Banana Pudding

So as promised, here is another yummy banana recipe. One of our friends loves banana pudding as do I, so I decided to whip up a batch to use up some of the awesome free bananas I got from the guy at the fruit stand. I love the Publix banana pudding, but on my quick search, I couldn't find a copy cat recipe, so I decided to stick with the original Nilla wafer recipe. Now I used skim milk as this is all I ever have in the house, and I had some issues with the thickness, so I did some tweaking, which I will list below, to make mine into a pudding consistency (vs the liquid I had when I originally started).

Nilla Wafer Original Banana Pudding

3/4 cup sugar (divided)
1/3 cup flour
Dash salt
3 eggs, separated
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
45 Nilla Wafers
5 ripe bananas (I only used 3)
Additional Nilla wafers and bananas for decoration
***I also had to use 1 Tbsp cornstarch****

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. (Note- this recipe has a meringue topping which is why you will need the oven, I could definitley have skipped the meringue and still had a great pudding. If you decide you don't want the meringue, skip this step.)
2. Prepare a double boiler. In the top of the double boiler, combine 1/2 cup sugar and flour. Blend in 3 eggs yolks and milk. Cook over boiling water, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. ****Now at this point, my pudding was still just liquid. What I did was add 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and then put the pudding into a pot over medium heat. Stirring constantly until it bubbles and is thick.*****
3. Spread a small amount of the pudding onto the bottom of a 1 1/2 quart casserole. Top with 1/3 bananas and 1/3 Nilla wafers. Top with pudding. Repeat layers ending with pudding.
4. ****Do these parts if you want the meringue topping, otherwise, just start enjoying the tasty pudding.******** Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add in 1/4 sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Spoon on top of pudding making sure it goes to edges and covers all pudding.
5. Bake at 350 F foe 10- 15 minutes or until meringue is browned.
6. Cool. Garnish with Nilla wafers and banana slices before serving.

Grilled Banana Splits

Like most others, we decided to have a family get together for Memorial Day. Of course, since the weather is so warm and sunny here in Florida, we decided to have a barbeque. We had the yummiest burgers, hot dogs, and chicken with all the typical sides- corn on the cob, potato salad, and baked beans. For dessert, I thought why not stick with the grill and make some grilled fruit. I went to my local fruit stand for some inspiration. They keep their spotty bananas in the cooler and mark them WAY down (less than 30 cents per pound). The thing is these bananas are perfect on the inside. The skin is spotty, some of the bananas are mushy, but some are still firm. Well, I bought about 6, and the guy told me to take the whole box for FREE since he was going to toss them! I got about 30 bananas free! SCORE!!! Also, in other words, look for more banana recipes in the near future!

Grilled Banana Splits

10 ripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbps ground cinnamon
Ice cream of your choice
Sundae toppings of your choice

1. Preheat grill to medium.
2. Leaving skins on the bananas, cut both tips off and cut lengthwise down the middle (like you would see in a banana split).
3. Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon until well blended. Sprinkle generously over bananas.
4. Put bananas skin side up on the grill. Cook approx 3 minutes and turn skin side down (don't let sugar burn, but it will be melty). Bananas are done when they start to pull away from the skins.
5. Peel bananas and top with ice cream and toppings.

The warmth of the bananas with the cold ice cream...So good!

Homemade Pizza

I crave pizza once weekly at least. This week I made a whole chicken and we always have at least 1 chicken part (this time the breast) left over. One of my fave pizza topping combos is chicken and tomatoes....so I got to thinking, I can justify having yummy pizza for dinner if I am using up some leftovers. Came out so yummy. I will list the ingredients for a basic pizza and feel free to use whatever toppings you like!

2 cups flour (I used a combo of bread flour and all purpose)

1 cup warm water (at between 90-100 degrees)

1 package rapid rise yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 cup pizza sauce (use more or less depending how saucy you like it)

1 cup shredded mozzerella (I don't use too much cheese, but you could always put more)

Toppings

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer that is fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the flour and salt.

2. Add yeast to warm water (make sure water isn't too hot because it will kill the yeast) and allow to rest until yeast looks frothy (about 2-5 minutes). Add water to flour and salt mixture. Turn stand mixer on medium low speed and allow to mix until sticky dough is formed. If too sticky, you can add more flour.

3. Oil large bowl with olive oil. Place dough ball in oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise (at least 30 minutes) in a warm draft free place.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put pizza stone in oven during preheating.

5. Turn dough out of bowl onto well floured surface. Roll out to desired thickness and size.

6. Take hot pizza stone out of oven and put dough onto stone. Pour sauce in middle of dough and spread to cover pizza. Put toppings and then top with cheese.

7. Bake at 400 F unitil cheese is browned and bubbly. Cut and serve. YUM

Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake

Today is my mom's birthday and I knew I wanted to make her a cake. Every year for my birthday she always makes me a special cake. Last year it was a chocolate cake with a super yummy white chocolate frosting. My birthday usually falls right around Thanksgiving which has plenty of it's own desserts, but my awesome mom always goes out of her way to make my birthday special. I wanted to do something nice in return for her. I made this cake and it was a hit! I could probably eat the whole thing (and be awfully sick). This isn't the prettiest photo. It was so tasty, we cut into it as soon as we could.

Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake

Cake (recipe from Hersheys.com)

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used apple sauce)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Prepare two 9-inch round baking pans with cooking spray.
3. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.
5. When cool cut each cake in 2 layers (will be a 4 layer cake)

Raspberry Buttercream
1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

1. Cream together butter and raspberry jam until smooth with stand mixer or hand mixer.
2. Sift in powdered sugar and continue to beat until smooth.
3. Refrigerate while cake cools


Chocolate Raspberry Ganache
8 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup cream (I used half and half)
1/2 cup raspberry jam

1. Bring cream to a bubble over medium high heat. Add to chocolate chips and stir until melted. Add in raspberry jam and stir until well incorporated.
2. Refrigerate while cake cools.

Chocolate Ganache
4 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup cream (I used half and half)

Bring cream to a bubble over medium high heat. Add to chocolate chips and stir until melted.



PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
1. Put 1 layer of cake on serving platter. You may want to first put wax or parchment paper around edges to keep serving platter clean.
2. Top 1st layer of cake with half of the chocolate raspberry ganache. Cover with 2nd layer of cake.
3. Spread raspberry buttercream over the second layer of cake. Cover with 3rd layer.
4. Top 3rd layer of cake with remaining chocolate raspberry ganache. Cover with top layer of cake.
5. Pour cooled chocolate ganache over the top of the cake and let it drip over the sides. Frost cake with ganache.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

So the hubby's doctor has added yet another restriction to his diet....now we are to avoid anything that causes heartburn (caffeine, peppermint, chocolate, greasy foods) and anything with nitrates/nitrites (bacon, ham, deli meats, etc). This along with the fact that he his a super picky eater has really thrown a wrench into our daily meal plans. Since he loves bacon and sausage for breakfast and since these were not allowed on this new diet, I decided to try to make homemade breakfast sausage. This allows me to control how much fat is in the meat and obviously, I won't be added sodium nitrite. These came out so tasty!

Homemade Breakfast Sausage

1 pound ground pork (I buy a pork tenderloin and grind it using my Kitchenaid grinding attachment)
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch ground nutmeg
Pinch cloves
Pinch red pepper flakes

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well to combine.
2. Make sausage patties.
3. Cook patties in skillet.

Lighter Mac and Cheese, with buffalo sauce

My hubs loves buffalo chicken. He gets a buffalo chicken sandwich with cheese on it when we go to Beef O'Bradys. When I saw a recipe for buffalo chicken mac and cheese, I knew I had to try it! Of course, I had to make it low carb to meet his needs and lower fat to meet mine. I left the chicken out and had this mac and cheese as a side to a baked chicken breast dinner. You can also leave out the buffalo wing sauce, and this would make a yummy mac and cheese, but you will probably want to add more salt.

Lightened Buffalo Mac and Cheese
(Printable Recipe)

8 oz of elbow noodles (we used low carb)
1/3-1/2 cup buffalo wing sauce (I used Franks)
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk (I used skim)
8 oz shredded cheddar (you could get creative and use any cheese you like, I used 2% sharp cheddar)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare an 8 x 8 casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook until just slightly underdone.
3. In a saucepan, melt 1 Tbsp butter. Add flour and cook for 1 minute (do not brown). Add milk and hot sauce (which you could leave out at this point and have a yummy cheese sauce). Stir until thickened (about 2 minutes). Add in cheese and mix until smooth. (I put some cheese to the side to melt on top).
4. Put macaroni into prepared baking dish. Top with cheese sauce and stir to combine. Add reserved cheese (if you decided to do this) to top. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.

French Toast Casserole

Before you read any further, you must know that you will need to refrigerate the uncooked french toast overnight prior to baking, so plan ahead!
We had brunch this year for Easter instead of our usual dinner. Everyone brought along a dish, and I only had to make a few things. I wanted a pancake or french toast dish and found this recipe from Paula Deen on Foodnetwork.com. It is SUPER easy and it got RAVE reviews from the family! People went back for seconds and thirds of this item and left others untouched!

Baked French Toast Casserole
Courtesy of Paula Deen and Foodnetwork.com
(Printable Recipe)

1 loaf of french bread (I used Challah) sliced into 1 inch pieces
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half (I used fat free)
1 cup milk (I used skim)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I left this out for the hubby)
1/4 tsp ground nutment (I left this out as well)

1. Arrange 20 slices of bread (slightly overlapping) in a buttered 13x9 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, granulated sugar, vanilla, and spices. Whisk well to combine. Pour mixture over bread slices, making sure each piece is evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next day, preheat the oven to 350F. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes or until eggs are set and bread is golden.

Yum! So delicious!