Bed rest and Banana Bread

Hi there. I hope your February is going well. It's been interesting at my house. Here I will give you a snapshot. I have been on bed rest for the last 7 days. Usually in my house I plan all the meals, do majority of the cleaning and cooking, and shopping. For me to be on bed rest and off my feet completely without everything falling apart, I had to do some careful, crazy planning, and then choose to ignore everything else. Because no matter how you plan, life happens. So there has been lots of tv watching, movies, fast food, and my hubby gracefully stepping up to do things he doesn't like because he loves me. 

This is where the moist and delicious freezer banana bread recipe comes in. My guys loved baked goods - muffins, banana bread, coffee cakes - sweet yummy stuff and if its fresh out of the oven thats even better. Who doesn't love a hot chocolate cookie or a warm crumbly coffee cake? One thing I knew I wanted to try and make ahead for my time on the couch was a freezer banana bread I found in a cookbook. The recipe that "supposably" claimed to make 4 banana loaves all at once, still tasted good after being baked, frozen, and defrosted for later use. I thought that was a tall order. I have tried to freeze muffins and banana bread before but they always ended up dried out. The process of freezing just sucks the moisture out, and in the end rather sucks on your taste buds. I was excited that we would be able to have a yummy breakfast even though I was out of the kitchen.

Two weeks before surgery, give or take a day, I made the four loaves of banana bread freezer recipe. I wrapped them carefully with foil and put them fully cooled into freezer heavy duty bags and said a little prayer. Okay all of them but one. If they were going to fail because they dried out I wanted one fresh from the oven on the counter, and honestly that delicious bread smell floating and filling my kitchen was too great for me to hide and the guy's stomachs to ignore. It was delicious! 

The only changes I made to the original recipe were adding walnuts to one of the loaves, and whole wheat white flour instead of all purpose flour plus vital wheat gluten. I heart walnuts. My hubby doesn't feel as strongly about nuts so I only put 1/2 cup chopped in one loaf. 

Fast forward almost three weeks to today. Loaf #3 is sitting on the counter. I am amazed it is still there but it was the biggest loaf of the 4. I have been defrosting them about a week apart. So far we have served it for breakfast with sausage links, another time with just scrambled eggs, and another time with yogurt & granola and cereal. Each loaf has fed my family for 1-2 breakfasts.  Love that.  

After eating and enjoying this banana bread several times now, I determine it is a huge success. This will be a great freezer staple from now on. Once every couple months I can make a large batch and have it there when I need to supplement some meals or give a yummy loaf to a friend. 

The only problem I had with it was you have measure the batter into baking loaf pans carefully for even sized loaves. When you make this you are mixing a very large quantity of banana bread batter in one giant bowl. I didn't measure when I did this. I just poured the thicker than pancake batter into pans until it looked even. One of my loaves was tiny and another one was huge and the other two were medium sized. It was like the story the three bears small medium and large :) Next time I am going to make 3 bigger sized loaves instead of 4 and measure measure measure measure. 

The banana bread recipe comes from the cookbook "Not Your Mother's Make Ahead and Freeze Cookbook by Jessica Fisher" page 290. Please check it out. It is definitely worth your time. Provides an easy healthy breakfast option, stocks up your freezer, and by making all 3 or 4 loaves at the same time you save time and money with one shopping trip and one baking afternoon. I just ordered my own copy from amazon last night and will share the recipe with you another time. My original copy was from the library and they sort of wanted it back after I renewed it like 4 times. 

Enjoy some banana bread from me on the couch. 

Smoky Bacon Baked Mac & Cheese

Happy Wednesday to you. This recipe is a gem that you'll definitely want to try!  I made it for the first time a week before Thanksgiving and then again just a few weeks ago. It works great as a potluck bring along, side dish or a main dish. This is comfort food at its best. 

Smoky cheese + smoky bacon + crunchy topping 

+ creamy whole wheat pasta = delicious!

Most people are looking for something healthy and light during the beginning of the year, but most people I know have kiddos. Kids love mac & cheese.  I love mac & cheese. On the family front, pasta is a great place to introduce a new veggie and or a new type of cheese to your kids or your hubby. Think of it as a delicious food exploration lesson versus the diet killer that it could be. But yes if you are on a diet serve this as a side dish with some grilled chicken, fish, or a burger sans the bun and a grilled/roasted vegetable. This recipe has some serious flavor and some serious calories hence me only making it once a month or so. 

Serves 3-5 as a main dish 

Prep + cooking time: 25- 35 minutes

Recipe lighted up and adapted from

Shugary Sweets 

(a fun blog with beautiful pictures)
Posted in collaboration with other bloggers at Whats Cooking Wednesday

Ingredients:
half of a box of veggie or whole wheat short dry pasta (approx 5-7 oz)
2 Tbs butter + 1 1/2 Tbs melted in a separate dish via microwave
1 1/8 cup of 1 or 2 percent low fat milk
1/4 cup of whole wheat white flour
3/4 cup of half and half
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/2 lb of smoked gouda or smoked cheddar cheese, shredded or grated
1/4- 1/2 lb of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded or grated
*optional I have added 3 cups of blanched broccoli into it before right before baking and worked out great
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of panko bread crumbs (depending on the size of your baking dish - you want the top completely covered - you'll use more if you have a rectangle sized dish). 
4-6 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled (I usually just make bacon earlier in the week and save some of it for this later)

Directions:

1. Cook half of a box 1 minute short of the al dente cooking time of veggie shell pasta or your favorite whole wheat small cut dry pasta. Then drain it. Should end up being 6-7 minutes but do check your own box directions.

2. While pasta is cooking preheat the oven to 375 degrees and prepare a baking dish with nonstick spray or some butter to prevent sticking.  

3. While pasta is still cooking make the cheese sauce. Melt the butter over medium heat in medium sized- large pot. Then add the flour. Let it cook for a minute. Keeping the heat on medium add in the milk and half & half. Whisk it until the sauce begins to thicken. It should be boiling but not hard. Should take about 3-5 minutes for the sauce to get the consistency you want. Remove the entire pot from the heat and add in rest of the cheese sauce ingredients after it it is thickened. Trust me. Doesn't work well the other way. Add in the pepper, dry mustard, and grated or shredded cheese last. Once the cheese is melted you are done with the sauce almost. Taste it carefully - don't burn yourself. Add salt here if needed.

4. Add the sauce to cooked pasta or vise versa depending on which pot is biggest. Stir to coat the pasta with the cheese sauce and carefully pour the hot mixture into the baking dish. 

5. Top the baking dish with crumbled cooked bacon, panko bread crumbs, and last but not least a bit of melted butter to give that great golden yellow color. 

 6. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes uncovered. 

Enjoy!
Stephanie

Turkey Sloppy Joe Skillet Pizza

Sloppy joes are definitely a childhood favorite meal. They were meaty, messy, and tasty. They had that great contrasting sweet and salty combo that I still enjoy to this day. So when I came across this recipe from The Hopeless Housewife, I loved the idea of a twist on my old family favorite with a current family favorite... 2 recipes smashed into one creating the Turkey Sloppy Joe Skillet Pizza. 

My own twist limits some of the sugar and increases the veggies....aka my normal idea when I approach almost any recipe. Since this delicious cheesy meaty pizza is something you do with a fork - you won't need tons of napkins to clean up either. I did have to cut up my sons pizza since it was hard for him to get through it. Otherwise I got two thumbs up from everyone. 

Turkey Sloppy Skillet Joe Pizza 

cooking + prep + cooking + baking + cooling time:

 25-30 minutes

serves 3-6 people  

(my 4 yr old at 1 slice plus some veggies on the side)

9 Ingredients:

One half a package or a halved recipe of whole wheat pizza dough. I make several batches of pizza dough at a time and store in the freezer. Whole wheat dough from the store is good too. 

1.25 lb package of lean turkey breast

1 tsp dried onion

1 Tbs brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 red pepper, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic chopped finely

2 cups of your favorite pasta or pizza sauce (homemade: freezer staple red sauce - click here) or store bought. It has no sugar in it and tons of pureed veggies like squash zucchini and tomatoes. (much better than the typical ketchup & worcestershire sauce combo)

2 cups of shredded cheese - I used 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella and then a 1/2 cup of marbled cheddar & Jack. Going to use a smoked cheese next time just change things up. Pick any good melting cheese. Pepperjack cheese would be a good spicy alternative.

Optional pizza toppings: dried parsley, grated/shredded parmesan cheese, dry red pepper flakes 

Directions:

1. Pull your pizza dough out of the fridge and let it warm up and rest. Grab two skillets - one oven safe one. While that is happening start the pizza topping in a large skillet.

2. To make the sloppy Joe pizza topping brown the ground turkey with the garlic, onion, and red pepper. 5 minutes. Break any large pieces think pizza topping.  

3.  Add in the red pizza/pasta sauce and brown sugar. Mine was frozen straight from the freezer but still worked just fine. It was defrosted quickly and the whole sauce was red, delicious, and thick. 7 minutes. 

4. While the sauce is thickening up, stir it occasionally, and preheat the broiler to 500 degrees. Add some oil if needed to your oven safe skillet. I used used my trusty old cast iron for this. 

5. Roll out your pizza dough to the size of the bottom of your skillet and proceed to cook the dough over medium, watching it carefully so it doesn't burn for about 5-7 minutes and then flipping it for another 2 minutes. I burned my the first one I tried. It reminded me of making flat bread. Should be lightly browned but cooked thru.

6. Top the crust with the meaty topping. It should cover it completely by at least an inch. Top the sloppy joe mixture with all that great shredded cheese. 

7. Broil the pizza for about 1 minute with the oven door cracked so you can keep an eye on it. You know its done when the cheese is melted and looks amazing. You can serve it immediately but I found it to be easier to cut and eat if you wait 5-8 minutes to let it cool a bit. 

8. Slice it with a pizza wheel and grab some forks to dig in. 

Enjoy pizza night in a new way and sloppy joes with a little less sugar and carbs than the original.  

From my kitchen to yours!

Stephanie