Banana Bread - TWO ways!

I love banana bread! I love it plain with a glass of milk or with some chocolate chips thrown in. One day I decided to switch it up a bit and came up with these two variations. You can use your favorite banana bread recipe. I like the Classic Banana Bread recipe from Cooking Light. I am including the recipe below with a couple of notes. I usually substitute a cup of whole wheat pastry flour to boost the nutrition. But, I like this recipe because it calls for yogurt. Yogurt helps cut down on the fat without really changing the texture of the bread.

Once your batter is made, then comes the fun part! You can mix cinnamon chips into the batter! I found mini cinnamon chips at a local restaurant supply store called Gygi's. You can order them online at Prepared Pantry too. Or, you could use the Hershey's brand cinnamon chips that you can find at the grocery store, and just chop them up a bit. Cinnamon chips are such a great addition to banana bread or pumpkin pancakes, or oatmeal cookies....or by the handful. Okay, I'm a bit addicted to these little babies.

The other thing I like to add to my banana bread batter is Nutella. Mmmmm...Nutella. Again, just use your favorite banana bread recipe. Mix up your batter and pour half of it into your prepared pan. Then, drop a few big spoonfuls of nutella in and spread it out as much as you can. Add the remaining batter to the top and bake as directed. The Nutella leaves this yummy, moist surprise in the middle of each slice of bread.

Be careful, both of these variations are addicting. You will probably find yourself eating banana bread for breakfast, lunch and snacks! (maybe dinner too!)

Classic Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour (I usually substitute 1 C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, and 1 cup all-purpose)

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)

1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (I use vanilla yogurt)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. (If using a 9inch bread pan, bake for about 50 minutes.)

Did you know?

Did you know that if you cook your buttermilk
syrup until it's a deep amber color...then you refrigerate the leftovers, and it thinkens up...(if you never have leftovers, make a double batch...please!)

It's pretty much caramel?

Caramel that's perfect for dipping apples in or eating with a spoon? Or...probably drizzling on ice cream?

Well, I may or may not have tried one or three of those ideas in the past 5 minutes.

Zucchini ideas and Zucchini Bread

I love this time of year! I'll be posting some fun fall recipes soon...but recently we have been harvesting lots from our garden! Since I'm not a pro at canning (yet!) I have been doing simple things like making freezer jam (raspberry peach...yum!) and shredding some zucchini to freeze and use during the winter. If you like baking with zucchini and you have some big ones from your garden, this is a must!

I made some low fat zucchini cookies while we were shredding.

We had this pasta for dinner this week. I used peppers and zucchini out of my garden. Mmmmmm....

Also, Zucchini Bread! When I have those big zucchini's sitting on my counter, all I want to do is make zucchini bread. Zucchini Bread is so moist and yummy. I experimented with my recipe and made a healthier version so that I can eat it more often, or eat more in one sitting...or (insert here whatever YOU tell yourself to make yourself feel better about stuffing your face).

When I say "healthier", please don't think "yuckier". I really try not to sacrifice taste to make something healthier. I thought this bread turned out really good and I got some good reviews from others as well! I have included the original recipe, and in the parenthesis, I included the changes I made to make it a bit healthier. I may or may not have added a bunch of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips to my "healthier" recipe. shhhhhh!

Zucchini Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour (substitute half whole wheat pastry flour)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil (substitute half vanilla yogurt, so 1/2 C oil, 1/2 C yogurt)

1 C brown sugar

1 1/4 C white sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)

Cinnamon and sugar (optional)

Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch or two 9x5 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl. In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together for 1-2 minutes, or until well combined. Add sifted ingredients gradually to the creamed mixture, and mix just until combined. Stir in zucchini and nuts or chocolate chips. (Tip: Combine nuts and/or chocolate chips in a small bowl with 1-2 tsp of flour before mixing into the batter. Sometimes this helps the nuts and chocolate chips not sink to the bottom of the pan.) Pour batter into prepared pans and sprinkle the top with some cinnamon and sugar. Bake for about 60 minutes (or about 50 minutes for two 9x5 pans), or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Pudding Pops

I receive the Kraft "Food and Family" magazine in the mail every so often. It has a lot of easy family friendly recipes. Well, this time we decided to try the recipe for pudding pops, and it turned out to be lots of fun, and quite yummy! The possibilities are endless!

This is the recipe as written in the magazine:

Cookies and Creme Pudding Pops

1 pkg (3.9 oz) Jell-O Chocolate Instant Pudding
2 C Cold Milk (I used 1%)
6 Oreo Cookies (I used 8...love the Oreo's!)
1/2 C Thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping (used more, like about 1 cup)

Beat pudding mix and milk in a large bowl with whisk for 2 minutes. Place cookies in a resealable bag and seal. Crush cookies using a rolling pin. Add cookies and cool whip to pudding; stir just until blended. Spoon into 9 (I got 12) small paper or plastic cups. Insert wooden pop stick or plastic spoon into each for handle. Freeze 5 hours or until firm.

As most of you know, I have two 3-year-olds, and we had a blast making these together! So, it was fun AND we had a tasty treat to eat during this hot weather. Yesterday we finished off the last of the chocolate pops, and I opened the pantry to see what else we could make. I found banana pudding, and some leftover Nutter Butters....hmmmmmm...

So, we ended up throwing together an other batch with these ingredients:

And again, the kids had so much fun helping! Really...get out the play hammers, it's so much more fun!

And today, we ate another yummy treat!

Banana Nutter Butter Pudding Pops

1 pkg (3.9 oz) Jell-O Banana Cream Instant Pudding
2 C Cold Milk (I used 2% this time, and it was SO creamy!)
7 Nutter Butter Cookies
1 C Whipped Topping, thawed

Beat pudding mix and milk in a large bowl with whisk for 2 minutes. Place cookies in a resealable bag and seal. Crush cookies using play HAMMERS!! Add cookies and whipped topping to pudding; stir just until blended. Spoon into 15 small paper or plastic cups. Insert wooden pop stick or plastic spoon into each for handle. Freeze 5 hours or until firm. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Crunch Snack Balls

I've had this recipe in my "to try" file for a while,
and finally got around to trying them. I follow a few food blogs, including mykitchencafe.blogspot.com, and that is where I found this recipe. The recipe on her blog is huge, and makes over a hundred of these little goodies. I didn't want to waste a ton of peanut butter just in case we didn't love them, so I ended up doing 1/3rd of the huge recipe. If you want the larger measurements, click here.

Anyway, we ended up loving these...even my two 3-year-olds! Yeah! Also, they are pretty healthy, and I liked how they stayed crunchy even after a couple of days of being in the fridge. I rolled them in crushed mini-wheats, which are kind-of pokey. So, next time I think that I'll roll them in something else, like graham cracker crumbs or nilla wafer crumbs. These are great for a summer time treat since they don't have to be baked. Try them!

2/3 Cup Honey
2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Cup Rice Krispies (I used generic...cheaper)
1/2 Cup Grape Nuts (Do NOT use generic grape nuts, they're really gross for some reason)
1/4 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce
2/3 Cup Shredded Coconut
1 Cup Crushed Cereal (I used Honey Nut Cheerios, it's just what I had)
1/2 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips or Butterscotch Chips (I used both, but I would stick with the mini chips in the future because the other chips were too big and you didn't get one in every ball. You could also use raisins or something a little more healthy...but why? :) )
1 1/2-2 C crushed mini-wheat cereal (plain or frosted shredded wheat) or other crumbs of your choice (maybe graham crackers)
3-4 Tablespoons Dry Powdered Milk

Combine all ingredients except for the powdered milk and the crushed mini-wheat cereal. Stir well until all ingredients are combined. Add powdered milk a tablespoon at a time until you get a soft dough-like consistency. I ended up using 3 1/2 Tablespoons. At this point, chill the dough, covered, in the refrigerator for about a half hour. This is not necessary, but it makes them less sticky and easier to roll. (My small Pampered Chef cookie scoop worked perfectly for these, but if you don't have one, just use a spoon.) Scoop out small pieces of dough and roll into a ball. Then, roll the balls into the crushed shredded wheat or other crumbs of your choice. Refrigerate and enjoy!

Halloween Party Mix

I had to get this posted really quick so that you could grab the ingredients and make it this week before Halloween! I ended up taking lots of pictures of this, so hang in there!

I got this recipe from a friend and have been making it every year since, for probably about 7 years now. Warning...it's very addicting, and cute. What more do you need? It makes a great bit bowl full, so plan on giving some to friends or neighbors. Here we go....

First: Stir together in a large bowl:
11 oz Pretzels
½ C Peanuts
8-10 ½ oz package of mini Nutter Butter Cookies (“Nutter Butter Bites”)

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

(This is my new red candy making pan that I got for my birthday...isn't it cute? I've officially used it now! Thanks Mom)

Heat in a heavy bottomed sauce pan until boiling:
1 C Sugar
½ C Butter
½ C Corn Syrup
2 Tbsp Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking Soda

Boil for 5 minutes, stirring continuously. This mixture will turn darker, to kind-of an orange-golden color. Remove from burner and add (this is optional, but I do it because I am in love with Peanut Butter) a heaping tablespoon of creamy peanut butter. Stir until peanut butter is dissolved. Pour mixture over pretzel/peanut mix.

At this point, it should be all shiny and glossy, like this.

Spray an 11x15 cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Pour coated pretzel mixture onto the pan and spread it out as evenly as you can. Bake at 250 for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes until done.

When mixture is done, it should look more like this...not so shiny. But, wait...it will still turn out cute. Don't worry. Let this mixture cool completely. Be patient, I know you want to taste it, but you must let it cool so that it doesn't melt your cute candies.

When cooled, put your pretzel mixture in a large bowl and add: 10 oz Halloween Peanut M&M’s and 18 ½ oz Candy Corn or other Halloween mix. (I used a Brach's mixture that has the little cute pumpkins) Now you can taste it. Get a bite with a pretzel, an m&m, and a candy corn...now shove it in...perfect! Note to self: Try to keep all of the little fingers out of the bowl long enough to take a picture.

Harvest Pumpkin Dip

I am WAY into Fall right now, and Fall to me equals...pumpkin! I got this recipe from my husband's cousin Jessica. It is so yummy and great with apples and pears. I have used light cream cheese in this, and it works just fine. Make sure that your cream cheese is at room temperature.

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin

3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon ground ginger

Apple and pear slices

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Gradually add the pumpkin, pie spice, vanilla and ginger; beat until smooth. Serve with fruit. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 3 ½ cups. (if you use light cream cheese, there are 2.5 Weight Watchers pts per ¼ cup)

Playgroup Granola Bars

We've really been enjoying these granola bars. My little girl begs for them all day long. I was surprised at how good they turned out, and how they really do taste like granola bars! I am going to try some variations next time just for fun. I got this recipe on allrecipes.com, and one of the reviewers said that they like their granola bars chewy, so she only cooks them for 18 minutes and they stay chewy instead of getting crunchy. I baked mine for 20 minutes, just until they were barely browning around the edges. They are chewy and just how we like them! I listed some variations that I made to the recipe below.

Playgroup Granola Bars

2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I only used ½ C)
1/2 cup wheat germ
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used 1 tsp)
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
3/4 cup raisins (optional, next time I'll try dried blueberries)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Generously grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, flour, raisins and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the honey, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well using your hands. Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut into bars while still warm.

UPDATE: Okay, I made these again. This time I used all Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (you can find this at natural food stores, like the "Good Earth". It has the same nutrients and fiber as any other Whole Wheat Flour, but it's ground very fine and is great for this type of thing.) and dried blueberries. Holy Cow...I might be in trouble. They are SO good.

Hummus anyone?

I know, this isn't a very appetizing picture of the hummus, but it really was good. If you haven't tried hummus, you should. It is loaded with fiber and if it doesn't have too much oil in it, it's pretty low fat. You can eat hummus with pita chips, homemade or store bought, or with veggies. I bought these pita chips at Costco, but evidently they sell them at the Good Earth too. This recipe has you make your own pita chips, but I haven't tried that part of the recipe...seems too expensive. You can add more water, or liquid from the beans until you reach your desired consistency. You definitely have to process or blend this for a minute or more for it to be smooth. I added more garlic and more sun dried tomatoes because I liked the flavor. I LOVED this with cucumber slices! I also got this recipe from cookinglight.com. If you don't try the hummus, try the pita chips, they are addicting!


Garlic and Sun Dried Tomato Hummus

Cooking spray
2 (6-inch) pitas, each cut into 10 wedges
1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons chopped oil-packed sun-dried tomato halves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1-2 garlic cloves
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

Preheat oven to 425°. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Place pita wedges on pan, and coat with cooking spray. Bake at 425° for 6 minutes or until golden.
Combine water, tomato, salt, pepper, garlic, and beans in a food processor, and process until smooth. Serve with pita wedges.
Yield 5 servings (serving size: 1/4 cup hummus and 4 pita wedges)

Nutritional Information
CALORIES 175(9% from fat); FAT 1.7g (sat 0.2g,mono 0.5g,poly 0.6g); IRON 1.9mg; CHOLESTEROL 0.0mg; CALCIUM 52mg; CARBOHYDRATE 33.7g; SODIUM 623mg; PROTEIN 6.6g; FIBER 4.5g