(upbeat music) The following program is going to produce a meal that is so delicious and nutritious, your family is going to want to know your secret, which is fine with us.

We'll keep it a secret because that's what it's all about here at Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

And welcome!

Alyssa, Chef Robert, tell us what have we got today that's going to produce the wow factor.

Yummy.

Oh yeah this is a yummy spot.

Very nutritious banana muffins.

You can you can have these any time of the day.

But we're going to have these maybe for breakfast.

You know, this is I think this is the first time we've really specialized in breakfast, Alyssa?

It is.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

I was going to ask, what's in this that makes it the most important meal.

Banana is the base.

We're not building this with a lot of flour.

And so we've got some fiber from oats.

But this is a banana muffin that is all made from banana.

Your sugar is in the banana.

Texture is in the banana.

The binder is in the banana.

Say it with me, people.

So I'm going to put it to the side for a minute.

We're going to do one pretty important technique with quick breads.

We're going to put all the dry ingredients, air quotes, because the banana is not really dry, all the dry ingredients in one bowl, all the wet ingredients in one bowl.

Then we're going to put those together.

And you are in total agreement with this as a nutritionist?

Total agreement.

I see our fruit A little milk.

I see our oats.

We've got milk.

A little egg.

That would be our protein?

Right.

It also helps bind all of the ingredients together.

Oh, okay.

Eggs are kind of a magical ingredient on this show.

It's a binder.

It's a protein.

Right.

Comes in a nice little package.

You've got some healthy fats in there too.

Eggs are excellent And very inexpensive.

Right.

Especially if you have chickens.

You get a, well, if you have chickens, they are even more inexpensive.

We're going to set that to the side now and go to our, What are we going to do with these bananas, Alyssa?

We're going to mash them Oh.

Oh right.

So look at the bananas that are starting to turn brown.

Those are no good, right?

They're the sweetest.

They are absolutely the peak of sweetness right now.

So if you've got bananas starting to turn brown, do this.

Think about this.

Don't throw them out.

Save them for this recipe.

See what I talked about this show paying off.

This is incredible.

So inexpensive with ingredients that you probably have but can get easily.

Now, how are you going to mash them?

With a fork.

Look at that.

Because they're so ripe.

They are mashing so easy.

We've gone from Arkansas Taste Kitchen to a a repeat of MASH.

You know that's a good show.

Yeah that was a great show.

But this is an even better show.

This is the best show.

This is the tastiest show in television.

That's what I'm saying.

I agree.

So we want to make sure to mash the bananas so they spread consistently throughout all the muffins.

So we get an even amount of banana.

It's not losing anything nutritionally is it?

No, not at all.

Okay.

We're releasing a little bit more sugar that's already inside.

And as we do, this mash gets easier and easier.

And if you leave it a little bit chunky, you know, because of time, that's fine.

If you want to make it super smooth, then you might put it in a food processor.

You can certainly do that, but you can see I'm doing it by hand without any special equipment.

So that drives the cost down as well.

See there.

And less dishes.

To these two bananas, I'm adding some oats.

Where did the bananas go?

They're underneath the oats.

You can smell them though.

Baking powder.

That's going to help, help it pouf up a little bit.

A pinch of salt.

Really it's just a little bit of salt that brings out taste.

Salt is also in baked goods, a preservative.

So even though this is made from fresh banana, this can last a couple of days.

And that salt helps it last a couple of days.

But these could go in the freezer as well, wouldn't you say?

Absolutely.

How long would they last in the freezer?

This is already appetizing and I'm just looking at you mixing it up.

Just a little bit.

Because it's a smell, and Alyssa, you look at oats like that, and that just makes you feel healthier, doesn't it?

It really does.

They're a whole grain.

They provide a lot of fiber and some protein as well.

Oh, I'm getting fiber, Robert.

Fiber is so important.

And it's only going to come from plant foods.

That's something to keep in mind.

You're only going to get fiber from plants.

You don't recommend the fiber pills?

There is room for supplementation for sure.

But remember that you might not be getting everything that you're paying for when you're buying supplements.

So nature is the best supplier of fiber.

Right.

It is.

Now with the milk and the egg, I can't turn it over too much, but you can see I have a batter.

Now, Chef Robert, in the past or in other episodes you've talked about, if you could just get one, the families sit down with one meal prepared with so much care and commitment.

That's the goal, that.

One more meal a week.

Does that count with breakfast?

Absolutely.

One meal.

Just one more meal a week than you already do.

Cook from scratch at home and look at how simple this has come together.

Have a full batter.

Now I'm going to show.

That's it?

That's it.

We're building a whole show around this.

Here's another trick.

So that your muffins come out of the muffin tin, you spray them, right?

So that your muffins come out of a muffin liner, a cupcake liner, you do this with cupcakes as well, just give that a gentle little spray right on the the liner.

And now you won't have so much muffin stick to the paper.

You get to eat all of it.

Good.

That's a great point.

And you use the scoop.

Going to scoop some in.

Alyssa, did you come up with this?

How did you all come up with this?

Did you all confer?

Did you?

We did.

Get together right before the show.

Not right before the show, but we did come up with all of the recipes.

They all have a theme behind them.

There's a purpose.

And there was a little bit of back and forth, to be honest about flavor and nutritional value.

Flavor versus nutrition.

Right.

But it doesn't mean we had to sacrifice either in the recipes we put together.

Another law of Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

Don't sacrifice flavor, right?

Because if it doesn't taste good.

Forget it.

You won't do it.

Kids won't eat it.

And so unfortunately, smell-a-vision hasn't been invented yet.

But we haven't even put these in the oven yet.

Can you smell that?

I can.

350 degree oven.

To the oven, these go.

By the way, if you are having trouble keeping track of what we're doing or the ingredients, there's always Arkansas Taste Kitchen on the Arkansas television website you can go to.

But we're giving you graphic support, so hopefully you'll keep track of this.

Did you think that was pretty easy?

So now what do we do?

Well.

We don't have dishes.

Maybe maybe when we come back, we make something else.

You don't want to worry about my career, which is today in the banana.

Like everything.

All right, we'll be back.

Can't wait to try this.

(upbeat music) We talk a lot about nutritional value here at Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

But what does that mean when you're grocery shopping?

A handy tip is to understand how to read that nutrition facts label.

This is going to be found on products that come in packages.

You're going to find that the nutrition facts label breaks down the nutrients based on serving size.

You're going to get your serving size and the number of servings in the product on that can package.

Starts with calories, calories per serving, and then important key nutrients like your fats, carbs, protein, and also micronutrients like vitamins, minerals, sodium, things like cholesterol as well.

You'll also have a column for percent daily values.

This is based off of a 2000 calorie diet, gives you a rough estimate of how you're meeting a 2000 calorie diet nutrition need.

Definitely pay attention to the nutrition facts label when you're shopping.

In the short time we were away, the muffins continued to bake.

Alyssa, we are not through with breakfast though.

What are we making on this segment of the show?

On this segment, we're making freezer friendly breakfast burritos.

So one of the things that helps a professional kitchen function and function efficiently is a principle called mise en place.

Here we go.

French terms.

Mise en place means to do all of your prep ahead of time.

So in the kitchen, I like to say mise everything before you cook anything.

There's another law.

Three laws we've had on this show so far.

We've got all the stuff that we need weighed and measured.

I wanted to show how to do bell pepper.

The most annoying thing to me about a bell pepper is all the seeds.

You cut through it, and then you got seeds everywhere.

You don't want that.

You don't want them everywhere.

That's not so.

I've taken a little bit of a wall off one side, lay it down, and then I'm rolling my knife as I unroll the bell pepper.

And I'm also capturing this white part.

Okay.

It's called the rib, the rib of the pepper.

And it gets real slimy while it cooks.

So we'd like to keep that all together.

We can trim off all the other parts, but no seeds on your knife on your hands, no seeds anywhere.

Your knife has got to be extra sharp for that, doesn't it?

So I get asked all the time, what's the best knife?

And most people are asking, what's the best brand of knife?

Well, I don't I'm not a paid endorser of any brand.

The right knife, the best knife, is a sharp knife Fourth law.

Your local retailer, sharp knife.

Keep them sharp as best you can.

Curl your fingers as you guide the knife, your bear.

You graduated from University of Central Arkansas.

Do it like a big bear.

Bear claws up.

Bear claw.

If you went to ASU, it's get your wolves up.

Do they have claws, too?

Well, they have to make the ears, so I guess.

Well, it doesn't work.

So you've got fresh bell pepper that you're cutting right now.

For a recipe like this, you can also use frozen bell pepper that's already chopped.

Ready to go.

You can also, in the produce section sometimes find diced bell pepper diced onion.

And then you can cut a little bit of the prep time out of that.

Just because you don't have what we have doesn't mean you can't have what we have.

And if you don't like red bell pepper, you know red bell peppers is a little sweeter in the bell pepper world.

But if you don't like the taste, use a green bell pepper.

Use jalapeños.

There you go.

Alyssa, refresh my memory.

What are the peppers doing for us in our body?

In particular, red bell pepper is going to add some vitamin C, and it's going to have fiber and some other vitamins and minerals that are going to support our overall health.

There's that fiber again?

There you go.

Since this is chopped now and we have onion already chopped and everything is ready to go, we can cook.

And so in goes some sausage.

What kind of sausage?

Well it can be pork sausage.

It can be turkey sausage.

So leaner would be turkey sausage, a lot more fat in pork sausage, a lot more flavor in pork sausage.

But I'm going to show you something with this sausage in just a minute.

It's going to create a lot of grease.

Right.

We're going to pour most of that off.

And so I think our resident dietitian would approve of pouring most of that grease off.

We still get some flavor.

Right.

Where do you pour your grease?

Do you have a grease can or something?

I have a grease bowl.

You can have a grease bowl, but then what are you going to do with the grease in the bowl?

Well.

I'm not going to tell the dietitian that I might turn it into gravy sometime later on down the road for tomorrow's breakfast.

But if you are looking for a safe way to dispose of things like bacon grease, any type of fat that comes from your cooked animal proteins, you want a heat safe container.

You want to let it solidify before you dump it in the trash.

Now in my kitchen at home, we pour the grease into a can, put aluminum foil on it, reuse it until it gets about two thirds full, and then we throw the can away.

Your reaction to that?

I think that's a safe way to make sure that you're not burning anything.

Wow.

Finally.

You just saw history.

I'm finally doing something right.

Don't pour the grease down your kitchen drain no matter what.

Don't do that.

Seriously, for better health, we shouldn't eat very much of it.

But pour it in an old coffee can.

Pour it in a soup can.

That's what we do.

Cover it.

Trash it.

Exactly.

And this pork sausage is seasoned as a breakfast sausage so you can buy it ready to go.

Just like you can turkey sausage.

Or you can take ground chicken, ground turkey, add some spices and season it like a breakfast sausage.

What about frozen sausage?

Turkey sausage?

You can absolutely use frozen sausage in a recipe like this.

Even if it's in link form.

You can cut those and add them to your breakfast.

I've see turkey, frozen turkey bits in sausage.

That's really handy.

In my freezer.

So that's cool?

That's okay.

I mean, it's cold, but I mean.

It's all about convenience.

You want to make sure that, you know you're not stopping at a fast food restaurant every morning.

This takes a little bit of time in the beginning, but it's a great way to eat healthy throughout the week and have meals ready to go.

To speed up the cooking, I'm eyeballing.

But to speed this up a little bit, you notice I'm staying here.

I'm playing with my food.

I love that about the kitchen.

It's okay to play with your food.

I like I like smaller pieces of everything to get a bite of everything instead of big chunks.

That's personal preference.

To get smaller pieces of this sausage, I want to keep working it, working it by just a fork.

I'm pressing it into the pan and I keep turning it.

When it's about halfway there, which is where we are now.

Guess what?

In goes the bell pepper.

Really?

Halfway?

Yeah.

When you're halfway, it's pepper time.

And onion time.

Oh, oh.

We'll get them all in there.

So halfway.

There's still a little bit of pink in the breakfast sausage.

There's still pink in the sausage.

Okay.

And big surprise.

We've got tater tots.

Wow.

Who doesn't want some potato mixed in?

That can't be.

No, you.

You've approved tater tots for this recipe.

I have approved tater tots for this recipe.

These are frozen tater tots.

They're already cooked.

They are going to add a satisfying crunch.

They're going to add flavor.

And I really think that we should focus on some of the healthy ingredients we have in this breakfast burrito before we start thinking too much about the tater tots.

Well, think about this though.

Timing.

If this is the meal you start your day with, you're going to work off these calories, aren't you?

Right.

One of the great things about.. As the day goes forth.

Right.

One of the great things about breakfast is you're really setting your body up to be energized throughout the day.

So this is going to have your carbohydrate.

It's going to have your fat and your protein.

So you can get off to a great start.

Have the calories, the energy that you need to get through your day.

We need to start cracking some eggs.

And Alyssa, if you would, we need to probably pull the banana muffins out of the oven.

Yes, Chef.

And so crack an egg, I'm going to show you how to do this with one hand.

Perfect.

So I have a big crack.

My ring finger is underneath the crack.

My thumb is just on top of the crack.

And so the pressure I have on the egg are these two fingers ring finger, thumb and I separate those.

I just pull that apart.

That's it.

Oh.

That seems simple enough.

You got an egg over there.

Why don't you try it?

Hold it.

This is my egg.

This is your egg.

I can't do that.

I haven't had years of training.

This is going to be humiliating.

I learned this in my very, very first job.

I'm an award winning broadcaster, you're going, this is, I'm going down a level here.

You're going up a level in the kitchen.

You're going up a level in the kitchen.

Now my ring's on my left hand.

Can you do it if you're left handed?

You can do it if you're left handed.

This may be the source of the problem.

So you, let me see you do it.

Okay.

Crack.

Pretty good crack.

Okay.

Thumb, ring finger.

Thumb.

Split.

Pull them apart.

Now, people that do this every day in the restaurant, I mean, every day, can hold two eggs.

No.

And do that at one time.

No.

And I've seen people that hold two eggs in both hands and crack four eggs at the same time.

Let me try that.

I'm not there.

Four eggs?

No.

And you know, you're never going to get great at it if you don't start somewhere and continue to practice.

So I think now's your time to shine.

All right.

Here we go.

(drumroll sound) So so.

(laughter) We did this better in rehearsal.

So this is going to show another trick.

So this was rehearsal.

Did you get, so you got some egg shell in here.

It can be kind of hard to fish it out with that fork.

You can take one of your eggshell hats.

If you'd like to have this, we'll be glad to mail it to you in a container.

And you can scoop it right out.

I'll take that for you.

There's a towel right there if you want to use it.

I don't need it.

I don't need your towel.

I'm going to do this.

Right.

Here we go.

Beautiful.

No.

Just your second try.

You did great.

No I didn't.

Don't forget that pan is hot.

Here's the thing.

I'm going to work on this.

Look at that.

Wow.

Egg shell out.

Now, our tater tots went in here frozen, and now we're getting to the point they're softening up.

And just the same as I did with the sausage, I can kind of give it a little smash.

And they break apart right here in the pan.

Another option would be frozen hash browns, the dice potato, the shredded potato, whatever you like, whatever you prefer.

Very versatile.

Okay.

Add other vegetables.

Yeah.

So I was just going to say, how did you know that was my favorite thing?

You can add beans to this.

Maybe instead of the frozen hash browns or tater tots and really amp up the nutritional value.

Now we're going to get the, when we go full bore burrito.

So we put we put some tortilla in the oven.

It's probably time to take those out as well.

They form, they fold.

Tortillas fold so much better if they're warm.

Okay.

And our fancy kitchen here, we don't have a microwave.

You may not have a microwave at home as well.

Little foil.

Pop it in the oven.

You know, five, eight minutes.

Perfect.

You can warm them up in a microwave.

You just want to get them warm.

That makes them more pliable, and they'll fold just fine.

Alyssa.

Somebody watching at home says, oh, this is a great breakfast.

This is all so good.

I don't have time to make something like that.

What would you suggest?

What chef said to start with is get everything ready to go.

That's going to save a lot of stress and time in the kitchen.

And this really just takes a few minutes when you have everything out on your table.

And it'll already be cooked and ready to go.

So you can just grab it from your freezer, heat it up before you head to work or head to school.

And it's really just a few extra minutes.

So freeze it?

Oh, absolutely.

And that's how we fight the time factor so that you don't sucker for fast food.

Right.

You extend the freshness of the burritos by putting them in the freezer.

You can keep them in the freezer for up to three months.

So spend, you know, 30 minutes making a batch of burritos and you have breakfast ready to go.

And what do I put it in to freeze it?

A baggie?

We're going to show how you can use parchment paper and foil to roll up the burrito and store it in the freezer.

Oh, there's so much more of this show.

We're going to take a quick break.

We're going to have it ready to go for you, to show you how to freeze it and taste it.

Taste it?

Absolutely.

That's part of the show when we come back.

(upbeat music) Chef Robert, what happened while we were on break?

We added those eggs that most of us cracked without too many shells.

They have been scrambled in the same pan, all as one pot.

Right?

Okay, we got the sausage.

We've got the hash brown or the tater tots.

We've got peppers, we have onions.

We added the cheese, we scrambled, I said cheese, I'm looking at cheese.

And now I got cheese on the brain.

I love cheese.

Oh, cheese.

There's a place for cheese in these burritos.

And so now.

You add the cheese last.

We quit smelling it.

Let's eat it.

That's what I'm saying.

Where do we start?

Well, we start with a whole wheat tortilla.

That's a good thing, isn't it?

It is.

Why?

We're going to have more protein and more fiber.

And it is a very easy swap.

So if you're used to flour tortillas and you want to make this breakfast burrito just a little bit healthier without changing too much, just start with a tortilla and go whole wheat.

How do you fasten a burrito?

I'm going to show you.

What do you do to fasten it?

We've got as much as you want, but a reasonable amount for the tortilla size that you have.

Okay, okay.

There are smaller ones than this.

There are bigger ones, but these about 8 or 9 inch tortillas are perfect for a single serving.

And so I've got about four tablespoons of filling.

And I'm going to put about.

Oh this is when you add the cheese.

We're going to add the cheese.

And the heat of the filling is going to melt the cheese as it sits inside.

So I have the filling long ways.

All right.

And I'm going to fold in just over the filling on the two sides.

And I'm going to take the side closest to me and fold that all the way over the filling.

And then roll it.

Oh that is brilliant.

Did you come up with that?

I did not make that up by myself.

Oh, you could have lied to me and said you did and I would respect you even more than I do now.

Wow.

Well, my brothers and sisters from the south of the border would write in, give us some hate mail, because I, in a previous employment, I had a sous chef from Mexico, and he taught me how to do things like this and how to use a tortilla.

And I thought I knew everything, and.

This looks like it'd be so easy to freeze.

Please.

Oh my.

Fold it.

So cooking is always a great way to learn something new.

Now we're about to taste it.

I will give you the history of this show is that we judge everything by how many yums it gets.

Every meal prepared looks for four yums.

Yum yum yum yum.

So a lot of pressure on the chef and Alyssa.

This is not just on him.

This is on you.

This is a team effort.

All right, Chef is going to make one more for all of us.

But what I'm going to do first before we taste is show how you can wrap this so it can be freezer friendly.

Wrap the wrapper.

So we've got some parchment paper.

We're going to take our burrito and just roll this up.

Tuck in those ends nice and clean.

You're basically re-burritoing it.

Right.

So parchment paper is going to help with the moisture.

And then we're going to take aluminum foil and do the same thing.

And then we're going to take an actual burrito.

And we're going to taste it so to make sure that freezing it is a good idea.

Three.

Four.

We did it.

Yay!

Now let's see if our muffins pass the test as well.

I gotta eat some eggs first.

Okay that's pretty good right there.

I'm gonna go ahead.

I like the middle of the burrito the best.

Standing ovation people.

Everybody wants them.

Get up.

Applause.

Cheers.

Yes.

They're that good.

Thank you for watching.

Remember if it's affordable, if it's available, if it's nutritious, if it's delicious, it's Arkansas Taste Kitchen.

Additional funding provided by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

(upbeat music)