Happy black freckled bananas

I actually don’t eat bananas.  They’re mushy.  I don’t like mushy.  BUT…when those bananas get black and freckly my friends…I know exactly what do to with them.  BANANA BREAD!  I am always on the lookout to find the best banana bread recipe I can, and try to make it lower fat than the original recipe.

I went back to the guru, Deb, for inspiration http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2006/11/speckled-for-the-freckled/

The recipe called for 3-4 bananas.  Last time I made banana bread, my husband said it was “too banana-y,” so I opted for 3.  In retrospect, I would have done 4.

The recipe called for 1/3 cup melted butter.  I always try to 1/2 whatever the fat is and replace the missing half with applesauce.  This has resulted in many successes and many defeats.  Sadly, butter doesn’t come with a 1/6 mark…so I had to eyeball it.

This tiny little measuring cup is so seldom used…but worked great for estimating 1/6 cup applesauce.
The recipe didn’t call for it, but out of habit, I mix all the “wet” ingredients together, in goes the butter, egg, sugar, vanilla, salt and spices…sadly, no bourbon.
Mix the wet into the dry…

Now, here.  Here is where I throw all my efforts to make this low fat as possible away.  I believe that banana bread needs chocolate.  They were meant to be together.  As such, in goes about a cup of chocolate chips, and the remains of my mini chocolate chip bag…I’d estimate about 1/4 cup of mini chips.
 Deb divided in into two little pans.  I stuck with one.  Into the oven at 350 it goes

Approximately 50 minutes later….chocolate chip banana bread happiness.  It was a little dry, and frankly not my favorite banana bread recipe to date.  But, it was good…this just means I get to keep trying new recipes!

 Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.

Onions and potatoes

The thing I like about cooking vs baking, is with cooking, sometimes a recipe can merely serve as a guideline.  You can alter it a little here and there without destroying the end result.

  

I hate onions, but Cipolline onions are one of my favorite sides.  I went to a friends house years ago and she made them.  I came across this recipe, and decided to try them myself!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/potatoes-and-onions-recipe.html
The trick is boiling the onions for about 3 minutes to make peeling them easier.

  
Then  throw them in some cold water to stop the cooking.

I substituted russet potatoes and sliced them thin.  Instead of rosemary, I used thyme.  I also sprinkled in some garlic powder.

  
Throw them in at 400 and roast about 40 minutes.

While this was roasting I started the chicken.  I love marinating chicken in sundried tomato dressing and grilling it.

  
I wanted a fresh tomato sauce to top the chicken.

I used http://www.myrecipes.com/m/recipe/chicken-with-tomato-sauce as a guideline. Just the sauce- not the chicken parts.

  
Garlic and cherry tomatos.  Added in the chicken stock and simmered until the tomatos mushed.

  
I added in a bunch of oregno and salted to taste.

  
Dinner is served 👍👍🍷🍷

Dear Men’s Health….

Pinch.  Dash.  Smidgen.  Squirt.  Glug.  GLUG?  GLUG!?!?!?!?!

Dear writers of recipes:  I hate these words.  These words are not measurements.  Cup…teaspoon, for goodness sake, I’ll even take mL.  These words go along nicely with items like the below, which are used for, you know, MEASURING.

My husband is a common contributor to the piles of recipes we have in the house.  He’s a foodie too, and has been known to make some tasty things in the kitchen.  (He made me a chocolate chip cookie pie with bourbon about two weeks ago…OMG).  However, the recipe he pulled this week included these dreaded words: a “big spoonful,” “squirt” and “glug.”

You have to be kidding me.  Thankfully, it was a soup recipe, which is forgiving and can be played with until it tastes right.  We’re turning these items:

 

into tasty Thai Curry Soup.  First tip: low sodium chicken stocks.  I’ve found that Rachel Ray’s regular stock is usually less sodium than many “reduced sodium” stocks.  Her brand of “low sodium stock” is the lowest I’ve seen.

This recipe also utilizes that favorite ingredient of mine: rotisserie chicken!  The goal of the original recipe is low carb, however, I made up some basmati rice because this was going to be our whole dinner.

For one serving the ingredients were as follows:

2 cups chicken stock

A “big spoonful” of Thai red curry paste

A “few squirts” of fish sauce

A “glug” of coconut milk

Juice of a lime

handful of shredded chicken

I was doubling this recipe.  I also wanted to have actual measurements.  I went with:

4 cups of chicken stock

2 tablespoons of red curry paste

1.5 tsps. of fish sauce

1/3 cup of coconut milk

juice of 2 limes

2 cups of shredded chicken

Add all of your ingredient (except the chicken) to a pot, and bring to a boil.  When I mixed these all in, I found the lime overpowering.  As such, I ended up adding a little more paste and coconut milk.  In retrospect, I think I would use 3 cups of stock and only 1 lime.

Lower to a simmer and add rotisserie chicken.  I added about 2 cups.  Let the chicken soak up all that goodness.

The recipe called for it to be topped with Serrano peppers and mint.  Mint didn’t sound so great to me, and I had jalapenos in the house.  As such, we topped with cilantro and jalapenos and a “squiggle” of sriracha.

I added a big scoop of rice to the bottom of the bowl and poured the soup over it.  We found the soup to be a little thin- I think reducing the stock to 3 cups, and maybe using a full fat coconut milk would have made it a little thicker.  We both enjoyed it, but I think we’ll tag this one under “work in progress.”