Zucchini Banana Bread

I got this yummy recipe from my friend Lisa! Thanks so much Lisa for sharing your recipe! This bread is so moist and you can't even tell that there's banana inside...or whole wheat flour. It is definitely going to be the only recipe I'll use for zucchini bread from now on. But don't take my word for it...

Zucchini Banana Bread
(taken from Lisa's blog with pictures by me)

Mix until creamy:
3 eggs
1/4 C. olive oil
1/2 C. apple sauce (trust me)
1/2 C. sour cream (trust me, this is the trick)
2t. vanilla
1 2/3 C. brown sugar

Add:
2 C. grated zucchini
2 smashed bananas

Mix and then add:
2 C. white wheat flour
1 1/2 C. white flour
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

Makes 2 loaves. Spray pans and bake at 325 degrees for 60-70 minutes.

Pretty healthy and the kids will love it!

Watermelon & Peach Salsa with Cayenne Chips

What?!! Watermelon and peaches in salsa? Oh believe me, it's really good! Serve with regular tortilla chips, or go the extra mile and make these homemade cayenne chips! The cayenne chips are what make this recipe so good. These chips and salsa are just the perfect pair! This recipe is from The Pampered Chef.

Chips

1 lime

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp salt

8 (6 inch) flour tortillas

Salsa

1 jalepeno pepper (or to desired amount of spiceyness)

1/3 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

2-3 cups cubed watermelon

2 peaches

1 lime

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 400 F for the chips. Juice lime into a small bowl. In another small bowl, combine cayenne pepper and salt. Brush one side of each tortilla with lime juice (don't soak it though). Sprinkle cayenne mixture lightly over the top.

Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges using a pizza cutter. Arrange the tortillas onto a large baking sheet (or stone) in a single layer.

Bake 8-12 minutes, until edges are slightly browned and crisp. Repeat until all the tortillas are baked.

For the salsa, cut jalepeno in half and remove the white stem and seeds. Dice jalepeno and cilantro and place into a large bowl (holds 8 cups). Cut watermelon into small pieces and add to large bowl. Cut the peaches into small pieces, discarding the pits. Add peaches to the bowl. Juice the remaining lime into salsa. Add the salt. Mix well.

Serve with chips and ENJOY!

Yield: 16 servings (or consumed in 1 day for our household)

Pizza in 30 minutes!

I got this quick and easy pizza dough recipe from my friend Evelyn. We now make this recipe on a weekly basis. The girls love to help put the toppings on and to roll the dough.

Who doesn't love pizza?

Oh yeah, Raelyn doesn't...or at least she didn't until we started making our own. Now she gobbles up 3 pieces!

1 1/3 c. warm water

1 T yeast

1 tsp. salt

2 T oil

3 c. flour

1 can 15 oz. pizza sauce (I use Contadina brand, found by the tomato sauce)

16 oz. grated mozzarella cheese

Toppings of your choice

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Mix all the ingredients together and knead for 5-7 minutes. (I usually just mix it in my bread mixer, then take it out after 7 minutes of kneading.)

Divide the dough in half. Roll out one of the dough halves onto a floured surface and shape onto a pizza pan to fit or in my case, pizza stone. We have a round one and a large cookie sheet size one.

Cook pizza crust in oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and spread half of the pizza sauce over the crust. Spread evenly. Sprinkle cheese and then the toppings on top.

Return to oven to cook for another 11 minutes and it's done!!

Repeat the process for the 2nd pizza, using the remaining dough.

This is the adult favorite.

Pepperoni with green bell peppers and pineapple.

The kids' favorite.

Just cheese with Italian seasoning sprinkled on top.

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

I LOVE these. They are pretty much my favorite cookie. Why didn't I ever make them from scratch before?!! I used the same dough from the chocolate chip recipe here, adding the white chocolate chips and the macademia nuts instead. Delicious!

2 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 2/3 c. white wheat flour (actually, remove about 2 tbsp from the 2 cups, because wheat flour absorbs more and you need to lessen the amount so the batter won't be too dry)
2 c. white flour
2 T. corn starch
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt

White chocolate chips, I used Trader Joe's brand

Macademia nuts (unsalted) got mine at Trader Joe's

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a small bowl, add dry ingredients and combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Hand stir in chocolate chips and nuts. The dough is kinda stiff, so I actually just used my hands to mix them in. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough before baking. You can do this while oven is preheating or refrigerate longer for an even better taste.

Using a 1.5" scoop, or a spoon, place cookie balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes or until dough looks cooked, but in between the cracks of dough, it still looks a little gooey. That's good for making the cookie chewy when completely cooled.

Yield: A ton. Enough to eat and give away to 2 more families as well. At least, that's what I do!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe from Stephanie's blog. These are my new favorite recipe. I especially love that I can use 2 cups of white wheat flour and can't even taste it! Plus, just look at them! Thick and so perfect.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
2 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/4 c. dark brown sugar (you can use reg. brown sugar too)
1 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. white wheat flour (actually, remove about 2 tbsp from the 2 cups, because wheat flour absorbs more and you need to lessen the amount so the batter won't be too dry)

1 2/3 white flour
2 T. corn starch
1 1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
Milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt to sprinkle, if using milk chocolate chips

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

In a small bowl, add dry ingredients and combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture. Hand stir in chocolate chips. The dough is kinda stiff, so I actually just used my hands to mix the chocolate chips in. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough before baking. You can do this while oven is preheating or refrigerate longer for an even better taste.

Using a 1.5" scoop, or a spoon, place cookie balls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. If using milk chocolate chips, sprinkle cookie balls with sea salt prior to baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes or until dough looks cooked, but in between the cracks of dough, it still looks a little gooey. That's good for making the cookie chewy when completely cooled.

Yield: 5 dozen cookies

*Tip! Use several baking sheets so that you can rotate and only place cookie dough on cooled sheets before baking. Placing dough on warm/hot sheets will make your dough spread too thin too fast and give you a flat and very crispy cookie.

Pizza Margherita

Actually, there's no alcohol content in this pizza! But the flavor will intoxicate you. And the crust, WOW! It tastes and feels like restaurant quality. The key is that you try to use the best ingredients you can find (and afford) since this recipe calls for only a few things to really bring out the flavor. Recipe by Williams Sonoma.

Crust

5 tsp active dry yeast

2 1/4 cups warm water (1-5-115F)

2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup oil

5 cups bread flour

1 tbsp sea salt

Topping

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil, finely shredded
6 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

1 lb fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced 1/4" inch thick (the wet mozzarella that's sold as a chunk)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Making the dough.

Dissolve yeast and warm water in large mixing bowl and let stand for 5 minutes, until slightly foamy. Add sugar, oil, salt and 4 cups of flour. Knead on low speed until soft smooth and elastic, adding the remaining cup of flour slowly as needed for the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Prepare a large bowl, lightly greased with oil. Transfer dough into greased bowl and forming into a ball and rotating in the oil so the dough ball is round and smooth. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm area until double in size, about 1 hour.

For a more flavorful dough (and it's worth it), let rise as stated above, then punch down dough with palm of hand, recover with plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator in the morning so it's ready to work on a 4PM for dinner prep.

OR you can skip the refrigeration and just punch down dough (after the first rise, of course) with palm of hand and cut/divide dough in half. Lightly oil your counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Gently shape into loose balls and cover with plastic wrap for a short second rise of 10 min.

In your oven, move the rack to the lower third in your oven (in mine, it's the second to the bottom slot) place your baking stone on rack. Preheat oven with stone in, to 475 F degrees for 30 minutes.

Back to the dough. Lightly dust the dough with flour. Roll it out using a rolling pin and starting from the center, working out to the edges, until you have made a 12-14 inch round. If you have a baker's peel (a large spatula designed for lifting and transferring pizza dough) then you can skip the following step.

Lightly flour the top of an inverted half-sheet pan (turn your cookie sheet upside down basically). Transfer your spread out dough round to the floured sheet.

Add the toppings equally for each of the two pizzas in the following order: parmesan cheese, basil, tomatoes (make sure they're seeded & not too wet!). Add mozzarella slices, nestled around the tomatoes. Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Remove hot pizza stone from oven and transfer the dough with a baker's peel or the cookie sheet method onto the stone. You may need a second set of hands for that part.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until crust is crisp and golden brown. Slice and Serve. Repeat process with second pizza. Enjoy!

Creamy Broccoli Soup

This is what The Sage Cafe is famous for. Well, as famous as you get in McMinnville, OR. I loved this comfort soup on a rainy or cold day, which was almost every day during the winter I worked there between college in 1999. It's heavenly and addicting.

Soup base:
7 cups water
1 1/2 tbsp Lawry's seasoned salt (No MSG)
1 onion, finely chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 cups green cabbage, chopped
4 cups broccoli, chopped
1+ cups carrots, peeled and chopped (or the pre-shredded kind in a bag if in a hurry)
1 cup light sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar, or monterey jack/cheddar blend cheese

Reux: (French name for thickening agent to make the soup thick)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/a cups flour

Whisk together until all the little lumpies are gone.

Combine all but the sour cream and cheese soup base ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Make sure there is enough water to cover 2" over the top of the vegetables, adding more water if needed. Cook on high heat, until vegetables are lightly done and tender. Turn heat to the lowest setting.

Making sure soup is on lowest setting, slowing mix in the Reux. S.L.O.W.L.Y. mix in the Reux, stirring soup constantly.

Add sour cream, stir until smooth. Add cheese and stir until melted. Remove from heat and serve with fresh bread. YUM!

Feeds a small crowd.