Saturday, January 26, 2013

Peanut Butter Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips


2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 medium bananas, mashed
½ cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
⅓ cup buttermilk
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x4-inch loaf pan and then line with parchment paper so that it hangs over the two long sides.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the banana, peanut butter, sugars, buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and fold together with a rubber spatula until completely combined and there are no spots with raw flour. Gently stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top into an even layer. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick or thin knife inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs, 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. If your bread appears to be browning too quickly, place a tented piece of foil over it (I did this at the 45-minute mark).

6. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. The cooled bread should be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap; it can be stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.

NOTES:

  • Recipe credit
  • This definitely made enough batter for two smaller pans.  I thought it might overflow and put a pan under it just in case.  (It didn't.)
  •  In my single pan, it took a lot longer to bake.  I kept going until the internal temperature was 190.
  • I used mini chips so mine looks a lot more chocolaty.  Fewer minis would also work.
  • It tastes yummy and is staying moist, even after a few days.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Easy Quinoa

aka: Keen-Wow!

1 tbls. butter
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp. chopped garlic
1 tbls. dried parsley
1/4 tbls. dried thyme (estimated)
1 dash lemon juice


  1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the quinoa, and toast, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes, or until quinoa is tender.
  2. In a bowl, toss quinoa together with garlic, parsley, and thyme. Sprinkle with lemon juice, and serve.
NOTES: 
  • The original recipe is here.
  • Browning it in the butter first gave it a bit of a rice-a-roni quality that we all liked.  Really, if there were no other seasoning besides this and the broth, it would've been good.
  • I think this would freeze really well and will probably double the quantity I make next time for that purpose.
  • The original recipe called for vegetarian broth and while our crunchy score would've spiked by using it, I happened to have a carton of Aldi chicken broth around so that's what we used.
  • This was really, really good.  I'll definitely be looking for this product for a better price.
  • Thanks to Holly for the suggestion to try it and thanks to Jen for the subtitle. ;-)