Oil free chocolate banana bread swirl

I had a bunch of frozen bananas (brown, in the skins, and in my freezer cause I won't throw out bananas.  They're just so useable!).  I knew I wanted to make banana bread today, but I wasn't sure what recipe.  My friend Shannon, who keeps a fabulous vegan blog (killer bunnies inc), had posted about a marbled banana bread she made and it looked fabulous, but I hate cooking with oil.  I know it can make foods yummier, bananas, in my opinion, are yummy and wet enough to skip the oil.  So I went on a hunt for an oil free recipe, which I found here.   I doubled it because I had 5 bananas and mashed them all.

So here the pictures, the bread is oven and smells awesome!

1.  Start with 1.5 cups of smashed banana.  I doubled the recipe - so everything you'll see here is twice as much as I'm putting in the directions.

Above:  About 3 cups of mashed bananas.  I took the frozen banans and put them in the microwave for about 1:30, peeled them, and mashed them with a potato masher, and then fork.

2.  Add in 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup milk, 2 tsp vanilla extract.

Above:  'Nanas mixed with milk (I used cow, recipe called for non-diary), brown sugar, and vanilla. 

3.  In a separate bowl mix together 1.5 cups flour (since I was doubling, I did 2 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour), 3/4 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir until totally mixed.  Original recipe says not to stir too much or the dough will be tough.

4.  In a coffee cup, mix 3 Tbs unsweetened cocoa powder with 3 Tbs boiling water.  Mix with a fork until totally smooth.

5.  Take 1 cup of the batter and transfer it to another bowl.  Add in the cocoa powder mixture.  Stir until incorporated. (see below)

Above: Banana bread mixture with cocoa mixture.

6.  Add 3 Tbs of boiling water to the original batter to smooth it out.  Stir until incorporated (see below).

7.  Spray a bread pan with non-stick spray (or prepare it however, you like to prepare your baking pans).  Use a measuring cup (I had 2/3 cup in the regular batter, and 1/2 cup in the chocolate batter), and alternate layers in the baking pan. (See below)

8.  Take a knife and swirl it (see below). 

Above:  Then I took a knife and went back and forth through the batter like a skier :)

More when the bread is done!

(Not actually) Spicy (actually) Sun-Dried Tomato and Broccoli Pasta

My phone is out in my car - so this lovely picture is courtesy my webcam.  Why yes, my stove is from 1973.  Why do you ask?  You should see the front - it's actually not all white.  It's white AND black.  Classy.  But it's got a double oven instead of a microwave over the stove, and it works great - so it's mine until it dies.  Function over form.

What you're viewing above is the aftermath of dinner.  I didn't think to take a photo until we started eating and I thought "this is good - I should blog about it!"

This recipe is relatively easy and very tasty, but I found it too salty (this is becoming a trend with recipes I find on line).  Found the recipe here.  There are also much better pictures there!

I loved all the flavor combos, but here's how I'd make it, if I were to make it again.

1.  Boil a big pot of water, and add a box of twisty noodles.  I like smart pasta.  It's white but high fiber, so healthy but the husband will eat it too.  The recipe called for salting the water, but I'd skip that step since you're going to be using some of the pasta water in the recipe.  

2.  Set a colander over a bowl that can handle boiled water.  Next to the stove, place another heat resistant small bowl.  When the pasta is al dente - drain it, but save the water.

3.  Soak 1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes in warm water, and place to the side.  

4.  In a large pan, heat 2 Tbs of Olive Oil (original recipe called for 3 Tbs, but it's just too much) with 1/2 Tsp of crushed cayenne pepper flakes (the original recipe said 1/4 tsp but it wasn't hot enough for me), and 1 Tbs minced garlic.  Heat until the garlic is sizzling, but don't let it get brown.  You're infusing the oil with the flavor of the garlic and pepper.  When finished, empty into the small heat resistant bowl you put next to the stove mentioned in step 2.

5.  Quickly clean out the pan with a little water and a rag or paper towel.  Heat it back up with 2 Tbs olive oil and add 3-4 heads of chopped broccoli (bite sized pieces).  Sprinkle with a little sea salt or kosher salt.  Original recipe called for 1 Tsp.  I think it was a little bit much (if you look further down you're adding parmesan, olives, and goat cheese - which are all salty).  Cook the broccoli until it's shrunk down to a single layer in the pan and is bright green.  Stir it every so often.  Don't short change it because it'll get a really nice toasty flavor if you cook it long enough.   

6.  Drain the half cup of sun dried tomatoes from step 2.  Chop the tomatoes.  Add the chopped sun dried tomatoes to the pan, along with 1/3 cup of pasta water.  The original recipe called for sun dried tomatoes in oil.  I used them, but there is so much oil in this recipe that it's unnecessary). Put a lid on the pan and cook until most of the water has boiled out.  If your pan isn't huge, you may want to dump everything into a large bowl at this point so you can mix in the rest of the ingredients. 

7.  Add the cooked pasta and the infused oil (I kept the garlic and pepper flakes in there), stir.  Add another 1-2 Tbs of pasta water, 2-3 oz of crumbled goat cheese, and 1/3 cup of parmesan.  Stir again until the goat cheese is melted.  Add 15 chopped kalamata olives and juice from 1/2 of a lemon.  If it seems dry add a little more pasta water or a little more olive oil if you dig that much oil.

8.  Possible additions:  spinach, chickpeas, arugula, more pasta (the flavor goes a long way in the original recipe), shredded and sautéed brussel sprouts, chopped chicken, etc.  Endless possibilities.  

Skinny Sloppy Joe's

I haven't blogged in a reallllllly long time.  Going back to teaching is always such a shock to the system.  Ask my poor husband... I've barely cooked.  But now that I'm back in the swing of things (3 months later)... it's time to cook again.  Actually, part of it is that I started using Peapod for grocery delivery, which requires advanced planning - so I know WHAT I'm cooking each night.  Planning ahead... who'd have thunk it.  

Anyway, tonight I made Skinny Sloppy Joes from this recipe.    It was DELICIOUS.   Here's the low down and I how I made it a bit different than the original.

1.  I started by browning 1 pound of lean organic ground beef with 1 Tbs of steak seasoning.  Because my husband is anti-onion I can never use store bought steak seasoning, so I used a rub that I made a while back. It was soooo good that I kept the extra.  (*update* Here's the steak rub recipe - I left out the onion powder for the hubby... yes, he is THAT anti-onion).   

2.  Once the meat was browned all the way through I strained some of the fat off (I always do this), and added a handful of pre-shredded carrots that I chopped up, 1/2 chopped red bell pepper, approximately 4 oz of mushrooms chopped, and 3-4 tablespoons of pre-chopped garlic.  The original recipe calls for onion... obviously, that was out, and for the veggies to be very finely chopped up in a food processor.  I didn't do that and the dish was still awesome.  

3.  Then I added 1 Tbs red wine vinegar and 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce. 

4.  Last, I added 16 oz of tomato sauce.  The recipe called for two cups of sauce plus 2 Tbs of tomato paste.  I always have sauce and paste in the house... except tonight I didn't.  So I figured if I added extra tomato sauce - put a wire mesh screen over the pan, and boiled it down it would be roughly the same thing.  It worked out great. I served them on whole wheat buns and tada - tasty, messy, sloppy Joes from scratch!   

Ribs!

Vegetarians - you may want to skip this one.  If the sight of meat or bones freaks you out - move on.


Making ribs for dinner tonight!  I've had some frozen pork ribs in the freezer for way too long.

Using this recipe 

1.  The first thing that I had to do was defrost the ribs since they'll spend the next 7 hours in the slow cooker.  I didn't really have time for them to defrost in the fridge or on the counter (probably not healthy anyway).  So here's what I'm doing:

That's just cold water pouring over 2 lbs of pork baby back ribs.    I flipped them around a few times, but it only took about 15 minutes for them to full thaw.  

The Next Step:

2.  Make the rub by blending together 1.5 Tbs Paprika, 1 Tbs light brown sugar (I packed mine),  1/8 Tsp of cayenne (I probably used 1/4 tsp or more.  Mine is large pieces because they're dried peppers from my garden from summers past), salt and pepper to taste.  I used about 1/2 tsp of each.  Mix all of that together and you get a really attractive red rub (thanks Paprika!)

3.  After patting the ribs dry with some paper towels, rub the dry mix all over them.

4.  Then place them in a slow cooker with the meat side against the wall and the thicker side down.  I couldn't tell which was the thicker side so I guessed.  Pour 1 cup BBQ sauce over them and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

The Last Steps:

5.  Prepare a baking pan by lining it with tinfoil, and putting a few cooling racks in it.  

6.  Carefully remove the ribs from the slow cooker.  They're tender so watch out cause they can fall apart easily.  Put them on the rack bone side up.

Evidence of the difficulty of moving them (see the fallen rib).

7.  In the slow cooker, skim off any visible fat.  Then pour the juices through a strainer into a saucepan. Bring to a boil and the reduce the heat to simmer for about 15 minutes.  (I accidentally skipped the strainer step.  Oops.  I did skim the fat, but it's tricky.  After a while I just said forget it and started the boiling to simmering).

8.  Make sure that your oven has a shelf at the very bottom (original recipe says 10 inches from broiler, that's the bottom tier in my oven).  Turn on the broiler and let it heat up.

9.  Brush the ribs with the sauce you were just simmering and broil the ribs for 3-4 minutes.  Take them out, flip them over (tongs are handy here... again, be careful so they don't fall apart).  Brush the top side with the sauce and broil meat side up for about 3 minutes, remove and brush with sauce, broil for 3 more minutes, remove and brush with sauce, and then broil for 3 more minutes.

10.  Serve remaining sauce with ribs.

As you can see - there were NO remaining ribs. *burp*  The meat literally just fell off the bone, and the broiler at the end gave them that perfect bit of crustiness.  This one is a winner!

Husband approved!

BBQ menu

July 20, 2012

Having a BBQ tonight with some friends.  Found out our grill was dead so last night the hubby and I bought a new one and put it together from 8:30-11:30pm (after he'd worked a full day - poor hubby). It looks pretty badass though, and now that we've built it we also know how all the parts work and what to replace if it breaks.  As we were putting it together I think we figured out how we could have fixed the old gas grill, but too late.  The junk guys who go down our ally looking for metal are going to be stoked.  Annnnnyway.....

I always cook too much, but I'd rather have too much than not enough.
Here's the menu:

Starters: Chips & Salsa, Watermelon.

Drinks:  Sarasota Lemonade (Mix 2 bottles of Moscato + 1 container of frozen pink lemonade concentrate + 3 cups sprite + 1/2 container of crushed raspberries + ice).  Add fresh raspberries to individual drinks.  AND Adult Root-beer Floats (pour 2 oz vanilla vodka over ice, and 5 oz. root beer.  Top with whip cream.)  Serve with a straw!  Beer (but really, would you drink beer with the other two available??)
VERDICT:  Sarasota lemonade was AWESOME!  I put it in mason jars, sealed them and threw them in the cooler with beer.  They were soooo yummy.  The root-beer floats were also good, but a little strong.  I made them with vanilla ice cream.

Burgers: They should be juicy! (Mix 2 lbs 80% lean ground beef + 1 egg + 3/4 c. bread crumbs + 3 Tbs. evaporated milk + 2 Tbs. worcestershire + 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper + 2 tbs chopped garlic with your hands.  Make into 8 patties).
VERDICT:  I wound up using 2.25 pounds of 75% lean ground beef.  The flavor was fine, but it needed salt & pepper and way less bread crumbs (maybe a quarter cup or more less).

Sides:  Caprese Pasta Salad (4 cups cooked & cooled pasta + 2 cups sliced grape tomatoes + 8 oz fresh mozzarella cut into 1/2 inch cubes + 2 Tbs olive oil + salt & pepper to taste.)  Tabbouleh (1/2 cup bulgar soaked in water for 30 minutes + 1/4 c. lemon juice + 2 Tbs olive oil + 1/2 tsp minced garlic + 1/4 tsp salt + pepper to taste + 2 bunches (2 cups) of flat leaf parsley chopped  + 1/4 c. fresh chopped mint + 2 tomatoes diced + 1 small cucumber peeled seeded & diced.  Toss & Chill.
VERDICT:  The Caprese Pasta salad was good but I didn't salt it enough and it could have benefitted from a little balsamic vinegar.  The Tabbouleh was AWESOME and I forgot the cucumber.  Ooops.  It was a huge hit, which actually surprised me.

Dessert:  Grilled Banana Smores (slice 1 banana per person down the middle & stuff with mini marshmallows & chocolate chips.  Wrap in tin foil & grill.  Sprinkle with crushed graham crackers.  I will also serve with ice cream if people want it.
VERDICT:   We wound up having the root beer floats for dessert.  Guess I'll make the banana later!

What do you think?  Too much?  Just enough?  There will only be 5 people there :) HA!

Egg White Omelet: My favorite healthy breakfast

The following is my go to breakfast when I'm not working.  It's low in points+, filling, and tides me over for about 5 hours.

1.  Start with a good non-stick pan.  Spray it with cooking spray and put it on medium heat.
2.  Separate the whites from 3 eggs.  You can save the yolks for another recipe or pitch 'em.  If I'm making my husband French Toast I add them to the batter to make it more custardy.  If not, I thrown them down the drain.  Put all three egg whites in the pan.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
3.  Once the egg whites look pretty solid, cover the pan.  You can flip the omelet if you want, but adding a cover steams the top so it firms up without having to do the flip.  Once firmed up add low fat cheese (I find that 1/2 oz. of feta or parmesan OR one wedge of laughing cow swiss is perfect).  You can recover and keep cooking if you want to melt the cheese.
4.  Slide the omelet out of the pan and onto a plate.  Meanwhile add chopped veggies of your choice into the same pan.  You may need a bit more pan spray.  Today I used chopped tomatoes and asparagus.  Salt and pepper if desired, recover.  When veggies are cooked through (I like them well cooked for an omelet) dump them onto of your open omelet and fold it over.
5.  While veggies are cooking toast 2 slices of Sara Lee 45 Calories & Delightful Wheat bread.  (1 pt+ per slice).
6.  When everything is done - eat up.

I usually have this with a big mug of coffee with half a cup of Almond-Coconut Breeze & Stevia.  The Almond-Coconut Breeze is 1 pt.+ per half a cup.  It makes my coffee taste like an almond joy bar (really).

The total point count for this is 5 points.  Pretty good.  Add fruit and this is HUGE!

Steaming the top of the egg whites.

All cooked!  Never flipped!

Tomatoes, onion (not for the hubby), spinach, summer squash

Dumped the veggies on top of a broken up wedge of laughing cow cheese

Folded (of course it broke on the day I'm taking pictures) with toast!

Weight Watchers Zero Point+ Veggie Soup

Weight Watchers Garden Vegetable Soup

It's 0 points plus per cup and a good snack to keep me from eating what I actually want to eat.  Says it makes 6 servings.

1.  Use cooking spray to spray a nonstick saucepan, heat.  Saute' 1/2 cups sliced carrots, 1/4 cup diced onions (my husband will never eat this), and 2 minced cloves of garlic over low heat until softened about 5 minutes.
2.  Add 3 cups fat free broth (beef, chicken, or veggie), 1 cup diced green cabbage (I buy the pre shredded stuff), 1 cup chopped spinach, 1 Tbs. tomato paste, 1/2 tsp. dried basil, 1/4 tsp. dried oregano, and 1/4 tsp. salt.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, & simmer for about 15 minutes.

(Obviously, I used a huge soup pot... overkill.  A large sauce pan will be fine).

3.  Stir in 1 cup diced zucchini, and cook 3-4 more minutes.  I also added 1 cup of diced summer squash (yellow squash).

(Taken with my phone... much better!)

This was absolutely delicious!  Yes, I'm eating soup on a 100 degree summer day.  No, I don't know what's wrong with me.