Tag Archives: banana

Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back

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Yesterday we got our baby back!

It was exciting and eventful.  Webster gets carsick but we figured he would be good for running a few errands in the car after we picked him up from boarding.  Nope!  As we pulled up to our final stop he projectile vomited all over the laundry Adam had in the backseat.

I hopped out and walked him the rest of the way and he felt fine by the time we got home.  He wasn’t too keen on the bath that followed though.

He is adorably pitiful when wet!

Yesterday brought another homecoming as well.

Uggggggh!  I’m back in retainers full-time for the next 9 weeks.  It’s going to suck, but at the end I should be officially done with day-time wearing.  I didn’t blog yesterday because I was eating mushy things (plus lots of pizza!).

I kept breakfast soft today too.

Coffee with Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.

And berry banana soft serf.

I food-processed 1 large frozen banana with 1/2 cup each fresh blueberries and raspberries.  It was perfectly tart and sweet.

I was online while I ate.  I randomly freaked out about room availability for a conference I’m attending in October and booked a motel.  Between pricing, checking distances, and coordinating with friends it took up my whole morning.

I did squeeze in a “something is better than nothing” workout.  20 minutes on the elliptical at level 8 random.

Do I look professional?

The afternoon was spent on interviews for both school and job things.  Cross your fingers for me please?

I scheduled my appointments with room to spare so I killed time in between at The Spot with a large cold-pressed coffee with skim milk.

For today, this was one coffee too many; I’ve felt sick to my stomach ever since.

We are leaving for vacation on Thursday so I had to buy a few travel-sized items this evening.  Then I came home to an easy dinner.

Roasted green beans.

I used frozen instead of fresh this time and these weren’t very good.  I ended up having to add a side of french dressing (unphotographed) for dipping.

Plus cold pizza, x2.

Pro tip- Pizza Hut has really good deals on Monday nights.  Yesterday we spent $25 on four cheese pizzas.  I put them in the fridge to cool and then portioned slices into freezer baggies (wrapped in foil for extra protection).  Now we are stocked up on cheap frozen meals.  I also bought tons of fresh berries on super-sale that are waiting to be bagged.

How often do you buy food with intent to freeze it for later?  Any items that you think freeze great/not so well?

Biscoff Banoffee Pie

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When I first read about Banoffee Pie (probably somewhere on Pinterest!) I wasn’t even sure what to think.  You take the sweetest nectar of the Gods – i.e. sweetened condensed milk – and turn it into caramel?!?

Who? Where? When?  Apparently  Val Hargreaves at The Hungry Monk restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex in 1972.
What?  The SCM basically turns into dulce de leche that you pour on top of sliced bananas.
Why?  Why the hell wouldn’t you?!

I’d never tasted Banoffee Pie before but I knew that I would love it.  I also knew that I could improve it, because nothing isn’t better with Biscoff.

I swapped a cookie crust for the boring old pie dough and jazzed up the whipped cream with more of the good stuff.  Awesome.

Biscoff Banoffee Pie, serves 8

  • 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (unopened!)
  • 22 Biscoff cookies
  • 6 Tbsp butter
  • 3 small bananas, sliced into quarter-inch rounds
  • 8 oz heavy whipping cream
  • 1 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 Tbsp Creamy Biscoff Spread

toffee

Remove the paper label from the sweetened condensed milk and place the sealed can in the bottom of your crock pot.  Fill the pot with water until the liquid is at least a half-inch above the top of the can.  Turn crock pot on to “low” and set for 8.5 hours.

After 8.5 hours, turn off your crock pot so that the “warm” setting doesn’t kick on and walk alway until the pot is cool enough to handle safely.  Place the pot into your sink (do not drain the liquid!) and run cool water into it for 5 – 10 minutes, until the can is cool to the touch.  Place cooled can in the fridge for 1 – 2 hours so that it cools completely.

crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Place cookies into your food processor and pulse until you reach the consistency of rough sand.  You can break up the cookies by hand by placing them in a large baggie and mashing with a rolling-pin, just make sure that you pick out any large pieces left in the mix.  Put butter into an 8-inch pie pan and stick the pan into the preheating oven until the butter is completely melted.  Remove pan from oven and pour cookie crumbs into the melted butter.  With a fork, mix the butter into the crumbs and then use your fingertips to press the crust into an even layer in the bottom and up the sides of the pan.  Bake for 9 minutes at 350*.  Allow crust to cool completely before filling.

whipped cream

You can do this by hand if you want an arm workout but it will be easier with a hand mixer and easiest with a stand mixer.  Put your mixing bowl and beater into the freezer for 15 minutes so they get nice and cold.  Pour heavy cream into chilled bowl and whip until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in sugar and Biscoff Spread until peaks form. Try not to overmix, but if the cream starts to get lumpy you can add a little more cream and rebeat.

assembly

Place sliced bananas in a single tight layer in the bottom of the cooled Biscoff cookie crust.  Remove sweetened condensed milk can from the fridge and carefully open it.  Use a spatula to pour the toffee over the bananas, smoothing it out to the edges of the crust as needed.  Use a clean spatula to top the toffee with the Biscoff whipped cream.  Optional – crumble a Biscoff cookie on top of the whipped cream for a little flair.

Place the pie in the fridge if not serving immediately.  Pie will keep in the fridge for at least two days; I can’t attest to any longer than that because ours was all gone!

Have you eaten Banoffee Pie before?

Bike Then Bar

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Today was the first day of class and I still managed to get in a morning workout!

Bike Or Bar, the new spinning gym on Elmwood, offers a free trial class to all newbies. A friend and I decided to try it out with 6am spin.  I was worried that the wake-up would be brutal but I was so excited that it was ok.  I used to hate spinning so my expectations weren’t very high but I ended up loving it!  The intervals were a lot of fun.  The instructor had great energy and I enjoyed the modern music.  A mega plus is that the space is set up to mimic a bar; with the dimmed lighting, strobe lights, and loud music I didn’t feel on display like I do in stark white gyms.  I can’t afford another membership right now but if we had more money I would definitely go back!  60 minute spin class.

The real morning excitement was getting to pick Webster up from boarding.

The vet’s office was closed for the holiday and the apartment has felt empty without him the past two days.

Breakfast was a green pear,

and a Banana Foster Lara Bar Uber.

A quick note on the bar – this was a free blog sample.  Lara Bar sent me the flavors from their new Uber line to try out.

The Uber line is supposed to be sweet and salty with big pieces of fruit and nut.  It delivered!  Just look at this texture –

There were lots of nuts and big chunks of chewy banana.  The flavor was salty and just a little sweet and you couldn’t taste the date at all (the only thing I dislike about regular Lara Bars is the overwhelming date flavor).  I can’t wait to try the other three flavors.

When we were at spin class Janessa gave me the awesome news that class didn’t start until 9 am today.  We took advantage of the extra time and went to Dunkin for coffee.

I’m not really sure why the woman gave me so much milk.  I got a large latte with skim milk and coconut/cinnamon syrup.  ‘Twas good.  And fun to have done spinning and coffee before 9am.

Summer school is going to suck.  That’s all I’ll say about that for now.

For lunch I packed a turkey sandwich.  Applegate Farms Smoked Turkey, French Onion Light Laughing Cow, and a Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin.

Baby carrots.

And some dark chocolate mint m&m’s.

After school I made my final trek to the Sprint Store.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned all of my visits but I’ve had to take my phone in three times over the past two weeks.  This was the last time every because today I picked up my *new* phone.  And since I had to come in so many times before the waived all fees and it was free!

I sat at Panera setting up my phone (my new phone! for the final time!) and ate a chocolate croissant.

It was surprisingly good.  Chocolate croissants are a favorite food that I almost never eat.

When dinner time rolled around I did some hardcore wife-ing.  I roasted a whole chicken!

I followed a recipe from Kitchen Counter Cooking School and it was easy as pie chicken.  We started with a 3 lb 8 oz free-range bird.  I made a mixture of butter, lemon juice, and fresh rosemary that I rubbed under and on top of the skin.  Then I stuffed the inner cavity with the juiced lemons and a few bulbs of garlic.  Baked at 425* for 1 hr 15 minutes with occasional basting.

It turned out wonderfully!

I ate a chicken thigh sans skin.

With sides of roasted zucchini,

and sliced carrots cooked in brown sugar and butter.

It was a winner of a dinner.

Though not that appropriate for the weather.  Bring on the chilled salads and gazpacho.

Smoothies for dessert helped us to cool back down.

For two, I blended – 1.75 cups Silk Vanilla Almond Milk, .25 cup frozen blueberries, 1 large frozen banana, 3 Tbsp malted milk powder, and 1/2 Tbsp almond extract.

It was a good mix.  I need to remember my almond extract more often.

See you for hump day.

Sunday Disposition

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Welcome, weekend warriors!

No Saturday post because I spent most of the day moping around the house.  Little was accomplished, though I did get the laundry done.

I got so sick of myself that I made damn sure to have fun today.  And I’ve been thinking positive thoughts about the upcoming week as well.  I want to make sure my last 8 days before summer school are as productive/relaxing/fun/healthy as possible.

We got this morning off to a tasty/healthy start with sludge smoothies to go.

Enjoyed out of repurposed jars instead of fancy stemware because we were on a family walk.

In the blend were unmeasured amounts of frozen banana, frozen blackberries, frozen spinach, and oj.

Plus a piece of rye bread with strawberry jam and Smart Balance Light when we got home.

Our new jam is the store-brand version of Crofter’s (ie organic and with no added sugar) and sadly it’s not very good.

Lunch was consumed out of hand.  A slice of pizza (now you see what we did on Saturday!),

a Cara Cara orange,

and half of this package of mint m&m’s.

I’ve never been a huge m&m person but these mint ones are fantasmic.  Perhaps because they are dark chocolate?  They are one of the few (the only?!) desserts that actually tastes better to me in small quantities.

We walked to dinner and surreptitiously enjoyed Black Jack Colas along the way.

We went on a sushi date.

Kunis has been on our “Buffalo: Go To” list for months and I’m glad we finally gave it a shot because it was great and we’ll definitely be back.

I ordered three small plates to make up my meal.  First, Wakame Salad.

Seasoned and dressed seaweed, with sesame and chili flakes.  I’ve been trying to get Adam to taste seaweed salad for years and now that he finally did he’s officially obsessed (we stopped at the co-op on the way home because he was hoping to find more!).  I will say that Kuni’s version was one of the best I’ve ever had.  But – the photo isn’t deceiving you, it was a ridiculously small portion.

My soup course was a bowl of Udon.

Thick white flour noodles in a light broth, topped with sweetened tofu, wakame and scallions.  At $3.75 this huge bowl was a steal.  The sweet tofu wasn’t my favorite but the slightly sweet and sour broth was great.

Finally, a veggie roll.

It had asparagus, mushroom, and some pickled vegetable that I’m not remembering.  Be forewarned – the wasabi at Kunis is fresh!  I gobbed it on the way I usually do and my first bite almost killed me.  It wasn’t necessarily spicy – in fact we both noticed that this wasabi put no spice on your tongue and was strangely sour – but a bunch of it stuck to the roof of my mouth and I started choking and breaking out in a cold sweat.  Adam said my face was BRIGHT red!

We had a great walk home; Kuni’s is just far enough away to be fun.  My dinner was good but on the smaller side and my mouth didn’t feel done so I ate a mug of cereal when we got home.

1 cup of Honey Nut Shredded Wheat with skim milk.  Aaaaand, scene.

Banana Coffee Buzz

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I needed to start chipping away at my to-do list so I made sure that my breakfast included caffeine.

Into my smoothie went 1 packet of Starbucks Via, 1 frozen banana, lots of ice, and 2 cups of skim milk.

I doubled my milk because our carton is close to going bad but my smoothie ended up being so big that I threw some of that out instead.

At least I tried.  And breakfast gave me a big kick out the door to run errands.

  • I paid for my text-book for summer school
  • I purchased a summer parking pass
  • I scheduled multiple doctors’ appointments
  • I took two items to the tailor for alterations
  • I got a new battery and charger for my cell phone

My Sprint Store errand took almost an hour but it was totally worth it; thanks to phone insurance and a really nice worker, the visit cost me nothing!  And now I’ve finally got a working cell phone again.

“New” phone in hand, I went next door to Panera to set up my settings, calendar, etc.

I ate an Asiago cheese bagel with honey walnut cream cheese while I fiddled.

And I ate a sliced cucumber with salt when I got home.

I sort of forgot about cucumbers the last few months but they are one of my favorite snacks.

Adam’s on call tonight so I’m on my lonesome and I’m hoping to keep whittling down my to-do list.  See you for dinner.

Peasy Pesto Pasta

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It’s already after 11 pm and the alarm is going off before 6 am tomorrow, yikes!  This day needs a speedy post.

Workout – 40 minutes on the stationary bike at  random level 6

Breakfast – Banana brulee yogurt.

In a small skillet I cooked a sliced banana with 1/2 Tbsp butter and 2 tsp brown sugar.  I put the gooey, caramelized banana on top of a bowl of Wegman’s 0% Plain Greek Yogurt.

The sweet and tangy tastes went perfectly together.

Lunch – a bagel sandwich.

A cinnamon raisin Bagel Thin topped with jalapeño cream cheese and two slices of Applegate Farms smoked turkey.

I ate a slice of turkey in the morning as I was assembling my sandwich, it’s great.

I also had a Golden Delicious apple.

Snack – a mini bag of kettle corn.

Dinner – 2 oz of bow tie pasta with slices of roasted zucchini and peasy pesto (see below).

I love pesto so flipping much!  Bow ties with pesto are one of my major food memories from my childhood.  My aunt makes the best pesto I’ve ever had but she’s a great cook so that’s not surprising.

Peasy Pesto, makes 4 – 8 servings

  • 10 oz frozen peas, thawed and drained
  • 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  1. Place peas and oil in food processor and process until homogenous, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until well combined.

It was such a pretty green, I just couldn’t help taking pictures of it!

Humbolt Fog

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Last night’s sleep session was a disaster.  Usually my sleep issues are related to falling asleep but lately if I get woken up I can’t fall back to sleep either.  The dog woke us up in the middle of the night and it took me at least another hour of tossing and turning to get back to rest.  The husband brought home some sort of bug from the hospital and my throat was killing me.

I overslept today and the morning was rushed but I managed to do what I needed to do, mostly.  I was heading to the gym after 9 am so sticking with my monthly goal I ate a small breakfast before I left.  A few sips of strawberry Powerade Zero,

and a half of a Vanilla Almond Luna Bar.

I didn’t have much time at the gym but something was better than nothing.  20 minutes on the elliptical at random level 7.

After a quick walk home and an even quicker shower I made a Lemon Cookie Smoothie for breakfast.

The last time I made it was apparently a dark and stormy night and I wanted a chance to get some better less awful photographs for the recipe page.

It probably wasn’t my best use of time though; I made it halfway through my smoothie before I had to throw it away and rush out the door.  I didn’t have time to pack lunch and having half a smoothie digesting in my stomach just made my hunger stronger all afternoon.

I got out of clinic a bit early and when I spotted a Manhattan Bagel on the drive home it felt like an oasis in the desert.

I was eating the chips that came with my meal before I was even out of the parking lot.

But chips only seemed to anger the beast (aka my stomach) and I ended up eating my bagel on the ride home!

Eating while driving is sort of nice because instead of dreading red lights you can use them to shove food into your face.  And my bagel was quite enjoyable; I got a veggie sandwich on a rye bagel.

Red onion, lettuce, tomato, banana peppers, veggie cream cheese, and a little bit of chipotle mayo.  I thought the veggies were pretty weak but the bagel was super chewy and good.

I had my 2nd to last shift at work this evening and then I came home to an easy salad dinner.

I needed a vehicle for a veggie, a fruit, and this amazing looking cheese, and salad fit the bill.

This Cypress Grove Humbolt Fog Chevre was delicious.  Sadly the blue cheese and goat cheese were in layers and not the hybrid mixture I was hoping for, but both were quite tasty.

Along with chunk of cheese I had romaine lettuce, groats, chopped honey crisp apple, and Stubbs BBQ Sauce for dressing.

Those ingredients sound strange together but it worked.

I’ll see y’all in the am for some running and some baking!

One In The Hand…

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…is worth two the in the bush.  Or $1 if you’re holding a silver dollar.  Or a quick blurb if you’re reading this post.  What I’m trying to say is, pictures in this blog post will be accompanied by a quick blurb.  I’m tired.

Our larders are bare and as I said, I’m tired, so today’s meals were tricky.  My food consumption was very strange, fairly processed, and eaten entire by hand (minus two dishes by chopstick).  I ate small bits consistently throughout the day and that seemed to work.  It wasn’t the healthiest day of all time but for this day I’m pretty proud of how I did.

A Cappuccino Lara Bar.

Always a favorite.  I’m amazed every time I eat this at how well they managed to balance the coffee flavor so that it’s not too intense.

The final two Buttered Rum Raisin Cookies.

So sad to see these good, they are for sure in my top five recipes list.

Note – I also had a large handful of unphotographed Reese’s Pieces.  We used them for a problem in Statistics and then were allowed to nibble.

Trader Joe’s Wasabi Roasted Seaweed Snack.

This was good but super spicy; I was crying before I was even halfway through.  Crunchy, spicy, and a bit strange means this was something I loved; I really wish I had bought more.  And for 30 calories you were snacking for a long while, definitely a volume food.

A Pepsi Next.

This 60 calorie soda is Pepsi’s answer to Coke Zero.  Sadly I wasn’t a fan, it tasted too much like regular Pepsi to me (duh, Emily!).  If you enjoy regular soda but want to cut back on calories you should probably check it out.  I wish they would make a regular soda that simply contained less sugar, rather using fake sugars.  I love the flavor of diet but know that I could do without the chemicals.

A Mango Passion & Banana Buddy Fruit packet.

I love these so much!  One pack equals one serving of fruit and the blend was delicious.

A mini pretzel bagel with some of the leftover cheese from last night’s cheese plate.

It’s hard to go wrong with the pretzel and smoked Gouda combo.  Eating these side-by-side rather than sandwich style felt gloriously simple.

A So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk box.

Meh, I prefer the Silk Vanilla Almond Milk.  I like the idea a vegan milk box though and I’ve had this product in chocolate in the past and enjoyed it more.

Dinner was eaten by chopstick and gets no blurb.  Seaweed salad and a brown rice veggie sushi roll.

What can I really say about that?

But dessert?  Oh my gosh, dessert.  A Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Bar filled with Speculoos Cookie Spread.

Why didn’t I buy more of these?!  I am kicking myself now.  The chocolate was creamy and a little bit bitter, the filling was sweet and gritty, and I was basically swooning.  I actually did buy two bars but I gave one to a friend who’s similar obsessed with Biscoff and I’m feeling pretty darn generous right about now.  But I do, at least, have a jar of TJ’s Cookie Butter waiting for me.

What was the best thing you ate today?