mini muffins!

When I was down in Seattle I bought a mini-muffin tin. I love muffins but they’re essentially like eating cakes, so I figured that having them in smaller form seems to be a better way of practicing portion control than my usual method of eating half a muffin, then really wanting the second half and capitulating ten minutes later (unless I get carried away and inhale multiple because they’re so small.) Also, as soon as anything goes mini, it gets way cuter. Trust me.

As per usual, my procrastination often takes the form of baking, so I decided to take a break from my homework and try out my new pan. As I said, I tend to devour muffins like they’re the last food on earth, so I wanted to make something a bit healthier so that I at least reaped some nutritional benefits while shoving them into my mouth two at a time.

Enter: banana chia nut mini muffins!

This was a super easy recipe, but I don’t feel too guilty about eating them because they have some pretty good stuff in there – chia seeds and nonfat greek yogurt being my personal all-stars. And even better – they are absolutely DELICIOUS. Nommmmmmmmmm.

I found the recipe online at Ingredients Inc, but I’ve pasted it here for your viewing pleasure.

Chia Banana-Nut Muffins

Makes 48 mini-muffins – not sure about regular sized

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt – I just used normal salt
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
11/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1 (6-ounce) container nonfat Greek yogurt (I used vanilla because that’s all I had, but plain would be fine too)
1 to 2 tablespoons chia seeds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, butter, eggs, bananas, yogurt, chia seeds, vanilla and walnuts, if desired, in a large bowl, mixing well. Pour batter into lightly greased muffin pans coated with cooking spray. (My note: She says to mix well, but muffins tend to get hard if you mix them too long. Personally, I mixed all the wet ingredients in one bowl, the dry ingredients in another, and then folded the two together until it was just combined.)
3. Bake at 350° for 22 to 25 minutes for regular muffins and 13-15 minutes for mini muffins or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

Which one is not like the other?

My peace-sign of a mixing bowl.

Proceed to devour.

The only thing I can think of when I look at these things is the word “twee.” They are just so damn cute. It’s ridiculous.