Banana Bread

I don't know about you, but we don't tend to have many extra ripe bananas left over at the end of the week over here. So although we absolutely love banana bread, we don't make it that often. Just say the word banana and Tucker comes running. It's hilarious. He loves them! And we love using banana in our morning smoothies.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. I found myself with two bananas on their way out this week. One really on its way out from the week before....but I told myself this would be the week I finally baked something in our new home. The smell of freshly baked banana is like no other. It makes the whole house feel warm and cozy.

My mother-in-law gave me a great recipe for banana bread back when J and I got married. Not only is it delicious, it's the most realistic banana bread recipe I've found. The only ingredient we rarely have on hand in our home is orange juice. But that's easy enough to pick up. What I love about this recipe is that it only calls for 2 bananas. I actually googled around a little bit Sunday morning looking for a recipe I could throw together without a trip to the store (for OJ) but they all called for 3-4 ripe bananas. We never have 3-4 extra bananas. We only buy 4, 5 at most each week! So no, these recipes are not realistic for us. So instead I made J go to the store for me. :)

Ingredients (makes 2 loaves)

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp boiling water
• 3 tbsp boiling water
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 3 cups flour (I used 1 1/2 cups whole wheat, 1 1/2 cups all purpose)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup orange juice

Recipe to follow after you drool over the pictures

Disregard the milk in this picture....not needed

Cream together the sugar, butter & eggs

Add baking soda to boiling water, stir

Mix into creamed mixture

Mix dry ingredients together, add alternatively to creamed mixture with the orange juice

Add mashed bananas (and nuts if you prefer)

Pour into 2 loaf pans (or 1 loaf pan, 1 muffin tin if you're like me)

Bake at 375 for 35-45 minutes. (take muffins out after 15-20 minutes)

Enjoy!

Burrito Bowls

I can't wait any longer to share this new to us recipe. It's just so good. And so easy. If you like Mexican food, this meal is a must.

A few weeks back, J and I had one of those nights where we hadn't planned anything for dinner and weren't sure what to do. I secretly love these nights. Because things like this occur, where we end up making an amazing, completely unexpected meal.

I can't say we thought of this 100% on our own. I mean, who doesn't love the burrito bowls at Chipotle?! We had eaten there at some point the week before this meal came together. And obviously it was so dang good that it was still on our minds.

So, here's what we used to put together an easy, quick, go-to meal:

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil - I've been working more coconut oil into our lives
• 5 ounces sliced chicken breast, or steak, or shrimp - protein of your choice
• This taco seasoning - do it, it's worth it and you'll have plenty to spare for future meals
• Trader Joe's Organic [frozen] Brown Rice - also worth grabbing if you can, otherwise 2 servings of cooked brown rice works too (just limits the quick part of this meal)
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• Shredded cheese - we prefer cheddar
• 1 diced avocado
• 1 diced med. tomato
• 1 cup diced lettuce
• Salsa of your choice
• Nonfat plain greek yogurt
• Hot sauce, if you prefer

In a small bowl, mix the cut up meat of choice with a tablespoon of taco seasoning. Add more if you'd like a stronger seasoning, or go with less if that's how you roll. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. Add in seasoned meat and cook through - stirring occasionally, should cook in 7 minutes or so.

While the meat is cooking, drain the canned black beans and corn in a colander. Give a quick rinse with cold water. Once the meat is almost done cooking, toss in the beans and corn, add a little more taco seasoning if you'd like (I do), stir, cover and let cook on low heat.

While the flavors are blending together on the stove, dice up your tomato, avocado, and lettuce. If you're lucky enough to live by a Trader Joes and have purchased the 3 minute brown rice, now is the time to pop it in the microwave. They're not kidding, it's perfectly cooked in 3 minutes. 

Once the rice is cooked, set yourself up a little buffet of toppings. Add a large scoop of rice to the bottom of your bowl. Then add the meat, bean, and corn mixture. Next, add on the toppings. I prefer shredded cheese next so that it has a chance to melt from the heat of the rice and meat. Then veggies, salsa, sour cream yogurt. I'm not kidding when I say that you won't be able to tell the difference between sour cream and yogurt in this dish. Even J was shocked.

How to make this meal even quicker - use left over grilled chicken, steak, etc from the weekend's cookout (this was done in these pictures). Slice up the cooked meat, season with taco seasoning, place in heated skillet for 2 minutes on med-high heat to warm through, follow remaining directions

And making a little extra so that burritos are the meal of choice on day two doesn't hurt either! :)

There are so many options with burrito bowls. Add what you like, leave out what you don't. Next time we make these, I think I'd like to use shrimp. I'm also loving the idea of incorporating the ingredients used in fish tacos into a burrito bowl. 

Enjoy! And let me know if you give this a try. I absolutely love hearing from you!

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Meal Planning: How'd We Do?

Our first week of meal planning is going very well! Want to see?

Here's our original plan. Not surprisingly, we've made a few tweaks. Such is life.

Why oh why did we wait so long to make a batch of overnight oatmeal. This stuff is so good. And incredibly filling.

older post

I've loved having leftover for lunch most days. I don't know about you, but I'm definitely fan of a warm meal over a sandwich that's been sitting in the fridge since 8 am.

And dinner? Let's see.

Sunday - Pulled chicken sliders. Although the original plan was veggie burgers, we had friends over Saturday night for tacos and apparently I have no idea how to guesstimate the amount of food I need. We had enough chicken to feed another 10 people....whoops! But it sure made Sunday dinner and Monday lunch easy!

Monday - Whole wheat pasta, spinach, shallots, apple chicken sausage (our absolute fav chicken sausage flavor)

Tuesday - Turkey meatloaf with sundried tomatoes, spinach, & feta.

Wednesday - Thai Chicken Quinoa bowl. This was fantastic! Thanks Cait for instagramming a photo of this! I then stalked Cait's pinterest page and found the recipe. The joys of social media. :)

And because it was so pretty to photograph.....

love my camera

So far so good. J will be having leftovers tonight while I'm out with friends. And tomorrow night will be another home cooked meal. Soo looking forward to it.

Oh - and is it bad that home cooked meals tend to include a glass of red wine? Nightly.... good for the heart, right?

If you have any new recipes you think I should add to our weekly meal plan, please send them my way! Looking forward to some more home cooking.

If you like this post please let me know by leaving a comment or liking my Facebook page. You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Let's stay in touch!

Meal Planning

I've been inspired this week. I want to start planning out more meals each week and maybe even prep a few this weekend if the time allows. We seem to go through cycles over here. A few weeks in a row of grocery shopping regulary, bringing breakfast & lunch to work, eating in dinner. And then we get busy. And we don't get to the grocery store, which only leads to eating out often or making something quick, which tends to be unhealthy (hello Anne's Mac n Cheese). Eating out is heavy, on both the wallet and the calories. And saving on both of these items is a plus!

So here we go. The meals I'll be shopping for and making next week are as follows:

Breakfast: Overnight oats, welcome back into my life! Instant oatmeal is getting real boring after eating it daily for the past few months.

Lunch: Turkey wraps, salad, leftovers

Dinner:

Sunday - Veggie Burgers (these sound amazing. I must try them)

via A Cup of Jo

Monday - Turkey Meatloaf (how did I forget about this recipe) with an arugula salad

Tuesday - Apple chicken sausage, whole wheat pasta, spinach

Wednesday - Thai Chicken Quinoa Bowl (a friend pinned this and it looks awesome)

via How Sweet It Is

Thursday - Leftover turkey meatloaf for J. I'll be out with gfs.

Friday - Homemade pizza

Thank you to those of you who've recently blogged about meal planning, eating in, etc (here and here). Just the inspiration I needed. I'm looking forward to trying out a few new recipes this week, bringing back a few favorites we haven't had in forever, and overall, just eating some delicious, nutritious meals. 

Of the recipes above, which sounds most appealing to you? I'll make sure to let you know how it is!

Happy Friday!

If you like this post please let me know by leaving a comment or liking my Facebook page. You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Let's stay in touch!

Pulled Pork

First off - Happy Valentine's Day! Any big plans for the evening with your special someone? J & I have decided to lay low this year. House shopping costs more than enough, so no flowers, no special dinner out, nada this year. We'll be hanging in and cooking a nice meal at home. 

Seeing as I don't even know when the last time I made it to the gym was, lets stick with food. How about another great recipe?

For some reason, I always forget I can use my crockpot to cook for us. Maybe it's because I don't have any family recipes or even memories, of crock pot meals. Maybe it's because I picked our crock pot up for a whopping $15 at Walmart one day, it has no pre-set timer, just high/low/keep warm. I have no idea. But what I do know, is that when I remember to use it, the meals are always amazing.

Who doesn't like pulled pork? So good. J & I love BBQ food. You just can't go wrong. We had a package of pork chops in the fridge that needed to be cooked this weekend. Unfortunately, I had little desire to stand over the stovetop and cook a big meal. This past weekend was all about relaxing, in between shoveling....

I started out by throwing in things we had that I remembered using the last time I made pulled pork, but then decided I'd double check a recipe. This recipe to be precise.

Because I was cooking for just J & I, and because I followed this recipe very loosely for 2 people versus 6, here's my rendition of it.

Ingredients - Serves 3 (a little extra for lunch the next day!)
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 lb pork chops
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablesoon brown sugar
8 ounces water
1 cup barbecue sauce

Place the onion in the bottom of the crock pot and lay the pork chops on top. Sprinkle in the seasonings, pour in the water (I avoided the meat so that the seasonings would stay put). Crock pot cooking is that easy.

I cooked this concoction on low for about 6 hours. When we came in from shoveling out my car, the condo smelled amazing! I have to thank the cinnamon. This was the first time I've added cinnamon before and it was a great addition. I may have even heard J say this was the best ever....

Not the greatest photo, coloring seems off from the seasonings and cooked fat, but I promise you it's tasty!

Once done, we shredded the pork on a cutting board, drained the excess water from the crock pot, placed the shredded pork back in and mixed in the barbecue sauce.

And, if you know me, you know that BBQ must come with a side of mac n cheese. It's bad, but I just love that stuff!

I think next time I'll opt for fresh garlic versus garlic powder but other than that, I'll be saving this recipe for a future use! Nothing like an easy, delicious meal to serve up during a snow storm. If you give it a try, let me know what you think! Do you normally put cinnamon in your pulled pork recipe? J & I were both very pleasantly surprised by it.

Enjoy!

Spicy Pesto

It's been ages since I've posted a recipe.....but who's counting really? (oops!) 

Anyways, this is my go-to pesto recipe. It's from my girl Giada and it is awesome. My only change is that I use grated Parmesan instead of Asiago (personal preference really).

If you like a little heat to your meals, you have got to try this spicy pesto. The flavor from the jalapeno is perfect. 

Ingredients

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

1 red or green jalapeno, stemmed and coarsely chopped

2 cups grated Parmesan (or Asiago) cheese

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 ounces baby spinach

3 ounces arugula

1/4 cup olive oil

1 pound pasta

Blend the walnuts, garlic, jalapeno, grated cheese, salt, and pepper in a food processor until smooth.

Add the spinach and arugula and process until well blended. With the food processor still on, slowly pour in the olive oil.

Once your pasta is cooked, combine, and enjoy! I use a vegetable peeler to add a few Parmesan shavings to my meal before enjoying. A little extra cheese certainly helps with the heat of the sauce!

Let me know if you make this. J & I certainly love it. Hope you do too!

Winter Beef Stew

First off - a very happy birthday to my second mama! The best mother-in-law in all the land! Muah!!

It's about time I gave you another recipe! And what better winter meal than beef stew? Seriously, unless you're a vegetarian, this stew is amazing! There are so many layers of flavor.

This recipe comes from mi madre. I don't know where she got it, but it's the best. I've made my husband a happy man with this recipe!

What you need: 

• 3 lbs stew meat
• 2 onions, sliced
• 1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup mix
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 2 cans of beef broth
• 1 can of red wine
• 1 can of water
• 5 or 6 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 5 or 6 carrots, peeled and sliced
• black pepper to taste

All you need to do is combine these ingredients in a 5 quart Dutch oven, cover, and bake at 325 for at least 2 hours.

Ok - so one little side step I take (and mom does too), is to brown the meat. Dust with flour, heat oil in a saute pan, brown the edges of the stew meat. Don't cook it all the way through! Just give it some warmth on the edges.

Mix the ingredients as directed above, cover and bake. 

Lastly, enjoy with a glass of the red wine you already opened, a slice of crusty bread & great company.

Tell me that doesn't look hearty & delicious?!

Enjoy!

Recent Eats

Thank you pinterest & google for some fabulous new recipes.

After a month of too much take-out, dinners out, weddings, barbeque's, etc we needed to reign in our eating habits.

First, thank you pinterest for a super easy, healthy, and just down right delicious cheese steak recipe. Did you ever think you'd see the words cheesesteak and healthy in the same sentence? Maybe I should disclaimer this to say *healthy in my book.

I already mentioned this recipe (here) but here are a few more photos to make you drool. And hopefully, get you to give this a shot.

Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Peppers

This second internet find actually came out of sheer laziness. Ha! It was hot here in Boston on Saturday. And while J and I were hanging out during the afternoon, I decided I really didn't feel like turning on the oven or standing over the stove top that night to cook up the chicken we had. So I turned to Google. We have a slow cooker that I picked up at Walmart way back before we got married. And I have to say, for the $15 I bought it for, this thing was a STEAL! May not be as fancy schmancy as the ones available everywhere else but hey, it gets the job done.

So, where was I? Right. Google. I wanted buffalo chicken bad. Real bad. We had chicken, and we had hot sauce. Done deal. So I threw out a search for buffalo chicken in a slow cooker. Thank you Google for putting a healthier option first!

Gina/Skinnytaste.com, you win. This was fantastic.

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

We made a few small changes to this recipes and it worked out great. We didn't have chicken stock, but did have low-sodium vegetable stock. Worked perfectly. We also added a few pinches of cayenne pepper to give it a little kick. Can't go wrong with spicy over here.

And J was in the mood for Sriracha so we mixed 50/50 Frank's hot sauce and Sriracha for the marinade. And used a little extra Sriracha on top for a kick.

I think I've totally sold J on lettuce wraps.

Let me know if you give these a try. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.