Crazy Cravings

Food cravings are so strange. Typically, I crave healthy, wholesome foods. Tonight, however, I was in the mood for fatty, unhealthy carbs. Vegetables were not at all appetizing to me... unless they were deep fried, breaded, and covered in cheese. Honestly, I wanted a huge, cheesy plate of nachos! Unfortunately (or fortunately?), we didn't have the ingredients to make a loaded plate of nachos, so I made myself a grilled cheese with buffalo sauce instead.

I coated the bread with olive oil instead of butter/margarine, and used extra cheddar cheese and extra buffalo sauce inside. It wasn't nachos, but this sandwich satisfied my fatty carb craving.

I was feeling tense (from work?) when I got home, so I decided some baking would sooth my mood. (Baking is one of my "go-to" relaxing activities.) I made a small batch of banana muffins: 4 with walnuts, 2 with peanut butter and chocolate chips, and 2 plain banana. FYI-- to make the different varieties of muffins, I poured the plain batter into the tins, then stirred the walnuts/chips evenly into the batter with a spoon-- worked great.

2 ripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup water

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp wheat germ

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

walnuts, chocolate chips, etc. (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with nonstick spray or line tin with paper muffin cups. Set aside.

2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl; mix well until batter is smooth.

3. Spoon batter into muffin tins, distributing evenly to make 8 muffins.

4. Optional: Add chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, etc. to muffin tins as desired. Use spoon to evenly distribute throughout batter in muffin cup.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes until center of muffins is firm. Let cool for 5 minutes, then gently lift each muffin from tin. Cool on wire rack.

I ate one of the peanut butter chocolate chip banana muffins for dessert. Yum!

My afternoon snack was strawberry-flavored Stonyfield yogurt with 1/2 cup Kashi Go Lean... as well as 5 Hershey Kisses from the office candy bowl. My cravings have been out of control! I wanted chocolate in a bad way! Like I mentioned before-- cravings are strange!