Friday Food – Banana Bread

I really don’t like bananas at all, but ever since I was little, I’ve loved banana bread. My grandma makes hers in a Crock-pot with a special pan and my mom does it in the oven. Here’s my mom’s recipe!

Ingredients:
– 3 mashed bananas (Make sure they’re thawed if you are pulling them out of the freezer)
– 1 cup sugar
– 1/4 cup vegetable oil
– 1/2 cup sour cream
– 2 eggs, beaten
– 1 1/2 cups flour
– 1 tsp baking powder
– 1 tsp baking soda
– 1/2 salt

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees celcius.

In a large mixing bowl, mix bananas, sugar, oil, sour cream and eggs. Mix thoroughly.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until just combined.

Pour into a greased 9×5″ loaf pan. (No need to grease if the pan is Teflon coated!)

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until toothpick is clean when removed from centre of loaf.

Friday Food – Mac n’ Cheese

I first made this in Grade 10 cooking class. It’s amazingly bad for you, but soooo good!

Ingredients:

– 3 cups macaroni (or whichever pasta you prefer)

– 1 1/4 cup canned tomatoes, drained & chopped (I buy one of the big cans from the store)

– 8 strips of bacon (or you can use bacon bits)

– 1/4 cup butter or margarine

– 1/2 large onion, chopped

– 1/4 cup flour

– 2 cups milk

– 1 tsp. salt

– 1/2 tsp. pepper

– 1 tbsp. mustard

– 3 cups grated cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cook pasta as indicated on box. Put into a large casserole dish and then add the tomatoes.

If you want to use real bacon, start it at the same time as your pasta.Once it’s cooked, chop it up and set it aside until later.

Now, instead of butter, I use the bacon grease. If you want to, go ahead. If not, clean out your pan and melt the butter.

Add the onion and sauté until lightly browned. Don’t let it burn or you’ll have funky mac n’ cheese! Remove pan from heat and then add your flour, salt, pepper and mustard. Blend it well to make a paste. After that, bring your heat back up to medium-high and add your milk to the pan. Stir constantly until sauce begins to thicken (about 5-8 minutes). Add 2 1/2 cups of cheese to the sauce. Stir until cheese is completely melted.

Once the sauce is complete, pour into your casserole dish and blend with the pasta and tomatoes until everything is covered! Top with the leftover cheese and bacon.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Friday Food – Chow Mien

I’ve decided that every Friday, I’m going to post a recipe that I’ve tried or recently tried. I love food and love trying new recipes, so when I find something I like, I’ll share it with you :)

I’ve created a blog specifically for the recipes here and they’ll be organized by ingredient, Ethnicity and difficulty for easy searching! That way, you don’t have to search this blog for specific recipes.

Here’s the first recipe:

Simple Chicken Chow Mien.

You can omit or add any veggies you like, but these are the ones I usually use. It’s really easy, and in my opinion, quite tasty!

Ingredients:
– 3 large chicken breasts
– 1/2 cup soy sauce
– 1 can of chicken broth
– 1 big tablespoon of hoisin or oyster sauce
– 3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
– bag of chow mien noodles (I buy the soft ones that are kept in the cooler by the produce at grocery stores)
– 2 carrots, thinly sliced
– 2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
– 1/2 onion, sliced
– snow peas
– mushrooms


The noodles I buy have to be soaked in hot water for 5 minutes, so I do that while I’m prepping the chicken for the pan …

Cut your chicken into strips about 2 inches long. Put them in a large, deep skillet with some oil (I use canola) and cook on medium-high heat until no longer pink.

Note: This is when I usually start my rice!

As that’s cooking, I prep my veggies that need to be cut. (Celery, carrots, onion, garlic, mushrooms, etc.)

Once the chicken is cooked, I add in the veggies and let them cook for 5 minutes over medium heat (I had my stove set in between 6 and 7). If you cut them into thicker pieces, put a lid over the pan and that will help soften up the veggies.

After the veggies are cooking I add in the noodles and mix them around a little before adding in my broth, soy sauce and hoisin sauce. I mix once more and then turn the heat down to medium and put the lid back on for 15 minutes to let everything come to an even temperature and let the flavour set in.

That’s it after that! You can always add or reduce ingredients and adjust the flavours to suit your own tastes.