Blueberry Banana Breakfast Bread

I love banana bread but wanted to put a twist on it.  I try to incorporate wheat flour when I can and that was my goal in creating this loaf.  I don't like that wheat flour because it makes everything so dense and heavy so I used oatmeal to lighten it up without adding white flour.

I figured I'd have to experiment with a few loaves to get it right, but this one was good right off the bat!

Blueberry Banana Breakfast Bread
1 loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/4 c sugar

1/2 c butter, softened

2 eggs

3 bananas, soft

1/2 c milk

1 t vanilla

1 1/2 c whole wheat flour

1 c old fashioned oats

1 1/4 t baking soda

1 t salt

1/2 c blueberries (I used frozen)

1 c walnuts, chopped

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease the bottom on one 9x5" loaf pan.

Stir  sugar and butter in a large bowl until well mixed.  Stir in eggs, bananas, milk, and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  

Stir in flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt just until combined.  Add blueberries and nuts and stir until combined.

Pour batter into pan.

Bake for 60-75 minutes in the center of the oven.  When bread is finished cooking (toothpick test) move to a cooling rack and let rest in pan for 15 minutes.

Remove from pan and let cool for 2 hours before slicing.  

Bread should be stored in plastic wrap.  It can be frozen for later use.

Zucchini as Pasta

No, I'm not talking about zucchini flavored pasta; this is sliced zucchini that you can substitute for your regular old spaghetti.

I'm not a big fan of food substitutes, but this one isn't too bad.  We always have garlic bread with our pasta so we are still getting carbs, we just aren't getting the carb overload.

To make "spaghetti:"

Julienne 1 zucchini per person.  

Bring water to a rolling boil in a large pot.

Put zucchini in boiling water and cook for 1 minute.

Remove zucchini and place in an ice bath and let cool.

Serve with your favorite pasta sauce or with melted butter and parmesan.

To make "lasagna:"

Slice zucchini very thin.

Cook in boiling water (as in last recipe) for 2-3 minutes

Move zucchini to a water bath and let cool.

Use a towel to get excess water off of zucchini.  Get as much water out as possible as it will make your dish soupy.  If you have time, let it sit out for 15 minutes before preparing lasagna.

Pasta Sauce

Making your own pasta sauce isn't as hard as you might think.  It does take more time that opening a jar, but it's worth it.

Pasta Sauce
4 Servings

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil

8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 white onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

15 roma tomatoes, halved

15 basil leaves, chopped

12 oregano leaves, chopped

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

2 cans V8 Spicy Hot

Instructions:

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large pot.  Cook mushrooms and onion until tender.  Add garlic and cook 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and 2 c water; cover and stir occasionally.  After 15 minutes use a potato masher to press down on the tomatoes.

Add remaining ingredients.  Cook down until mixture becomes thick.

Serve over pasta.

Potato Chips

Potato Chips

Ingredients:

russet potatoes

peanut oil

salt or other seasoning

Instructions:

Preheat oil in fryer to 375 degrees.

Meanwhile, slice potatoes very thin (I use a 1/8" ruffle cut on a mandolin).  It is essential to have them cut evenly.  Place sliced potatoes in water until ready to use to prevent them from turning brown.

Before you fry the potatoes, drain the water and place potatoes on a towel.  Remove excess water by rolling the towel.

Place a few potatoes in the fryer (be sure to not overcrowd).  I found that they cook best when fully submerged.  My fryer has a basket that has an up and down position.  When I placed the basket in the up position it was just low enough to keep the potatoes submerged.  If you don't have this option, you will have to flip as you cook.

Cook potatoes until they are slightly tanned.  They should be rigid, not soft and mushy.  If your potatoes are not cut evenly you will see that one side is rigid while the other side is soggy.

When the chips are fully cooked move them to a cooling rack topped with paper towels.  Allow them to cool slightly before adding salt or other seasoning.

Tips:

My favorite chips are sour cream and cheddar and I wanted to try to make something similar.  If I were at the store I would have bought a cheddar popcorn flavoring or something but I wasn't at the store...I had to improvise.  I took the cheese packet out of a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and sprinkled the chips with that.  It wasn't the same, but it was actually better than I expected.  

What flavors do you like on your chips?

Chicken Fried Rice

Chicken Fried Rice

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

2 c chicken broth or stock

1 c brown rice

2 t oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1 c mushrooms, chopped

3 carrots, chopped

1-2 chicken breasts, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c frozen peas

2 eggs, scrambled

1/4 c soy sauce

1/4 c rice vinegar

Instructions:

Place broth and rice into a saucepan and bring to a boil; cover and cook 30-45 minutes until rice is tender (broth need not be completely dissolved).

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan heat oil.  Add onion, mushrooms, and carrots and cook until tender.  

Add chicken and garlic; cook until chicken is cooked through.  Add cooked rice and peas.

Push everything in the pan over to one side.  Add the eggs to the free side; stir and cook until cooked through.  

Stir eggs into the rice mixture.  Add soy sauce and vinegar.  

Serve.

Notes:

Fried rice is great because you can really throw in any vegetables that you have around the house.  You can serve it as an entree or side dish.

Sesame Green Beans

My favorite sushi restaurant is in Chesapeake, VA and they make the most amazing sesame spinach dish.  I make a spinach dish but also incorporate the flavors into other vegetables like green beans.

Sesame Green Beans

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb green beans, trimmed

1 T rice vinegar

2 t sesame oil

1 t sesame seeds

Instructions:

Place a steamer basket in a large pot with 1 inch of water; bring to a boil.

Add green beans to basket, cover, and cook until tender; about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl mix vinegar and oil.

When beans have cooked through place in a medium bowl.  

Pour vinegar/oil mixture over beans and toss to coat

Top with sesame seeds.

Notes:

Sesame oil is VERY strong.  Add a little bit at a time until you find a taste that you like.

Asian Inspired CrockPot Chicken

Our family loves Asian food, be it chow mien or sushi.  I have made a few recipes but wanted to try something for the CrockPot.  Another thing that inspired this recipe is we buy whole chickens as they are much cheaper than buying them in pieces.  We use the breasts in various ways, we fry up the legs and wings and slather on buffalo sauce, but I never know what to do with the thighs.  Problem solved!

Asian Inspired CrockPot Chicken

4 Servings

Ingredients:

6 chicken thighs (boneless, skinless)

1/4 c soy sauce

2 T rice wine vinegar

1/4 c sake

2 T honey

1 c chicken stock or broth

2 T ginger, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 c onion, chopped

1 T chili paste (found in the Asian aisle of the supermarket)

Salt

Pepper

2 T sesame seeds

4 T cornstarch

4 T water

Instructions:

Place chicken in Crockpot.

In a medium bowl mix all remaining ingredients except sesame seeds, cornstarch, and water.

Pour liquid mixture over chicken; top with sesame seeds.

Cook for 6 hours on low.

After 6 hours, remove chicken and set aside while leaving sauce in CrockPot.  

Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved.  

Add cornstarch slurry to CrockPot.  

Turn CrockPot on high and cook an additional 15 minutes.  

Pour sauce over chicken and serve.

The Spicy Bird

A friend and I used to go to a NY style deli during our lunch at work and they had a sandwich called "The Spicy Bird."  It was your typical sub sandwich with turkey and pepperoni.  I don't think I've made a turkey sandwich without pepperoni since. I love deli turkey but the pepperoni gives it that little kick.

Today for lunch I made a Spicy Bird panini with mayo, Havarti and mozzarella cheese, lettuce, turkey, and pepperoni.  I would have included some pickle slices but we didn't have any around.

This isn't the only way to enjoy a Spicy Bird.  Try your own combination and share it with us!

Unicorn Poop Cookies

No, these aren't real unicorn poop but if unicorns do poop this is probably what it looks like.

Again, I'm not sharing a recipe here but showing a technique.

First, whip up your favorite sugar cookie recipe (I used the Betty Crocker cookbook).  Divide the dough into 6 pieces and die each piece a color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple).  Roll each piece into a 10 inch snake.

Roll out a piece of clear plastic wrap.  Lay down the pieces in ROYGBV order side by side.  Then carefully wrap them into a log as shown below.  Twist the ends to make it tight and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Once the dough has hardened take it out and roll it into a long snake (I dusted the countertop with powdered sugar).  As it gets longer you will want to break it in half and continue working with it.  Continue rolling and halving it until you get about 1/2" diameter snakes.  Cut the snakes into 4" lengths.

Now it's time to shape the cookies.  You want to pile them up so they look like, well, poop.

Bake them as directed by your recipe, and cool on a cooling rack.

As they are baking whip up a batch of icing.  You don't want anything that will cover up the design of the cookies, so I just mixed powdered sugar and milk into a thin icing (I forgot to sift the sugar which was a big no-no so there were clumps).  Spoon it over the cookies when they are still on the cooling rack (put a paper towel underneath because a lot of excess will drip off).  I also added some edible shimmer to the cookies with a paintbrush.

And there you have it, the most delicious unicorn poop you've ever tasted!

Buffalo Burgers

Ever had a buffalo burger?  If not, you're missing out.

I saw our local grocery store advertise buffalo meat for $6.99/lb which is the same price we pay for beef off-sale (I NEVER pay that for beef as I stock up when it is on sale, but that's not the point) so I picked up a pound.  After eating this burger I wished I had picked up two pounds!

You don't need to go all crazy with spices and flavorings with buffalo.  I just sprinkle in a little salt and pepper and it's delicious!

There aren't any big secrets or special recipes to share, I just wanted to give you something different to work with.

For this meal I made homemade sesame seed buns (recipe here).  I followed the ingredient list and used the bread machine to do all the work.  Once the dough was ready I shaped it, let it double (I actually fell asleep because I wasn't feeling well and they more than doubled) and baked it.  They turned out AWESOME!  I highly recommend that recipe.

I made approximately 1/2 lb burgers for my husband and a mini-burger for my son.  Brown up the patties as you would with hamburger, add some cheese, and voila!