Shine Supper Club: Spiced Peanut Butter and Melted Banana Sandwich Spread

Even though I can't eat much in the way of bread anymore, with my nutty work schedule, I can certainly appreciate the simple convenience of a sandwich. So when, two days before I'm supposed to leave for vacation, I got a call from work asking me to come in early the next day, I knew what my lunch would be. And it just so happened that the Shine Supper Club is doing Sandwiches this month.

So I had a major challenge: Come up with something I could eat on the way, would hold up in the heat, and all in a matter of about 6 hours. Oh, and my mother happened to have just used up all but the last heel of the bread.

I've been somewhat obsessed recently with a couple of things. One is a blog called Chocolate CoveredKatie, full of healthy dessert ideas. Another is PB2, a powdered peanut butter that, while not convenient to mix and use as a peanut butter replacement, is wonderful for mixing into smoothies, yogurt, pancakes...or sandwich spread.

So I combined two things. I used CCK's Melted Banana trick, and mixed the caramelized banana with PB2 and cinnamon with just a little water to thin it out.

The “recipe”:

Spiced Peanut Butter and Melted Banana Sandwich Spread

Enough for one sandwich

1/2 large banana

2 tblsp PB2

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Water, enough to thin to desired consistency.

1-2 slices of bread (I don't folding over for a half sandwich, but it does make for a thick sandwich)

1. In a covered bowl, microwave banana in 20 second intervals, mashing with a fork between intervals, until banana is completely mushy. (About 3 sessions in my microwave).
2. Mix in PB2 and cinnamon, adding water to achieve desired consistency.
3. Spread over bread slice and enjoy!

They say necessity is the mother of invention. While I may go back to my old standbys, though, this is one to keep in the aresenal. It held up until I got to work without making an absolute mess, and still tasted good when I got there.

Sometimes I bring a cold cut sandwich, sometimes peanut butter and jelly, sometimes it's cream cheese and olive and other times I grab something from the drive thru on the way. When I'm in the mood for something different, though, I know what I will turn to.

Shine Supper Club: Hummingbird Cake

Serendipity at it's finest!

I've already mentioned my stockpile of frozen bananas before. My mother suggested I make a hummingbird cake, so I already had planned on making one. Then the Shine Supper Club announced that this month would be summer desserts. Hummingbird cake is a lightly spiced cake with bananas and pineapple. What could be more summer than that?

My mother's recipe is from-scratch, but calls for a ridiculous amount of oil and sugar. I decided to find a lighter recipe, one that calls for yellow cake mix. I decided to get a little creative and use Betty Crocker Butter Pecan. That way I could also omit the nuts.

The recipe, as follows:

Hummingbird Cake

Adapted from CDKitchen

1 package Betty Crocker Butter Pecan Cake Mix
8 ounces crushed pineapple packed in juice, undrained
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Spray a 9”x13” baking pan with flour spray

2. Place the cake mix, pineapple with it's juice, mashed bananas, water, oil, eggs, vanilla extract and cinnamon in a large bowl.

3. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and the fruit well blended.

4. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely before icing.

Being a traditional southern cake, the original recipe calls for cream cheese icing. Hummingbird cake is already sweet enough, in my opinion. So I opted for just a half cup of vanilla icing, thinned out with 2 tablespoons of milk and microwaved to form a glaze.

It was as sweet as my mother's recipe, while also not being nearly as dense. The butter pecan mix provided an excellent – though addictive – flavor.

Finally, my freezer is once again devoid of bananas. The thing is, I accidentally bought a 20oz can of pineapple...

Stay tuned later in the week for what I did with the rest of it!

Shine Supper Club: Cooked Carrots

When I was little, my mother would always ask what vegetable I wanted with dinner. Like she needed to ask - “cooked carrots” was always my response. Plain cooked carrots. Not that I minded glazed carrots (although, to this day, I'm not fond of raw carrots), but just boiled carrots with a little bit of salt. It's the simple things in life that keeps kids happy.

I'm all grown up now, and although I do still live at home, I do most of the cooking now (when I'm not working much, at least). When I found out the Shine Supper Club was doing childhood dishes for the month of May (my birthday month even!), I knew I had to do a grown up version of my favorite side dish growing up.

Lemon Pepper Boiled Carrots

Serves 4

1lb baby carrots

1tsp salt

Enough water to cover carrots

2 tblsp butter

2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning or to taste (or lemon zest and black pepper to taste)

1. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Add carrots and boil 10-15 minutes, to desired doneness. Drain and return pot to heat.
2. Melt butter in pot with lemon pepper seasoning. Toss to coat and serve.

I served this with some white rice and Spicy Maple Mustard glazed chicken (so good I had to scrape off a little of the extra!). The glaze, if interested...

Spicy Maple Mustard Sauce

Adapted from EatingWell.com

Makes 1/4 cup

1 tblsp Maple Syrup

3 tblsp Horseradish Mustard

1/2 tsp paprika

Simply mix in a small bowl. Makes a great dip as well as a sauce for all kinds of meat!

Of course, this wasn't how I ate my carrots growing up – as I've said before, my mom is a lazy cook, and only after telling her what I'd added to the carrots did she find out about the lemon pepper seasoning I had in the pantry. Still, it was a tasty reminder of the way things were back then – and Mom even loved them too.

The simple things in life keep adults happy too.

Shine Supper Club: Microwave Peanut Butter Egg Pancake

Welcome to my world over the winter.

Working for a sports team means I usually work at night, when I don't get as many opportunities to cook for my family. When I do, I stick to old standbys like Baked Chicken. For dinner, I'm either scrounging leftovers, preparing some overly processed food from the freezer, or making something simple.

But simple doesn't always mean not creative. Someone recently posted her recipe for Nut Butter pancakes in a healthy living chat room. It couldn't have been more simple – a tablespoon of any nut or seed butter, one egg, and an eighth of a teaspoon of baking powder. A simple, egg-based pancake. It was the perfect meal for me – easy enough that I could whip it up when I get home at 11:30pm or after a workout when I'm exhausted and need food fast. Of course, being me, I played with the recipe. I got lazy and started cooking it in the microwave, like I might scramble my eggs. And with the Shine Supper Club doing egg dishes this month, I saw a perfect opportunity to share my even-easier – and in my opinion, tastier – version.

Microwave Peanut Butter Egg Pancake

(My apologies, as I forget which of my friends posted the recipe its adapted from!)

For each pancake, you will need:

1 large egg

1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon honey

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Cooking spray

Topping of choice (in this case, spreadable honey, but maple syrup, bananas, yogurt, and applesauce would all also be tasty ideas).

In a small bowl, whip egg with honey, baking powder and cinnamon until well combined. Add peanut butter and mix well.

Spray a dinner-sized plate with cooking spray. Pour batter onto plate. Microwave for about 1 minute, until it appears just moist.

[Blogger's note: I do apologize for my photography. The reason I don't do too many step by step photos is that you are typically seeing pictures minutes after the food is made and often minutes before I am about to devour it. This is especially true with lunch meals, like this or my Mocha Oatmeal. I love to cook and eat and it's tough when things get between the two!]

Of course, this can be done in a skillet (the original was). You can sub any nut or seed butter you wish. Or whatever sweetener you wish. That's why I love recipes like this: They're easy to tweak and make your own, or so you don't get bored with the “same ole, same ole.”

It's also perfect for many other occasions. Family doesn't all get up at once? It only takes a few minutes to whip up a single serving as they come down for breakfast. Since it's only one serving, it's also good for single cooks like me. Or perhaps for modifying it for an individual family member's tastes. It's quick, it's high-protein, reasonably healthy, and delicious.

Now what's next? Perhaps an Asian Savory Egg Pancake? Fluffernutter?

With me, one never knows...

Shine Supper Club: Breakfast-in-Bed-Worthy Mocha Oatmeal

When I first saw that the Shine SupperClub was doing “Sexy Dishes” for February, I was at a loss. I'm a single girl, just cooking for family and friends. Romantic dinners for two hasn't been in my repertoire.

Then, after a hard workout, I was exhausted and looking for some carbohydrates. I turned to one of my quick and easy favorites: oatmeal. When I'm as tired as I was, I sometimes just make an instant oatmeal packet with hot brewed coffee. When it's plain, one of my favorite sweeteners is a packet of hot cocoa mix. At this point, I was so tired I wanted someone to just bring it to me.

And then it hit me: it's the perfect breakfast-in-bed food. And what's sexier than breakfast-in-bed and chocolate?

Of course, instant oatmeal and hot cocoa are easy enough to throw together. So for my next post-workout oatmeal dish, I set out to make a more from-scratch version.

So, a little coffee, a little sugar, a lot of cocoa powder (I like it dark!) and a coffee creamer and voilia!

Breakfast-in-Bed Mocha Oatmeal

Serves 1...but easily doubled

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

2/3 cup cold coffee (oatmeal will be on the thick side, use more or less to taste)

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon sugar (use more or less to taste)

1 half-and-half coffee creamer, or flavor of choice

Splash of vanilla extract

Mix oats, cocoa, and sugar in a bowl, stir to prevent clumping when wet ingredients are added. Add coffee and vanilla, stir.

Microwave 1 1/2 minutes, or amount of time specified on oatmeal container.

Add coffee creamer, stir until well mixed.

I think this on a tray, maybe with a side of strawberries, would make anybody's sexy meal list. It's also a perfect breakfast food – get your caffeine fix in your morning oatmeal!

I'm not making any promises if you serve this to your sweetie. But I think it ups your chances. Now if someone would just make it for me...

Shine Supper Club: Sourdough Sugar Cookies

A lot of years ago (in fact, I think I was still in junior high), I finished a batch of Christmas sugar cookies. Being home alone at the time, I decided to be nice and bake a new batch. I went to town with a cookie cutter and sanding sugar. My mother wasn't at all upset that she got hardly any out of the batch I finished – she was more impressed by the cookies. It's been a tradition of mine to ever since to bake her sugar cookies before Christmas ever since. And with the Shine Supper Club doing holiday dishes, I decided to share my tradition.

For a few years, I deviated from that tradition a little, baking sourdough soft pretzels and rolling them out like cookies (still topped with sanding sugar though!), thanks to my new-found love of sourdough baking and my lack of sourdough sugar cookies. Now I happened to find a sourdough sugar cookie recipe. Perfect.

I used the almond variation of this recipe, and omitted the frosting. I'm not against frosting, but who needs the extra calories this time of year? Fortunately, these cookies are sweet and soft enough to go without it.

The recipe:

Sourdough Sugar Cookies

Adapted very slightly from King Arthur Flour

Makes 4-5 dozen cookies, depending on how big your cookie cutter is

1 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract or almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sourdough starter, active
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Sanding sugar or other desired decorations

In a large bowl, cream vegetable shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs, lemon or almond extract and vanilla extract until mixture is fluffy. Stir in sourdough starter; set aside.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into sourdough mixture. Refrigerate dough at least 1 hour or overnight ( helps firm dough etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured board, roll dough to 1/4-inch thick; cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle with sanding sugar if desired.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until very lightly browned (for me, it was about 15 minutes, but my cookies were on the large side). Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
When cool, frost and decorate as desired.



Other than taking a little longer than specified to bake (and 90 minutes was not quite enough time to chill!), I can't tell you how pleased I am with these cookies. Coupled with my Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies (and another recipe I've made for Sourdough Surprises, coming up on December 20^th!), these are perfect for an all-sourdough cookie tin.

And on that note...how did one lonely red grain of sanding sugar get on this green Christmas Tree?

Shine Supper Club: Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad

I had one semester in college where I attempted to work nearly full time hours while maintaining a full time school schedule. I think I had all of four days where I didn't have school or work. Meals were usually either at the mall food court or the campus cafe. It got expensive quick. One day, I found a little bit of time and threw together a pasta salad with a bunch of ingredients I found laying around. I had a portable meal that was cheaper (and healthier) than fast food, and it could keep a couple days. I started doing this whenever life got hectic: the same basic dressing recipe, a protein, a vegetable, some pasta – and I freed up some time.

Life is seldom that hectic anymore (especially when you work for an NHL team right now...). However, the Shine Supper Club is doing favorite pasta recipes this month, and I happened to have some leftover Miracle Noodles from last night's dinner. So lunch was set.

When I can plan for this (it's a pot luck favorite, in fact), I have a set recipe:

Secret Mustard Dressing

~1/2 cup Ranch Dressing

~1/2 cup Mustard (I use about half yellow and half brown)

Hot sauce, to taste

1. Mix ingredients. This recipe is forgiving and adaptable – adjust it according to your tastes. (Personally, I like it sinus-clearing spicy, but this is the pot luck version!)

Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad

1 Box Pasta, preferably elbow noodles

2 medium zucchini, shredded

1 medium tomato, diced

1 cup shredded Jack cheese

Secret Mustard dressing (see above)

1. Prepare pasta to al dente. Drain, rinse and allow to cool
2. Toss with dressing. Mix in other ingredients
3. Serve. If this is a pot luck, it goes fast!

Now, that's the pot luck version. Obviously, zucchini is out of season, and I didn't have a tomato handy. Besides, I was making a single serving. I had a couple of baby carrots from feeding the bird and turtles, and some leftover bacon. So I chopped up some carrot and tore up some bacon to throw together this version. Plus, I used a packet of Chinese mustard and quite a bit of chili powder in the dressing. And the Miracle Noodles. If you're expecting these to taste like regular pasta, you will be disappointed, but they work for me.  However, this recipe works just as well with regular pasta.

I do wish I had bought a shape other than fettuccine, but that's what makes it the “Kitchen Sink”. It's less of a recipe and more of a technique. Use what you have and what you like, and you can't be disappointed.

Easy Weeknight Chicken: Baked Mango Chipotle Chicken Tenders With Avocado Tomato Rice

I love to cook. My mother doesn't. Her mantra on cooking is “I like meals with three ingredients that I already have.” Which is one reason why if I'm not the one cooking, a homemade dinner is almost always either spaghetti and meat sauce, pancakes with bacon or sausage, or baked chicken with a boxed starch and a can of veggies.

Having learned from her, I do make baked chicken, but I put my own spin on it. After finding a bottle of 

Mango Chipotle Vinaigrette from Kraft (it's so new that there's not even a link to it on their website yet)

at the grocery store this week, I had to try it with something. And with the Shine Supper Club doing “Weeknight Chicken Dinners” this month, it was a perfect time to put a new spine on Mom's classic. I've used this technique with bottled mojo marinade as well, so you can use just about any marinade that you want.

So, here is my recipe:

Baked Mango Chipotle Chicken Tenders

Ingredients

1lb Chicken Tenders

~1/4 Cup Kraft Mango Chipotle Vinaigrette

1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13” glass baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Trim fat off of chicken tenders. Arrange in a single layer in baking dish. Drizzle with vinaigrette and brush with a silicone basting brush
3. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until done.

Avocado Tomato Rice

Ingredients

1 medium green skin avocado (or 1 large hass avocado)

1-8-oz can tomato sauce

2 cups cooked white rice.

Salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste

1. Prepare rice
2. While rice is preparing, roughly dice avocado. Immediately toss with tomato sauce and salt, pepper and hot sauce, adjusting seasoning as necessary.
3. Serve over rice

I have to say I wish that the dressing lived up to the “Chipotle” in its name. It was good, just not very spicy, so if you're looking for that, you might want to sprinkle your tenders with a little chili powder as well. But hey, even my fruit-hating father enjoyed this one. It was quite good, it's healthy, and, on the table in under 30 minutes, is definitely one to keep in the arsenal as a change of pace.

As an added benefit, it might just be simple enough to make Mom proud.