Blueberry Almond Yogurt Banana Bread

I love putting yogurt in banana bread! Yogurt just adds a delicious creamy-moistness. Mmm! This is a wonderful recipe, specifically for using yogurt.
I made a batch of this and divided it into two freezer bags, labeling them for later. That way when I want some sweets I can just grab it out and bake it :) You could, of course, just bake a couple of loaves and freeze them, which is really faster. But I'm using the oven for other stuff, so this is just easier.

Blueberry Almond Yogurt Banana Bread
adapted from RecipeZaar

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 3 medium)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup yogurt (I used vanilla)
• 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/4 chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (or get a couple of freezer bags ready).
Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, beating well. Beat in bananas and vanilla until well blended. Stir dry ingredients together and combine with first mixture. Stir in yogurt and nuts. Pour into 2 small greased loaf pans or one large pan (or freezer bags).
Bake for about 1 hour for small loves or 70-80 minutes for larger.

This bread bakes a little longer than some banana breads. The yogurt adds a lot of moisture, so it takes a little longer to get done! Its sooooo worth it though.
These would make wonderful muffins, too.
You could use any kind of yogurt. I've seen a lot of banana breads with plain yogurt. I've also had success making this bread with a single-serving cup of flavored yogurt (such as peach!). Lots of room for creativity with this one.

No-Flour Brownies

OR Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Banana Brownies REDUX

This is another brownie recipe. Yay for brownies, right?
Actually I was going to make the same brownies for A&S this evening BUT I realized I don't have any flour :(
But I've seen flourless brownie recipes before. So I did a little research. SThese are technically gluten-free!
This recipe is from Like Merchant Ships but topped with almond butter, chocolate and bananas, of course <3

Flourless Chocolate Brownies
from Like Merchant Ships

2 squares unsweetened chocolate (or about 1 cup of chips)
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar (or Splenda, or 1/2 of each)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325.
Butter/foil/parchment a square pan.
Melt chocolate and 1 stick of butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of sugar. Add 2 eggs along with vanilla; beat like mad. Dump the whole thing quickly into the pan. Stuff this pan into preheated oven for 40 minutes.

For the topping:
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup Almond Butter
1-2 bananas, sliced

Melt chips and almond butter together in a pan or double boiler. Spread over top of cooled brownies, top with banana slices. Let chocolate cool and harden before cutting into squares.

Baked Mac + Cheese

Mac and cheese is one of the ultimate comfort foods. That and chicken 'n dumplings. Oh, and chocolate cake... :)~
I've seen a lot of shows on the food network involving baked Mac n Cheese, but I actually haven't ever made it myself. Yeah, I actually stick to the boxed, powdered cheese sauce kind... Sad but true. Meh X(
But from here on out, I may just go all out and do it this way. Its absolutely wonderful. It could easily make a fancy meal with some garlic bread and a nice salad. Or you could take it to your favorite potluck for something casual. Its pretty easy and versatile.

This recipe I grabbed off of the Lottie + Doof site. I used slightly different ingredients, though. They used penne pasta but I used a spiral one called Gemelli. Its really about texture, and I'm fond of spiral-y pasta. But you could probably do this with speggeti noodles if you were despreate, it would still be yummy.
I had some Olive Oil Crackers I'd made a week or so ago that I ground up in the blender to use as bread crumbs. They turned out wonderful! But you could get a similar effect with some Italian seasoned bread crumbs, too. I'd love to try this with panko, as suggested in the origonal recipe - just didn't have any on hand.
Also I used turkey bacon instead of "real" bacon. Just what I had on hand, and I'm quite fond of turkey bacon, tastes less greasy to me. Thats just me tho, if you're a bacon fan, go all out. Tip: I cooked up a bunch of bacon at once, saved some for salad topping <3

Baked Mac + Cheese
from Lottie + Doof

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 3 slices cooked, crispy bacon, diced
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes or red pepper powder
  
• 2 small garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 cups whole milk
• 3 cups coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 4 ounces Mascarpone or cream cheese
  
• 3/4 cup panko or Italian bread crumbs
  
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 pound pasta with texture of your choice, cooked Al Dente
  

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in large deep skillet over medium-high heat. Add bacon and cook until crisp. Use a slotted spoon to remove bacon to paper towels to drain. Remove all but about 3 tablespoons of fat from the pan (if you're using "real" bacon). Add onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add red pepper and garlic, stir for 1 minute. Stir in 2 tablespoons butter, allow to melt, and then add the flour and stir for a minute. Gradually whisk in 3 cups of milk; simmer until thick enough to coat a spoon, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in 2 1/4 cups of cheddar and all of the Parmesan cheese and marscapone. Return bacon to sauce and season with salt and pepper, stir in parsely.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Lighly butter a 13×9x2 inch glass baking dish or similarly sized gratin dish. Toss pasta and cheese sauce and season again with salt and pepper, if needed. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish and top with remaining cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake until hot and topping is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Banana Brownies!

Almond Butter Dark Chocolate Banana Brownies
Makes 1 Pan of brownies (serves at least 10)


Brownies:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup self-rising flour*
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* or 1/2 All-purpose flour plus 3/4 tsp. baking powder plus an additional 1/4 tsp salt

Topping:
1/4 cup Dark Chocolate Chips, melted
1/4 cup Almond Butter
1-2 Bananas, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8x8 or 9x9 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add eggs, and mix well. Combine the flour, cocoa and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the vanilla. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are firm. Cool.
4. Spread Almond Butter evenly over top of brownies, then spread Chocolate over top. Top with banana slices. Let chocolate cool and harden before serving.

The picture of the brownies is very ugly but these are so delicious. Try soaking the banana slices in lemon juice so they don't get brown and ugly (obviously, I didn't do this). Still really really good no matter what. You can use peanut butter too, but I happened to have Almond Butter on hand.
These should be cut into SMALL squares bc they are very very rich.
<3>

Things that Look Nice

Sometimes I come across a recipe that looks really good. Only its not so tasty. This is one of them. All the ingredients and methods make it sound really yummy, but the end result isn't quite as satisfying.


Basically they are shredded, cooked, chicken mixed with spices and veggies (such as spinach, ricotta & olives or curry, apples and cinnamon), wrapped in egg roll wrappers and baked. Sounds good, right? Like appetizers at Chilis!
The problem is, when you BAKE eggroll wrappers, they get HARD. So what you're essentially eating is a hard, semi crunchy crust.. and not the yummy kind of crunchy. The half-baked, half-teeth-breaking kind of crunchy. :( <--- sad face.
I imagine these would be wonderful FRIED.
If I would allow myself to purchase and use a nice fryer... I would probably make these all the time.
I think these would be wonderful, baked, in puff pastry. Next time I've got some pastry laying around, I think I'll give that a try.

Stuffed Chicken!

Chicken is such a versitle food. One of my favorite ways of eating chicken (besides fried, of course *EG*) is Stuffed! Here are a few recipes I've done recently, that turned out wonderful!
They're both kinda fancy. You can serve them with pasta or garlic bread, for a more full meal.

Olive Feta Stuffed Chicken
2-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup Crushed rice cereal (or bread crumbs), season with salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten

Stuffing:
1/2 cup olives (I used large black canned ones)
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1-2 Roma tomatoes
A handful of mushrooms
1/4 cup Feta cheese
1 tsp dried basil (or 1-2 leaves fresh)
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper

1. Place stuffing ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse till its somewhat pasty. A bit like this:2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Heat a large skillet with about 1/4 c olive oil, medium heat.
4. Take each chicken breast and, with a sharp knife, carefully slit a deep pocket in the middle. Stuff with Olive mixture, secure open side with kebab skewers or toothpicks.
5. Dip each piece in egg, then roll in the crumb mixture.
6. Pan fry until nicely browned and crispy on each side, about 5-7 minutes each.**
7. Then place on a baking tray and bake until done 30-45 minutes (depending on size of chicken breasts).

Serve with pasta flavored with a little Parmesan and pepper.


** Time Saver Tip: At this point, you can pop these in the fridge or freezer to bake later.


Lemon Pepper Chicken Stuffed with Grapes
I love this recipe. Its great! Its really fast, as far as prep time. Oh and its delicious :)
You dont have to use a rack, the chicken will cook wonderfully in its own juices. Using a rack makes it a little neater, a little more crispy all over. Just depends on how you like your chicken.

1 Whole Chicken (inside bits removed)
4 Lemons, sliced
1/2 Onion, chopped chunky
2 cups purple, seedless grapes
A generous seasoning of Salt, Pepper, Rosemary, Thyme, Oregano and Basil
1 cup White Wine

A baking rack that fits snugly into your baking dish. Or a roasting rack. Optional.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Stuff chicken with grapes, onion and lemon slices. Rub bird all over with olive oil.
3. Place chicken into pan (on optional rack) and liberally season it. Tuck remaining lemon slices, onion and grapes around chicken and into spots like between the legs and wings, etc. as shown.
4. Bake for about an hour, basting with juices and wine every 20 minutes or so. Bake until done though and juice runs clear when cut.


Serve with baked potato wedges for a casual meal or fancy veggies and bread for a nice dinner.

Rice Omelet

You can make an omelet out of leftover food! Its easy, frugal and generally delicious!
Today I made an omelet from yummy leftover Mexican style rice from Rosa's!

I always get the family fajita meal from Rosa's (Mexican restaurant). It comes with loads of freshly made flour tortillas, 1lb of smoked, grilled, seasoned beef strips, grilled veggies, refried beans, Mexican style rice, cheese, salsa, sour cream, etc. Loads of stuff, all fresh and delicious!!
Usually, the next day, I have a bit of condiments leftover. Mostly rice and beans and sometimes veggies. Here is my 'recipe':

Leftover Mexican Rice
Leftover veggies (bell pepper, onion, etc), chopped
4 eggs, beaten
Salt and Pepper
Sour cream, refried beans, salsa - optional condiments

Heat skillet to medium heat, like you're going to scramble eggs.
Put the rice in and shape it with the spatula to make it round and flat enough that you can flip it later. Top with veggies and then pour on eggs. Let cook for 3-4 minutes, then carefully flip. Cook again for a few minutes, till eggs are cooked through. Serve!




Also try leftover chili in a couple of eggs with some cheese. Yumm.