recipes

Banana Frozen Yogurt

Posted by Ginna on Nov 15, 2011 | 3 comments

For the past few months I have been reading on various blogs and websites about this mysterious banana frozen yogurt. Apparently all you need to do is just freeze bananas, pop them into a blender or food processor and tada! it magically turns into a creamy banana ice cream.

The pictures looked so delicious and the raves were so high that I decided to ignore the chocolate chip brownies leftover from the evening before, and try a healthy snack with some of my frozen bananas.

Mmm! It’s starting to look good!

I took my first taste. YUCK. I don’t know why I expected it to taste differently, but while the texture looked like creamy, smooth ice cream, the taste was most certainly all banana.

So I decided to add in some nutella and chocolate chips to cut down on the banana taste.

I kept adding more and more until it had a hint of chocolate in it. Here is the final product:

Looks great, right? It was still too banana-y. So the only way to make the dish bearable was adding the brownie that I originally wanted to eat, before I opted for the banana frozen yogurt experiment.

That certainly helped, but the snack was now more calories than what I originally intended. So, be warned. This recipe is not for the faint of heart — if you don’t absolutely LOVE bananas, stay away and eat regular frozen yogurt instead. Or half of a chocolate chip brownie.

Homemade Granola

Posted by Ginna on Nov 10, 2011 | 4 comments

I love granola. I love it as a cereal, in my yogurt, paired with fruit, or even by itself with some chocolate chunks as a snack. I just hate how expensive it is to buy it! So last weekend I looked up the ingredients and found out that I had absolutely EVERYTHING to make my own batch. Huzzah!

Mmm, doesn’t that look tasty? :) Pair it with yogurt and fruit, and it’s the new breakfast of champions! I used a mix of a few recipes I found online to come up with this combination below. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
4 cups old fashioned oats
1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 Tbls brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250.

Mix together the oats, ground flax, almonds and sunflower seeds and set aside. Mix together the vegetable oil, maple syrup, brown sugar, peanut butter, salt and cinnamon and bring to a simmer on the stove. Cook for three to five minutes. Pour over the dry ingredients and toss well to coat.

Spread out granola on two lined sheet trays and bake for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Turkey & Cheese Panini

Posted by Ginna on Aug 24, 2011 | 1 comment

Even though the temperatures are still in the 90s here in Raleigh, I can feel the summer ending and a new season approaching. School is starting up again, colleagues return from vacations, and evenings begin to fill up with scheduled activities. After months of relaxing, I’m always ready for the busyness that the end of August brings. But one of the first things to go in our busy schedules are home-cooked meals. There’s just no time to spend more than an hour in the kitchen and it’s so much easier to grab food on the run.

For those evenings when you are tempted to grab fast food, here is a delicious sandwich that is fast, easy, cheap and tastes (almost) as good as one you would get at Panera. (It’s also delicious to pair it with our  favorite pasta salad.) Enjoy!

Turkey & Cheese Panini
from Cooking Light Everyday Favorites

2 TBSP fat-free mayo
4 tsp basil pesto
8 (1 oz) thin slices sourdough bread*
8 ounces sliced cooked turkey breast
2 oz thinly sliced provolone cheese
8 slices tomato
Cooking spray

1. Combine mayo and pesto, stirring well. Spread 1 tablespoon mayo mixture on each of 4 bread slices, top each slice with 2 ounces turkey, 1/2 ounce cheese, and 2 tomato slices. Top with remaining bread slices.

2. Heat a grill pan over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sandwiches to pan; top with a heavy skillet (or just use a Panini press). Cook 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Yield: 4 servings; Per serving: Calories: 257, Fat: 8.2g, Protein: 18.4g Fiber: 4.1g

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I’d love to know: what is your favorite on-the-go recipe for when life gets busy?

*PS – I used French bread in the sandwiches above, since that is what we had on hand.

Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad

Posted by Ginna on Aug 3, 2011 | 3 comments

I love it when I cook something new and instantly know it will be a favorite. This is one of those recipes. I received it from my dear friend Heather at one of my bridal showers. Each guest was asked to bring a recipe (great shower idea, btw!) and I have made this one so many times.  It makes a great main dish or side dish if you omit the chicken. It makes an easy meal at home, and a crowd-pleaser at potluck picnics. If you’re still not convinced, J asks me to make it once a week. And I’m not even exaggerating—Once. A. Week. Enjoy!

Bistro Chicken Pasta Salad

4 c. cooked penne pasta
1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1 cup prepared Good Seasons Italian salad dressing mix*
1/3 cup lightly packed fresh basil, cut in strips
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
2 grilled chicken breasts, cut in 1/4 inch slices

Toss all ingredients except chicken.
Top pasta mixture with chicken.
Serve warm or chilled.

*To make the Good Seasons dressing:
Mix 1/4 cup vinegar with 3 TBSP water and contents of Good Seasons dressing packet. Mix vigorously until well blended. Add 1/2 cup oil and mix again.

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Whenever I cook anything new, I always follow the recipe exactly, and then alter the next time I make it. The recipe by itself is fabulous, but usually I omit the chicken and add cherry tomatoes instead of sundried tomatoes, since it’s cheaper. I serve it chilled.

What is your favorite cookbook?

Posted by Ginna on Jul 27, 2011 | 9 comments

I am in the midst of shopping for my next favorite cookbook, and I’d love your help. What is your favorite cookbook? What do you like about it?

I’ll tell you mine first.

My current favorite is the Cooking Light Everyday Favorites cookbook. Some of you may remember when I bought the book last year. Our intentions were to buy a cookbook and make recipes together when I moved to North Carolina. We bought the book and began making anything that looked good, all the while documenting the date and our comments in the book.

I love the habit of writing in cookbooks. It is such a great reminder to me later how the meal was and what exactly I liked/disliked about the recipe. I used to not write in my cookbooks because I wanted to keep them in pristine condition—but that only translates to “not using at all,” and what’s the point of having a cookbook if you don’t use it? (I guess decoration. There are some beautiful cookbooks out there.)

Well, it’s been one year since we bought the book and we sure have made a significant dent in this cookbook. We have made over 20 recipes in the last year! (I suppose that is only a small dent considering there are 500 total, but for us 20 is a lot.)

I have a few other cookbooks, but this is the one that I refer to the most for new recipes. I like the pictures, the variety of menus, the nutrition facts at the bottom of each recipe, and the flavor of the meals. I’ll be sure to feature some of my favorites soon.

There have only been a handful of recipes we disliked and for some of them, I’m pretty sure it was my fault they turned out badly. (For example, it’s not the recipe’s fault that J disliked the sweet and sour chicken considering I overcooked it two hours longer than required. Oops.)However, my one BIG complaint about this cookbook is the binding. It is horrible! They should have made it a hardback, because it literally falls apart when I lift it.

Here are a few photos of the cookbooks and our comments in the last year:

See what I mean? Terrible binding. It looks like we have literally beaten this book up and ripped it apart. No cool, Cooking Light.

^Yeah, J did the dishes that night. :)

So! I’m very curious:

What is your favorite cookbook? What cookbook of yours is torn apart with comments and has page stained with spaghetti splashes? What cookbook has given you the most beloved recipes?

Homemade Peach Ice Cream

Posted by Ginna on Jul 12, 2011 | 3 comments

Homemade Peach Ice Cream
adapted from AllRecipes

3 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cups white sugar
6 to 7 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt