Easy Peasy Banana Nut Bread using Banana Nut Muffin Mix

Well first let me say the best banana nut bread I have ever had can be found online under the Youtube channel run by Chef John of the Foodwishes channel....you can find it in this link :

Best Banana Bread Ever by Foodwishes Chef John


( now that all of you have gone to try that one.,..why even bother to post?....haha....Seriously that one is good and if you get a chance try it. He is funny to boot so it's a win-win)

Now back to my second-rate version of banana bread. Mine is meant for the average cook who just wants an easy peasy quick convenient not too much fuss version of banana bread. As usual I used canned, boxed or packaged items to make things less time consuming. In short, I am lazy. If you wanna make it all from scratch go knock yourself out. Not gonna hurt me a bit. If however you want to appear like you know how to cook when in fact you are clueless.....try out my version :)

I started out in the usual way.....bought some bananas....they started turning black....I felt guilty,....I thought of banana bread to ease my burdened mind....So I ran out to the store and as I was buying muffins for breakfast I saw banana nut muffin mix. This will work I thought. I mean after all, do muffins really know they are muffins and not a loaf? I think not !!

So I started by imagining any enemies I had and smushing a couple bananas....yes smushing is a technical term....haha and preheating the oven to whatever the package called for...in this case 425 degrees....

Smush those nanas like an old bosses face you could stomp on....haha

I had some walnuts I needed to use up ( hey nuts are expensive why waste them??) so I added about a half bag to my smushed bananas.....you can omit this if you want to.....

Then I opened up my three bags of muffin mix and dumped them in....ooooh such a hard step....

I try to use evaporated milk in recipes whenever I can b/c it is cheaper than milk in a jug ($4 plus tax!! Don't get me started!!)....the muffin mix called for 1/2 cup so used the whole can b/c it tends to be 1.5 cups undiluted 3 cups diluted ( so for those of you confused at this point.....use a can of undiluted evap milk in it's entirety....if you don't know what that means maybe you shouldn't be cooking....haha)

I then thought of Chef Johns yummy banana nut bread with chocolate chips and searched high and low but all I could find was a hershey bar so I busted a 3 square section into bits and added them.

Stir it well from the bottom....you want to make sure all those smushed bananas are in the mixture....

Pour into a greased casserole dish that is long and relatively big....make sure your oven is preheated 

I baked it longer than the 14-17 minutes it called for the muffins obviously....about 30-60 minutes....just keep an eye on it and stick a knife it the middle when it looks done. I took this one out, turned the oven off and put it back in for another 15 min after I took this picture. The knife in the middle should come out clean or it needs to cook a little bit longer. 

Let me just say this....it was yummy! The chocolate dissolved so use the chocolate chips but other than that, no complaints and best of all, everyone will think you can cook up a storm! Don't tell Martha White you took all the credit or you may have a fight on your hands!!....haha...Enjoy!---Tips

Sausage/Cabbage/Onion/Potato Supreme

Well I made something I have not made in awhile.....usually this falls into my " winter comfort food" meals....but it was another rainy dreary afternoon and I couldn't think of anything that I wanted in my usual food rut of five or six standard recipes....so I came up with this....and I ran with it.

Now if you want you can use real onion, real potatoes and real cabbage. I used real onion but had canned potatoes and Margaret Holmes has a pretty good cabbage so I went with those. I also had some Beef Polska Kielbasa so I cooked it as well. You can use whatever pork you have on hand...I like sausage because it gives you lots of flavor. Potatoes tend to be bland so you need something with some flavor.

First I heated up some olive oil in a frying pan. Now I would have used my non-stick frying pan but I couldn't find it so I used a regular frying pan and kept it on low to med high heat. If you heat it too high things tend to stick....particularly potatoes. First I sautéed the real onion in some olive oil until it was clear ( you can use frozen onion but real gives you better flavor).....once the onion was good and ready I then diced up some polska kielbasa into little hunks ( I did halves then I made them into smaller hunks....I used about half a sausage. Now the meat you want to make sure is cooked thoroughly. So heat it for a good little bit maybe 15 min or so until it appears well done. Again, keep the heat relatively low and push the onions and sausage around a lot in the pan.

 

This is when I just started adding diced potatoes to the mixture of onions and sausage. I would have had some prior pictures but didn't decide to put this on the blog til I was at this point.

 

 

 

I used two cans of whole new potatoes ( you can use diced or sliced or whatever) and a can of seasoned cabbage ( you can use real or frozen if you have it)

 

I then diced up two cans of whole potatoes into small hunks and added them to the meat/onion mixture....I kept the heat low to med high and kept pushing them around in the pan. I also added a little bit more olive oil to keep them from sticking. Those potatoes will stick if the heat is too high. I cooked them for a good little bit. Maybe 10 or 15 min til the potatoes looked like hashbrowns. You want them thoroughly warmed inside or they will be hard and not mushy.

 

Once I was satisfied with my potatoes/meat/onion I added the can of cabbage. I drained the liquid before adding the cabbage. This pic is before I stirred the mixture together.

 

I figured the potatoes would make it bland so I added some generous heaps of garlic/onion powder and Italian herbs....

 

then I decided to add some ground black pepper......I am not a fan of pepper but potatoes will absorb the flavor.....

 

The meal turned out really well....very tasty and the cabbage gave it a little bit of tangy taste which was nice with the sausage and the potato and onion mixture which was total comfort food..

 

Well try it and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did.--Tips

Wingin' It Chix and Rice Soup...I was wingin' it without a recipe....chicken soup....get it? Oh nevermind!! :)

Wingin' It Chix and Rice Soup...I was wingin' it....chicken soup....get it? Oh nevermind!! :)

Well tonight I was attempting to come up with something for dinner using a couple of items.....I have some leftover rotisserie chix and I also had a big bag of cooked rice from the other night. It was pouring rain outside and I was feeling chilly inside in the AC so I went with the idea of soup ( we had used up the rest of the chicken with mexican, chicken and rice with a white sauce and peas and chicken pot pie. So it was pretty much down to the carcass.

I started by adding a can of chix broth plus a can of water to a big stockpot. That yielded only an inch or so of broth. Nothing doing. That recipe that called for one can of chix broth and one of cream of chicken was a joke. No way it would feed 6. Anyway. So I just started winging it at that point. I do that most of the time anyway. Just try to figure out this or that you think would be tasty and guess-ta-mate and hope for the best. The only problem is next time you don't get the exact same results usually but that's ok.

So back to the broth. One can plus a can of water wasn't enough so then I glug glugged ( that is a technical term mind you....haha) a big box of chicken broth ( no water this time) and was satisfied. I had added the cooked rice in the beginning. It was about a 1/3 of a big ziploc full of rice. Too much rice truth be told. But I threw it all in there just b/c I was hoping to get rid of it. My point is....you could get by with 1 cup or 2 cups of rice if need be. Here's a pic at that point I believe.

Rice all by it's lonesome....told you I used too much! :)

These are good and they have them at the dollar store so I could use all I wanted which was the whole thing! 

This is one can of chicken broth plus a can of water plus the box of chicken broth above added. Good amount of broth at this point. I was satisfied with broth level. You have to have enough or soup becomes stew.

Added a few shakes or grinds of these plus some salt to my broth rice mixture. 

I also added a drained can of corn and a can of undiluted cream of chicken soup

Sliced off a little bit of real onion from the fridge....What is on top of the broth is all i added

Finally added the chicken and skin for flavor from the carcass. I would say it was roughly 2 cups or so of meat ( some in broth at this point but not a ton of meat...whatever was on the underside of the carcass is more/less what I used)

Rotisserie chix tends to be bland and relatively flavorless so I added a little hunk of polska kielbasa for flavor....sausage tends to give flavor to any kind of casserole, soup,etc...little smokies would be fine too or bacon or ham,etc....I just had kielbasa so that is what  I used. 

At some point I decided I needed carrots and/or celery. Having neither on hand and after my daughter looked for carrots to no avail I busted out the frozen stir-fry bag. Dug out some carrots and celery and added them to my soup.

At this point I considered it complete and let it simmer on low for an hour or so til dinnertime and ate it with some crusty french bread. YUM. It was tasty. Now you go try it. And remember to just wing it. It will be fine unless you add some arsenic....haha!--Tips

Post 35 of new/unusual/interesting items for you to look over! Enjoy!--Tips

Here is Post 35 of new/unusual/interesting items for you to look over! Enjoy!--Tips

As best I can see this new to me flower is called Brazilian Pink Flame....beyond that you are on your own.....haha.....seen in Lowes

this lovely grass is called Dwarf Oyster Plant....another newbie for these old eyes.....seen in Lowes

this is a pot that can go on your deck or porch railing.....would like one of these myself but have no railings...haha....great idea!!----seen in Lowes

this cutie is called blue my mind....haha....clever....had lots of little blue flowers no idea why I didn't get them in the pic....your guess is as good as mine.....seen in Lowes

this peach of a flower looks hardy to me.....maybe it reminds me of zinnia or something.....either way, never seen it before....called Double Scoop Cranberry Coneflower ( scoop may not be right)

Never seen black or grey pots before now.....seen in Lowes

this ain't your momma's spray paint aisle....it's 2013 baby!! Seriously they have it down to various hues now....no more generic " red".....it's a science at this point....picky people have helped the rest of us in this regard :)....seen in Lowes

this i wouldn't buy I think it is a crock but that's just me....you go knock yourself out....i have a terrible sense of smell so wouldn't help me a bit.....says it is a paint additive that gives fragrance to the paint.....seen in Lowes

Not sure how this works....spray system for paint....looks like you add it and can convert canned paint into spray paint....so custom spraypaint I suppose....could be nice if you wanted to coordinate items like lamps,beds,etc with the walls.....seen in Lowes

Goo B Gone Oven and Grill Cleaner.....self explanatory......seen in Lowes

this is a couple of hats that have lights in the brims.....could come in handy i would imagine.....seen in Lowes

same deal....these are lit safety glasses......seen in Lowes

Tried one of the Tips Posts....they call that forking....well for the record there were no forks involved in my French Dip sandwiches!...haha

Well the other day I came across the new Campbells Soup up your Summer campaign on FB....looked rather interesting and God knows I have wondered what is in "cream of"  soup to make everything it touches taste delicious! So I clicked on and looked over one of the recipes that looked super easy. Basically it was for French Dip sandwiches. How hard could that be?

You were supposed to get a pound of roast beef from the deli. Check. Knew I could master that. Supposed to get a can of French onion soup from Campbells....knew I could do that....never tried it before so was curious about it b/c once I had some delicious French onion soup in a restaurant where I worked that I never have forgotten and that was at least 20 yrs ago. Supposed to get some worchestershire( try spelling that from memory....yikes...still not right most likely) and add a Tablespoon to the French onion soup. Surely I could do that as well.Supposed to add some provolone to the buns. Oh yeah, you were supposed to get hoagie buns. None of this activity would be hard or qualify me for genius status. So I drove to Walmart and got just what the recipe called for. Well minus the banana peppers. Not interested in adding those ( but they are yummy on the Subway sandwiches)

So as I was standing in the aisle at Walmart this old lady who looked about 80 or so was beside me in the soup aisle. I asked my daughter to help me find the French onion soup. Of course neither of us could find it but the old lady found it quickly and pointed it out to me. Call me a whippersnapper. Those depression era/war era people are no dummies.  I told her what I was buying it for and she said she had had them and they were good. Must be something to this French dip using Campbells soup thing I thought.

So we drove home and ate some roast beef sandwiches for lunch ( that pound of roast beef was a lot of meat in my book and I piled it on the sandwiches tonight and had some left over so a half pound will be fine if money's tight) and went about our day.

Well tonight I made the French dip sandwiches or souped up my summer as Campbells would say. I have to say, they were quite tasty. My only complaint was the bun was soggy. The meat was tender. The soup was good ( I did dilute mine with a can of water...wasn't sure none of the recipes called for it) and not salty like I was worried it would be. A few people had complained the worchestershire had too much kick to it but I didn't find that to be the case and I am not one for salty...I just splashed a couple splashes in mine....it called for a tablespoon so I may have even done more than that....I thought halfway through that I should have made some carmelized onions to go with the meat ( the soup has onions but any onion lover will tell you it isn't the same)....

It really was simple....I heated the soup plus can of water and the meat which I broke up into smaller hunks and some splashes of worchestershire in the medium size saucepan...I let it cook on low to med for maybe 20 minutes ( trying for tender but worried it was going to be getting tougher). I preheated the oven to 400 as instructed and got out the cookie sheet and covered it with foil. I then put the hoagie buns on there in a row and took some provolone and put it in the bottom of the bun and then I spooned the meat out along with a little bit of juice in the buns and topped it with more provolone. This dinner was not rocket science after all. I would advise you to go easy on the juice as it made the buns way too soggy and that was my main complaint with this meal. Next time no sauce on sandwiches in my house.

So I served them with a small bowl of French dip soup beside each sandwich. With chips. This was no high class meal let me tell you. But they were tasty and easy ( and soggy...remember go easy on that sauce) and I started to think the old lady knew a thing or two about cooking.The dogs enjoyed whatever juice/meat remnants that were leftover so it was a winwin for the whole family. Did I mention the recipe is on the back of the soup can? It is. So run out to Walmart and get you the things you need and serve the sauce on the side. After all, it isn't rocket science--Tips

 

this is the pot with the meat that simmered in the soup and worchestershire and the sandwich on the cookie sheet....added some provolone and heated it til cheese melted

 

this is my sandwich which the left half looks like the meat wasn't piled on enough but I think the soggy bun was the culprit

 

this was my husbands and his bun was so soggy I had to use a spatula and the bottom bun was heavy with juice so it wouldn't stand up but tilted toward the plate

Post 34 of new/amazing/unusual items for you to look over! Enjoy!--Tips

Here is Post 34 of new/amazing/unusual items for you to look over! Enjoy!--Tips

this is a double oven instead of a wall unit a floor unit....seen in Lowes

this is a see through washer top....never guess if there is laundry in there....no need to lift it....GENIUS and such a simple idea....seen in Lowes

this is a compact ceiling fan for small areas....

same deal different design....seen in Lowes

Look at the size of those blades....I am having flashbacks of the MASH episodes...if this isn't called a helicopter fan it should be...haha....seen in Lowes ( Warning: it just might blow the hair off your head....haha)

this is a fan with a nice flat light...the fan is on so look closely for the little whirley blades thst are pretty short....good for compact areas...nice clean design.....seen in Lowes

nice florescent light design.....seen in Lowes

Love this one....two old school fans that then turn around on axis they face different directions....talk about cool looking....not sure how effective it is.....seen in Lowes

If  you put a fan in a fancy front room these would come in handy to jazz up the light covers which tend to be blah....could also set them on a plate and put a votive in them for nice little candleholder

LOVE this.....would get broken in my house but still love it...so old school....seen in Lowes....like the 3 light one behind it as well :).....seen in Lowes

this was cool....was a bunch of glass jars and the sign said that you could use ball jars to replace the cheap glass they have on there currently....totally cool old school....right up my alley :)....Lowes again

This is a nice lamp for the front porch...reminds me of a doorbell cover we had in the old house so that is what I think of but hey that's just me....seen in Lowes

the one on the left worked better from what i remember but that was weeks ago

These are two portable AC units....I looked into these at one point in my old house....they cool well but are best of course for small areas ( don't believe what they say they don't do the whole house) but they do have to be vented out a window usually and sometimes they have a drip tray that has to be emptied....they did blow out nice cool air from what I could tell in the store.....better than some AC unit hanging out a front window in your house. If you notice it just vents out a small horizontal area that nobody would notice and would assume was the window pane....again, best for one to two room coverage.....wave of the future......great for RVs too....