Wheat Chocolate Banana Bread

I'm not a big fan of bananas, but we get them quite often in our Bountiful Basket.  My kids like bananas, but every once in a while they start to get pretty ripe.  We had some really ripe bananas so I decided to try and make bread with them.  I'm not a big fan of banana bread, either, so I thought maybe chocolate would help it taste better.  I found a recipe at Allrecipes.com that I decided to try.  I had a to make a few adjustments, but here is what I came up with.

1/3 cup milk
1 tsp lemon juice
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (I ended up using 1 cup white and 3/4 cup wheat because I ran out of wheat)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
3 ripe bananas, mashed (I used 4 small ones)
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9x5 inch loaf pan or 16 muffin cups with cooking spray. Stir the milk and lemon juice together in a measuring cup; let stand until curdled, about 30 minutes. Whisk together the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; set aside. 

2.  Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Mix in the mashed bananas, the milk mixture, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture just until all ingredients are moistened. Pour the batter into the prepared pan or muffin cups. 

3.  Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour for a loaf, or 30 minutes for muffins. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. 

Verdict:  As far as banana breads go, this one isn't too bad.  I definitely could have used all whole wheat flour and I don't think anyone in my house would have cared.  I just need to get my grinder out and make me some more wheat flour.

Ginger-Garlic Chicken Stir-Fry with Soy Sesame Noodles

I love stir-fry.  I love the many ways you can prepare it, that you can throw whatever into it and it is good.  I found this recipe in Rachel Ray Just in Time and tweeked it a little for what I had on hand.

Salt
1 lb Spaghetti (we used whole wheat noodles)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil (eyeball it)
3/4 lb chicken cut into thin strips (I used 2 chicken breasts)
2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
6 garlic cloves finely chopped (I just used my garlic press)
10-12 chiitake mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced (I just used white mushrooms)
1 small head or 1/2 head Napa cabbage, shredded
A couple handfuls of snow peas (I added this to the recipe)
1 bunch scallions, trimmed and chopped into 2-inch pieces
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1/3 cup tamari (aged soy sauce), eyeball it (I just used regular soy sauce since that's what I had)
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it.  Add the spaghetti and cook it al dente.

2.  While the pasta cooks, heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over high heat until the oil ripples.  Add the chicken and stir-fry until golden, 3-4 minutes.  Add the ginger, garlic, mushrooms, cabbage, and scallions and stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes.  Season the stir-fry with salt and lots of black pepper and turn off the heat.

3.  Place soy sauce and sesame oil in a bowl and add the hot pasta.  Toss to coat the pasta, the sprinkle with the sesame seeds.  Top pasta with the stir-fry.

Verdict:  I really liked this.  I really like sesame oil and I loved the sesame noodles.  I have never added cabbage when I've done stir-fry and I really liked that, too.  My kids, however, did not care for dinner.  One of them only took stir-fry, and then only ate the chicken.  One only took noodles and then covered them in ranch before decided sesame oil and ranch don't go that well together, and one refused to eat altogether.  Oh well, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

This Weeks Bounty

This was a very good week to get a Bountiful Basket!  Just check out all of that yummy goodness!

1 bag golden potatoes

1 coconut

2 cantaloup

2 container strawberries

1 bunch asparagus

5 bananas

6 roma tomatoes

1 bunch asparagus

1 bunch broccoli

2 mangoes

1 head green leaf lettuce

Chicken Enchiladas

These are one of my family’s favorite meals.  My kids have been asking for these for about week before I finally got around to making them.  Sorry for the poor picture, I’ll get better at taking pictures of food, I’m sure.

 

• 2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped into bite size pieces
• 1  16 oz container sour cream
• grated cheese (any kind will work, I like Monterey Jack)
• 1 big can green enchilada sauce
• flour tortillas

Directions:  Mix a small amount of the enchilada sauce in with the sour cream.  Add chicken and cheese to the sour cream mixture.

Heat tortillas for a few seconds in the microwave to soften them.  Put some of the chicken mixture in the middle of each tortilla and roll up.  Place in a casserole dish.  Continue to put tortilla rolls in the dish until you fill the dish.  Pour enchilada sauce over the tortilla rolls and sprinkle with extra cheese.

Cook in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and heated through.

Verdict:  My kids love these.  I’ve done a few different things with them to spice them up occasionally.  I’ve added a can of green chilies to the chicken mixture, or green salsa to the chicken mixture.  I’ve also used black olives in the enchiladas and on top of the enchiladas.  Also, my kids don’t always  like things too spicy, so I only use about half a can of enchilada sauce and then freeze the other half for the next time I make enchiladas.

Stuffed Mushrooms

This is actually my husband's recipe.  He makes some really yummy Stuffed Mushrooms.  He made these for us for Valentines Day and he took the pictures.  He took them on his phone and they didn't turn out the greatest, but you can get the general idea.  Also, all measurements are estimates only, my sweetheart doesn't really measure when he cooks.

1-8 ounce pkg of softened cream cheese
2-3 ounces of sharp cheddar
2-3 ounces of pepper jack
Some feta
Some parmesan
2-3 ounces of Italian sausage (we have a local grocer who mixes his own and it is the best, I think)
1 pkg mushrooms with stems removed

Mix cheeses and cooked sausage together and place in the mushrooms
Grease pan with olive oil and bake at 400 until the mushrooms are soft-usually around 20 minutes.
This also works great for a stuffing for jalapeno peppers.

 Verdict-  I love it when my husband makes these.  My sister loves them, too, only too bad she moved away.  This typically makes a lot of filling and so we will usually stuff a couple of halved and seeded jalapenos and it is really good that way, too.

Jerusalem Artichokes?

I didn't get a picture of this weeks Bountiful Basket because Saturday was kinda crazy and I had my kids with me and they were hungry, so not all the produce made it home, even.  We did get something new in our basket this week though, that I am anxious to try out, Jerusalem Artichokes.  I've heard you can dice/slice them up and add them raw to a salad, or saute them in olive oil with some garlic.  I read that they go well in soups.  With so many possibilities how can a person choose?

Trout

Okay, I don't really like fish, but my husband and daughter #2 do so when a friend called me up and asked if I wanted some I said sure thinking I would surprise my husband.  Surprise him (and the kids) I did.  I didn't know how to cook the fish, so this is what she told me to do.

Trout (these were gutted and everything for me, so make sure they are open on the bottom)
Lemon cut into wedges
Onion sliced

1.  Line baking sheet with foil and preheat oven to 350
2. Stuff trout with lemon wedges and onion.  You can also sprinkle some garlic salt inside if you don't mind touching the fish.
3. Bake at 350 until skin peels easily away and the flesh is flaky.  These were fairly large fish so I cooked them for about 30 minutes.

Verdict:  My daughter was so thrilled that I cooked fish and she ate quite a bit.  My youngest put it in her mouth and then spit it back out.  I did eat some and decided that it wasn't that bad, but still not a texture I really cared for.  My husband liked it, though and he was very glad that I stepped out of my comfort zone to fix something for him that he knew I wouldn't normally fix for myself.