Bittman's Banana Bread

I'm finished with grad school. I've graduated, I've got a decent handle on things at work, the house is clean, we're heading to a Philadelphia Union game tonight, and I have a bunch of overripe bananas on the table. Life. Is. Good.

Sweet Potato Hash w/ Chorizo and Crumbled Feta

Looking for a delicious dish? Want healthy ingredients in there? Want it to be really easy? Made in only one pan? You've come to the right place...

Black Bean Cakes

Pumpkin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip PB Pumpkin Cookies

Rock Cakes, Cathedrals, & the English Coast

We'll get back to these bad boys in just a moment. 

Cold-Brew Iced Coffee

It is really hard to get back into the swing of things after being on vacation. For two weeks I barely sent a text message, hardly looked at e-mail, and didn't make a single phone call. It was truly a break.

We had a wonderful two weeks in England visiting Paul's family, touring the Lake District, and celebrating our wedding with family and friends abroad. I ate crazy amounts of food - market wares, home cooked meals by friends and family, delicious pub fare - and I have several recipes from our travels that I want to share.

But first things first - dealing with jetlag. After dinner the night we got home I made a joke about resting my eyes for a minute and put my head down on the table. Regardless of my intentions, I promptly fell asleep. Awkward.

I was hoping to post about this before I left but I was running around getting ready right up until we left and didn't get the chance. Homemade iced coffee seems even more appropriate now. Appropriate because coffee helps with the tiredness, but even more so because it's iced. It was 73 degrees when we left England and when we landed it was a whopping NINETY-FIVE DEGREES! And it hasn't gotten much better...

90º weather makes me want to grab a glass with some ice...

Grain-Free Protein Bread

I wish I was one of those people who could eat whatever I want without consequence. I'm not talking about my metabolism either. As I've gotten older I've learned more (the hard way) about the connection between what I ingest and the way I feel.

The BEST Banana Muffins Ever

I don't use that title lightly. Come grab a muffin and let me tell you about it...

I grew up in a banana bread family. We don't have a lot of family recipes but we definitely do for banana bread. In fact, when my mom passed the recipe on to me she didn't even write instructions. It's just a list of ingredients and an oven temperature. I just know how to make it. 

I'm sorry mom but this post does not contain your recipe.

Chocolate Chip Biscotti

So I think the moral of the story is to try not to overthink and psych yourself out of something awesome.  Maybe I should back up...

The Easiest Homemade Donuts Ever

Honestly?  Valentine's Day stunk.  Hard.  Paul and I both had plans to do something for each other but the weather didn't cooperate.  What did we do?  Well, not really anything, which was horribly disappointing for both of us.  Living in the social media age means that we're surrounded by pictures of the meals people made for their partner, the flowers, the cards, the chocolate, the [insert annoyingly romantic/gushy thing here].  It hurts.

How do we fix this?

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

There are two questions you get all the time as a newly married couple:

1) How's married life?

2) When are you having kids?

Well I can tell you that married life is great.  I feel incredibly blessed that things are going so well for us.  All of the things you hear about being the biggest challenges in the first year of marriage haven't hurt us.  And with that I just showed you that there isn't a truthful way to give a non-boring answer to that question.

My answer to the second question is that I have 104 kids and counting and am not ready to add any of my own.

A mystical classmate of ours told us that we would have twins by the end of 2014.  (I think he was messing with us...)  Today one of my coworkers told me my hair was looking full and fantastic, was I pregnant?  (She was teasing and I ended up selling her the Pantene Thickening Treatment I'm in love with... She better have been teasing...)  And then there is my recent repeated strong need for a cookie.  It all makes me nervous.

I got home from work today and I HAD to have a cookie.  We have almost nothing with which to make cookies and my car is buried in ice.  Necessity is the mother of invention.  I whipped up these bad boys and my cookie craving has been quashed.  I would like to say that I waited for them to cool even a little bit before digging in, but I did not...

These incredibly simple cookies have very little sugar and no flour.  You could easily make them 100% sugar free by leaving out the chocolate chips, but don't because chocolate is wonderful.  

This recipe is a blend of two great recipes - one is from Shauna Niequist's book "Bread & Wine" and the other is from blogger Shannon Lim.

Peanut Butter Banana Cookies

by New to the Table

Yield: 12 cookies / Total Time: less than 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup quick oats
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 large very ripe banana
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350º and line a baking sheet with parchment or silicone baking mat.

In a medium bowl, mash the banana with a fork.  Add peanut butter and stir until well combined.  Stir in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine oats and baking soda.

Add oats to peanut butter and combine well.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Use cookie scoop or soup spoon to drop large rounds of dough onto prepared sheet.  Do not flatten dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.  Transfer immediately from cookie sheet to rack to cool.

I hope you enjoy these!  I certainly have a much happier tum and am ready to dive head first into more homework.  

If you're a newlywed (or not so newly), what is/was your best response to the frequently asked question "How's married life?"  (One of my pastors suggested "We're just exhausted...")  (;

Lemony-Oat Breakfast Cookies

Paul loves to run.  He loves running gadgets, phone apps, articles, etc.  Naturally, he has a subscription to Runner's World Magazine.  Not particularly fond of running myself (though I'm sure it would do me some good) I was surprised to find how much I enjoy the magazine.  I like the uplifting stories and fitness tips.  The recipes have also been surprisingly wonderful.

Smoked Salmon & Cucumber Wraps

I don't know about you, but I overdid it yesterday.  Yep.

I made a lot of delicious food but I didn't take any pictures of it because I was excited to be with my family after a stressful week before Christmas.

My normally dependable schedule for preparing my church's Christmas Pageant was thrown out the window when I discovered that all of our angel costumes were missing.  I called my mom to come out and help me look because moms always seem to have super powers when it comes to finding stuff.  Nope.  They were totally gone.

I didn't panic because I knew I had bins of white sheets and fabric, an old pattern for the costumes we already had, and a pretty decent knowledge of sewing.  As with so many things involving kids and scheduling, it was not smooth sailing.  Even with a costume for each angel at rehearsal, we didn't have enough when it was show time, but luckily a light beige tunic made a great substitute.  The pageant went off with out any major glitches and the kids were adorable.  In the end, a good time was has by all.  Success!

When it came time to finally kick back with my family, I relaxed and enjoyed everything Christmas had to offer, including Santa's cookies, fresh blueberry muffins, and (for some reason) the cheese ball puffs that were set around the room in big bowls just begging to be thrown in the air and caught in your mouth.

Today, with my pants feeling a little tight and my energy a tad lower than usual, I am ready to get back on track.  I genuinely like eating healthy foods that taste good and make me feel good.

Lunch today was really simple.  Pulled from one of my favorite cookbooks, it's a simple sandwich idea that you can whip up in minutes.  It's light, flavorful, filling, and you feel good about eating it.

Tonight, I'm going to make a big ol' pot of Magical White Bean Soup.  Without any fixin's it's a delicious gluten-free and vegan soup that fills you up without letting you down.

Pumpkin Scones and Extra Grandparents

When I was little, I had three sets of grandparents: my mom's parents, my dad's parents, and Grandpa Arden and Grandma Elsie.  It never struck me as strange that this older couple who had no relation to me were known as my grandparents.  They were sweet and loving, never missed our birthdays, and we never missed theirs.  They had children of their own who never saw them, and that right there is my mother's kryptonite.

"If you make some stuff with pumpkin again soon, can you make some for Gordon?  I think he'd really like that," my mom said to me the other day.  I was confused, not knowing who Gordon was, so she explained.  He is a neighbor of my grandparents that she got to know recently and is apparently just the nicest guy you could ever meet.  You need to bang on his front door like the place is on fire if you want him to answer.  He's jovial.  He carries a good, long conversation (a trait that is useful when talking with my mom).  He also has children who never see him.  With all those traits in his wheelhouse, I think we might be seeing a lot more of Gordon.

That stuff with pumpkin she wanted me to make, those are my pumpkin scones.  They're the perfect baked goodie to share with friends and neighbors, and I agree that they should be just right for an introduction to Gordon.  I have a feeling I might end up seeing him at the Thanksgiving table this week, but I whipped up a batch of scones to bring over anyway.