Banana Bread

Where do dying bananas go?
To the freezer.

Then what do you do with them?
Make banana bread of course!
And to be honest, I've never made banana bread, so I was a little bit scared. But I forged ahead and made it anyways. Yummy!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c mashed ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 c buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c chopped nuts, optional

Instructions:

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350F. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches.
2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in the nuts. Pour into pans.
3. Bake 8" loaves about 1 hour, 9" loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pans on wire rack. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

1 slice: 70 calories, 2g fat, 10mg cholesterol, 100mg sodium, 12g carb (0 dietary fiber), 1g protein.

Alterations:
-I used 1/2 c egg substitute instead of 2 eggs. So that probably wiped out the cholesterol.
-I used 2 c all purpose flour and 1/2 c whole wheat flour. That should have added a little dietary fiber.
-Other recipes I saw called for milk. And since I didn't have any buttermilk that's what I used, regular 1% milk.

How do you like your banana bread?

Me, I like it with a little bit of cream cheese. So good!
I also like to pick at the corners.

Recipe from Betty Cocker's New Cookbook Eighth Edition (R) 1996

Lunch

Tai Pei - from the frozen section of SafeWay. 2 1/2 servings for 4 points total. It's a deal! Pretty good! I'd get it again!

Jello Salad

You can't go wrong with a jello salad, right? Simple. Sweet. Good.
Ingredients:
1 pint cottage cheese
1 tub thawed cool whip
1 box jello
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
or any fruit (canned or fresh) of your choice

Instructions:
Mix together. Chill.
How simple was that?!?

Classic Macaroni Salad

What's a BBQ without a pasta or macaroni salad of some sort? A lame one, I know! But to try to "lighten" things up a little I went with a different recipe for a macaroni salad. It was pretty good, maybe a little dry, but good.
Ingredient:
8 oz uncooked macaroni, elbow variety
1/8 tsp table salt, or to taste (for cooking pasta)
1/2 c reduced-calorie mayonnaise
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 c celery, chopped
1/3 c red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp parsley, fresh, chopped
1/4 tsp table salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, or to taste

Instructions:

1. Cook macaroni in salted water according to package directions; drain and transfer to a large bowl.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together mayo, vinegar, mustard, and garlic powder; stir mixture into cooked macaroni. Fold in celery, onion and parsley; season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm or chilled. Yields about 2/3 cup per serving.

Servings: 8
WW points per serving: 3
Prep time: 12 min
Cooking time: 10 min

Weight Watcher's recipe

Roasted Potato, Garlic, and Red Pepper Salad

I have a friend that is not a fan of creamy, white foods. Like mayo. Yuck! So I made it my personal mission to find a recipe for potato salad that is not mayo or sour cream based. And I found it! And I made it for my little Memorial BBQ. And it was good!

Cast of Characters...
Mid-roast...

Ingredients:
6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 pounds small boiling potatoes (white, red, or fingerling)
2 red bell peppers
3 1/2 tablespoons EVOO
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup small fresh basil leaves
optional: olives, pine nuts, goat cheese, grilled chicken, tuna, or prosciutto

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Wrap garlic cloves together in foil. Halve potatoes and cut bell peppers into 1/2" pieces. In a large bowl toss potatoes, bell peppers, and 3 tablespoons oil with salt and pepper to taste. Arrange potatoes and bell peppers in one layer in 2 large shallow baking pans and roast in middle and lower thirds of oven (simultaneously, roast wrapped garlic on either rack), stirring occasionally and switching positions of pans halfway through roasting time, until potatoes are tender and golden brown, about 35 minutes.
3. In a bowl immediately toss potatoes and peppers with 2 tablespoons vinegar and cool. Remove garlic from foil and squeeze pulp into a small bowl. With a fork mash garlic with remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil and tablespoon vinegar and toss together with potatoes and peppers, salt and pepper to taste. Just before serving, add basil. Serve potato salad at room temperature.

Gourmet
July 1997

And I suck and once again did not get a picture of the finished product. But trust me, it was pretty. Pretty good!