Banana Bread Recipe

A lot of banana's get eaten in our house. Gabryle absolutely loves eating banana's. The other day I realized he still had a few banana's left that were getting pretty ripe so I decided to make some banana bread so I didn't have to throw the banana's out. It turned out pretty darn good even if I had to tamper with the recipe since I didn't have the full amount of mashed banana's it called for. It still has a great banana flavor. Here is the recipe I used below and I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!!!

BANANA BREAD

2 cups All Purpose Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs, beaten

2 1/3 cup Banana, mashed

1 cup chopped nuts if desired

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten and then add nuts if so using. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

When I made the recipe I only ended up having 1 cup of banana's mashed, so I added to that 1 cup of 2% milk and mixed it together before adding it to the butter mixture. It still had great banana flavor and cooked the same amount of time as stated in the recipe.I didn't have any nuts this time so I omitted them, but plan on using them next time. Enjoy!!!

Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies

Fresh out of the Oven!!

Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies

 So this evening after dinner I had the urge to bake something. I knew we had cocoa powder and peanut butter so I decided I would find a recipe for Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies, but could not find a recipe. Maybe I wasn't looking on the right website or typing in the correct wording for it, so I used my brownie recipe and decided to tweak it. I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but I believe that they turned out quite well! They are chocolaty, but not to chocolaty, and they also have a touch of peanut butter flavor. They are, in my opinion the best! It is for sure a recipe to keep! I've included the recipe below, so I hope you try them and enjoy them!! They are very good fresh out of the oven when they are still warm. Jerrod likes his with some butter melted over the top of them, so there's another suggestion for trying them. I bet they also would be awesome with some vanilla ice cream!

Till Next Time!!!


Melissa's Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup Peanut Butter (depending on how peanut buttery you would like it to be)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 AND GREASE A 9x13 PAN 

1. Mix together the vegetable oil, sugar and vanilla till well mixed in a large bowl. 

2. Add the eggs and mix till well incorporated.

3. In medium bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt till well combined. 

4. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the egg and oil mixture until all is well combined together. Add walnuts if using.

5. Reserve 1/4 cup of the batter and pour the rest into the greased pan. Add the peanut butter and mix till well combined. This will be thicker than the brownie batter. 

6. Spoon the peanut batter into the brownie mix and swirl to your desire. 

7. Put in oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until tooth pick  comes out clean. 

Let cool before taking out of pan.

Peanut Butter Swirled Brownies

Brownies!!

I tried a new brownie recipe tonight and they turned out great! The recipe is one from Alton Brown. I love watching his show, Good Eats. You learn all sorts of things watching his show.  I just wanted to share the recipe with you all!! I highly recommend it!! enjoy!!!
Also check out Kylie's Jokes page. she has some new ones for you!!!

Till Next Time!!!!

Cocoa Brownie Recipe

Ingredients

• Soft butter, for greasing the pan
• Flour, for dusting the buttered pan
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan.

In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients, and mix to combine.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

Barbecued Meatloaf

One of our favorite meals lately has gotten to be meatloaf. I have never really been a big fan of meatloaf, but a little over a year ago I found a recipe that was by Paula Deen, called Barbecued Meatloaf. No it doesn't actually have barbecue in it, but it is really good! This has also gotten to be one of Kenzie's favorite meals we do. I've included the recipe below for you.

Enjoy and Till Next Time!!!

Barbecue Meatloaf

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoons vinegar
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup water, to thin sauce if necessary

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the beef, bread crumbs, onion, egg, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce. Form this mixture into a loaf and place it in a shallow pan. Stir together the remaining tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, mustard, Worcestershire and the water (if too thick). Pour this sauce over the meatloaf. Bake for 1 hour, basting every 15 minutes with the pan juices.

Kenzie's class project

Kenzie and her loaf of bread

Today Mackenzie got to make bread in a bag in her class. Yes I will admit I had never heard of it till her teacher said something about it when we ran into her  at Walmart a few days ago, but it is pretty neat.
I looked up online the recipe and have it included below for those of you who would like the recipe.

Kenzie eating a bite of her bread

Mackenzie told me she was partnered up with a friend of hers and they started to make the bread. Her teacher had everything measured out and they just followed what they were instructed to do and mixed it in the big Ziploc bag that they had.

They did all of the mixing and resting of the dough in their classroom and when it was time to bake the bread they took the sacks of dough and the little pans to the school cafeteria .They used the ovens in there to bake the dough (Of course her teacher and her aide did the baking part, but the kids still had fun getting to help). Mackenzie told me the bread made the whole school smell great earlier while it was baking.

As she came out of her classroom and into the pickup area after school Mrs. Moore, her principal, was glad to see the bread came out so great. It smelled great on the way home and we all tried a piece after we got into the house. (Kenzie had already had a piece while at school, but wanted to share with the rest of us.) The bread tastes really good. I love wheat bread!

I'll have to use this recipe on a rainy day with the kids to give us something to do. You usually can't go wrong with a good loaf of homemade bread!!!

Till Next Time!!!

Recipe for Easy Wheat Bread
Mix in a heavy-duty (freezer) plastic bag:
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast or fast-rise yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water (105° to 115°F)

Close bag, release air and work with fingers until completely blended. Let rest 15 minutes.

Open the bag and add:
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup warm water (105° to 115°F)

Mix well until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bag--about 5 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 5 to 6 minutes. Knead in just enough flour to make a soft dough; it should be a little sticky. If too much flour is added, the final product will be dry and low-volume. Divide dough into thirds. Cover with plastic bag. Let rest 10 minutes.
Press the dough out flat with fingertips into a 4 x 6-inch rectangle. Beginning at a short end, roll the rectangle up tightly like a sleeping bag. With fingertips, pinch the edge to the rest of the dough forming a seam. Fold over the two ends and pinch.
Place dough, seam-side down, in pan.

Cover with bag and let rise until doubled, about 45 to 60 minutes. Bake in a preheated 350°F to 375°F convection oven 15 to 18 minutes; or in a 400F conventional oven for 30 to 35 minutes.
Remove from pans; cool on wire rack.

New Recipe

This year the girls and I tried a new cookie recipe for our Christmas cookies. I didn't want to do our traditional Sugar cookies we have done every year that are usually store bought. So this year we made some Cut Out Chocolate Chip Cookies. They actually are not that bad! I was a little hesitant at first, but I think it was worth it. It's worth putting the icing on the cookies. I didn't use a prepared vanilla frosting but instead made a powdered sugar icing and I think it worked just as well. The recipes are below. Enjoy!


Till Next Time!!

Cut Out Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, softened 

1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

1/3 cup granulated sugar 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 large egg yolk 

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 

2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels, divided 

1 pkg. (16 oz.) prepared vanilla frosting, colored if desired 

Directions

BEAT butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract and salt in large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in egg yolk. Gradually beat in flour. Stir in 1 1/2 cups morsels. Divide dough in half; cover. Chill for 1 hour or until firm.

ROLL half of dough to 1/4-inch thickness between two sheets of waxed paper. Remove top sheet of waxed paper. Cut into shapes using cookie cutters. Lift from waxed paper; place on ungreased baking sheets. Chill for 10 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.

BAKE in preheated 350° F. oven for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Spread with frosting; pipe with melted chocolate.

TO PIPE CHOCOLATE: Place remaining morsels in heavy-duty plastic bag. Microwave on HIGH (100%) power for 45 seconds; knead. Microwave for additional 10 seconds; knead until smooth. Cut tiny corner from bag; squeeze to pipe chocolate.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Powdered Sugar Icing


1 cup powdered sugar
1 TBSP milk or water
1 TSP vanilla
food coloring if so desired

Mix sugar water or milk and the vanilla together until smooth. Add additional sugar if to thin, and a teaspoon of water or milk to thin as desired.
Mix in food coloring then frost on desired food.

Mexican Recipe

Well, we tried another new recipe the other night and it was pretty good. It's Mexican Chicken and Beans. It did have a little heat to it in my opinion, but it was still good! The kids ate it which is a big plus, and it made enough for leftovers for lunch today! I love recipes that make enough to use for lunch the next day or two! Here is the recipe for you:

Mexican Chicken and Beans

1 lb uncooked chicken breast strips for stir-fry

1 package (1 oz) Old El Paso® taco seasoning mix
1 can (15 oz) Progresso® black beans, drained, rinsed
1 can (11 oz) Green Giant® Mexicorn® whole kernel corn with red and green peppers, undrained
1/4 cup water
Flour tortillas, if desired

1. Spray 10-inch skillet with cooking spray. Add chicken to skillet; cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until no longer pink in center.
2. Stir in seasoning mix, beans, corn and water. Cook over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sauce is slightly thickened. Serve with tortillas

I found this recipe on the Betty Crocker website under the diabetic recipes. I also cut the chicken into small bite size pieces instead of making them into strips. It's easier for Gabryle to eat chicken when they are in pieces not strips in meals like this. The next time we do this recipe we plan on maybe adding sour cream when we wrap the food in the tortillas. We might even try them with some of the whole wheat tortillas you can find in grocery stores. This meal was even quick and easy to make that next time I might let Kenzie help me make it.

Hope you enjoy!

Caesar Pockets

Tonight we tried one of the new recipes I found online and it was really good. We made Caesar Pockets tonight, which all in all, is a very simple recipe, and can be made with different variations if you want. Here is the recipe:

Caesar Pockets

4 cups torn romaine lettuce
6 oz. (2/3 of 9-oz. pkg.) OSCAR MAYER Deli Fresh Smoked Turkey Breast, cut into strips
1/4 cup drained roasted red pepper strips
3 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup KRAFT Classic Caesar Dressing
4 pita breads, warmed, cut in half

1. Toss lettuce with the next four ingredients
2. Spoon into pitas

It's a very simple recipe. We used tomatoes instead of roasted red peppers and instead of the grated Parmesan cheese I put in finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese. I also warmed the pita's up before we put the lettuce mixture into them. The kids seemed to really like it. Mackenzie ate 2 half's, lettuce mixture and all. Kylie ate a little bit of her lettuce and all of her pita, and then Gabryle ate all his pita and about half of his lettuce mixture. One of the variations on the Kraft Foods website suggested using Ranch dressing instead of Caesar. We used a Creamy Caesar Dressing instead of the Classic Caesar.

Hope you enjoy if you try this one! We recommend trying it!

Muffins

Kylie has been pestering me for the past few weeks to make some blueberry muffins for breakfast so she can have one for breakfast before she and Mackenzie go to school. I have been hesitant about it, due to the fact that she used to not eat muffins. She asked again all weekend if we can make some muffins, so I looked online last night to find a basic muffin recipe with different variations of muffins, which includes a blueberry variation.

Today I tried the recipe and we did the chocolate chocolate chip muffins, but with no chocolate chips. (I like chocolate but that I think would be too much). They turned out pretty good and the kids loved them! They was just enough chocolate taste to give it a good flavor, but it wasn't an over-powering chocolate taste. Next time we will do the blueberry variation. I want to try the banana nut and the pumpkin spice also.

Here is the link to the recipe I found and have used and will keep using: http://www.grouprecipes.com/72374/basic-muffins-with-variations.html

When I do other variations I'll let you know how they are.

Till Next Time!

Chicken Parmesan Potatoes

Last night we tried a new recipe in our house, chicken Parmesan potatoes. Jerrod found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website a few weeks ago so we decided to try it. I'm glad we did. The kids enjoyed it and Jerrod and  I thought it was pretty good also. the next time we make it, we are going to tweak it a little and maybe try some broccoli or other vegetable with it instead of green beans. Not everyone in our house likes green beans, but surprisingly, they didn't have that much of a green bean taste in this recipe. I didn't use the full bag like it says to, but its still really good. We used the chicken it called for instead of Turkey.

A plus with this recipe, is if you do know a child who's school does Box Tops for Education, the Betty Crocker Au Gratin potatoes have a box top on the box! The school the girls go too collects them and the girls love to be able to turn them when when we have enough to send in. Last year Mackenzie turned in almost $10.00 dollars worth, which is almost 100 box tops. Each one costs $0.10.

Hope you enjoy the recipe like we did if  you try it!
Till Next Time!!!

CHICKEN PARMESAN POTATOES

1 box (4.7 ounces) Betty Crocker® au gratin potatoes

3 cups cut-up cooked chicken or turkey (1 pound)
2 1/4 cups hot water
2/3 cup milk
1 bag (12 oz) Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers™ frozen cut green beans
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Heat Potatoes, Sauce Mix and remaining ingredients except cheese to boiling in 10-inch skillet over high heat, stirring
2. Reduce heat; cover and simmer about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender.
3. Stir in cheese. Let stand 5 minutes