Elvis' Fried Banana Sandwich

One of Tink's many, many birthday food requests was a fried banana sandwich.  She calls them Elvis sandwiches and she absolutely loves them.  We all do!  Of course, I add my own little touches and healthy it up as much as possible. :) These sandwiches are also a great alternative to banana bread when I need to use up the overripe bananas we seem to constantly have.  In this heat, bananas last two days at most on our counter.  I usually stick them in the fridge, which keeps them from ripening for almost two weeks, but the kids still won't eat them because the skins turn black.  I have come to enjoy my bananas cold better than room temperature!

You will need (for one sandwich):

1 overripe banana
peanut butter
2 slices of whole wheat bread
Smart Balance spread (or butter)
cinnamon sugar
honey
frying pan

Preheat your frying pan to medium heat.  Grease with pan spray or butter.

Spread peanut butter onto both slices of bread.  I like Smart Balance's natural peanut butter.

Drizzle honey on one side of peanut butter laced bread.  Slice the banana and place the slices on the other peanut butter slathered bread.

Put the two slices together, banana and honey meeting in the middle.  Spread the Smart Balance spread onto the outside of the sandwich.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Heat in the frying pan until a beautiful golden brown.

Tink likes to have her sandwich cut in half.  (It's all I can do to not write "sanch" because that's what the girls have always called sandwiches. Sanches! Goose started it.  Her favorite lunch as a toddler was a "cheesh sanch.")

So delicious!!  My mouth is watering and I glanced over at the bananas on the counter.  The stinkin' things are under ripe for once.  Of course!  :)

We've been on a cold sanch kick this week for dinner because the heat index has been in the 100's.  The weatherman said that this is the hottest weather in recorded history here in Florida.  I didn't even want to turn on the burner to boil the eggs for egg salad sanches last night!  But I would turn on the burner for these fried banana sanches!!  I think I've decided on tomorrow night's dinner!

All great flavors!  Bananas, peanut butter, honey, cinnamon.  Absolutely wonderful!  Add the touch of sugar and the nutty whole wheat and you come pretty close to the perfect sanch.  At least according to Elvis and Tink!

Enjoy!!

Slow Cooker Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

It has cooled down here just a bit; the heat index isn't in the 100's, but it's still hot.  So, here is another slow cooker recipe!  I was very excited about trying to bake a cake in my crock pot and the results were amazing. Absolutely delicious!  Goose and Tink told me to never make my banana chocolate chip cake in the oven again.  Now that I can successfully make a cake in the slow cooker I want to try making bread...and maybe even cookies, cupcakes, and everything else!! :)

You will need:
my recipe for banana chocolate chip cake
aluminum foil
deep-sided 8-inch round pan
butter and flour to grease the pan
2 paper towels
large slow cooker

Fold a large piece of foil in half and half again and place in the bottom of your cooker.  Take another large piece of foil and wad it up.  Place it on top of the folded foil and use your pan to squash it a bit, making sure that your pan will be able to sit on it without tipping to one side.  The point of this is to raise your pan off the bottom of the slow cooker.  Don't skip this step.

After you have made the cake batter, butter and grease your cake pan...

and pour in your batter.

Place the pan into your slow cooker and make sure that the pan sits flat on the foil.

Turn your slow cooker to HIGH, place two paper towels across the top to catch the moisture that will collect and then place on the lid.

Cook for exactly two hours, without removing the lid.  Now it's done perfectly!!

I took a picture of my cake stand.  It was my  mom's, but she gave it to me when they moved down here to Florida.  Every cake I ever had or made growing up was served on this cake stand.  I love it!!  (I thought it was interesting that it is smaller than the cake stands you see in stores today. So, Americans dinner plate size and cake stand size has increased.)

Let the cake sit for 10 minutes in the baking pan, then run a knife along the sides and invert it onto your cake plate.

The top of my cake was prettier than the bottom, so next time I will invert it onto a plate and then flip it again onto the cake stand, pretty side up.  But I fixed its looks with a bit of powdered sugar. :)

I let it cool for about an hour, but only because we were having dinner.  Even then I had to fight off the cake jackals!   So, feel free to dig in right away.

The slow cooker keeps this cake so moist.  I asked Bubba and the girls what they thought, but all I got was a bunch of mmmm's and ahhhh's.  Definitely a big hit!

Not only was it crazy delicious, but I didn't heat up my house by using the oven.  Always a plus for me this time of year.  If you have any leftovers, this cake is just as beautiful the next day.  In fact, I think the flavors are deeper the next day--just like how banana bread is better if you can wait a day to eat it.  I didn't refrigerate the cake, just wrapped it in plastic wrap overnight.  You can freeze it, too.  Wrap it tightly in foil and seal it up in a freezer bag.  You'll love this cake!!

Enjoy!!

Healthier Banana Bread

Bananas ripen so quickly here in Florida. We seem to get only three days before I have to put them in the fridge to stop them from ripening further. And then a lot of times we forget about them. I blame my fridge--I hate it and complain about it daily. It's one of those horrid side-by-side things, but it was brand spanking new when we moved into this house 5 years ago and I can't justify replacing it just because it has space issues. The side-by-side fridges are deep but narrow making it impossible to find anything because everything is shoved to the back and covered by what's in front. So I end up buying doubles and triples of products and...I could go on and on. I. Hate. My. Fridge. But I love banana bread, which I make often because, well, see above. I've tried to healthy-up the recipe since we eat so much of it.

You will need:

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (Smart Balance!!)
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs (or egg substitute)
4 overripe bananas
cinnamon (to taste)
one loaf pan



In a small bowl, combine flours, baking soda, and salt--set aside. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. I use my Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add butter and applesauce and mix together. (I made this recipe with cinnamon applesauce once because we were out of unsweetened and it was really good, so any applesauce will do.)



Add sugar and cinnamon, mix, then add eggs one at a time. I don't measure cinnamon in my recipes, I just shake it out until it looks right. Add to your taste, but I suggest about a tsp or so.



Now gently add your flours and stir. You can use a spatula or wooden spoon for this step if you are worried about overmixing. Stir until just combined--you don't want your bread to be tough.





Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes or until center is baked.





If you are worried that your oven temperature is not accurate then bake this bread at 325 until the center is baked. A common complaint about quick breads is that the centers are still raw while the sides are overdone, which is most often caused by an oven that is too hot. If it happens, you can tent some foil over the top until the center is done. Another cause of a raw middle is a pan that is too small. Make sure your loaf pan is large enough--if you are unsure, make 2! A crack down the middle of the bread is perfectly normal.


Let cool for 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack and then turn out.



Banana bread is better is wrapped overnight and eaten the next day. But who does that?? We love our banana bread hot from the oven and smothered in butter.



To add a punch of extra flavor try adding 1 tsp of banana extract. I do that sometimes (when I'm not out of extract). I love it with or without!



One final note: the more whole wheat you use, the drier the bread. White flour keeps bread moist and tender. If you insist on using all whole wheat, up your fat in the recipe (at least 2 more T butter). Your bread will be denser and much less tender, but still tasty!

Enjoy!!

my recipe card:

Banana Pancakes

We are a family of pancake junkies. Our favorite is the classic buttermilk pancake. Tinker Bell likes a few mini chocolate chips dropped on each pancake while baking, while the Goose likes blueberries. My Bubba loves to absolutely drown his pancakes, while I like mine with just a touch of syrup. But we also love banana pancakes. The great thing about this recipe is that you can substitute any type of flour you want and it doesn't change the result. One weekends I might feel indulgent and use all-purpose flour, but during the week (before school) I only use whole wheat or whole wheat pastry flours. The whole wheat helps to keep the munchkins bellies full until lunch.



1 cup flour (your choice)
1 1/2 T sugar
2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk (any type)
2 T oil
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp cinnamon (add to your taste)

I usually use two small or medium bananas. If your bananas are particularly large, just use one or one and a half. Too much banana can make the pancake mushy and unpleasant. You want them very ripe, the darker the sweeter. I usually use a darker banana than the ones in the picture. Did you know that if you ripen a banana to just the way you like it and then stick it in the fridge it won't ripen any more for almost two weeks? The peeling will turn black immediately, but the banana itself stays perfect. Bananas ripen so quickly here in the Florida heat that this little tidbit has saved us money. (Did you know that chickens LOVE bananas? It's our girls favorite treat!)



I use my mixer to mash the bananas. I prefer the pancakes without banana lumps, but if you like them you can certainly leave big lumps and it won't hurt the finished pancake.



Add the beaten egg, milk, oil, and vanilla to the mashed bananas. This new Smart Balance oil is great stuff. A blend of canola, olive, and soy oils. (That's an Eragon egg. Such a sweet girl to help us out with our pancakes.)



This time around I used one cup of whole wheat pastry flour. It's a bit smoother than regular whole wheat. Add the flour of your choice, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to the banana/milk mixture.



The batter will be slightly lumpy. Do not overmix! Pancakes get tough with too much mixing.



I use a 1/3 cup for each pancake. Lightly grease your griddle and bake the pancakes over medium high heat, about 350 if you have an electric griddle. When your pancakes just start to look done around the edges and the bubbles have begun to pop, flip them. (Only flip once.) After the flip I go ahead and butter them while they are still cooking. The butter melts right down into the pancake and ooooo baby!



Enjoy!