I can’t tell you that this is the best banana bread I’ve ever had.  It is the best one I’ve ever made myself.  The best banana bread I’ve ever had was at the Dona Luisa Bakery on 4a calle oriente in Antigua.  I used to buy a loaf once or twice a week and eat it for breakfast and lunch and dinner sometimes.  I don’t wax poetic about much of the food I encountered living in Guatemala but that banana bread was amazing.  I wish I could replicate it.  But since I can’t, this stuff is pretty darn good.  (Source for photo is Antigua Daily Photo.)

I started with this recipe from All Recipes and added a few things.  I think it is a tasty, moist, and banana-y bread/cake.  (Let’s face it, just because we put it in a loaf pan doesn’t make it bread.)

Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can omit this and use 2 cups of white flour if you prefer)

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup butter (I’ve also used I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter sticks) room temp

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, beaten

5 (ish) over ripe bananas, mashed (about 2 1/3 cup)

In a large bowl, combine first 7 (through walnuts) ingredients.  In another bowl, cream butter and sugar together.  Add eggs, vanilla, and mashed bananas until incorporated.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with rubber spatula or wooden spoon – stir only until incorporated.  Do not over mix.

Pour into loaf pan prepared with non-stick spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

TIPS:

*When poking with toothpick, poke a couple of spots in case you hit a banana chunk.

* I always end up with 1 overripe banana – never 5.  So when I get one that is too ripe, I put it in a ziploc and throw it in the freezer.  I keep adding to the bag until I have enough for banana bread.  They turn black and gross.  Allow to thaw, snip off the end and squeeze the banana out.

* You can mash bananas with a potato ricer or a fork.

Linking to:

I’ve never shared this because it seems pretty simple but I recently had some people over and out of everything I put on the table, this is the thing I was repeatedly asked how to make.  It is truly one of those things where the sum is greater than the parts.  I played around with it after going to a few Italian restaurants years ago that offered a mix of some mystery stuff with olive oil to dip the bread in.  Forgive the sketchy amounts – I don’t measure anything.  I included the photo to give an idea of how it looks pre-oil.

Olive Oil Dip

1 clove fresh garlic, minced (we’ve talked about what happens when you use garlic salt – don’t do it)

More salt than seems advisable (coarser sea salt is best but regular works too)

2 shakes Italian seasoning

2 shakes red pepper flakes

A little more salt

Olive Oil (I use extra virgin – maybe 3/4 cup for a big loaf of bread and a crowd of folks)

A loaf of fresh, crusty bread cut into cubes – Italian bread is good and so is sour dough but any nice bread from the bakery will do

If it all has 30 minutes or so to sit before being eaten, the garlic flavor spreads throughout the oil a bit more but it is good right away too.  Yes, it really is that simple.

I miss the early and mid-90’s when everything was good for you if it was fat free.  It was a carb lover’s dream.  Pasta, rice, bread – all fabulous as long as you didn’t put butter on them.  Somewhere along the way, we realized that wasn’t the healthiest way to eat and I had to grudgingly give up eating rice, pasta, and bread as often.  Everything in moderation.  But we’ve also learned that whole grains are good.  Brown rice started appearing on the shelves of the grocery stores.  Uncle Ben’s Rice has gotten in the game.

Brown rice is a whole grain because the bran layer isn’t stripped (for white rice, they strip the bran layer).  Leaving the bran layer intact means leaving a lot of fiber intact and a few other nutrients and minerals (e.g. magnesium, selenium, and zinc) that are lost when processing it into white rice.

We, like many families, are trying to incorporate more whole grains into our meals.  I have stopped buying white rice except where it exists in a some mixes I buy (e.g. Zatarain’s Jambalaya mix) because switching to brown rice is such an easy change to make.  When the Uncle Ben’s Brown Rice campaign came along, I was happy to sign up.  We had tried the Ready Whole Grain Medleys that came out last year.  (BTW Love, love, love those! The Santa Fe has brown rice, red and white wheat, and black beans.  The Roasted Garlic has brown rice and red and black quinoa.  You pop them in the microwave for 90 seconds and you have a whole grain side dish. Yum!)    But I hadn’t noticed the varieties of brown rice they were offering.

My box arrived packed with Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice, Boil in Bag Whole Grain Brown Rice, and Fast & Natural Whole Grain Instant Brown Rice.  I was especially excited to see the boil in bag variety because I often don’t decide what is for dinner in time to cook traditional rice.  Boil in bag is ready in 10 minutes!  We’ve had both the natural/regular and the boil in bag since my box of rice arrived.  Both tasted great and were no more work than white rice to prepare.  I haven’t made the instant yet because I’m not a fan of instant rice to eat as a side dish but it works great in things like stuffed peppers or sloppy joes so it will definitely get used.  I also so some boxes to give away but because of shipping costs, I will gift it to local folks to try (sorry blog friends).

Last week, Publix has Uncle Ben’s on sale BOGO and with coupons I was able to pick up a couple boxes of the brown boil in bag rice for less than $.50 so we are stocked up for awhile.

Uncle Ben’s sent some recipes to try.  I, sadly, haven’t tried any of them but I will definitely be trying the chicken and brown rice sloppy joes soon.  I included photos of 2 of the ways I’ve used the rice.  First was shredded chicken, peas, and a korma curry sauce over Traditional Natural Whole Grain Brown Rice.  The second photo is a quick side dish I threw together to go with grilled chicken and a green salad.  I used the Boil In Bag Whole Grain Brown Rice, a can of black beans rinsed, a box of frozen corn, and about a 1/2 cup of fresh salsa – threw it all together and YUM! I also used some brown rice in a soup but I didn’t get a photo.

I’ll leave you with a couple of ideas Uncle Ben’s sent for incorporating more whole grain brown rice into everyday meals:

* add cooked whole grain brown rice and blueberries to your whole grain pancake mix

* make your own veggie burgers with cooked whole grain brown rice, chopped veggies, cooked black beans, an egg, and chopped nuts

* use cooked whole grain brown rice in seafood cakes with tuna, salmon, or crab – makes a gluten free alternative to breadcrumbs or crackers

* try a high fiber risotto with by using whole grain brown rice instead of white rice – add veggies to increase nutritional value

Have you made the switch to brown rice? How do you try to incorporate whole grains into your families meals?

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Uncle Ben’s and received samples to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate. Opinions are my own.

This dish tastes like summer on a plate.  Light and fresh and easy.  I bought at Sam’s Club a big package of Roma tomatoes to make salsa but decided to divert some for dinner.

Back when I thought Olive Garden was good Italian food, I would drag my mom there.  The only dish she liked was the capellini pomodoro.  (She is a food snob of the first order. Love you mom.)  When trying to come up with dinner the other night, it was that dish I had in mind. I have to say I was surprised by how wonderful this dish tasted…the ingredients are deceptively simple.

Pasta Pomodoro

Favorite pasta (I use Dreamfield’s almost exclusively and it was a 13.5 oz box…the kids usually eat one of the pastas with added protein and omega-3s)

2 Tbl olive oil

1 medium vidalia onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced (please, use fresh…no jarred stuff and NO garlic salt…a unicorn loses its horn every time you use garlic salt)

1 lb+ Roma tomatoes (err on the plus side of a pound), seeded and finely chopped (seeded means cut the stem out of the top and squeeze them over the sink to get the liquidy gook out…you just want to fruit/flesh of the tomato)

1 tsp sea salt (yes, that is a lot but the tomatoes need it…give the tomatoes some salty love people!)

1 Tbl balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup white wine (you can use 1 Cup broth and skip wine if you wish…but increase the vinegar to provide more acid)

Handful of fresh herbs, chopped finely (I used basil, oregano, and parsley – wish I had had more basil to add)

Red pepper flakes to taste

Freshly grated parmesan or asiago cheese

Cook pasta according to package.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet.  Saute the onion until it starts to brown a little.  Throw in the garlic (don’t burn it – burnt garlic is bitter) for a quick minute.  Add the tomatoes, salt, vinegar, broth, and wine.  Cook 5-7 minutes.  You want the tomatoes to retain their red color and some firmness – you don’t want to turn them mushy.  Turn off the heat and throw in the fresh herbs (if you insist on using dried, add them with the liquids before cooking because dried herbs need time to soften and marry with the rest of the flavors but this recipe really deserves fresh herbs).  Toss the pasta in the pan with the sauce.  Top with red pepper flakes to taste and some freshly grated cheese.  YUM!

Visit Rachel for more Mouthwatering Monday concoctions.

And a little preview of our attempts to stay cool in this early summer heat wave:

My June Cooking Light magazine contained a recipe for Bourbon Baked Beans.  Memorial Day was looming and we were headed to a big picnic the Saturday before.  I decided I would try them for the picnic.  Then I had second thoughts.  Would the many children at the picnic hate the less familiar flavors?  Should I attempt something new and inflict it upon others before trying it myself?  So I took canned beans to the picnic (what? Bush’s does a good job) and made the from scratch beans at home for our own cook out on Monday.

During the cooking process, the Cooking Light recipe and I parted ways.  I decided these beans needed a little more bacon and some brown sugar.  Then I read some other recipes and saw people using coffee.  Later on I decided they needed a little bit of ketchup and mustard and a little more brown sugar.  I also decided they needed a little bit of spice…which I am going to leave out here because it overwhelmed the beans a bit.

A word of warning: if you’ve never had baked beans from scratch, you need to adjust your expectations a little bit.  The beans will not be as soft as the ones from the can no matter how long you soak them or bake them (unless someone knows something I don’t).  They aren’t hard…just firmer.  And a tip – these taste even better the next day so don’t be afraid to bake them and then warm them up the next day to serve.  Also, it is a long process so unless you don’t have plans to go any where don’t start this.

Bourbon Baked Beans (adapted from Cooking Light Recipe click here to see original)

1 lb dried navy beans

6 slices bacon

1 yellow sweet onion, diced

3 1/2 cups water (then more as you cook)

1/2 brewed coffee

1/2 cup maple syrup (the real stuff…the pancake stuff is too sweet), divided

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons bourbon, divided

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup ketchup

1 Tablespoon cider vinegar

Soak beans over night in water.

Drain beans and put aside.  Preheat oven to 350*.  (You can do all of this in a dutch oven if you have one. I do not.)  Cook bacon in large, deep skillet.  Remove from pan and crumble.  Reserve 2 Tablespoons of the drippings in the pan.  Brown the onion in the drippings for 5 minutes or until browned.  Add beans, bacon, 1/2 cup coffee, 3 1/2 cups water, 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup bourbon, Dijon mustard, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce to pan.  Bring to a boil.

Transfer to a large baking pan (I used my big lasagna pan), cover with foil, and bake for 2 hours and 30 minutes.   Stir in 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup maple syrup, ketchup, yellow mustard, vinegar, and remaining 2 Tablespoon bourbon.  Cover and bake.  Check every hour.  If it is getting dry, add more water.  I cooked mine for a total of 5 hours.

Linking to Rachel’s Mouthwatering Monday.

I don’t know about your house, but in mine it isn’t really a holiday until someone is sick.  My poor little Tessa isn’t feeling good.  Fortunately, it just seems to be a cold but she is snotty and whiny and clingy.  I think she caught something at the cook out we attended on Saturday.  Who knows how many germs were floating around in that baby pool?  The girls had a grand time so I tried not to think about it.  Good for the immune system, right?

I’ve got baked beans from scratch in the oven right now…if they turn out yummy I’ll share that recipe next week.  I also made a pretty red, white, and blue cake for Memorial Day.

It is a jello cake.  For anyone who doesn’t know how to make one of these, I’ll share the recipe.  (I originally saw it in Good Housekeeping or Better Homes & Gardens eons ago.)  My husband loves this cake and always requests it as summer rolls around.

Red, White & Blue Jello cake

1 box lemon cake mix

1 large box strawberry jello

1 8 oz tub cool whip

1 pint strawberries

1 pint blueberries

Prepare cake mix in 9×13 pan according to box directions.  Allow to cool

Poke holes all over the top of the cake with the end of a spoon or  a chopstick.

Prepare jello with 3 cups of water (box will say 4 cups – use less).  Allow to cool but not set.

Pour jello over cake.  Make sure it all cool before topping with cool whip.

Top with tub of cool whip.

Slice strawberries.  Alternate strawberries and blueberries in stripes.  (Can use any other berry you like.  Can also make a design with berries – the original cake was for a flag cake which had the strawberries striped and all of the blueberries in the upper left corner to mimic the American flag.)

Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Visit Rachel for more Mouthwatering Monday recipes.

Some cute for those who don’t like my recipes:

Now onto the yum.  I’ve attended several Tastefully Simple parties since moving here.  They have sweet “cheese” balls that I had trouble liking until a friend had an Apple Pie flavored one at her house and I devoured about half of it with the yummy graham pretzel twist thingies.  I can’t justify the cost of some TS items and the graham twist thingies are one of those things (don’t yell at me…I like Tastefully Simple…I just think it is pricey so I purchase judiciously).  I found some ginger pretzel twist thingies at World Market for much cheaper and started thinking they might be good with a lemon cheesecake ball.  And the googling began.

I found several recipes but zeroed in on this one.  I needed an excuse to make it – I couldn’t make it and have it sitting around here or I would eat the whole stupid thing.   I hosted book club last week so that seemed like the perfect excuse.  It turned out really yummy – a nice way to satisfy the cheesecake desire without baking a cake.  I refrigerated it overnight but it never got solid enough to roll it in the graham crumbs so I sprinkled them on top.  I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese so that might be why it wasn’t quite as solid.

Lemon Cheesecake Ball

12 oz cream cheese – that is 1 1/2 bricks (I used the 1/3 less fat)

3 1/2 Tbs sugar

Zest of a lemon

2 Tbs fresh lemon juice

3 full graham crackers, crushed

With a rubber spatula, combine the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add lemon zest and lemon juice and mix well.  Taste – you can add a little more sugar or lemon juice if it needs it.  Wrap in plastic wrap to form a ball – I put mine in a small bowl to form the ball shape.  Refrigerate for several hours until firm.  Roll in graham cracker crumbs or sprinkle them on top.  Serve with graham crackers, animal crackers, etc.

Visit Rachel’s Mouthwatering Mondays for other recipes.

I might have mentioned once or twice that I love guacamole.  What better reason than cinco de mayo to tell you again how easy it is to make?

I had this pile of pretty produce so I made some.  Yum!

Smoosh (w/potato ricer or fork) 3 Haas avocados.

Throw 1/3 of an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 roma tomato, the juice of a lime, the juice of 1/2 of a lemon, a quick squeeze of orange juice and a teaspoon of salt into a food processor and pulse.  If you have cilantro, throw it in too. If not, don’t sweat it.  Mix that up with the smashed avocados.  Then, crumble 2 slices of cooked bacon in there and mix.

Did I mention Yum!?

I’m not sharing this because I have any new twist or ideas or recipe.  I just wanted to share it for anyone who didn’t realize how easy it is (like me 10 days ago).   Strawberries were crazy cheap at Publix last week (4 1-lb packages for $5) so I picked up a bunch and started making jam.  I tried 1 no sugar recipe (packet on the right) and 1 lower sugar (reduced by 25% so don’t think we are talking low sugar) recipe on the left.

The no cook no sugar recipe was super simple.  I pulsed the strawberries in my food processor (you can smoosh them with a potato masher if you prefer).  I combined 4 cups strawberries with 1.5 cups Splenda and the pectin from the packet and stirred.  That was it.  It didn’t taste bad but it didn’t taste great either.  I think I would rather just eat strawberries.  The Splenda (which I use in my coffee and tea and like) left a chemical aftertaste that I wasn’t crazy about.

BUT the lower sugar jam?  YUM.  I might possibly have used Ritz crackers to eat it straight out of one of the containers.

How easy was it to make this incredibly good jam?  Easier than I imagined.  Apparently, you want to be very exact in measurements.  I took off the stems and put them in the food processor and pulsed.  Don’t puree – you want it to be chunky.  You want 4 cups (that was about 2 of the 1 lb containers plus a couple of additional strawberries) of crushed strawberries.  Then you combine 3 cups of sugar (this is 1 time to not eyeball things – measure and level it w/the back of a knife) and the pectin.  Add 1 cup of water.  Bring to boil and cook 1 minute stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add strawberries.  Stir for another minute.  Put into containers of choice.  Allow to sit for 1 day to set up.  Freeze or refrigerate.  It will keep in the freezer for up to 12 months.

That is it.  You know have strawberry jam.  Sabrina likes it on her waffles.  The only problem I ran into was the strawberry pieces floated to the top of the containers.  It still tastes great but if the container isn’t shallow you have jam at the top and jelly at the bottom.  Being a jam making novice I have no idea if there is a way to remedy that.

Visit Rachel’s Mouthwatering Mondays for other great recipes.

*A pretty obvious movie reference

One day last week, I found some beef stew meat on super sale (nearing its sell by date) so I picked it up for $2. I came home and contemplated what to do with it. It was a gorgeous day – not a stew kind of day. I didn’t have anything else defrosted so I didn’t want to freeze it. I was in the mood for Greek food. So I improvised. I marinated the beef in some Greek spices. I made tzatziki sauce based on this recipe.  (I used a whole cucumber and grated it rather than slicing it.  I also used 2 cloves or garlic and a little extra dill because it was a little bland for my palette.)  And I made a big Greek salad with this Greek dressing (scaled down to 10 servings instead of making a gallon).  The dressing has nothing but raves on All Recipes but I don’t know that I would rave about it.  It tastes very much like a dressing in a Greek restaurant…we liked it – Steve more than me probably.  But it wasn’t AMAZING.

I marinated the beef for about 5 hours in this:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons grill seasoning, (I used Montreal Steak Seasoning)

I broiled the meat because our grill is currently out of commission.  I used light original Flatout Flatbread instead of Pita bread for sandwiches (just because it was significantly fewer calories/carbs).  I hadn’t tried them before and they were good.

Verdict: We liked it.  I don’t think I would use that cut of beef again.  But I’m seriously thinking about doing the exact same thing with chunks of chicken this week since we have tzatziki and flatbreads left.  It would also be yummy with chunks of lamb and maybe skirt steak cut into strips.

I’ll link this up to Rachel’s Mouthwatering Mondays once it is up.