Peanut Butter-Banana Bread

I thought that nothing could be better than my original banana bread.  Until I made it into coconut French toast.  Then I thought that was the most amazing version of the bread, until I made this loaf.

Restaurant Wars - Red Lobster

I have two complaints when it comes to Red Lobster.  First, the wait.  I have never once walked into this restaurant and gotten a table right away.  It could be three o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon and you could walk in to find a forty minute wait.  Second, the service.  I'm sure it stems from the really long wait and all the people wanting to sit down and eat, but the service you get is more along the lines of - sit down, eat your food and get out.  Red Lobster isn't the European, sit as long as you'd like, linger over a cup of coffee and dessert, kind of place.  Don't take your time, eat your food and give up that table!

The reason we come to RL?  The cheddar bay biscuits of course.  Isn't that why everyone goes there?  That and I don't cook a lot of fish at home because someone won't eat it.  Eating out is the best way for me to get my lobster, fish and shellfish fix.  When ordering out, I get to order the shmorgasboard of shrimp, lobster and fish meal! 

So after waiting almost fifty minutes for our table, Boyfriend and I ordered.  He got his favorite chicken linguine dish and I loaded up on broiled fish and shellfish.  I was trying to order something that wasn't super greasy, apparently broiling also requires heaps of butter, because my dinner was still floating in oil.  To was Boyfriends pasta, but that's just the way he likes it.  We ate lots of cheesey biscuits and had almost all of our dinners to take home.

For our Red Lobster dinner at home, I had to split it into two nights.  There was no way that I could make a pasta dinner and a fish and shrimp dinner at the same time.  As much as I would like to tell you that Boyfriend helps out in the kitchen, his kitchen skills begin and end at heating.  He's had a few culinary masterpieces, but for the most part he's a prepared food preparer. 

Sunday night we had spicy chicken linguine with my own take on cheddar bay biscuits.  Monday night I threw some chicken in the fridge for Boyfriend while I prepared myself some lemon tilapia and shrimp scampi.  I'm in love with the way the chicken and pasta turned out.  It was much lighter than the restaurant meal, but so full of flavor.  It's perhaps because I used an aged parmesan cheese that was amazing.  I wanted to eat it by the chunk.

Monday nights fish dinner was a little tricky to pull together, mostly because fish cooks so fast.  The fish was ready to go much faster than the shrimp and I wasn't ready to juggle all these things (I was also preparing broccoli, stuffing and Boyfriends chicken!).  The shrimp scampi was much lighter than what I got at the restaurant, mostly because I cooked the shrimp in half butter/half olive oil.  My tilapia was simply cooked in a little butter and spritzed with some lemon.  Simple and delicious.

If you only make one thing from this post, make the biscuits!  Oh man, I think I ate four or five of these Sunday night.  I totally deserved it after that long, four-mile run.  There are many recipes for these biscuits online, but they almost all utilize Bisquick.  I was looking to make them entirely from scratch.  With a little tweaking, I think what I came out with was amazing.  If you aren't a salt freak like I am, maybe cut the garlic salt in half.

Daring Bakers' - Quick Breads!

After months of not being able to participate in the Daring Bakers', I was so happy to read that this months challenge was quick breads!  The Daring Bakers' February 2012 host was - Lis!  Lis stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own.  She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I'm a huge fan of quick breads for so many reasons.  First, they come together fast (hence the name!).  Second, they make a wonderful and delicious breakfast/snack/I'm going to eat it anytime of the day...  Also, quick breads are so versitile, you can make them into anything you desire.

When I was mulling over the challenge, I was looking into my pantry.  I didn't want to make the traditional banana bread or zucchini bread.  While those breads are delicious, I've made them many times before.  Instead of going totally crazy with flavors, I decided to go with a classic flavor profile - cranberry & almond.  By swapping out some of the all-purpose flour for almond flour and subbing in almond extract for some of the vanilla.  I chose dried cranberries over fresh because of the time of year.  If I had thought ahead, I think that fresh cranberries would have lended a perfect tart pop for the bread.  Oh well, next time!

Banana Bread Donuts

I want to thank you all for sharing your stories of your days in braces.  While I'm not looking forward to the next year and a half, I know that it will be all worth it in the end.  Sure, I'll spend some time sipping on smoothies and spooning up risotto, but I'll come out of it all with the smile I've always wanted.  I'm thinking that we'll have to start  monthly smoothie and monthly risotto posts!  I'm going to get so good at stirring!

After my orthodontia appointment Wednesday night, I was feeling fine.  It wasn't until the next afternoon that I was starting to feel the difference and, as strange as this may sound, I was completely aware of my teeth.  Every last one of them.  There wasn't pain, just the sensation that I had a whole bunch of teeth in my mouth and that they were trying to move around.  After reading a bit about the actual process that occurs during braces, I was happy to know that the worst of it would be over after three days. 

Sure enough, come the weekend I was ready to have some (soft) solid foods!  I spent the weekend cooking and baking, filling the house with sweet and savory smells.  If you were following my crazy series of tweets this weekend, you got a sneak preview of Thursdays bagels.  Boyfriend got a cheesey and meaty dinner Sunday night.  And I got to break in my new donut pan.

I waited and waited, until I had a good idea of what I wanted to make, before buying a donut pan.  I figured that if I didn't have any recipes in mind for the pan, it would just sit in the cupboard and gather dust.  Once I collected a bunch of ideas on scraps of papers, boyfriend and I picked up a pan while shopping at Michael's.  You can look forward to many donut recipes to come and I'll enjoy eating them all year long, even with my new braces.

Pumpkin Raisin Muffins

Okay now, be honest.  Are you still all sugared up from last night?  Did you eat more Halloween candy than you gave out?  Or did you "check" your kids candy and take out all of the delicious treats for yourself?  C'mon, fess up!  Well, even if you might not want to admit it, I'm sure you need a little candy detox.

Growing up, we never had the problem of eating more candy than we gave out.  The reason for this?  In all the years that my parents have lived at their house, not a single trick-or-treater ever came to the door.  Did that stop my dad from buying five bags of candy every year?  No.  When asked why he was putting all those bags of candy in the grocery cart, the answer was always "for the trick-or-treaters."  Big ole liar.  Dad likes candy, plain and simple.  We always ate more candy than we gave out, always.

Even now I can say that I've never answered the door of my own home to a trick-or-treater.  Since moving away from my parents home, I've lived in apartments.  Boyfriend, on the other hand, grew up in a classic suburban subdivision.  He has many memories of costume-clad children ringing the doorbell and screaming for candy.  He describes it as "annoying."  I guess when you're trying to get stuff done, going to the door every two minutes might get a bit old. 

So, for now I have continued my trick-or-treaterless existance.  Perhaps boyfriend and I will buy a house, then we'll have ghosts, pirates and pixies ringing our doorbell on October 31st.  Until then, I'll keep buying the candy, just in case.

Buttermilk Cornbread

It’s the end of healthy January month, how did you do? Were you eating your vegetables and getting more exercise? I have to be truthful with you. While I’ve been posting all of these good for you, lower calories recipes for you, I’ve been secretly stockpiling deliciously evil, high fat treats. I know, I’m terrible. You’re in for a dangerous February!

Along with those sneaky desserts, I’ve been eating lots of soup. It’s been that kind of winter in the Northeast, a soup-eating winter. In fact there is another weather front heading for us tonight! The television keeps warning me about it every fifteen minutes. Warning, warning! Snow is coming! Then some ice, lots and lots of ice! Then you’re going to fall down tomorrow morning on your walk into work. Thank you television, now I know to wrap myself in plastic and pillows before I leave for work in the morning.

While the soup has been nothing spectacular, recipes still in the works, I do have some amazing cornbread to share with you. I have tried a lot of cornbread recipes, because nothing is better with soup. They are all different, too bland, too sweet, to bicarby (note: use baking powder when directed, not baking soda). This has become my favorite, it goes perfectly with chili. It’s best right out of the oven, crunchy around the edges and soft in the middle. Now go warm up and watch the snow come down.

Snack Week! - Zucchini Bread

The only photo I have, because they ate it all...

Happy Friday everyone! Where has the week gone? From the sounds of it, half of the world has been sick this week with some cold or flu virus or another. I know that I was. Luckily I had all these tasty snacks in my fridge, ready for that mild hunger pang of a sick person. You know how it goes, you’re hungry, but you just can’t manage to eat something tangible? Snack week couldn’t have come at a better time.


Did you also hear that everything was ready for me? I prepared all of these foods on Sunday! So maybe you have a crazy work week ahead, maybe the kids have an insane amount of obligations or maybe you want to have some free time this week. Take a few hours on Sunday and you’ll be all set for the week. All of the baked goods require nothing more than a bowl and a big spoon.

This last treat for snack week is something that I never actually ate. I brought these loaves into work and they were gone before I even had a slice. It was three o’clock in the afternoon and I was feeling hungry. Thinking, nobody was eating the zucchini bread, I bet I can get myself a snack. Walk walk walk to the break room. Noooo! An empty container! Where did it all go? According to one of my labmates, if it’s there after three, it’s going to disappear quick. Nuts, maybe I should have hidden some.

Tomorrow, for the last day of Snack Week! I'll be posting many of my favorite pre-packaged healthy snacks.  Because sometimes you just don't have the time!  Thanks for tuning in this week!  Oh, what to do next week, last week of healthy January.  Have you been behaving?  Detoxing from all those cookies?

Walnut-Strawberry Quick Bread

Before I moved out to the east coast I was living in Broomfield, Colorado. If you have ever been to this area of the country then you are familiar with its beautiful year-round weather, fantastic views and plethora of health-conscious people. Colorado is consistently ranked as the fittest state in the country, with one of the lowest obesity rates. The first two qualities of Colorado help influence the third. When the weather is nice and there is a mountainous playground at your front door, you tend to enjoy your exercise so much more.

While I spent the majority of my time in Colorado working in the lab, I did take some time to enjoy the sights. I would pack myself a nice slice of banana bread and head out into the wilderness. Just me and my water bottle, against all of the elements of nature, I would set out into the Rocky Mountains. By reading the signs at the entry to the park you expect to be attacked by at least three woodland creatures before you leave.

According to the signs you must… 1. Not go into the areas marked with specific signs because they are raptor nesting areas. Now, I don’t know about you, but personally I don’t think we should be promoting raptor procreation. Didn’t the people of Colorado ever see Jurassic park? 2. If you see a cougar, you should yell at it. I think that having a nice conversation with the cougar would suffice, but apparently this will not keep it from mauling me. 3. Beware of bears. There wasn’t much more helpful information beyond that.

Luckily for me I made it out of the wilderness without getting mauled by raptors, cougars, bears or any other mysterious animals. The Rocky Mountains are full of crazy animals, many of which I was not warned about on the signs. What if I came upon a tap-dancing squirrel or a monkey with a tambourine? Other than thinking that the local circus lost a train car, I would have no idea what to do. I guess I would just have to offer them some of my bread.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

I have to say, sometimes I am disappointed by a recipe. It holds all that promise, sitting there on the glossy pages of a new cookbook. I have all the ingredients in the fridge and pantry. It seems as though everything is coming together perfectly. Then that first taste, disappointment. That is what happened with these muffins. Look at the pictures, they aren’t even that spectacular to look at. Plain, simple, boring, lemon poppy seed muffins.

The lemon flavor was too mild, the poppy seeds gave nothing to enhance the muffins. I was so sad. Although I did eat each and every one of them. It’s amazing what a little butter can do to spruce up a less than successful muffin recipe. So if you are in the mood for kinda boring muffins, here’s a recipe. I might suggest sprinkling the tops with sugar before baking. You know the kind. The HUGE sugar crystals? What are they called? Anyways, that might pump up these muffins from their current BORING status. So sad. Sad sad muffins.