Smooth Chocolate Dream

At February 4, 2010
By megan
In banana, beverages, chocolate, cream, dessert, favorites, Vita-Mix
2

After cooking for a couple hours after working all day, I didn’t feel like baking brownies or making a proper dessert. Vita-Mix to the rescue!

I put in one ripe banana, 1 cup vanilla rice milk, 1 oz unsweetened chocolate, broken, and mixed that on speed 10 for a minute. Then, added a splash of heavy whipping cream, on to speed 10 again, and there you have it- a Smooth Chocolate Dream dessert in 2 minutes.

Ginger Baked Tofu Soup

This soup was delicious because of the tofu. The stock is very simple and not overpowering, but it complemented the tofu very well.

There are a few steps to making this soup. I made a stock from kitchen scraps rather than use a pre-made stock, so that took some time, but it was worth the effort. Ever since getting a Vita-Mix, I have lots of kitchen scraps, like pieces of celery, carrot, apple, and pear. I plan to use them in soup stocks now rather than buy a store-bought brand.

For the soup, I started with the stock recipe below. To that, I added one yellow onion, chopped, 5 cloves of minced garlic, and 1/2 TB freshly grated ginger. I let this boil for 15 minutes and then added some frozen peas. I poured this over the baked tofu.

Baked Tofu Ingredients:

1 package of firm tofu, frozen, thawed, and pressed
2 TB soy sauce
1 TB toasted sesame oil
1/2 TB onion powder
1/2 TB garlic powder
1/2 TB freshly grated ginger
Sriracha- add as much spice as you like
2 cups water

Preheat oven to 350. After the tofu is thawed and pressed, cut it into cubes. Mix up the marinade and pour it over the tofu in a Pyrex baking dish. Bake for 45 minutes or so until all of the liquid is absorbed.

Arrange the tofu in a bowl and pour the broth on top.

Soup Stock Ingredients:

4 stalks celery
2 carrots
1/2 yellow onion
the core from a pear
2 cloves garlic
water
3 TB soy sauce

Put all of those ingredients (except the soy sauce) in a large stock pot and boil for at least an hour.

I let mine boil for 2 hours, cooled it, strained it, and then added soy sauce. If it you make more than you need, freeze it or save it for a week in the fridge. It is healthier for you than the packaged stuff.

Best Banana Walnut Bread

At February 2, 2010
By megan
In banana, bread, cream, favorites, walnuts
0

I am very proud of my banana bread. I worked hard at creating a recipe since I try to personally create each recipe on my blog. The first try at banana bread was a baking failure, but I got it right the second time and this is officially going to be the only banana bread recipe I bake from now on. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
2 very ripe mashed bananas
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda (a little less if at altitude)
a pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 (375 if at altitude). Lightly oil a bread pan with butter or walnut oil- I prefer to use mini-loaf pans because it is easy to store one or two loafs in the freezer. They also bake a lot more quickly.

In your KitchenAid stand mixer, turn your cream into butter. How? Pour the cream into the bowl and with the wire whisk (and hopefully your splash guard) turn to speed 10 and whisk a couple minutes until it is fresh butter. Then switch to the paddle blade and start adding the ingredients, one by one in the order listed, mixing a little in between each one.

Pour into your bread pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. It took 20-25 minutes for the mini loaves. I would estimate 45 minutes or more for a large loaf. Please let me know if you try this at home just how long a large loaf takes to bake. Enjoy.