I went off-menu again today*. I couldn’t help it. I had some bananas getting overripe, and I kept smelling them all day. Yesterday a friend was talking about banana waffles, and I just. couldn’t. help. it. I’ll probably make the stuffed shells over the weekend while my kids are at their dad’s, eat one or two, and freeze the rest for one day next week.
Banana Pancakes
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
3 ripe bananas
Melt the butter in a microwave-safe dish in the microwave (I use a pyrex measuring cup). Whisk together the eggs and milk in a big bowl until completely mixed (all one color, with no strands of egg).
In another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients together. Add the (now slightly cooled) butter to the milk and eggs, and then add the dry ingredients and whisk together. You don’t want to stir it too much, or you’ll end up with rubbery pancakes. Just get the big lumps out – little lumps are okay. Let the batter sit for 10-15 minutes. Near the end of that sitting time, start heating up a big, flat frying pan on medium on the stove, or use an electric skillet to 350°.
Peel and slice the bananas about 1/4″ thick and gently fold them into the batter.
Spray the pan with nonstick spray (I like the butter flavor), and use a ladle to drop batter onto the skillet. You’ll thank yourself at turning time if you make a bunch of smaller pancakes instead of a few big ones. Watch the pancake – when the bubbles at the edges start leaving little holes when they pop, it’s time to turn the pancake. Cook until golden on the bottom side, too, and then put them on a plate tented with foil until they are all done.
Serve with butter and real maple syrup.
Makes about 16 4-5″ pancakes. (Try as I might, I cannot seem to make cute little silver dollar pancakes. I blame it on the bananas.)
This is a great recipe to get the kids to help with. They can measure, mix, slice bananas (with a butter knife), and help watch the bubbles if your kitchen is set up in such a way that there’s a safe place for them to sit while watching the stove.
*We went off-menu yesterday, too. Seems my boys don’t like Hamburger Helper, and my teen doesn’t like cooking it. Looks like I’ll be taking the box of Hamburger Helper to the food bank.
This is one of our family comfort meals. (And, yes, I am sucking at sticking to my menu plan this week. I will do better next week!)
I just make two boxes of boxed macaroni and cheese according to package directions. Sometimes I add a can of undiluted cream of cheddar soup, but I didn’t tonight. Then I scoop out a serving for my youngest, because he doesn’t like tuna. Then I add two cans of drained tuna (I like Starkist), and scoop out a serving for my next youngest, because he doesn’t like peas mixed in his, or salt and pepper. Then I add salt and pepper and a drained can of peas (I know, but my teen and I love them), and dish out servings for the last kid (the teen) and myself. I put some peas on the side of the two boys’ plates, and we all eat happily.
Tonight’s dinner was French toast (I know that isn’t what it said in my Menu Plan Monday post, but things got changed around).
For four pieces of French toast:
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Four slices bread – day old bread is best
Powdered sugar (to taste)
Jam or real maple syrup
Spray a skillet with nonstick spray and heat it to medium high heat. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl until no longer separated at all. Add milk, cinnamon, and vanilla (I use Vanilla Bean Crush from King Arthur Flour – I cannot tell you how amazingly tasty this stuff is, and how much it adds to your cooking and baking). Beat until as homogeneous as you can get it (the cinnamon kind of clumps around the top – I just deal with it, but if it bothers you, Baker’s Banter has a tip to fix that problem).
Dip each piece of bread in the batter for a few seconds and turn it over and let the other side soak for a few more seconds, and then put it in the hot pan. (I use tongs.) Once you’ve got all the slices in the pan, the first slice is probably ready to turn – take a peek and see if it’s golden brown. Once they’ve all been turned and cooked until done, put them on a plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with real maple syrup and/or jam.
I double or even triple this recipe, but I mix a new batch of the batter when I run out instead of making it all at once – that way, if my bread is less absorbant that day, or moreso, I don’t waste any eggs and milk.
My about-to-turn 12 year-old son told me that he is thinking about choosing French toast for his birthday dinner, because “it’s one of my very favorite meals.”
One of the best things about our non-traditional Christmas dinner is the leftovers.
Tonight’s dinner was grilled cheese on sourdough, using leftover smoked gouda and cheddar, with sliced tomato and avocado. Oh, yum.
Forgot to take pictures, though. 
For those nights when I am really busy and forgot to plan anything, I’ll make french dips a lot of the time. The whole family just loves them, so they feel like it’s a treat when I’m pretty much taking the night off. There’s no real recipe, since it’s all made with pre-made ingredients.
French Dips
Steak-Umms (2 for each person)
Hot dog buns (2 for each person – I’ve also used hoagie rolls, but hot dog buns are cheaper and the kids don’t notice a difference)
Frozen crinkle-cut french fries
Packet of au jus mix
Start the oven heating for the french fries, according to package directions (mine heat at 450°). Lay the fries out on a large cookie sheet – I cover mine in parchment to minimize the cleanup. Get the fries in the oven and start preparing the au jus according the the package directions.
About 5 minutes before the fries are done, heat up a large skillet to medium high. Drop two of the steaks in, making sure they aren’t overlapping. Let them sit for just a few seconds and then start tearing them apart with the edge of a spatula. You want raggedy edges here. Add a little salt and pepper, and keep stirring them around while they cook. It should only take a minute (literally) to cook the meat, so have two buns ready on a plate and fill them with the cooked meat.
Repeat until you’ve got enough sandwiches for two per person. Right before you’re done, the fries should be done. Salt them and stir them around and add some fries to each plate, and ladle out some au jus for everyone who wants some (my boys don’t like the au jus).
Sometimes I butter the buns and heat them up in the oven while the fries cook, but on nights like tonight, when I had no butter softened, nobody seems to notice the difference (except me).
You could easily make this into cheesesteaks by adding some cheese and onions to the sandwiches.
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Tonight’s dinner was chicken parmigiana. Super quick and very tasty!
Chicken Parmigiana
Four chicken breasts, either sliced thin or pounded thin
Flour
One egg
Dried herbs (oregano, basil, thyme)
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil
Two slices provolone cheese
Half a pound of spaghetti
Can or jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (or the equivalent of homemade)
Fresh parmesan cheese
Grease a cookie sheet and heat the oven to 350°. Heat about 3 tablespoons oil in a large skillet on medium high, and start water boiling for pasta. Add seasonings to the flour in two plates.
Coat each breast lightly in flour, beaten egg, and then flour again. Fry on each side until golden brown, and place on greased cookie sheet.
Top each breast with a spoonful of spaghetti sauce and half a slice of provolone cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta and heat up the remainder of the sauce.
Serve each chicken breast with 1/4 of the spaghetti and sauce, and top all with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Serves 4.
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(Yes, I need to clean off my lens. Whoops.)
Click for bigger.
Wow, you can totally tell the littler kids set the table. I hadn’t even noticed before.
I found a site, E-Mealz through a friend. Most of the menus they suggest won’t work for my family for one reason or another, but last night we tried one.
You take a store-bought pizza crust (in the roll, like biscuits), and spread it out into a rectangle. Then spread shredded mozzarella cheese over it, and then pepperoni. Roll it up (from the long edge, so you make a longer roll. Brush butter on it, sprinkle it with garlic salt, and bake it according to the package directions. When it’s done, you just slice it and dip into heated marinara.
It was a hit in our house (how could it not be?), but next time I will use less garlic salt, and use a different sauce than my usually garlic-y spaghetti sauce. I will probably also make the crust from scratch, because that pre-made pizza dough was expensive, and even though we’re down to four family members here now, I will probably need to make two rolls. And at $3.79 per crust, that’s a bit much. But it will definitely be added to our regular rotation around here.
Last week, when Aly’s friend was in town, I made her favorite, my poached salmon with sour cream/dill/cucumber sauce. Since the kids were home, I didn’t cook all the fillets I had, so I had two left – not enough for dinner, but I certainly wasn’t going to throw them away!
So I made a yummy salad for dinner a few nights later. I used baby spinach, the salmon (poached and broken into bits), feta cheese, thinly sliced bermuda onion, and tomato. I made a quick vinaigrette with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was very, very yummy, although we decided that next time I need more cheese and more tomato.
I followed a recipe out of the cookbook Desperation Dinners – well, mostly. I always try to follow a recipe exactly the first time. But halfway through cooking, I found out that my parmesan cheese was moldy, so I skipped it, and then the recipe was very bland, so I spiced it up. So here’s my version of their “Two-for-One Noodles”:
Pasta with Ricotta
1 pound penne pasta
1 tbsp. olive oil
6 slices bacon (I think the original recipe called for 3 slices, but, c’mon…. BACON – I used the partially cooked kind)
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 15oz. container of ricotta
1 tbsp. chopped parsley (I used some from my garden that I froze)
2 tbsp. chopped basil (also frozen from my garden – I think the original recipe only called for 1 tbsp., but I do love me some basil)
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
Gett the pasta boiling. In a small skillet, heat the oil until it shimmers and add the onion. Cook it over low heat until it starts to go translucent. Chop the bacon roughly, and then kick up the heat just a bit on the onions and add the bacon to them. When the bacon is fully cooked, remove with a slotted spoon to a big serving bowl. Mix in the herbs, the pepper, and the ricotta.
Drain the pasta, reserving 3 tbsp. of the cooking water. Add that to the sauce mixture. Stir in half the pasta, and then the other half.
I think this would be MUCH better with the parmesan (I think it was 1/4 cup) and with the addition of some garlic. It was good. I served it with green beans drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with freshly cracked pepper and sea salt.