Cooking Light's Better Banana Bread

This is a great banana bread recipe. It is the one recipe that my husband's bakes! He makes banana muffins about once a week, and not just because he can't stand to throw away the brown bananas. This recipe was in Cooking Light in 1993 and we have been baking it ever since. It is a very forgiving recipe and he never measures the banana, and substitutes whatever we have on hand, light sour cream or flavored yogurt, and they always turn out delicious.

Banana-Nut Bread

1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 3 small)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt (we usually use low fat sour cream)

1/4 cup margarine, melted (we usually use butter)

1 egg

1 egg white (we usually just add two eggs)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted (we usually add walnuts and/or Craisins, then sprinkle the tops with sugar in the raw)

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl; beat at medium speed of an electric mixer until well blended. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; Add flour mixture to banana mixture, add nuts, stirring just until moistened. Spoon batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 3-inch loaf pan coated with baking spray with flour. Bake at 350º for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack. Bake mini loaves for 35 minutes or muffins for 18 minutes.

Calories 158 (30% from fat); Protein 3.2g; Fat 5.3g

ANOTHER COOKBOOK GIVE-AWAY! "101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes"

Donna at Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases is giving away another cookbook, "101 Easy Peasy Cookie Recipes". Check out her great blog and enter to win!

You Make My Day Award

Priscilla from A Peek in Priscilla's Kitchen has given me the "You Make My Day Award". This is my first blogging award and Priscilla "made my day".

The award rules are: give the award to people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. So I am passing the award on to:

HoneyB at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch - you made my day by sharing the info about scheduled posts

Donna at Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases - for sharing your adventures in baking on your boat

Jade Is Green at (cup)caketastrophe! - a Daring Baker from Australia who made cheesecake pops despite the weather

Deborah at Taste and Tell - who is so great to visit my blog and post comments and always has great recipes

Jenny at Picky Palate - an award winning blogger whose blog helped inspire me to start blogging

Cookbook Give-Away - Martha Stewart's Cookies

Donna at Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases is giving away a copy of Martha's new cookbook Martha Stewart's Cookies. All you have to do is leave a comment on the post and tell her what your favorite dessert is. Or tell her what recipes you're looking for, what you'd like to see more of. Tell her why she should give away more cookbooks. Etc. My favorite cookie is Martha's Oatmeal, Cherry, Toffee, Chocolate Chip. In fact they were my second post on my blog.

Daring Baker Cheesecake Pops

The Daring Bakers challenge for the month was cheesecake pops chosen by Elle of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. It is a rich, delicious, creamy cheesecake recipe. These cheesecake pops were a big hit with my family and neighbors. The recipe makes a lot of pops! I used a #40 scoop, and made about 50 delicious pops. Decorated caramel apples were my inspiration and I drizzled them with caramel and white chocolate.



Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream (I substituted sour cream)
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.
Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Lamb's Famous Rice Pudding

April's Master Baker's challenge ingredient is vanilla. Lamb's creamy smooth vanilla rice pudding immediately came to mind when I was trying to decide what to make for this challenge. When I was just 18, I started working as a legal secretary in downtown Salt Lake City. Lamb's Grill, which is "Utah's Oldest Most Famous Restaurant", was right next door. Several times a week during our afternoon coffee break, we would go to Lamb's and I would order their delicious rice pudding. A few years later I was thrilled when the SL Tribune printed the recipe.

Lamb's Famous Rice Pudding

1 cup long grain rice
1 cup sugar
8 cups whole milk
4 eggs

2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 t. vanilla
1 cup raisins (not in the original recipe, but for me it is a must)

In large saucepan combine rice, 1 cup sugar and 8 cups milk. Cook, covered, until the rice is tender, stirring frequently (about 1 hour). In mixing bowl combine eggs, 2 cups milk, 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla. Beat well. When the rice is tender, add egg mixture; cook until mixture just starts to boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool then chill. (It will thicken as it cools.)

Lamb's always served it cold with a sprinkle of cinnamon on top, but I love it warm. Enjoy!

Chicken Satay Noodle Salad

This is a great quick dinner recipe from Rachel Ray that the whole family enjoyed. The boys aren't that fond of cold salads, so I put the carrots in with the pasta for the last minute, warmed up the sauce and chicken, then mixed the drained noodles, sauce, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Delicious!

Chicken Satay Noodle Salad

Ingredients

1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
1/3 cup peanut butter, softened
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup tamari (dark soy sauce) (I used regular soy sauce)
Juice of 2 limes
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (eyeball it)
1 clove garlic, grated
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (eyeball it)
2 cups skinned and sliced rotisserie chicken
1 cup packed fresh spinach, thinly sliced
1/3 cup shredded carrots (a generous handful)
4 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley

Preparation

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain; rinse under cold water and set aside.

While the pasta is working, in a large bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, honey and 1/4 cup warm water. Whisk in the tamari, lime juice, hot pepper sauce and garlic. Pour in the oil in a steady stream, whisking to combine. Add the reserved noodles and toss to coat.

Place the noodles in 4 shallow bowls and top with the chicken, spinach, carrots, scallions, peanuts and cilantro.