No Sugar Added Banana Bread

Tags

baking, banana, banana bread, Breakfast, food, quick bread, recipe, treat

I like having fruit in my apartment, and bananas are the most affordable. But I have a tendency to put a banana in my lunch bag for work, then come home with a sad bruised banana that never got eaten.

So I cut up the rotting and bruised bananas and freeze them.

Usually I turn them into a healthy dessert (chocolate banana ice cream). But the other week I wanted to make it into banana bread for several reasons:

a.) the smell of a quick bread baking is one of the most heavenly smells in this world. Be it banana, pumpkin, apple, zucchini, you name it, it smells damn delicious.

b.) I had some Greek yogurt to use up, and love throwing that in quick breads.

c.) I wanted to eat this in the morning instead of my lame tasteless granola bars.

But I wanted this banana bread to be even more healthy. And that means no sugar. And most certainly none of that stevia/splenda/truvia nonsense. But does such a recipe exist? More importantly, would it taste good?

Thankfully, YES! Sugarless banana bread does exist AND taste good. Why? My theory is that bananas have a big bundle of sugar in them in the first place, so adding sugar to banana bread isn’t necessary. Also, the Greek yogurt gives it that distinctive sweet tang.

And so a healthy, hearty, stick-to-your-ribs banana bread was born from my oven.

No Sugar Added Banana Bread (From Tasty Kitchen)
Makes 1 loaf
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas, mashed
• ¾ cups plain Greek yogurt
• ⅓ cups vegetable or canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Stir together all of the ingredients in a large bowl with a wooden spoon.
3. Pour into a greased 8.5 inch loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
4. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

My two cents: I ate this for breakfast and a few snacks throughout the week. When the bread is cool, slice into individual portions for an easy grab and go breakfast. You can also freeze the individual slices or the whole loaf.

Enjoy!

Spinach, Bacon, and Goat Cheese Quiche

Tags

bacon, Breakfast, brunch, cooking, eggs, food, goat cheese, quiche, recipe, recipes

I bought a package of bacon on Saturday.

I don’t usually buy bacon, or eat it. But Saturday was special. Chris and I spent the day together at home. No studying. No cleaning. No wedding planning. No bill paying. No blogging. No thinking. Just us and some good books and good TV.

We started the day with bacon and eggs, of course But then I had half a package of uncooked bacon left, and I couldn’t just leave it there, all fat and sad and wanting to be cooked.

So I made some quiche.

Some really, really good quiche.

Spinach, Bacon, and Goat Cheese Quiche
>> Click here for printable recipe

Ingredients:

• One 9 inch deep dish frozen pie crust
• 4 slices bacon
• 1/2 of a 10 oz package of frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• 1/3 medium zucchini, diced
• 10 grape tomatoes, sliced
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp dried dill weed
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 oz goat cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place pie crust on sheet.
2. Cook bacon until browned and crisp; drain on paper towels. Chop into small pieces and place in large bowl with the spinach, onion, zucchini, and tomato; toss the bacon and veggies, then place into the pie crust.
3. Beat the eggs and milk together in another bowl, then add then garlic powder, dill weed, and pepper to the egg mixture. Beat well. Pour the egg mixture over the veggies in the pie crust. Mix around gently with a fork to evenly distribute the eggs into the veggies.
4. Drop the goat cheese crumbles evenly on top of the eggs and vegetables. Then sprinkle with the cheddar cheese.
5. Bake the quiche for 1 hour. Let cool for a few minutes; serve hot or at room temperature.

My Two Cents: Quiche has been and forever will be my one of my favorite foods. You can literally put any veggies you have leftover in your fridge into this. Just keep the milk and eggs the same in every recipe, and go wild.

When you’re cooking the bacon, be sure to add one or two extra slices to the pan for yourself while you’re cooking

Or omit the bacon all together (for a vegetarian option, but it’s so so good).

And please, for the love of God, do NOT omit the goat cheese.

Enjoy!

Brunching at the Harvard Common Press

Tags

boston, boston brunchers, boston events, boston food, Breakfast, brunch, cookbooks, events, food, harvard common press, publishing

Last Sunday, the Harvard Common Press (HCP) invited 40 Boston Brunchers to brunch at their office. This event sign up was first come, first serve. So when I saw Renee tweet about this, I immediately grabbed a spot.

What food blogger doesn’t want to go chat with some cookbook publishers? (especially the brunching kind…do I smell a Boston Brunchers cookbook in the future…?…?)

I have been in contact with HCP before. A few months ago I introduced myself to them and my blog, and Emily from HCP sent me some cookbooks! (That’s where these deviled eggs came from—) I was happy I got a seat, and was eager to learn more about them.

First, it sometimes amazes me that hard copies of cookbooks sell so well in the age of food blogs, iPads, AllRecipes.com, Pinterest, The Pioneer Woman, StumbleUpon—the works. With so many other outlets for recipes, who needs a cookbook?

We discussed just that, though, at the brunch. Adam and Bruce at HCP explained that we the food bloggers are a big chunk of their audience now. And it’s true. I love cookbooks. If I see one, I want it. I want to flip the pages and look at the pictures. I like to take them out of the library and turn to the wrinkled pages—which indicates that those are the good recipes. It makes me smile when I see my mom take out my Great Aunt’s cookbook for her famous baked beans recipe—spine worn and torn, language old and classic. And most bloggers will agree with me. Yes, we find great recipes online, but we’ll always drool over those cookbooks.

So naturally our mouths began to water when HCP announced we could take a few books from their stock room. Like hungry puppies, we swarmed around their shelves and flipped through their vast array of great cookbooks. Eyes sparkling as if it were Christmas morning, I happily walked away with three: Not Your Mother’s Weeknight Cooking, Not Your Mother’s Casseroles, and New England Home Cooking. And I made the Hungarian Paprika Chicken that same night.

As for the brunch, the staff made an array of dishes from the books they publish, including pear ginger bread, spinach and cheese strata, raspberry cream cheese coffee cake, fruit and nut muffins, fresh fruit, and more.

Lots and lots of pictures were taken. (That’s Amanda from Tales from a Kitchen Misfit.)

All in all, a happy happy day for these folk!

Thanks, Harvard Common Press!

Temple Bar Brunch — Cambridge, MA

Tags

blogger events, boston, boston bloggers, boston brunchers, boston food, Breakfast, brunch, food

It’s brunches like these that make me wish I lived closer to Cambridge. I mean, Newton has its fair share of good restaurants, but Cambridge’s food scene is quite wealthy as well.

Saturday the Boston Brunchers headed over to Temple Bar for their brunch. I was lucky enough to snag a seat at the table, and as always, eager to see what they had in store for the brunchers.

The wait staff was incredibly attentive at Temple Bar. My water glass was never half empty at any point during the meal. And right after we sat down, they came around with those pretty drinks above. What service!

We got to order one item off the menu (check it out—you will drool immediately). I decided to go with the Bacon Cheddar Biscuit Breakfast Sandwich. The bacon drew me in, also the egg in the sandwich. And a side of home fries.

The sandwich came with a side of red jalapeno jelly, which was sweet and spicy all in one, adding a great zing to the sandwich (and of course the home fries). The biscuit had little bacon bits and cheddar cheese baked into it. So not only was it buttery and flakey, just the way a biscuit should be, but it also included two of my favorite things — bacon and cheese — roll that into one bite? I’m afraid I’ll never go back to a plain ol’ buttery biscuit again.

And after the main courses were sitting happily in our stomachs, the wait staff came out with an array of desserts to sample. Above, a creme brulee with a hint of ginger and nutmeg — also laid out on the table was a chocolate bread pudding, pumpkin parfait, and a raspberry cake. My favorites were a tie between the pumpkin parfait and the chocolate bread pudding.

Overall, as usual it was a wonderful brunch. I always have a great time meeting bloggers and brunchers I haven’t met before, and of course catching up with the old ones.

Looking forward to the next excursion!

Bacon and Egg Muffin Cups

Tags

bacon, Breakfast, eggs, food, recipes

That’s right.

This happened.

Real bacon, wrapped around an egg, on top of a layer of cheese and toast.

I’m pretty sure there is nothing better than that, and nothing more sinfully wonderful than gnawing on pure fried fat, hot off the skillet.

My friend Fran (who loves to eat almost as much—dare I say more than me), saw this on a bacon tumblr that she follows, and told me that I should make them.  As I was looking at this picture from The Way the Cookie Crumbles, Chris came up from behind me and promptly told me that he would take my ring away if I didn’t make these immediately.

“I don’t have bacon, though,” I said.

“I will get bacon for you, then,” said Chris. And just like that he was out the door and back in 10 minutes with a pack of bacon.

So, you see, I had to make them.

Bacon and Egg Muffin Cups (Adapted from The Way the Cookie Crumbles)

Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 15 minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 3 slices of bread
• 6 eggs
• 6 slices of bacon
• shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Heat a skillet on medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook for 4-5 minutes, so that it’s still flexible. Meanwhile, cut two circles out of each slice of bread.

2. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. Lay the slices of bread into the bottom of each cup. Wrap the bacon around the edge of each muffin cup. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of the bread slices. Crack the eggs, one at a time, into a shallow bowl and pour carefully into each muffin cup.

3. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the whites have set and the yolk is to your desired consistency.

4. Present to your tired and hungry fiance. Cook extra bacon. Eat extra bacon. Enjoy. Worry about your waist later.

My Two Cents: My apartment still smelled like bacon two days after I made these.

‘Nuff said.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Tags

Breakfast, buttermilk, cooking, food, pancakes, recipes, whole wheat, whole wheat pancakes

How often do you have breakfast for dinner?

Lately I’ve been whipping up breakfast for dinner on Friday nights. And not your typical bowl of Cheerios type breakfast. But eggs, home fries, sausage, toast, and most importantly, pancakes.

There’s just something about sitting down to breakfast at the end of the work week. My body almost craves the carbs and cholesterol that I withhold from it throughout the week. So. Incredibly. Comforting.

Last Friday I was craving breakfast for dinner. And when I opened my fridge to grab the eggs, I noticed a carton of buttermilk sitting there, unopened. Yearning to be used. Pancakes were on my mind. And I had some whole wheat on the shelf—

Dinner was made.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes (From My Recipes)

Makes 10-12 pancakes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
• 1 tbsp vegetable OR canola oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• maple syrup and butter

Directions:

1. Combine flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Combine buttermilk, oil, egg, and egg white in a separate bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, whisking until moist. Do not overbeat–you want the batter lumpy.

2. Heat a nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter per pancake onto the pan. Turn pancakes over when tops are covered with bubbles and and edges are set and the underside is golden brown. Cook the other side until the bottom is golden brown. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

My Two Cents: These pancakes are “normal” sized. But if you want to make a giant pancake, that’s perfectly acceptable We used to have Friday  night pancakes in my house when we were little, and we used to fill giant skillets with pancake batter. It was quite entertaining when it came to flip them

Don’t turn up the heat when cooking pancakes. It doesn’t help to be impatient–you’ll just end up burning the outside and getting an uncooked inside.

These also taste good cold the next day, especially when you were planning on making a sandwich but got impatient and decide to eat one straight out of the fridge….