kick me in the pants and call me slacker banana pancakes

kick me in the pants and call me slacker. i haven't abandoned this blog. have you abandoned me? i have no comments!! ahh!!

hubby's new job has him working late most nights, so he eats at work. why would i cook for just me and two little kids who'd probably rather have pasta or cheerios anyway? needless to say, i haven't been cooking much.

since he's sometimes around for breakfast though i have made these a few times. they are amazing! kick me in the pants and call me slacker, but at least i'm back on the posting band wagon!

stay-tuned - i'll post some desserts that won't do you or your budget in over the holidays.

kick me in the pants and call me slacker banana pancakes
4-6 servings
modified from allrecipes.com, here

1 cup whole wheat flour (or 1/2 white 1/2 wheat)
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup skim milk
2 tablespoons applesauce
2 overripe bananas, mashed (i used really overripe that i defrosted from my freezer)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1. mix wet ingredients (including banana) well. add dry ingredients and mix until just wet. batter will be lumpy.
2. heat griddle to medium heat. pour about 1/4 cup on griddle for each pancake and cook slowly until both sides are light golden brown.
3. the most important part: serve hot with a tiny layer of peanut butter spread on top and then your favorite syrup. (i used maple... my husband used berry, with no peanut butter. weirdo.)

banana snack cake

this banana snack cake was just like banana bread, but you didn't have to wait an hour for it to cook! no white flour and it was completely delicious. both times i've made it it failed to last 24 hours. try it for yourself!

banana snack cake
modified from recipe at zimbio.com (here)

1 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour (toss some oats in your blender!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoonbaking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup mashed, ripened banana (i use 4 smallish bananas)
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk (original recipe called for 1/2 cup sour cream - this would be great too!)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips


preheat oven to 350 degrees. spray a 9x 13 pan with non-stick cooking spray.

in a large bowl mix together sugar, eggs, and applesauce. add bananas, soy milk (or sour cream) and vanilla. beat again until smooth.

add the dry ingredients slowly. the batter will be thick. fold in chips.

pour batter into pan and bake for 25 to 28 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

cool completely on a wire rack. cut into 16 pieces.


and coming friday - a new skinny bovine feature! five ingredient fridays. at the request of my friend katja i will post a recipe every friday with five ingredients or less! thanks for the great suggestion, katja!

snack time

i'm sure i'm not the only bovine who is getting hungry between meals so let's talk about snacks. there are definitely good and bad things to snack on, so what is the difference:

bad snacks:

• anything full of bad carbs - this can be store-bought granola bars, cereals, chips, etc., etc., etc.
• anything with lots of sugar - as much as we love it, we all know that snacking on leftover dessert from sunday night is a bad idea
• anything full of bad fat - anything fried like chips and anything with lots of butter like almost all crackers (sadly this includes our favorites like ritz, chicken in a biscuit, etc. even saltines aren't very good! ahhh!)

good snacks:

• fruit - keep lots of it around. shoot for 2-3 a day. it isn't hard - eat a banana with or after breakfast and an apple after lunch. don't want it plain? put a little bit of peanut butter on your apple and you may change your mind. this is still better than snacking on the apple cake you made last night (i made one last night... i'm trying to remind myself of this too...). a glass of orange juice is even a pretty decent snack
• veggies (with some fat free/low-fat salad dressing if you don't like to eat them plain)
• homemade granola bars (i'll post mine some time)
• yogurt - healthy and a great way to sneak in a serving of dairy
• nuts (sometimes they are expensive, but if you watch for sales these are good snacks!)
• hard boiled eggs (read more on eggs)
• whole-grain, low-sugar cereals (by the handful - i'm not talking about a bowl of cereal). i like to munch on my daughter's cheerios on occasion.
• and a good snack i've discovered will often quell my insatiable sweet tooth... muffins and quick breads made (made with no oil or butter and packed with good flour, fruits and veggies and with some added nutrition through wheat germ and flax seed)

you're probably noticing a trend - things are generally more healthy and less expensive when you make them yourself! this is something that we all know, but sometimes it's good to get a refresher!

i created these yummy snack loaved the other day for a number of reasons. 1 - i had brown bananas i didn't want to waste! :) 2 - i wanted a little bit of a sweet snack with no oil, butter or white flour in it. 3 - traditional sized loaves seem to get dry on the outside while the inside is waiting to cook, so these snack loaves are moist all the way through. yum. and 4 - a piece of a normal sized-loaf is often too much if i just need a tiny snack to hold me over.

my husband definitely prefers bread like this with white flour in it but he loved this one! it's light, moist and pretty good on the healthy snack scale! hope your health-resistant husband likes it too!

cinnamon banana snack loaf

2 snack loaves

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 smaller bananas for me!)
*1 cup oat flour (stick some oats in the blender)
*1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup warm water
*for an extra healthy touch decrease oat flour and wheat flour to 3/4 cup and add 1/4 cup each of wheat germ and milled flax seed

1. beat together sugar and applesauce. add vanilla and eggs and beat well.
2. stir in bananas and mix well again.
3. add all dry ingredients and combine until moist throughout.
4. add water and mix again until combined.
5. pour equal amounts into 2 large, greased loaf pans and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees (check frequently!). (the "snack loaves" will fill about 1/2 of a large loaf pan, but you could make small loaves if you have the pans.)

recipe of the week: yummy banana muffins

here's another way to apply the principle of "waste not, want not" (see previous post). i love these muffins and they are a great way to use up over-ripe bananas and of course, they don't have any oil or butter in them. if you're not into whole wheat yet, try using 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wheat flour. ease your way in. :)

yummy banana muffins

makes 12 muffins

1 egg (or 1 egg white if you want to eliminate a few more calories)
1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (a little bit less is still yummy if you want to make them extra healthy)
1/3 heaping cup applesauce (or plain fat free yogurt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (expensive and definitely optional!)

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. lightly grease one 12 cup muffin pan.
2. in a large bowl, combine egg, banana, brown sugar, applesauce and vanilla. in a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
3. gently stir flour mixture and oatmeal into banana mixture. fold in walnuts (optional). pour batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. bake in preheated oven or 15 to 20 minutes, or until light brown. remove muffins from pan and place on a wire rack to let cool before serving.

up next - my adventures in cooking for a family of 5 for a week! lots of recipes and just good plain fun (a hilarious 4-year-old, sous-chef was involved - how could it not be fun?)

recipe is a modified version of "seminary muffins" from allrecipes.com. photo is from the same.

waste not, want not

one of the biggest money-wasters in my kitchen has been wasting food, whether it be from food spoiling or not using food because you don't know what else you can use 1/2 a can of crushed tomatoes for. in order to combat this nasty, expensive vice, i try to implement a few, simple habits:

• check your cabinets and refridgerator once a week. if you have foods that are almost expired, use those first. this almost always includes fresh fruits and veggies and can often include dairy products like cheese, milk and eggs.


• plan a weekly menu. this can definitely be a struggle (especially for me!) as it is often easier to fly by the seat of your pants when preparing meals. but planning ahead can keep you from wasting food, making multiple trips to the grocery store or even letting some ingredients go unused. you'll be glad you did when you only have to make one trip to the grocery store instead of 3.


• plan meals strategically. if you're going to use 1/2 a can of corn in a recipe on monday, find another recipe you can put corn in later in the week or have it as a side dish to something else. one of my favorite ways to do this is to use the "ingredient search" on allrecipes.com. (http://allrecipes.com/Search/Ingredients.aspx if you're interested.)


• don't waste even the smallest amount. if you have a tiny bit of cheese left, mix it into some sauce and put it over pasta. be creative. one of the yummiest dinners we've ever had was when i used just 1 piece of fresh deli turkey, skillet-grilled with onions, garlic and eggs, topped with cheese and then wrapped up in tortillas for breakfast burritos. just 1 slice of turkey make a delicious dinner and didn't go to waste.


• use the bad, make it good. now, clearly you can't make something "good" out of spoiled milk, but some foods you can save right before they're bad (or right after they're "bad" - the expiration dates on food are often overly cautious) and turn them into something yummy. it's always fun to use brown bananas for something so here's a yummy recipe i like to use.

whole wheat banana bread

ingredients
1/3 applesauce or non-fat plain yogurt
1/4 honey
1/4 cup brown sugar + a little extra
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
a dash of cinnamon (optional)

directions
1. preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. in a large bowl, beat applesauce/yogurt, honey and brown sugar together. add eggs, and mix well. stir in bananas and vanilla. stir in flour and salt. add baking soda to hot water, stir to mix, and then add to batter. blend in chopped nuts and cinnamon (optional). spread batter into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
3. bake for 45 to 60 minutes. check often - different ovens have different cook times! cool on wire rack for 1/2 hour before slicing.

some of these tips may seem simple, but the pennies saved from implementing them in your kitchen count. so plan ahead, prepare and push your tiny budget farther than it has gone before.

thanks to allrecipes.com for the picture

recipe adpated by yours truly from "whole wheat banana nut bread" on allrecipes.com