Banana Blueberry Pancakes

I have to admit: I don't normally make pancakes from scratch.  My grandmother uses a mix where you still have to add eggs and milk; I don't even do that.  I normally buy a mix and just add water.  If I want to get fancy, I'll add chocolate chips or slices of strawberry or blueberries.  This morning when I asked my daughter if she wanted pancakes, I didn't even think to look if I had the mix in the cupboard.  Of course she said yes, and of course I didn't have any more mix.

So I went to my collection of cookbooks and pulled out this book called Breakfast Heaven.  I don't really remember when or where I got it, but I figured it would have some pretty good pancake recipes. This lead me to their blueberry and banana pancakes.  Looking at the clock and realizing I was pressed for time, I decided I might as well give it a go.

My daughter went into her high chair and helped me prepare them. They turned out great, very delicious.  It reminded me slightly of banana muffins.  It was fast to prepare and fast to cook (I used my Griddler so I could cook more at a time).  On top of that - they are dairy free!

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

2 eggs, separated

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

pinch ground cinnamon

small pinch salt

1/2-1 cup blueberries (I used frozen)

Directions:

1. Mash the bananas with a fork in a large bowl.  Using the same fork, mix in sugar, lemon juice, and egg yolks.  Next mix in flour, baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt and cinnamon.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and pinch of salt until stiff. Fold into the banana mixture.

3. Heat about 1 tbsp oil in a large, heavy-based skillet over medium heat.  If you are using a griddle, heat it to 350-375F and lightly grease it or spray with non-stick spray.  (I found that I started at 375F, but lowered it to 350F as the pancakes were browning a little too quickly.)

4. Drop by tablespoonfuls into the skillet to make smaller pancakes or by 1/4 cup-fulls for larger ones. When they have been cooking for about a minute, sprinkle four or five blueberries onto each one, pushing them lightly into the batter. (If you are using frozen blueberries, you can place them in right away.)  Cook for about 2 minutes longer, until browned underneath and edges are cooked and it bubbles.  Flip them over and cook for an other minute or so, until they are lightly browned.

This made about 12-15 pancakes.  (I made some small ones for my daughter and small larger ones for me.)

Anna Olson's Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

It's March Break and I had time for some baking. I wanted to do an easy recipe that I could have my daughter help me with. I went to my trusty Anna Olson cookbook (Back to Basics) and decided to use her recipe.

The bread turned out great - nice and moist, but it did brown quickly in my oven so you might want to wrap it with foil if you see that happening to you.  I used all all-purpose flour instead of half and half with whole wheat.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

3 cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4 bananas)

1 egg, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease 9x5" (2L) loaf pan.

2. Beat butter and brown sugar together until smooth. Stir in the bananas, then stir in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt to combine. Add this to the butter mixture and stir until evenly blended.  Add the chocolate chips, then scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

3. Bake the loaf for  about an hour, until a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool the loaf for 30 minutes in the pan, then turn out to cool completely. The loaf will keep, well wrapped and refrigerated, for up to 3 days.

Very Yummy Vegetarian Lasagna

I've made a variety of lasagne in my lifetime, but this version seems to be the favourite.  My husband gobbled up two large servings, which isn't saying much because he loves lasagna, but still he really liked it.  My toddler ate a large serving and wanted more afterwards, but she also loves pasta.  I thought it was really good as well.  But I think the true test is that my mother loved it (as leftovers for dinner the next day) and asked for some to take for lunch.  I was raised on my mother's cooking - homemade Italian - and I was spoiled.  And she learned from my nonna, who also makes amazing food.  She would make me frozen trays of lasagna and other yummies to take with me while I was in university.  So when my mother said she thought my lasagna was amazing and asked for more to take for lunch - I was so proud of my lasagna.  My mom's lasagna is excellent so for her to give me that compliment was out of this world.  And saying it was amazing wasn't the compliment because she's mom and would say that for almost anything I did.  The compliment was asking to take some for lunch! Hopefully you will enjoy this recipe as well.  I tried to be as accurate as I could with the measurements, but a lot of my cooking is by eye.

Ingredients:

1 pkg oven ready lasagna (or if it's not oven ready, follow directions to cook it)

2 jars of tomato sauce (see note below)

3 - 3-1/2 cups besciamellla sauce (see recipe below)

2 pkg (300g each) ricotta cheese

1 pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed out

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for layering 

1 cup mozzarella, grated

Directions:

1. Mix together ricotta, spinach and eggs in a medium bowl. Add Parmesan and mix again. 

2. Set up your layers in front of you so it is easy to assemble the lasagna in a large, deep casserole dish (approx. 9x12")

3. Start by placing enough tomato sauce to cover the bottom of the tray. Add about 1/3 of besciamella and mix the sauces together.  Place a layer of lasagna sheets to cover the bottom, overlapping slightly. Place more tomato sauce to cover the layer, and add another 1/3 besciamella, mixing again if you wish.  Spoon almost half of the ricotta-spinach mixture and spread across.  Sprinkle the top with about half of the grated mozzarella and and sprinkling of more Parmesan.

3. You can put a little more tomato sauce on top if you like, but it is not necessary.  Place another layer of the lasagna sheets, as you did before.  (If you are using fresh pasta or ones you just boiled, you might want to layer this time in the opposite way you did - like a cross pattern - to help the lasagna hold together.  This is not necessary, and is something I did not do.)

4. Continue as before, with a layer of the tomato sauce and remainder of the besciamella, followed by the ricotta-spinach, then Parmesan and mozzarella. Place a little more sauce over top and continue onto your last layer of the lasagna sheets. Spread the remaining tomato sauce over the top of the dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.  Make sure the sauce is completely covering all the pasta or else it will dry out while it bakes.

5. Cover with foil and bake in a 375F oven for 45-60 minutes, until it is cooked through and bubbling. You can remove the foil for the last 10 minutes.  You may also want to put a large baking sheet under the dish as you bake it to prevent any spillover from the lasagna.

6. You could also put the dish in the fridge until you are ready to bake it.  If you do this, take it out of the fridge while you preheat the oven so the dish isn't too cold when it goes in the oven.

Tomato Sauce:

I'm very fortunate that my family jars its own tomato sauce, so this is my go to.  This still takes some preparation.  I saute an onion with 2 cloves of garlic and 1 carrot until softened.  I add two jars (the large mason jars - I think they are approx. 1 L each) of the sauce.  I also add basil, oregano, bay leaves, salt and pepper.  I let it simmer at least 30 minutes, but even as long as 2 hours to really deepen the flavours.  In the past I've added mushrooms and red peppers to the sauce with the other vegetables.  If you don't like a chunky sauce, you could use an immersion blender to puree it, otherwise you could use it as it is.  This is what I use in my lasagna.

Besciamella Sauce (Bechamel Sauce)

3 tbsp (unsalted) butter

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups milk (whole milk is better), warmed (I warm it in the microwave for a couple of minutes)

1/2 tsp salt, to taste

pinch of black pepper

pinch of nutmeg

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the flour and whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes.  Let the flour cook for another couple of minutes, whisking. Addd the warm milk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps.  Simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens.  This should take about 10 minutes, and the sauce should be smooth and creamy.  Do not let the sauce boil. Remove from heat and stir in the salt, pepper and nutmeg.

What I tend to do when I use this for lasagna, is add a few tbsp of the tomato sauce to the besciamella and give it a stir.  It will give it a rosy colour.  This is also not necessary as you can mix the two sauces together in the lasagna tray.

Above: the tomato and besciamella sauce     Below: the spinach-ricotta mixture

Above: The assembled lasagna before it is cooked.

Below: The final product - yum!

Warm Quinoa "Salad"

Today is Friday and it is the season of Lent, so in my household that means no meat.

Today I wanted to cook those frozen tilapias from my last blog post.  And since today is a Friday of a very long week and March Break is about to start, I didn't want to spend time making a new recipe.  So I just used the same recipe as last time.  You can find it here: http://cucinadiheartz.blogspot.ca/2014/02/baked-tilapia-baby-spinach-salad.html

I put the fish on top of a bed of quinoa that I'd like to call a "salad" but in my traditional understanding of the word, it isn't.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

salt

3-4 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dill

salt and pepper to taste

1 tomato, chopped

1 cup mixed greens or baby spinach

feta cheese (optional)

Directions

1. Cook the quinoa according to package, typically 2 cups of boiling water for 1 cup of quinoa, until the water has disappeared, about 15 minutes.  Let cool 5 minutes.

2. Add lemon juice, olive oil, dill and salt and pepper, mix together.  Add tomato and mixed greens; stir.  Add feta if you are using it.