Grape-Nuts Turkey Burger Sliders with Cranberry Jalapeno Ketchup

Today is a day that many people are going to sit around their television with other people and a lot of food and they are going to yell at the sportsball players on the television.

I'm not sure why they yell at the sportsball players. Maybe it's because they make an awful lot of money considering they play a game for a living. Why does no one pay me millions of dollars to play games? Have you seen the size of my Steam library? I have a lot of games I could play.

The sportsball is confusing, but the food, that's something I can understand. All the good stuff seems to come out this time of year: buffalo wings and cheese dip and burgers and fried fatty goodness.

But January just ended. Literally yesterday. And I'm guessing your New Year's Resolution did not involve more fried fatty goodness in your diet. So why not take the burgers and the finger foods and all that good stuff and make it healthy?

Hear me out: healthy doesn't have to mean bland. Ground turkey is a super lean source of protein that takes flavor really well. And I know you've probably had tasteless hockey pucks before masquerading as turkey burgers, but these sliders are juicy and tasty, and thanks to a super secret ingredient, they're totally satisfying. That secret ingredient: Grape-Nuts cereal. I know, it's totally crazysauce, but it works sort of like stuffing in meatloaf. The Grape-Nuts take a little bath in some non-fat Greek yogurt and Worcestershire sauce, they soak up all that good flavor, and they soften, which in turn helps keep the turkey burgers moist and tasty. Plus it adds whole grains and a ton of nutrients

Then you top it off with this cranberry jalapeno ketchup, which couldn't be simpler to make and has got that whole sweet and spicy thing going on. Ketchup is usually too sweet for me, but the addition of the cranberries helps cut that, and it is so good on top of these burgers

These sliders have the whole food pyramid going on. Meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy, whole grains. They're super easy to make, and they're so good. Add them to your sportsball menu. Your body and tastebuds will thank you.

Grape-Nuts Turkey Burger Sliders
Yield: 12 sliders

Ingredients
For the cranberry jalapeno ketchup:
1/2 cup ketchup 
1/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
2 tbsp. diced canned jalapenos
1 tsp. onion powder

For the burgers:
1/3 cup Grape-Nuts cereal
1/4 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup diced red onion
1 tbsp. nonfat (skim) milk
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 lb. ground turkey
1 egg
1 tbsp. olive oil

12 slider buns
lettuce
mayonnaise

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together the ketchup ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until use

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the Grape-Nuts, Greek yogurt, red onion, milk, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and garlic powder. Let stand for about 10 minutes, or until the cereal softens. Add the egg and the turkey and mix until well incorporated (do not overmix, or the meat will get tough). Form into 12 equal patties (about 1/4 each)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the burgers and cook 4-5 minutes per side, until each side is well browned.

Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on the slider buns, add lettuce, a burger, and top with the prepared ketchup. Serve warm.

Recipe from PostFoods.com

*Disclaimer: I was provided with free samples of Post Grape-Nuts cereal in order to feature this recipe. I was under no obligation to give a positive review, and I receive no further compensation from this post. All opinions remain, as always, my own. This post contains affiliate links*

Banana Crunch Parfait

So, my interwebz has been on the fritz lately, which is why this wasn't posted last week. Sorry, lovelies.

Anywhozzle, did you know that September is National Whole Grain Month? It is. I'm not exactly the world's healthiest eater, but I usually try to incorporate a lot of whole grains in my diet. Why whole grains? As the name implies, they use the whole grain which means it has more nutritional value, rather than refined grains which have most of the nutrition processed out. Whole grains are good sources of fiber, which helps fill you up and keep you from over eating, but are also a good source of other nutrients like magnesium. For those of you that don't suffer from migraines, you might not know that migraines can sometimes be caused by a magnesium deficiency. So if a carb that's already better for me nutritionally might help prevent me from having migraines, you bet your booty that I'm going to try and eat that one more.

To celebrate National Whole Grain Month, I made these magnesium-rich Banana Crunch Parfaits (bananas and yogurt are also good sources of magnesium. Word) with Great Grains Banana Nut Crunch Cereal. I got a chance to try Great Grains cereal for the first time, and let me tell you-- holy crunch, Batman! The cereal was at like granola-levels of crunchiness, which was awesome. It wasn't quite sweet enough for me, but mixed with the sweet ingredients of the parfait, it worked great. I've been eating the Vanilla Graham flavor for breakfast, and I'm loving it.

As for the parfaits themselves, they're an awesome, quick breakfast. I even liked the honey drizzle on top as that extra sweet kick, even though I'm not usually a fan of honey. The only change I would make would be to use fresh strawberries instead of the canned pineapple, since I found the pineapple to be a little jarring, both in flavor and texture. I think the strawberries would just go better-- and who doesn't like strawberries and bananas together, amiright?

I used Stonyfield Farm Greek yogurt for extra protein, and got an eminently satisfying breakfast. You could make them as a healthy snack, or even a healthy alternative to dessert, if you're into that sort of thing. They do need to be eaten immediately, so the cereal doesn't get soggy. But trust me, you won't have a problem doing that. I didn't have parfait cups, so I made one giant parfait instead of 6 little ones and I may or may not have eaten the whole thing in one sitting. It's okay because it's healthy, right?

Banana Crunch Parfait
Yield: 6 parfaits

Ingredients
1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
1 medium banana, sliced
1 (20 oz.) can pineapple chunks in juice, drained
1 cup Great Grains Banana Nut Crunch Cereal
1 cup honey

Directions
Spoon half of the yogurt into 6 parfait glasses. Layer with half of the banana slices, pineapple chunks, and cereal. Repeat the layers, and drizzle the honey on top.

*Disclaimer: I received free samples of Post Great Grains cereal in order to feature this recipe. I was under no obligation to review if I so chose, and I receive no further compensation from this post. All opinions are, as always, my own*

PB&J (with Bananas) Smoothie

Hey guys! So, the floor guy is coming to refinish the floors tomorrow, and that'll take 3 or 4 days, so after that, I can finally move in. I still got painting to do, but that can wait until I'm actually in the house. In the meantime, I'm in a kind of limbo. Half my stuff is packed away, half of it still needs to be packed. I have a maze of boxes. I want to buy things but I can't really buy things until I can put them in the house and I can't do that until the floors are done.

I did buy a rug and some pyrex at an estate sale, so there's that. (Except the rug cleaning place hasn't called me back. Seriously. Do you not want my business?)

Anyway, the long and short of it is, I kind of unpacked my blender just to make this smoothie.

To be fair, it wasn't premeditated. I already had some frozen banana in the freezer. We already had a big tub of strawberry yogurt in the refrigerator that didn't really look like it was getting eaten. So I was like, oh, I'll make a strawberry banana smoothie. And then I added peanut butter to it because peanut butter. So it became a peanut butter and jelly (with banana, because bananas are cool) smoothie.

And I liked it, because really, what's not to like? So I made it again, this time taking measurements instead of dumping things willy-nilly into the blender so I could blog it, and here we are

The peanut butter and strawberry flavors are definitely the most prominent; though you can taste the banana, it's there mainly for texture. And between the banana, the peanut butter, and the yogurt, this sucker is filling, which makes it a great option for breakfast. It's probably the healthiest thing I've ever put on this blog, and I-- butter and sugar and cream loving I-- made it for dessert. O.o

This smoothie, make it. Dessert, breakfast, snack, anytime. It's thick and creamy and sweet and cold and has peanut butter. It's exactly what every smoothie should be.

PB&J Smoothie
Yield: 1 smoothie

Ingredients
1 small banana, chopped and frozen
1/2 cup strawberry yogurt (I used Stonyfield Farm Smooth & Creamy)
1/4 cup lowfat (skim) milk
1-2 heaping tbsp. peanut butter (I used White Chocolate Wonderful)*
Splash of vanilla extract (optional)**

Directions
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

*I didn't really measure the peanut butter. I just took a big spoonful and plopped it in there. You can never have too much peanut butter
**Or replace the skim milk with vanilla soy or almond milk

Recipe by Kim