Healthy (by comparison) Banana Bread

Recently, I've been on a banana bread bender. Eric, who usually eats a banana every morning, must be staging a silent protest because I keep ending up with overripe bananas. And what to do with overripe bananas other than make banana bread? Ideas welcome. 

That being said, I love banana bread and have now tried a handful of recipes. A friend of mine recently said, "banana bread is fruit," and while I wholeheartedly believe this to be true, there are certainly a lot of butter, sugar, and sour cream-filled bread recipes out there! 

This morning I found this recipe, which cuts the amount of butter and sugar in half (if not more) and still manages to taste delicious (I promise!). 

As usual, I tweaked the recipe a little. First, the recipe called for "four very ripe bananas" with the instruction to put three into the batter and reserve one to slice on top. I had five overripe bananas (read: too ugly to slice). I put all five into the batter. I actually think this is the way to go. The extra bananas seemed to add the additional moisture the bread needed since there was less butter. I also added one secret ingredient...

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (do it!)

A super cool technique I learned for getting the perfect "squishy" consistency for the bananas. Put them in a large Ziploc bag, squish by hand, cut a corner off the bag and squeeeeeze.

Another use for Ziploc! Nut crushing! Come on, mind out of the gutter, please.

I used dark chocolate chips...so delicious!

I also decided to make mini muffins instead of a loaf. I adjusted the cooking temperature to 350 degrees and cooked the muffins for 15 minutes.

Here is another fun trick I've learned. If you don't have enough batter to fill a muffin pan, ensure everything cooks evenly by filling the empty spaces with water.

A sweet treat

The next time you have a night when your sweet tooth is calling out and you're finding it difficult to silence it, give Glitter Grapes a try! Glitter Grapes or Sour Patch Grapes are an idea I borrowed from a blog called Pure Sugar.

What do you need?

1 bunch green grapes
1 package Jello

What do you do?

Wash grapes thoroughly.

Roll wet grapes around in Jello powder.

Return grapes to refrigerator to cool for at least 1 hour.

The recipe suggests the use of the Melon Fusion flavor of Jello, but I couldn't find it. Instead I used the Cherry Lemonade flavor. I think the trick is to find a flavor with some tang. Any tang will do!

This is a great idea for a sweet, refreshing, and satisfying treat. If you told your kids it was candy, they'd believe you! 

 

Saturday Mornings

On Saturday mornings, I make the coffee and Eric makes breakfast. It's tradition. After years of watching my dad make one of our breakfast favorites, Eric has put his own spin on the technique. He made this recently when our friend, Caitlin, visited. After she returned home, I received a text that said, "That bagel/egg/seasoning recipe is my new favorite breakfast!" So...I thought I should share it with you!

Breakfast Thing
Eric's variation on Ali's theme.  
two bagels, toasted & coarsely chopped
5 eggs
milk, a splash
1 tablespoon fresh herbs, finely chopped (we like oregano & rosemary, but basil, thyme, cilantro, really anything would be good, "with the exception of parsley," said Eric, "because it looks pretty but doesn't taste like anything.") 
1-2 tablespoons butter 
salt
pepper
a little shake of Cajun seasoning (we like Tony Chachere's)

Crack eggs into small mixing bowl. Add a splash of milk, salt & pepper (about a 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper...you can always add...you can never subtract!).

Beat eggs, like you would for a scramble, until they're light & fluffy. Add finely chopped herbs.

Coarsely chop bagels (or bread of your choice, but you need a dense bread with some chew to it).

Melt butter into pan on medium heat, put bagel pieces into pan to soak up butter and continue toasting. Lightly salt & pepper bagels. Let bagels toast for a minute or two, then add egg mixture to pan. Turn heat to medium-low. Stir as needed to cook eggs through.

Serve and enjoy!

Oh, and I always shake cinnamon onto my coffee grounds in the coffee maker (a lovely trick I learned from my mom), but this morning, in a sleepy haze, I accidentally grabbed the chili powder instead...and shook. Vigorously. Good thing I'm not responsible for the big jobs on Saturday mornings!

Eric scooped most of it out with a spoon. And the stuff he couldn't get gave our coffee a little extra kick!

Happy weekend!

Kale Kreations

Is it just me or has kale grown in popularity recently? Over the past couple of months, I've looked at a number of recipes that incorporate kale and have made three that were pretty big hits.

The first, Fettuccine with Sausage and Kale, was recommended to me by a friend. First of all, I am a sucker for any recipe that includes the words, "fettuccine" or "linguine," so I had a pretty good feeling that I'd love this dish before I even prepared it. And, as anticipated, it was stellar. Should you decide to make this in your own kitchen, my only recommendation would be to go easy on the oil.  

 

The flavors of this dish were delicious, but I found the end product to be a bit too oily when I followed the recipe as written. It has been my experience that when I cook sausage in a skillet, it creates its own oil from the fat in the meat. I would suggest cooking the sausage without any oil and adding it only if it seems necessary (i.e., the meat is sticking to the bottom of the pan). Another option would be to cook the sausage in the oil, drain it, and return the meat to the skillet. 

The next kale dish I made was Kale and Ricotta Stuffed Shells. It was Eric's and my turn to host our weekly family dinner and we were trying to come up with an idea...something different. Eric piped up that one of his favorite dishes is stuffed shells. I was game to attempt to make this both because I love Italian food and I had never tried to make them before. I had some kale sitting in my fridge and wondered whether it could be incorporated into the cheese mixture. Too timid to try it without direction, I turned to Google to see if it had been done before. Of course it had! I found several recipes, but this one looked the most appealing. 

Something about adding kale to the cheese mixture give it a light, fresh, and airy taste. This was a welcome surprise because stuffed shells can often feel like a really heavy meal. The writer of this recipe suggested it is a great option for a "meatless Monday," but I didn't want to go vegetarian that particular night...I simply added 

1 pound ground turkey

to my usual spaghetti sauce and served it on top of the shells. It was a hit! Everyone really liked it and they were surprised to hear I was able to sneak some kale in on them...tricky tricky! 

Last night we hosted another dinner. Deployments are a part of military life and we are getting ready to see one of our buddies off to Afghanistan for a while. We wanted to get people together before he left so we had everyone over for food, drinks, and a good dose of healthy laughter. I asked our deploying friend what he wanted for dinner and the response was, "lasagna or something Italian."  

Last winter I made the Pioneer Woman's "Best Lasagna. Ever." when Eric's parents were visiting and friends came over to watch a Ravens' playoff game. Consensus was it really was the best lasagna ever, even to my father-in-law who considers himself an expert in good lasagna. He told me the secret to a good lasagna is tomato paste, and this recipe calls for 12 whole ounces of it, so it must be good!

I decided I wanted to try the technique for adding kale that I learned in the stuffed shells recipe with the lasagna recipe. I used the blanching method and cooked the lasagna noodles in the same water. Then, I stirred the cooked, finely chopped kale into the cottage cheese mixture. 

 

It turned out great and, again, the kale gave the dish that same light and fresh taste it gave the stuffed shells. I highly recommend sneaking kale into Italian dishes whenever possible!

 

  

 

Pre-baked lasagna...by the time it came out of the oven, guests were here and I was too distracted to take a picture...

Well, this was certainly one of my longer posts, but stay tuned for more kale recipes in the future. Next up: kale chips. I hear everyone talking about them and recently a friend sent along a recipe for me to try.

Eat more greens! Peace.




 

Tastes like fried chicken

I've been a bad little food blogger lately. I looked back at my recipe archive the other day and was astonished by the level of neglect. While I haven't been writing, I have been cooking (I swear I made more than two dishes in March!). I've even been experimenting with my own recipes...only to learn that I never measure ingredients. The problem with failing to measure is that it makes it really difficult to share a recipe you've created with friends. A dash of this, a pinch of that, season to taste is hardly enough direction. I know from experience. When I first started getting into cooking, those types of directions would create a great deal of nervousness and apprehension for me. I've made a few meals that I will try again. And I will try to be conscious of what exactly it is that I am putting into them. That way I can start to share some of my own kitchen creations...how exciting!

But in the meantime, back to borrowing others' fabulous meal ideas! I need two hands to count the number of times I've pulled this recipe up for dinner only to, for some reason or another, tuck it away for another time. I'm not sure why, but this Crispy Yogurt Chicken just spoke to me. Maybe it was the simple list of ingredients? Maybe it was the flirtation with Mediterranean flavors? I have a feeling it definitely had a lot to do with the word, "crispy." My attraction to crunch is 
hardly a secret. 

Here is Annie's ingredient list:  

Crispy Yogurt Chicken

Ingredients:

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

chicken legs (or thighs), bone-in

kosher salt

2 cups plain, unflavored yogurt

3 cloves garlic, minced

fresh parsley, finely chopped (to taste)

juice of one lemon

butter

Mine looked slightly different:

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

2 chicken breasts 

salt

2 cups plain, unflavored Greek yogurt

3 cloves garlic, minced

fresh parsley, finely chopped (to taste)

1/2 tablespoon white vinegar (out of lemons? Cut the amount of lemon juice the recipe requires in half and substitute with white vinegar).  

butter

I substituted chicken breasts for thighs because Eric is not a huge fan of dark meat. He will eat it IN food, but does not so much like having a hunk of it on his plate. Because breast meat is not bone-in, the cooking time changes a little...

I cut the chicken breasts in half and cooked them in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes with the foil on. Then, I removed the foil and cooked for 15 more minutes. The chicken came out very tender and the Panko bread crumbs were almost crispy enough. I would suggest turning on the broiler for the last five minutes of bake time to achieve the ultimate crisp! 

The only other problem I encountered was that I had FAR to much Greek yogurt. Common sense probably should have told me that before experience did, but, alas, it did not. 

1 cup plain Greek yogurt would definitely have been sufficient to coat the amount of meat I used. I could have reserved the other cup to make a nice cucumber yogurt sauce, but once I had dredged the raw chicken in the yogurt mix, that option was off the table...I hate wasting food. 

 

This dinner was yum, yum, YUM! I hope you give it a try, too!

 

 

Imitation Chinese Takeout

I am not going to name names, but suffice it to say I'm never going hesitant to order Chinese takeout from any establishment in my town. And because, on occasion, my husband and I are in the mood to watch a movie while eating our food out of cardboard containers with chopsticks, we've had to improvise. 

Fortunately for us, it appears that Six Sisters love to improvise as well. I've now tried two of their homemade, healthy(er) Chinese food recipes and really thought both of them were super! One of them even allowed me to show my face again at Eric's office pot lucks (recall the banana episode). 

The Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken was awesome. I made it once at home for dinner and then again for the most recent office pot luck because we liked it so much. By following the veeeery simple recipe, you'll get yourself some tender chicken bites with a delightful crisp.

Please forgive the awful picture...

The other recipe I tried was the Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken. Honey sesame chicken is one of my personal favorite takeout foods. I have to say that this rendition was good, but didn't imitate Chinese takeout quite as well as the Sweet & Sour chicken recipe did. This, of course, has a lot to do with the fact that the Honey Sesame Chicken recipe does not direct you to fry the chicken at all. Recipe pros: very tasty, very easy, and healthier because not fried; cons: doesn't quite satisfy the takeout craving as well. If you have a hankering to be bad (gasp, flash-fried foods) with honey sesame chicken, I'd suggest using the cooking technique from the sweet & sour chicken recipe with the (slightly adapted) sauce from the honey sesame chicken recipe.

1 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or not, or more)
*sprinkle sesame seeds on chicken before serving

So, as for the Chinese takeout/movie date night checklist...

movie: check (thank you Netflix)
food: check (kudos to the Six Sisters for figuring out a way to  make easy, gooey, Chinese takeout at home)
chopsticks: check
my date: check (note: the checklist does not indicate order of importance)
cardboard containers: work in progress
fortune cookies: to be continued...

Udon-awanna make this!

And, if you love spicy food as much as I do, udon-awanna make this my way...

I found the recipe for Peanut Curry Noodles with Seared Shrimp & Scallops on one of my favorite food blogs, love & olive oil. I can't really speak for what the recipe would have tasted like had I followed it because I did some omitting and substituting. However, I can tell you that what I ultimately produced by following the "gist" of this recipe was exceptionally delicious...and spicy!

Note: if you prefer not to clear your sinuses during mealtime, disregard a lot of what I say and follow the recipe. 

Fresh ginger, which I am happy to say I had thanks to a reader's suggestion to keep ginger root handy by freezing it

Ingredients I added:
1 large jalapeno, diced (not seeded)...duh

Add to the skilled with the garlic, ginger, red bell pepper, and pepper flakes.

When I made this dish, I made two errors on this step of the recipe. First, I forgot to add the ginger, which I didn't realize until I was getting ready to cook the shrimp. Naturally, per my modus operandi, this mistake resulted in a mini-meltdown. Eric, per his modus operandi, came to my rescue, sauteed the ginger in the shrimp-skillet before the shrimp, took it out of the pan, and added it to the sauce. Hooray for ridiculously awesome sous-chefs! My second error was adding the scallions at this point rather than at the end to finish the dish. Texturally, it would have been better to add them at the end rather than at the beginning, but it didn't hurt the flavor...

Ingredients I substituted:
2 heaping tablespoons fresh chili paste instead of 2 rounded tablespoons red curry paste.

I didn't have red curry paste so I just used what I did have. It just so happened that what I did have dramatically kicked up the spiciness of the sauce.

Ingredients I wish I substituted: 
crunchy peanut butter for creamy peanut butter.

Why? Well, why not?

I fully admit this looks a little less-than-appetizing, but I assure you, it is delicious!

Whisk soy sauce into PB

Add coconut milk & brown sugar...mmm.

I'd also like to try grilling the shrimp instead of heating them in the skillet.

Pre-cooked shrimp rubbed with five spice powder, all we had to do was heat 'em up!

And add to sauce...

Ingredients I omitted:
Scallops 

Didn't have any! Didn't miss 'em.

 
This was definitely one of those meals that I was sad to see end. If you have a taste for Thai food, peanut sauce, or anything made with coconut milk, I definitely suggest giving this recipe a whirl.

I am going to try to refrain from making it nightly.