Non-Dairy Banana "Ice Cream"

My goodness it's been a while since I've posted.
But it's because I've been very busy and working on losing weight.

Making a cooking blog & losing weight tend to cancel each other out.
But now that I've lost just about 20 lbs I can kind of start eating normal food again.

As long as it's low cal, anyway.

So here is my newest creation I found at Freestyle Farm and I'm in love!

And thankfully so is my family.

Here's what you'll need:

3 ripe peeled bananas frozen overnight or all day
Honey or Agave Nectar
A food processor

Yep, that's it.

Chop the bananas into 3 parts each.
Put them in the processor with some honey
Chop.

The consistency of chopped frozen bananas is just like ice cream and it's OMG good!

I made 2 batches each a little different than the basic recipe.

For the first one, I added a bit of almond extract and some lactaid milk just to mellow the overwhelming banana flavor. And that was very good.

For the second batch, I used almond milk, almond extract and about half a cup of strawberries. This was also super yummy, but has a slightly different consistency.

While the first batch is ice cream like, the second batch is more frozen yogurt-ish because the strawberries thinned out the thickness of the bananas a bit. However, it's still really good.

 The food processor is super loud, and you may have to stop it a couple of times to stir the mixture to make sure everything gets chopped evenly.

 The container on the right is the plain banana and the one on the left is the one with strawberries. You can see the difference in texture.

If you want something more yogurty then you could add all kinds of fruit to it, but if you really want that thick ice cream like feel to it, then I'd recommend sticking to just bananas.

Of course, if you're dieting, keep in mind that a banana is 100 calories and factor in the calories of whatever else you put into this. For me, this is something strictly for dessert or when something to satisfy my sweet tooth. Although, since I've started dieting, I've given up sweets and so I've gotten to the point where I don't even really crave them anymore. 

In other news, since it's summer i've been enjoying the weather & avoiding my kitchen

Second Beach, Newport, RI

 Celebrating Independence Day

Ninja chillaxing

Have a nice summer!

biscuits of love

this is what i'm doing on my day off. 
 making homemade buttermilk love biscuits
 and working on my quilt

i'm not going anywhere today.
in fact, i may even read a book.

Monkey Bread

isn't it beautiful?

it was most delish, too.

of course, The Picky Hubby wouldn't eat it beause "any food with the word 'monkey' in must be dirty"
sigh.
but me & my daughter ate it and love it.

i found this at Gimme Some Oven and have only made it once. It came out really good, however, I found the measurements to be a little off.

i had a LOT of butter and sugar left over, and let me tell you, i really coated the heck out of the dough bits. So i think that the next time i make this, i'll half the butter and sugar amounts, and it should be just fine.

Cinnamon Muffins

I used the same recipe for these as I use for the Chocolate Chip Muffins.


Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup milk (regular or plain almond milk)
1 stick of butter melted and cooled (1/2 cup) (earth balance)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of cinnamon chips (more or less to taste)
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of nutmeg
pinch of ground clove & pinch of vanilla bean

Preheat oven to 400 and line muffin tin with muffin cups. In a large bowl mix together flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, spices and salt.

In another bowl stir together eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract until well blended. Make a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Stir until combined and then add the cinnamon chips

Spoon mixture into the muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 mins until ligthly brown on top. Allow to cool before eating or storing.

Vegan Quinoa breakfast yumminess

Recently, my family has fallen in love with Quinoa


I've made Tabuleh for my husband (which I will post a recipe for later) that he LOVES, and today I made this little concoction which both my daughter and I adore.


This is basically this recipe for Breakfast Quinoa and this recipe for Vanilla Roasted Walnuts combined into sweet perfection.

I changed the recipe to my liking and this way it's totally vegan.

Ingredients:
2 cups vanilla almond milk
1 cup of quinoa
pinch salt
3 Tablespoons of agave nectar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp vanilla bean
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 c. Vanilla Roasted Walnuts (recipe for that is in the above link)

Directions:
1. Bring the almond milk to a boil in a small saucepan. The almond milk works just like cow milk so keep an eye on it. It will boil and bubble over if you don't keep a close watch on it. Add the quinoa and salt, and return to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, until three-quarters of the almond milk has been absorbed.

2. Stir in agave nectar and spices. Cook covered, until most of the almond milk has been absorbed.

3. Stir in cranberries and walnuts and serve. 

Blueberry Cake

blue berry cake



from Smitten Kitchen of course

i just used blue instead of rasp.

light fluffy

low on sugar

high on yummeh.

Classic Sandwich Bread

I found this recipe on the back of the bag of King Arthur Flour and it's fantastic!

The critics (meaning my husband and coworkers) have deemed this bread to be righteous.

The recipe looks a lot more complicated that it actually is, and there are only 2 things I did differently. 

1. The recipe calls for 3 Tablespoons of sugar, but that was too sweet for my husbands pallet, and really, I just think thats too much sugar for bread. So I reduced it to 1 Tablespoon and he liked that much better.

2. I have to make this bread while I'm cooking other things in the oven because my house is too cold for the bread to rise naturally. So I leave the loaf on top of the oven to rise before I bake it, and right before I pop it into the oven, I brush the top gently with a little bit of olive oil

The bread is dense, but not too heavy and it's very tasty. It really is perfect for sandwiches and grilled cheeses.