Waste not, want not. Today we had leftovers for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast, all the leftover fruit from last night went into the protein shake. For dinner, we recycled chicken Franchese, quinoa updated with diced carrots and sauteed onions, roasted cauliflower, zucchini, a redundant bit of baked potato, all a little tired but refreshed a bit with some raw veggies and a little pineapple for dessert. All in all, not an exciting dinner, but the fridge is cleaned out.

It’s a celebratory day and I have to share with you a world class dinner salad Nancy whipped up: a yummy healthy mix of raw foods and seared eggplant with a tangy buttermilk dressing.

Dressing: whisk 2 TB buttermilk, 2 TB white wine vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, and 1 tsp honey with fresh ground pepper and a pinch of salt. Add 1/2 charred shallot (or sweet onion) and 3 TB olive oil and mix well.

2 small Japanese eggplants: Slice on diagonal and pan sear with olive oil. If you don’t find the smaller Japanese eggplants, you can use the larger type. I would recommend coating slices with olive oil and roasting in the oven rather than pan searing.

Arrange seared eggplant on a bed of lettuce with cubes of seedless cucumber, cubes of avocado, chopped cilantro or parsley. Add some micro-greens if you have them. Sprinkle with lemon zest and chopped chives and drizzle with dressing. We added some red quinoa on the side and some fresh fruit.

Easy and delicious way to get your 5 servings of fruits and veg and healthy fats!

After bacon and eggs for breakfast and baked eggplant with mozzarella for lunch, we were happy to have a salad for dinner. Not just any salad, a salad Nancy style with pears and blood oranges and bits of aged Gouda along with avocado, radishes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine. and radish micro-greens. If left to her own devices, she would have added more fruits and probably some nuts. To compensate for the measly 9 ingredient salad, she baked the best muffins ever, Banana Walnut with a dense brownie like texture. I recommend these low glycemic, gluten free wonders. You could change out the sour cream with vegan cream cheese to make dairy free. You can also bake them in an 8×8 pan and cut into squares.

Nancy’s Banana Brownie Muffins

Ingredients:

2 eggs, 3 mashed bananas, 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar, 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup butter, softened ( if use unsalted butter, add 3/4 tsp salt), 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp  cornstarch or arrowroot, 1 1/2 cup of Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour, 1/4 cup almond flour, 1/4 cup coconut flour,  1 tbs maple syrup or 2 tbs honey, 1 cup of chopped walnuts   
I used a mixture of rice, tapioca, coconut and almond as a 1 to 1 substitute for regular all purpose flour. Bob’s Mill was used because it seems to be the best substitute for regular flour.  Almond flower makes grainy crumbly baked goods but adds a nice flavor. I added a small amount of honey and maple for flavor and substituted coconut sugar 1 for 1 for regular sugar 
And I added the arrowroot to add smoothness, but not necessary 
Have eggs and butter at room temp with butter soft.   Preheat oven to 375F.   Medium size muffin will take 20 to 25 minutes. Very small muffins take 10 to 15 minutes.  
Directions: 

1. Cream sugar and butter using a mixer.  

2. Add bananas, eggs, sour cream, vanilla, honey, maple syrup. Mix until even consistency. 

3. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, arrowroot (and salt. -if desired).  Mix well, making certain everything is blended.

4. Stir in walnuts by hand mixing.

5. Place mixture in 8×8 baking pan or muffin tins and bake at 375F until inserted toothpick comes out clean . Cook time will vary from 10 minutes to 30 minutes depending on baking container.