This Sh*t Is B-A-N-A-N-A-S

My favorite fruit is easily the banana. It is versatile, full of potassium, and is easy on the tummy. Whenever I have a banana going bad at the end of the batch, I throw it in the freezer for a rainy day. And when that rainy day comes, I make a delicious banana bread to have breakfast with my coffee for the week.

Every cooking site known to man had a handful of recipes to offer, but I decided to go with the simplest of them all. The fewer the ingredients, the better IMHO. And Real Simple had just the recipe for me. I had all the ingredients, and got tons of compliments at work 😉

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe (brownish) bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

No electric mixer necessary! Preheat your oven to 350. With a wooden spoon, mix melted butter into mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the top of the mixture and then mix in. Add the flour last, and mix one last time. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for one hour. Cool on a rack and slice to serve!

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Italian Night Menu

I am kind of a funny eater.

1. I am slow as F

2. I like each bite to be perfect.

3. I like a few bites of a lot of things more than a lot of bites of one thing

Since my habits can be embarassing/impractical/financially burdensome, I tend to cater my home cooked meals to my weird taste. A few small dishes is more along the lines of what I like, so that is exactly what I did…

The menu: Italian

Dishes:

 

Plump farmer’s market tomatoes, buffalo mozza with sea salt and cracked pepper, drizzled in olive oil. There isn’t much better than this simple dish, but for an extra savory twist, I added a scoop of basil pesto from Trader Joe’s. This can be downsized to a smaller portion, but I just love my caprese so I went all out with this one.

 

Since I indulged on the first course, I went with a gluten free corn pasta instead of your typical store bought variety. Next on my list of culinary skills to conquer is homemade pasta, but that will come later. I love love LOVEEEEE peas in my pasta, especially with some fresh grated parm and red chili flakes.

And this little rammekin of goodness is the product of my last batch of spaghetti squash. Sometimes I use meat in my sauce, but since I opted to bake this little bit, I just went with a basic homemade marinara that was low sodium and used fresh herbs from my garden.

Italian is my favorite cuisine of all, but soon I will be trying other varieties like Mexican and Mediterranean. What kind of menus do you like to make?

DIY Salsa Fresca

In case you haven’t noticed, the theme for my recent food posts is quick & easy. Since I just wrapped up planning my biggest event of the year (NBD), I was so busy and stressed from work, I barely had time to eat or sleep. To avoid collapsing, snacking on little meals here and there was essential to keeping me fueled. Suja juices, Clif bars, trailmix, carrots and hummus and avocado on toast were my main staples. But, I have been wanting to try something new in my food processor, and chips and salsa sounded like a nice, festive treat.

I probably could have made a much more impressive recipe, had I had the time and energy, but this simple DIY recipe was so good, I scarfed the entire batch!! Not in one sitting though… flaxseed chips & salsa replaced cheese boards when guests came over, and the leftover remnants were the perfect addition to my homemade taco salad (post coming soon!)

Ingredients:

2 large tomatoes (I used the from-the-vine variety from Trader Joe’s)

1/3 red onion, roughly chopped

2 minced cloves of garlic

a handful of fresh cilantro

juice from one lime

salt, pepper and cayenne to taste

1 jalepeno pepper, for an extra kick 😉

Directions:

Throw it all into a food processor and press GO! Boom, easiest snack on the planet.

Homemade Hummus

Hummus has got to be one of the world’s greatest snacks. Gluten free, low in fat, good on just about anything, and easy to make at home. I used to buy Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Hummus (still my store bought fave) or splurge on the 3 for $10 deal at the Farmer’s Market, but after investing in a food processor on my most recent Walmart outing, I have decided to make my own from here on out. When I was in Israel, I noticed that the homemade variety was far superior to any store bought I had ever tried, so I decided to give it a go last weekend. I made one plain batch, and one with some spicy Roma Tomato Basiltops Pesto mixed in, and both were gone within an hour. The base recipe I used was courtesy of Google, and was the perfect size for my little food processor. All you gotta do is throw in the ingredients, and process until you reach your desired texture. Note: homemade hummus tends to be a bit thicker than the kind from the store, but is soooo much tastier!

Ingredients:

• 1 16 oz. can of chickpeas
• 1/4 cup of liquid from the can
• 3 – 5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 tbsp. tahini
• 2 minced cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• + 3 – 5 fresh basil leaves chopped
• + 2 – 3 tbsp. Roma Basiltops Pesto, or any other pesto, herbs or roasted veggie

** Best served with pita chips, warm pita bread, carrots (fave), salami, on a bagel, the options are endless! Enjoy 🙂

Homemade Hummus Before

Homemade Hummus After

Prep Day: Macadamia Crusted Salmon, Grilled Bok Choy, Coconut Rice & More!

As I continue on the path of finding balance in my life, Spring has really thrown me for a spin. Wedding season is upon us, the weather is great so I am spending a lot more time outside, and we have a new restaurant opening in just a few weeks, all making my schedule pretty crazy. Luckily, my prep day ritual has stood the test of time (with the exception of a few weekends I spent partying away from home) and I am back at it with more ready-made meals for the weeks when I have no time to cook after all my hours at the office/meetings/events/workout’s.

This week, I made some fresh and easy breakfast’s and lunches so that come dinner time, I could indulge in a few more calories following my workout’s. I set out to Trader Joe’s with a vague idea of what I was looking for, and left with a menu designed to provide me some much needed vitamins and minerals.

Breakfast:

Sliced strawberries & banana

Flaxseed Oatmeal w/ apples & cinnamon

Snack:

Trailmix

SUJA Juices (Lately, I am hooked on Green Machine and Lemon Love)

Lunch:

Kale Salad w/ TJ’s Healthy 8 Chopped Veggie Mix & Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette

Dinner:

Macadamia Nut crusted salmon w/ coconut jasmine rice + grilled bok choy

The only meal prep I had to do for this – aside from slicing produce, one of my favorite things to do, oddly enough – was for dinner. All of the components of this dish were SUPER easy. Start with the rice, since it takes the longest. Simply cook jasmine rice in a rice cooker as normal, but exchange the water for coconut milk (optional: add shredded coconut). Once you have that cooking, you will want to create your crusting mixture. I used 1/3 cup each: crushed macadmia nuts, breadcrumbs and panko crumbs. I added some basil and lemon to give it a fresh taste, and mixed it with some melted butter to give it sticking power. After coating your fish, simply cook at 375 for about 15 minutes or until it looks to your liking, and serve over rice. As an easy Asian inspired side, I grilled up some bok choy with a little chicken broth and soy sauce. Complimented the sweet flavors of coconut and mac nuts perfectly!