Almond Joy Banana Bread

Highlights magazine  . . . who would have thought that a kids magazine could lead to a batch of banana bread. My son was reading his magazine with dad and they came across a story of some kids baking up a batch of banana bread. He, of course, immediately wanted to bake up a batch but instead of it being a traditional banana bread he wanted it to have almonds. We ended up making one loaf with just almonds and the other loaf with coconut, almonds, and chocolate chips. Yummy! Enjoy!  

Almond Joy Banana Bread
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Place oven rack in lowest position. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of loaf pans.

Mix sugar and margarine in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt just until moistened. Stir in coconut, almonds, and chocolate chips.

Pour into pans. Bake about 60 to 75 minutes (about 25 minutes for mini loaves) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool 5 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing.


Makes 2 loaves

Cranberry Zucchini Muffins

More zucchini bread experimentation as we harvest the plethora of plants that are taking over our garden. Dense would be a great adjective to describe this muffin. Heavy and chock full of cranberries and chopped walnuts. Filling the tin to the top is definitely the way to go. I love how the muffin tops are like large crowns popping up over where the muffin would normally end. I would recommend these as a great hearty muffin. Enjoy!    

Cranberry Zucchini Muffins
Source: Simply Recipes

1-1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups zucchini, grated
2/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl combine the sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the grated zucchini and then the melted butter. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the zucchini mixture and mix in. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir these dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture. Stir in walnuts and dried cranberries.

Coat each muffin cup in your muffin pan with a little butter or vegetable oil spray. Use a spoon to distribute the muffin batter equally among the cups, filling the cups up completely. Bake on the middle rack until muffins are golden brown, and the top of the muffins bounce back when you press on them, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick or a thin bamboo skewer to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the pan, let cool another 20 minutes.

Makes 12 to 14 muffins

Raspberry Cheesecake

 

Chocolate crust, creamy cheesecake, sweet yet tangy raspberry sauce . . . yum! These flavors and textures match together perfectly. This cheesecake recipe holds a special place in my life because it was the very first cheesecake that I ever made 15 years ago. Holy cow, 15 years ago! Has it really been that long? My very first Taste of Home magazine (mailed to me 15 years ago) introduced me to this delicious dessert and while I have made other cheesecakes since then it is definitely one of my favorites. Enjoy!

Raspberry Cheesecake
Crust:
2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs, crushed
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons sugar

Raspberry Sauce:
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries, thawed
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Filling/Topping:
3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg whites
1 cup whipping cream
2 to 3 tablespoons orange juice
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen unsweetened raspberries, thawed

Combine the three ingredients for the crust; press into bottom and 1-1/2 inches up sides of a greased 9-inch springform pan. Chill one hour or until firm.


Puree raspberries in blender. Press through a sieve; discard seeds. Add water if necessary to measure 1 cup. In a saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in raspberry juice; bring to a boil. Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in lemon juice and set aside.


In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla until fluffy. Add egg whites; beat on low just until fluffy. Add egg whites; beat on low just until blended. Stir in cream. Pour half of filling into crust. Top with 3/4 cup raspberry sauce (cover and refrigerate remaining sauce). Carefully spoon remaining filling over sauce.


Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until center is nearly set. Remove from oven; immediately run a knife around pan to loosen crust. Cool on wire rack 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight. Add orange juice to chilled raspberry sauce; gently fold in raspberries. Spoon over cheesecake.


Makes 12-16 servings

Apple Pie Bread

Another recipe I found while flipping through a magazine at the pediatrician's office. I think I saw 4 or 5 recipes in that particular magazine that interested me enough to come home and look their recipes up online. As I said before, I must have been hungry because it seemed like I wanted to make just about every food item I saw!

This bread comes together pretty easily and is super moist. There are two downfalls however; one is that the streusel-nut topping doesn't get baked in. It just sits on top of the bread so that when you take it out of the loaf pan half of the topping falls off the bread and onto the counter. You can still eat it with a spoon and it is yummy but the point is to have it on the bread. The other downfall is that it falls apart super easy when you cut it. Again, you can use a fork or spoon to eat it but it is frustrating to have it fall into a bunch of little pieces when slicing it. I thought maybe after sitting in the fridge it would slice easier, but not so much. It was tasty, but good luck with getting it to not fall apart on you. Enjoy!


Apple Pie Bread
Source: Better Homes and Gardens

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups peeled apple, shredded (about 4 medium)
1 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Streusel-Nut Topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan; set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in sugar until combined. Add buttermilk and baking powder; beat until combined. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined. Add flour and salt; beat until combined. Stir in apple, nuts, and raisins.

Spoon batter into prepared pan; spread evenly. Make Streusel-Nut Topping; sprinkle over batter. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf

Chicken Meatloaf

My original menu plan and recipe called for a turkey meatloaf. I thought, "Great, now I can use that ground turkey meat that has been in my freezer for months." Not until I pulled it out to thaw did I realize that it was actually ground chicken and not ground turkey. Oops.

I don't think the taste (what there was of it) was altered much. It wasn't a great recipe, in fact I will probably use a different meatloaf recipe I have for future meatloaf meals, but at least I branched out and tried something new. I guess that's all I have to say about it which is pretty sad in and of itself. Enjoy, should you decide to try it!

Chicken Meatloaf
1 pound ground chicken
1 egg
1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray loaf pan with non-stick spray.

Combine all ingredients mixing by hand. Press into prepared loaf pan and cook for 45 minutes or until cooked through.

Leaf Sugar Cookies

All last year I wanted to make leaf shaped sugar cookies but I couldn't find any leaf cookie cutters locally. I didn't want to buy online, and I couldn't get down to the big city to check out the cookie cutter store. A whole year has gone by and I finally made not one, but two trips to the big city just to get a leaf shaped cookie cutter!

I guess technically it was three times that I made the trip. The first time we were just passing through and we got there about an hour after the store closed. No big deal, we'll just stop by on way back through tomorrow. Um, nope. Didn't happen to notice the sign on the door when stopping by the first time that stated that the business would be closed on the next business day. Oops, a bit out of the way so hubby was not a happy camper. A week later, a special trip, and voila, leaf shaped cookie cutter in my possession! (I'll also have you know that I purchased a few Christmas ones and another apple because who knows when I will be getting down there again.)

Was it worth it? Absolutely! One happy boy who got to take cookies for his preschool star day, one happy mama who now has a leaf cookie cutter, and one happy hubby who gets to eat the spoils.

I used my tried and true sugar cookie recipe that you can find here.

Pineapple Zucchini Muffins

My neighbor gave me this recipe a few years ago when we had an overabundance of zucchini from our garden. I tried many different zucchini recipes but for some reason I never got around to this one. Well . . . I guess I can't say "for some reason" because I know the reason. She titled her recipe Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Muffins and when I think of spicy I think of chilis and jalapenos and spicy things like that which just don't go with zucchini bread in my mind. Once I actually looked at the ingredients and realized that the spicy was just cinnamon and nutmeg I realized that it wasn't much different from any other zucchini bread recipe. You might be saying, why didn't you just look at the ingredients two years ago when you got the recipe to see that there weren't jalapenos or anything like that in it. That's because my neighbor wrote the ingredients and amounts within the recipe and I guess I was in too big of a hurry to decipher her cursive handwriting.

What's funny is that when I mentioned to her a few weeks ago that I finally used the recipe to make some zucchini pineapple muffins she couldn't even remember having the recipe at all. She had no idea what I was talking about. Go figure. Enjoy!

Pineapple Zucchini Muffins
3 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups shredded zucchini
8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans.

Beat eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla until thick and foamy. Stir in zucchini and pineapple.

Combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir into mixture. Stir in walnuts and raisins.

Divide batter evenly between 2 loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; turn onto a wire rack to cool thoroughly.

Makes 2 loaves