Bananananananana Bread! April 28, 2009

By popular demand – my new, low fat, low sugar all taste Banana Bread recipe!

It's low fat and high fiber, but I won't tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

• 3 danged ripe bananas, mashed very well
• 1/4 cup oil (such as canola)
• 5 tbsp vanilla yogurt (I use the fat free, sugar free kind)
• 3/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute, such as splenda, if you’re diabetic, like my dad)
• 2 tbsp vanilla
• 2 eggs, or 1/4 + 1/8 cup liquid egg whites
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

1. Mix together mashed bananas, sugar, vanilla, oil, yogurt, egg whites (or eggs) & vanilla in a bowl
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon & salt in another bowl
3. Pour dry ingredients into the wet, all at once, stirring until moistened, but not over-mixing.
4. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for about 60 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Enjoy!

Seriously, this is a deadly simple recipe, takes all of 10 minutes to put together (including mashing the bananas), and is full of fiber and healthy goodness!

I took a standard banana bread recipe, and lowered the fat by using egg whites in place of eggs, replacing half the oil with yogurt, and adding more banana in place of buttermilk. Because the yogurt I use is sweetened, I also reduced the sugar so it wouldn’t be too sweet. However, if you want to use unsweetened Greek yogurt, or you may want to increase the sugar back up to a full cup.

You can also add things to really make this yummy – try a cup of sultana raisins, chopped pecans, or even… peanut butter chips. The thought of peanut butter, cinnamon and banana together is seriously amazing.

Someone make this and stir in a cup of peanut butter chips and let me know how it turns out!

Sage and Stilton Scones December 23, 2008

Ah… leftover cheese. I’m sure we’ve all seen this after a big Christmas party – there’s always a bit of cheese left over, and you probably aren’t feeling like just eating the stuff straight. We did a big Christmas BBQ at work, and we had quite a bit of Stilton (which is a blue cheese) left over on the cheese plate. So I took it home and came up with this recipe to use it all up, since it’s not the kind of cheese you can sit around and eat absolute mounds of. 

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup stilton or other blue cheese, very finely crumbled
• 1 tsp ground sage
• 3 tbsp liquid egg white 
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter/margarine 

Method:

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sage. 

Cut in your butter with a fork or a pastry blender. I used a fork because I was using margarine, but if you’re using butter, cut it into small cubes first. I also recommend you make the investment in the pastry blender if you want to bake a lot with butter – it’s a half moon shaped series of wires (sort of like a very firm wisk) attached to a handle. ANYHOW…

In a separate bowl, stir together the egg whites (which you purchase in a carton! How wasteful!) and skim milk.

Dump the crumbled cheese onto the flour mixture, then pour the mix and egg white mixture in. Stir up with a fork until the whole thing starts to stick together into a ball of ragged looking dough.

Dump the dough out onto your counter, (add a bit of flour to your counter if it seems to be sticking – mine didn’t need any though), and knead the dough 10 times. 

Flatten the dough into a rectangle, about 7 by 10 inches (I eyeballed this, don’t get out a ruler or anything!) and shape the edges so they’re even. 

Get out a good knife, and cut the dough into six squares, then cut each square in half on the diagonal. 

Place your scones onto a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil, shiny side down, and bake for 20 minutes. The stilton might melt and run out a bit, which is why you put the scones on foil – it keeps clean-up easy!

These are nice because they have a good sharp flavour, but you could really use any kind of leftover cheese to make them. If you were going to use something like swiss or cheddar, I would increase the cheese to one cup though. 

Boursin Scramble with Home Fries September 7, 2008

I love the idea of food that is simply prepared, but uses the fanciest of ingredients. This is pretty foolproof, but it will make you feel like a gourmet chef when you serve it.

Home fries:
1 large russett potato
Sea salt
Pepper
Cooking spray

1. Poke some holes in your potato with a fork. Put it in the microwave on high for 10 minutes, or until cooked. Feel free to use a leftover baked potato and skip this step.
2. When it’s done, slice it up thinly and place the slices in a hot pan with some cooking spray, fry until golden on one side.
3. Sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste, add a bit more cooking spray, and fry the other side until golden brown.

Scramble:
4 eggs
2 tsps low fat boursin
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Splash milk

1. Combine all ingredients into a tall container, and whiz with an immersion blender until frothy. You really do need an immersion blender for this step, or it will not combine right, and you’ll get blobs of cheese and mustard. Plus your eggs will be extra fluffy. Seriously, get an immersion blender, they’re like $30 at Superstore.

Bits:
8-10 sage leafs
2 slices proschutto ham

1. Put ham in a hot non-stick frying pan, and fry until crispy.
2. Remove ham and set aside on a paper towel.
3. Add sage leaves and fry until just browned, set aside.

4. Add a bit of cooking spray to your hot non-stick pan, and add your egg mixture, giving it another whiz if needed. Crumble in your crispy cooked proschutto and sage.
5. Scramble the eggs until done.
6. Devour with home fries, serves two.

French Toast With Red Pear and Ume Syrup September 1, 2008

Ingredients:

6 slices bread
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp brown sugar

Sauce:
2 red pears, sliced
3 tbsp butter/margerine
1 oz Ume (Japanese plum wine)
3 tbsp brown sugar

Method:
1. Mix up eggs, milk, cinnamon and brown sugar very well and put into a shallow bowl. Set aside.
2. In a small frying pan, add sliced pears and butter, and sauté until soft.
3. Add sugar and plum wine, and cook on high heat (7 out of 10) until it cooks down into a sauce the consistency of maple syrup. Keep warm. (I put mine in a 250 oven in a bowl with tinfoil on top.)
4. Dip bread into reserved egg mixture and fry until the French toast is done.
5. Cut each slice in half diagonally and arrange on a plate. Top with half of your warm fruit and syrup mix, and whipped cream.

This is very fancy fare, and you can also serve the pear and syrup on top of ice cream. If you don’t have Ume, you can use Marsala.

Mexican Chocolate Pancakes August 31, 2008

I’m in Calgary this weekend, visiting, and one of the things I love to do is cook a nice breakfast. I made pancakes and made 2/3 of them plain and made the rest into these things, which sound super exotic but are very east to make. Feel free to adjust the amount of chocolate in the pancakes if you want them even gooier. I forgot to take pictures, but I assure you, they were good.

Mexican Chocolate Pancakes:

1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 to 1 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup dark chocolate, chopped up very finely, but leaving some larger bits

Method:

1. Combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Stir well.

2. In a separate bowl, wisk together eggs and 1/2 cup milk.

3. Pour milk and egg mixture into dry ingredients. If mixture is too thick and lumpy add more milk until it’s thin enough for you. The thinner the mix, the thinner the pancake. Don’t overmix though – it makes the pancakes less soft and fluffy.

4. Add cinnamon and chopped chocolate, giving it one final stir.

5. Cook and serve. You can go fancy, with whipped cream and shaved chocolate and more cinnamon. Or just slather in butter and syrup like we did.

Broccoli and Two Cheese Dinner Fritata August 24, 2008

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the bastard father of most of my recipies. If you ever find yourself needing to use up some old broccoli, or a carton of eggs, this is a nice easy way to do it.

Ingedients:

10 eggs
3 medium heads broccoli
Salt
Pepper
1 large, ripe tomato
1 cup shredded cheese (Chedder, Swiss)
Thinly sliced soft cheese (Brie, Camembert)

Materials:

1 12″ springform pan
Cookie sheet
Tin foil
Cooking spray

Method:

Chop and wash you broccoli, then place into a bowl with a very small amount of water and microwave for 5 minutes to partially cook it.
Slice your tomato up thinly (1/8″), and cut your soft cheese to match. Try for 6 slices of tomato and 5 of cheese.
Next, wrap the outside of your springform pan with tinfoil, and spray the inside with non-stick cooking spray. Also, set your oven to 350.
Crack ten(!) eggs into a large mixing cup and stir in shredded cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
Take your broccoli out of the microwave and drain it if needed.

Now, plop that steamed broccoli into the greased pan, and spread out so it covers the bottom.
Now, pour the egg mixture on top.
Finally, arrange the tomato and soft cheese on top of the broccoli.
Gently place pan onto cookie sheet, and then put the cookie sheet into the oven.
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean – about an hour. Then broil for a couple of minutes to brown the top.

Once that’s done, let it sit on the counter for a couple of minutes and release the springform pan. You should have a lovely, firm fritata.

Slice up and enjoy. Feeds four. Serve with ketchup if you’d like. I don’t mind, I love ketchup.

Variations:
Add/substitute:
Thinly sliced and sauted leeks
Mushroom (also cooked)
Bell pepper
Ground chicken

Note: 10 eggs sounds like a lot, but it is divided by 4 – so it’s less than a typical 3 egg omelette, and with a lot more veggies in it!