Bananas!

I get a big, huge bunch of beautiful, organic bananas every week. Sometimes I go nuts and order extra fruit and then I get 2 bunches of bananas. Well... last week my nuttiness got the best of me and I had too many bananas. What is one to do with too many, very ripe bananas?


BANANA BREAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My family doesn't care for bananas (except the Little Man), but they love banana bread. I took my Mom's tried-and-true recipe and switched out the shortening for some yummy butter and it was great.

Mom's Banana Bread

1.5 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I used softened butter)
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
5 Tablespoons of milk
2-3 large RIPE mashed bananas
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups of flour
Optional: mix in chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, blueberries, etc... be creative!

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Butter a large loaf pan or put muffin liners into your muffin tin.

Cream together sugar and shortening (butter). Add the beaten eggs. Dissolve the baking soda into the milk. Add milk/soda mixture to the sugar/butter/egg mixture. Add your mashed bananas. (Does anyone else think of The Wiggles when you say "mashed bananas"?) Add salt, vanilla and flour. Mix until combined.

Portion into your buttered baking vessel and cook for about an hour. (Muffins will take less time, but it varies based on your muffin cup size and oven.) When you start to smell it, start monitoring the progress. When you stick a knife into the middle and it comes out clean... take out and enjoy!

I generally double the recipe and I end up with three 4x8 loaves. This time I added peanut butter chips to one loaf, dark chocolate chips to one loaf and left the last plain. Mmmmmmmmmm! Chocolate chip banana bread is my favorite!

Crock Pot Chicken and Brown Rice REVIEWED

Ok... confession time! I was sooooo wrong about having all of the necessary ingredients for my meal. Ooops! I was so busy being proud of myself that I didn't go check. What was I missing you might ask? The stinkin' brown rice! It wouldn't be so bad, but we always have brown rice coming out of our ears. Today when I went to the fridge, this is all I found...


Sad, isn't it? So I got over that hurdle with a near-hissy fit and a quick trip to Publix. Then I got down to business.

I altered the recipe to suit us in the following ways:

• I used a 6 quart Crock Pot because that is what I have.
  
• I added chopped carrots b/c I can't stand monochromatic food.
• I changed the seasoning because I didn't have paprika and don't have any recipes that need it so I used lemon pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.
• I added a splash more chicken broth because of the extra veggie.
• I used chicken breast cutlets because that's what was in the freezer,but I am sure this would work with any cuts.
  

Survey says:

• It needed a little more liquid because there were some grains of rice on the very top that were a little... uh... al dente. ;-)
• It should not be stirred a lot as it causes the rice to become a little more mushy/risotto-like.
• Flavor was great. We LOVE lemon pepper with chicken.
• Hubby enjoyed and the Dancing Daughter cleaned her plate quickly. (A quick plate-cleaning is how we know she likes a food.)

To sum it up, it will go into our family rotation of meals!!! I recommend this, but play around with it and tailor it to suit your family's preferences. Oh, how about... Mexican: salsa mixed in... or Italian: chopped tomatoes and basil... or you get the idea.

¡Buen provecho!