Creamy banana bread

Have I put this one on here before? I can't remember and Jennifer was asking me about it, so I'll post it here.
I'm always looking for ways to use soy flour in place of all purpose flour, It's not easy, except for when making banana bread, it comes out great!!

I use this recipe, but instead of flour I use the soy flour. I cook it for 30 - 35 min. and I add chocolate chips. The flavor is a little weird at first, if you're not used to it, but with the choc. chips, it helps a lot!!

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup margarine, softened
* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 1 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs (I use egg whites only, or one whole egg and one white)
* 2 - 3 mashed mashed bananas
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 3/4 cup chopped pecans
* 2 tablespoons brown sugar
* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Cream the butter or margarine and cream cheese together. Gradually add the white sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the mashed bananas and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and soda; mix until batter is just moist.
2. In a small bowl, mix together chopped pecans, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and cinnamon.
3. Divide 1/2 batter into two greased and floured 8x4 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle pecan mixture over batter in pans, and top with remaining batter.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I sometimes use the brown sugar and cinnamon thing, but most of time I just leave it out and make plain banana bread with the choc. chips.

Hamburger - Cabbage Casseroles

1 lb. hamburger
1 medium onion, diced
3 c. cooked rice (1 c. raw)
2 1/2 c. diced cabbage
3 T. butter
2 T. soy sauce
3 T. brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown hamburger and onion together. Drain. Combine all ingredients and put in a casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until heated through.
** I like to add about 1 tsp. of ground ginger and some garlic to this. **

Pork Chops w/ Sweet Potatoes

I got this recipe after doing a search on the internet for sweet potatoes. It is my new vegetable of the week to try in my cooking. We had this for the first time last night. I thought it was great. Taryn liked it but thought it was a little sweet for her.

2 boneless pork chops 1-inch thick
2 sweet potatoes
6 oz orange juice concentrate (1/2 a can)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 onion - sliced (I used red because that is what I had on hand)

1. Season the pork chop w/ salt and pepper and brown on all sides.
2. Peel the sweet potatoes and slice lengthwise. Use a fork and poke holes in it so they cook a little faster.
3. Combine the OJ, brown sugar, and cinnamon until it is dissolved.
4. Place the sweet potatoes around the pork chops in a baking dish. Top w/ sliced onions. Pour over the OJ/brown sugar mixture.
5. Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. About half way through the baking I flipped everything over and spooned the juices back over the top.

Vegetable Soup

I got the basis for this recipe from one of the Biggest Loser books. We tried it this week and thought it turned out really good. Taryn met with her nutritionist today and told her about it. The nutritionist was very impressed by it.

1 small white onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
12 baby carrots, diced
4 stalks celery, diced
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 12 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
italian seasonings
garlic
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup lentils
1 chicken breast, cooked, cubed

Heat up the olive oil. Saute the onion, pepper, carrots, and celery until soft. Add in the garlic. Add in the can of tomatoes, undrained. Stir so everything is incorporated. Add in the chicken stock and italian seasonings. Bring to a low boil. Add in the lentils and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Add in the frozen corn and cook for another 7 minutes. We added in the chicken breast ourselves because we wanted it to be more like a full meal. This makes a lot so you may just want to reduce everything by half if there is just 2 or 3 to serve. But don't skimp too much on the stock. We didn't add in so much and it was a little thick, especially the next day. The actual recipe called for other seasonings and vegetables. But this is what we had on hand and what we like.

Shepherd's Pie

We used to make this with stew meat and beef gravy and not as many veggies. But we decided to make it a little healthier and it turned out great.

1 pound ground turkey
1 cup frozen peas and carrots
1 cup frozen corn
1 can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes (we used the fire roasted kind to give it a little more flavor)
1 diced white onion
4 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup shredded cheese

1. Brown turkey. Season to your liking. Add in diced onion at the very end.
2. Cook peas, carrots, and corn. Add to cooked turkey and onion.
3. Drain diced tomatoes. Add in tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste.
4. Place in casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes. Try to get it all the way to the sides to seal in the turkey/veggie mixture to avoid it boiling out the side. Then top with shredded cheese.
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies

I got this recipe from my visiting teacher. They brought the dough to me and it was amazing. It is really healthy too!

Big Bowl

2/3 c. softened butter

2/3 c. crisco

1 c. sugar

1 c. packed brown sugar

2 t. vanilla

2 eggs

Cream this all together.

Smaller Bowl

3 c. flour

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

Mix together and then mix with the first set of ingredients. Add a cup of chocolate chips.

Bake at 375 for 9-12 minutes.

Spicy Chicken

1/3 cup Tabasco Sauce

2/3 cup water

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

4 chicken breast fillets

4 plain hamburger buns

8 teaspoons mayonnaise

4 lettuce leaves

4 tomato slices

4 slices Swiss Cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Combine the pepper sauce and water in a small bowl.

3. Combine the flour, salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper, onion powder, paprika and garlic powder in another shallow bowl.

4. Pound each of the chicken pieces with a mallet until about 3/8-inch thick. Trim each breast fillet if necessary to help it fit on the bun.

5. Working with one fillet at a time, coat each piece with the flour, then dredge it in the diluted pepper sauce. Coat the chicken once again in the flour mixture and set it aside until the rest of the chicken is coated.

6. Cook chicken 20 to 30 minutes or until they are light brown and crispy. (About 180˚F). After they are done put the cheese on the chicken and back in the oven till the cheese is melted.

7. As chicken is cooking, prepare each sandwich by grilling the face of the hamburger buns on a hot skillet over medium heat. Spread about 2 teaspoons of mayonnaise on the face of each of the inverted top buns.

8. Place a tomato slice onto the mayonnaise, then stack a leaf of lettuce on top of the tomato.

9. On each of the bottom buns, stack one piece of chicken.

10. Flip the top half of each sandwich onto the bottom half and serve hot.

This is our replacement for Wendy's Spicy Chicken Sandwich. It is less greasy, cheaper, and it tastes better.