Banana Chocolate-Peanut Butter French Toast Sandwiches

Let me start by saying that tonight's dinner was a really special TREAT!  Tonight marks the last long night of Dan's week on-call, and I was looking for something easy, and a little outrageous;)  Plus, J's upcoming birthday is another fun, celebratory thing on the horizon.  The inspiration for this meal came from a somewhat similar recipe in a Cooking Light Magazine.

I made my vanilla bean French toast, but instead of using challah bread, I used whole wheat.  After the French toast was finished, I spread some chocolate peanut butter onto the bread, and then finished it off with some banana slices.  I topped the peanut butter-banana bread with a second piece of French toast to form a sandwich, and voila...Indulgence!

J thought this was just the best, and had a nice chocolate peanut butter mustache at the end of the meal.  I held back a bit, and gave little L some plain peanut butter on her French toast...no chocolate needed for her yet!  Don't expect to see this show up for dinner again for a while;)

Carrot Cake Muffins

3 c carrot, grated
1/2 c raisins
1 scant c brown sugar
1/3 c canola oil
3 eggs
2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c unsweetened grated coconut

Preheat oven to 350 F. 
In a large bowl, mix the carrot, raisins, sugar, oil, and eggs.  Stir well to combine. 
In a medium sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt together.  Add the dry ingredients to the carrot mixture and mix thoroughly to combine.
Fold in the coconut.
Place about 1/3 c of the batter into each muffin tin and bake for about 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  It's important not to over bake!

The muffins were a slight variation on my carrot cake recipe.  It was time to celebrate J's upcoming birthday (I cannot believe this kid is going to be 3!!!!) at school, and they like parents to bring in "healthy treats" for the birthday celebrations.  Since I love to bake, I didn't want to bring in the usual treat, all-fruit popsicles, but I wanted to do something that wasn't frosted and had some redeeming qualities!  Since we celebrated J's first birthday with the carrot cake, I thought that it would be fun to do a variation, and in a "cupcake" (or muffin to the rest of us!) form. 

These muffins turned out GREAT!  The kids seemed to enjoy them, J's teachers loved them, as did little L and I.  The coconut added a wonderful moistness to the cake, and didn't add much at all in the way of taste...just what I hoped it would do!  And, these muffins were sweet, but not too sweet.  Next time I might branch out even more and try to make them with white whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or some combination.  I didn't want to mess with the results for a birthday at school too much;) 

Sesame Salmon with Spinach Salad and Miso Vinaigrette

We had another home-run of a meal around our house tonight!  This recipe for salmon with spinach salad and miso vinaigrette came from the April edition of Cooking Light Magazine.

I kept the recipe pretty much the same, but I did trade out the canola oil for olive oil.  I also made sure to liberally sprinkle the salmon with sesame seeds after cooking, as well as the salad.  This meal was a cinch to throw together, and the dressing was made while the salmon was searing in my cast iron pan.  The dressing on the salad was phenomenal, and it went perfectly with the fish itself.  The kids enjoyed eating the cucumber ribbons, and J loved his salmon.  My only complaint (if you can even call it a "complaint") was that the salad ended up being rather wet from the cucumber.  Next time I might try to drain the ribboned cucumber before mixing it with the spinach and the dressing.

Oh, and a new discovery tonight...little L loves cucumber!

Coconut Banana Bread

Adapted from Mark Bittman's Banana Bread Recipe
6 tbs butter, melted
1 c whole wheat pastry flour
1 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 scant c sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c grated unsweetened dried coconut


Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix the butter, sugar, banana, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, and baking powder.  Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture, and mix until just combined.  Fold in the coconut, and place into a load pan.  Bake for about 45-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Enjoy!

So for a long time now people have been bugging me to trying Mark Bittman's banana bread recipe.  Followers of this recipe tell me that this bread cannot be beat...that it's flavorful, moist, and all around perfect!  Well, I really LOVE my banana bread recipe, but I thought it was finally worth a try.

I decided to do a slightly modified version of Mark's recipe because I wanted more whole wheat pastry flour (my new obsession!), and slightly less butter.  I find that the bananas add so much moisture and richness to bread that they often don't require the fat or sugar most recipes call for.  Plus, once you add coconut to anything, you're just about ensuring a moist result.  I have to admit to being amazed at the textural change that occurred almost immediately to the batter once I added the coconut.  It was obvious that this bread couldn't be dry...

Ok, I know some of you are waiting for it, so here's my report:  I really like this bread, but I would venture to say that it must have "coconut" in its title.  The flavor is decidedly less "banana-y" than my recipe, and the coconut is certainly detectable.  I did really enjoy the textural contrast that the coconut lends to this bread, and I was also amazed at the lightness in color and flavor over-all.  I do think that this bread is slightly more dense than my recipe, although certainly not in a bad way.  The bottom line here is that my recipe is still my favorite (sorry Mark and all his followers!), but this is a wonderful alternative when I want something with less emphasis on the "banana"!

Cake, Trail Mix, and Pizza!

 Today was a packed day full of an Earth Day Celebration that included a concert from J's favorite band.  On the way home from the concert, J asked if we could make "chocolate cake".  Normally, I'm not so easy to persuade, since I like to think that I don't let my kids eat too much junk...but, with D working nights, it's always fun to have a project, and D appreciates a good sweet during the wee hours of the morning!

Of course since it's still me, I searched around to find a really easy, but still somewhat "healthy" recipe.  I came across a recipe for One Bowl Chocolate Cake, which couldn't have fit this description any better!  This cake uses my new favorite baking ingredient: whole wheat pastry flour, and it really couldn't have been easier.  I think the whole thing was whipped up in less than 10 minutes!  I didn't have any buttermilk in the fridge (well, I did have some, but it has spoiled a LONG time ago!), so I made my own using milk and lemon (see the note in the recipe if you need help).  This was also the perfect excuse for me to use my new Nordic Ware Cathedral Bundt Pan.  This cake was fabulous (as was the pan)!  It was incredibly moist, despite the lack of butter, and it wasn't too sweet (which is just what I like in a chocolate cake).  J really loved it as well.  It's perfect on its own, but if you want to be really bad, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream;)

In addition to supplying D with cake to face his long nights, I thought I'd earn even more "awesome wife points" with some trail mix.  I love trail mix because it's easy, delicious, healthy (enough!), and a wonderful pick-me-up with some sugar and protein...not to mention other vitamins/minerals from the nuts and seeds.  This variety was made up of walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, raisins, yogurt-covered raisins, and chocolate chunks.  I went really light with the chocolate chunks, and the only salt in here was with the sunflower seeds.  This is a super tasty blend, and I'm excited to have it stored in a container on the counter for my snacking too...

Dinner tonight was a great new recipe, but I'm sorry to say I forgot to snap a picture.  It was a Giada Di Laurentiis recipe for Arugula, Ricotta, and Smoked Mozzarella Pizza.  Of course I used my pizza dough recipe (I just defrosted a dough I had tucked away in the freezer), and I skipped the smoked mozzarella and used the un-smoked variety.  I actually used about half of the mozzarella cheese (1 cup), and it was delicious.  The kids liked the pizza too!  Another one for the arsenal...

The blogging has been certainly suffering at bit around here lately, so I'm sorry.  We've been really busy lately, and a lot of our meals have been repeats, so I haven't bothered making the time to sit down and write.  D starts another week of overnights tonight, so we're gearing up for a LONG TOUGH week!

Tonight's dinner is old favorite: pretzel crusted chicken, sweet potato fries, and sweet red cabbage.  I knew that both kids would love this one as much as D and I do, so it was an easy choice to kick off this week.  As expected, the kids couldn't get enough.  (Poor little L didn't get to partake in the mustard dipping sauce because it has honey in it...a "no-no" for anyone under one.)

Two nights ago, I made a variation on another great go-to dish: arugula walnut pesto pasta.  For this variation, I left out the grape tomatoes, but added some blue cheese crumbles and chopped walnuts on top of the spaghetti...delicious!  It really made the meal seem much richer, and added another dimension of flavor.  I've really been loving walnuts lately:)

In other food notes in our house, our children never cease to amaze me.  We already know how much J LOVES sushi, but we gave little L her first taste for lunch (no raw fish, just avocado and cucumber), and she was in heaven!  Never underestimate the sophistication of a little person's palate!

Peanut Crusted Tofu Tacos

Tonight I made these peanut crusted tofu tacos from a recipe in the latest Cooking Light Magazine. These completely fit the bill of being kid-friendly, easy, healthy, and absolutely delicious. The tofu was super-crunchy on the outside, and full of flavor. I actually might try skipping the flour-dredging step because I am not sure it was really necessary here...the coconut/egg mixture seemed to be thick enough to really sink into the tofu and hold onto the peanut-panko breading. The cabbage slaw offered some yummy flavor, while adding a really hearty crunch! I would certainly make this tofu alone as "tofu-fingers" in place of chicken for a change of pace. Even though D isn't a tofu-lover, he seemed to enjoy this meal.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Oat Cookies

Since last night ended Passover, I decided we needed something really tasty and indulgent to break the fast. We ended up having some friends over to share in a meal filled with greasy, take-out pizza (oh, yum!), so I needed something super quick to do the dessert trick.

A while back I had come across a blog post on Monster Cookies, and bookmarked the link for a future date. Well, last night seemed the perfect time to try these cookies out. I didn't have any Heath toffee bits on hand, so I simply substituted with peanut butter chips that I had bought on a whim a few weeks ago. These cookies literally took about 15 minutes from start to finish, and they were delicious. Full of peanuty-goodness. They were slightly crunchy, slightly chewy, light, and somehow they just seemed to melt in our mouths. Everyone agreed that these were a hit...and our sweet tooth J kept asking for "just one more";)

Rosti and Fried Eggs

Sorry for the slim postings this week, but it's Passover, and per usual, we're not too excited about our culinary options!

This being said, last night's dinner of rosti and eggs was quite delicious! And, it was pretty easy. Plus, I tried a new culinary trick, parboiling, to cut down on the frying time for the rosti.

Here's what I did:
I boiled a couple of whole, unpeeled Russet potatoes in water for about 15 minutes. I removed the potatoes from the water and placed in a bowl in the fridge. After a couple of hours, I peeled and grated the potatoes. I headed about 1 tbs of olive oil in a cast iron skillet, and added about 1/4 c of the shredded potatoes, flattening down to make a pancake. Then, I cooked each rosti for about 5 minutes a side, and voila!

I think that the parboiling actually made the potatoes drier, which aided in a crispier rosti...plus, it certainly cut down on the frying time, which meant less burning! Overall, a success:) I simply served the rosti topped with a freshly fried egg...delicious!

Every time I make rosti and eggs I am reminded of hiking in the Swiss mountains with D a little while before we got engaged. We stopped at the top of a huge mountain for a satisfying lunch of exactly this, and it couldn't have been more perfect. This meal definitely put a smile on my face!

Gourmet Sundaes

This pictures does not do this dessert justice! I know I need to stop and take some more time with the photography on the site lately, but come on, the ice cream was melting...

The other night we had some friends and their daughter (L's age) over for dinner. I wanted to do something fun, delicious, but super simple for dessert...so, I came up with the idea for "gourmet sundaes". These sundaes couldn't have been any easier: vanilla ice cream, walnuts, bananas, and chocolate shavings.

Before the guests arrived, I shaved some very high quality bittersweet baking chocolate using a vegetable peeler. I put the shavings aside in a small bowl. When it came time for dessert, I brought out the ice cream, the bowl with the chocolate, a bowl with sliced banana, and another one with some walnuts. Everyone was able to dish out their own ice cream and toppings, and everyone seemed happy.

I for one can't get over this dessert....and, let's be honest here, it's almost healthy;) We've got some calcium and protein in the ice cream, super healthy walnuts (filled with vitamins and good fats), bananas (packed with potassium), and all the super-powers of the antioxidants in dark chocolate. Why didn't I serve this one up sooner?

Walnut Miso Noodles

Thanks again to Heidi and her amazing blog, we had another fabulous meal! I have to admit to being slightly skeptical about how all the flavors would come together in these walnut miso noodles, but I'm happy to report that the flavors couldn't be more perfect, and this dish was divine!

The walnut-miso "pesto" was nice and thick, so it stuck perfectly to all of the noodles. I decided to top ours with some slightly wilted rainbow chard, chard stems, scallions, and walnuts. D and I were both surprised at how tender and tasty the swiss chard stems were, and how perfectly everything went together. Even though J started out saying that he wanted "noodles with sprinkle cheese (parmesan cheese)", he ended up abandoning his version for ours, and loving them as well! Oh, and did I mention he ate up a whole bunch of the asparagus too? Mommy has a very big "happy face" tonight!

Finally, I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on this new age of technology and blogging. It's incredible to me that in the short just over 2 years since starting this blog, I have been influenced in so many ways by others blogs from around the world. It's amazing that so many blogs can determine what's cooking in my kitchen!

Banana Ice Cream!

So, I've seen blog post upon blog post about "banana ice cream", and in my quest for healthy desserts, I decided to give it a go!

It really couldn't be more simple: Take a couple of ripe bananas, slice them, place them on a plate, and pop them into the freezer for about 3 hours. Remove from the freezer, and place into the bowl of a food processor. Process until smooth...and the consistency of ice cream! Top with chocolate chips, pretzels, mix in peanut butter...etc! Get creative.

I have to admit to being skeptical, but this was fantastic. The consistency was really SO close to ice cream, it almost had me fooled. D absolutely loved it. This is the perfect quick, easy, and healthy dessert!