Best Banana Bread Recipe

When we go food shopping, we try to buy only what we need and can eat in a week or 2 but sometimes we can get carried away and we end up buying more than we can eat and the food spoils so we ending up throwing it in the trash which means wasted money down the drain. I'm not talking about frozen food. I mean vegetables and stuff that can go bad if not eaten soon. We bought some bananas but my daughter put an extra bunch of bananas in the cart and we had already paid for them. I'm not talking about 4-5 bananas, I'm talking like 10-12 bananas. Well, this morning after I had my coffee and bread, I was noticing there was still 6 bananas left and they were starting to turn light brown so I told my wife I was going to make banana bread so we don't waste money. I couldn't think of anything else to do with them. I found a good recipe at food.com for banana bread if my readers would like to try it some day. This recipe received many rave reviews and is a 5 star recipe. Here it is:

Serves: 10 Yield: 1 loaf

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 bananas, finely crushed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Directions:

1. Cream together butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs and crushed bananas.
3. Combine well.
4. Sift together flour, soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Add vanilla.
5. Pour into greased and floured loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.
7. Keeps well, refrigerated.

Eat like a Man

What man doesn’t love a simple, full-flavoured dish that is easy to knock together and finished off nicely with a daytime cuppa, or an evening beer? Well, it’s not rocket science, but it doesn’t half taste good and best of all, it’s simple to build, quick to make and leaves a minimum of washing up in its wake. The job’s a good ‘un....read on for the top three man meals that do not involve a sirloin steak.

Your manwich needs you...

You heard. There’s a new sandwich in town, especially formulated to provide you with all your manliness needs. It is more than a sandwich. Forget polite bits of bread in triangle shapes and slices of cucumber. This is food for men. The manwich! After years of research into the subject, it has been concluded that what men really want from their sandwich is two hunks of buttered bread, a load of bacon rashers and a right good smearing of brown sauce. Tomato sauce is for those who don’t want hair on their chest, right?

The baddest pizza on the block:

This one is the perfect accompaniment to some sport on the big screen and an evening spent sofa surfing. Give it up for the pizza to end all pizzas. Easy as pie! Get a pizza base (who needs to spend hours making dough anyway?) and shove a wallop of tomato puree over it. Add to that a load of cheese, some spicy sausage, some jarred roasted peppers, some seriously hot jalapenos, some black olives and a bit of red onion and you will be in man-a-dise. That’s guy paradise for the uninitiated...

Something smells fishy...the seafood bloke burger:

This is a man burger with a difference; a brilliant hangover cure or a secret weapon to impress your girlfriend with. Get a couple of big, floury baps (!) and butter them. Fry up some onions and a couple of fresh tuna steaks and stick them inside when cooked. Add to that some cocktail sauce, a few capers and a bit of cheddar and you are going to be seriously stuffed.

Now, all that is left to say is - get into that kitchen and bon courage! Let us know which one is your top man meal and pass it on to your friends

Cheesy Treat

What makes a Pizza and Mexican Grilled Steak Wraps tasty? I think it’s not on those different ingredients that they put on, but for me, it’s the fresh all natural cheese that we can safvor in every bite, which makes it dominating on our taste buds. Well, as we noticed, cheese is now one of best ingredients in town that makes all people love it. From different kinds of sandwiches, burgers, pasta, and other main dishes, cheese really blends that make an all time favorite food matches well on people’s tang.

For us who really love cheese, we can sense if it is the natural one or not. Feeling only the texture will determine if it’s the right one to choose for our cooking menu. Have you seen a room full of different kinds of cheese? There is this Queso Quesadilla, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Cheddar, Gouda and many more that really looks delicious in every bite, what would you do? Of course, we might check our cookbooks for some recipes in which we can create a masterpiece with some cheesy toppings. In that way, we may be able to differentiate a taste that fits for a “king”. So, why not discover that different variety cheese, who really knows that you might create a dish that your family will love.

Paula Deen

Thanks for the guest post by Jo Levy

My grandmother loves watching Paula Deen on the food network. She loves to cook southern food, so she likes to cook most of Paula Deen’s recipes. She says that she watches her show at the same time everyday and tries to write down all of her recipes. However, she said that sometimes she does not write fast enough and she does not get all of the ingredients written down. I told my grandmother that she should be able to look up all the recipes online. She said that she does not have the internet and she does not even know if she can get the internet at her house. I told her that she should Get Wild Blue internet. She asked me more about it and I helped her schedule it to be set up. After she had internet at her house, I showed her how to go to Paula Deen’s website, as well as a bunch of other websites where she could find recipes. Now, every week my grandmother calls me and tells me about the new recipe she is trying and how happy she is that she has the internet.

Filipino afritada recipe

This morning my wife took our son to school and while she was away, I was trying to figure out what we could have for lunch. When it comes to preparing meals for the family to eat, it's always seems to major dilemma for our family. Either my wife will cook or I will. Chicken has been on the menu for the last few days and I was getting tired of the same old baked chicken, fried chicken thing so I poured myself a cup of coffee and searched the cabinets for something to make. I found a packet of panama afritada mix. I decided to make this for lunch. I called my wife and asked her to pick up a couple of potatoes, a red and green pepper on the way home. Well, everything went well and here's the finished product. It tasted very good and I'll bring this to work for my dinner since I work the evening shift. You can buy the afritada mix at seafood city. It's easy to make and tasty with white rice. Just follow the directions on the back for a delicious meal the whole family will enjoy.

Johnsonville - locationville

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Johnsonville Sausage. All opinions are 100% mine.

My parents used to love sausage particularly the Johnsonville bratwurst and every special event/occasion that we held in our home my parent would always prepare at least one ingredient for Johnsonville sausage. She cooks them with spaghetti and sometimes just grills them. Anyways I like the flavor when they come off the grill. They are so tasty and it melts in your mouth. I’m a real fan of any kind of sausage. I like to have sausage for my breakfast with eggs and hash browns potatoes. The first time my wife tasted the sausage was when we went over to my sister’s house for dinner and she made her favorite dish spaghetti with mild Italian Johnsonville sausage and garlic bread. My wife loved it so much that she made me drive to our local grocery store and buy a pack of Johnsonville sausages. Ever since then she’s been hooked on Johnsonville.

Johnsonville is having a contest called "Share Your Ville" Video Contest. All you have to do is share your story about Johnsonville products on how you eat it, either with your friends, family, events etc… There will be 5 winners who will share the $21,000 in CASH and Prizes from Gander Mountain, Coleman, and Hefty. Just visit their website for further details. Remember the contest runs until July 20th 2010 only, so hurry!

Ice cream is my mini-moment

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dove Ice Cream. All opinions are 100% mine.

Everyone has their own mini-moment indulgence. I'm a full time worker and I get two days off, so for me the only way to relax and unwind is to take my family out to the beach to spend my mini-moment with them indulging an ice cream at the local ice cream parlor. That's the only time I get off where I take a break. One time, while we were savoring our scrumptious ice cream I over heard from one of the customers talking about Dove Ice Cream. I was curious and I wanted to ask the person about Dove ice cream company because I enjoy eating ice cream and I want to try all kinds of ice cream that I know of. My son loves ice cream too and I guess he inherited it from me. We always give him ice cream as his reward of being a good boy. We want our son to be a role model to his younger sibling. Anyway, as soon as we got home from ice cream eating at the beach, I went to check Dove ice cream company online and I found out that they are having this "My Mini Moment" contest. The contest goes like this, women are asked to share their favorite mini-moment of escape. One lucky contestant could win one of the 3 sensational mini-grand prizes which is a mini-getaway to Napa Valley, OR Spa services for a year OR a mini-home makeover.

Take note: participants (women) need to submit a photo and short essay at DoveIceCream.com/myminimoment by June 7, 2010 (include attached photo of contest microsite).

Perfecting my gravy recipe

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Club House. All opinions are 100% mine.

One thing i enjoy doing is cooking for my family but i'm not the perfect chef and sometimes my cooking doesn't always come out right. Usually if i make chicken or some kind of roast, i'll make mash potatoes and some gravy with it. But, my gravy is not the best so it's a good thing that i found this great gravy tips video that will help me to customize my gravy recipe. If there's one thing that my family loves with their mash potatoes and meat, it has to be gravy. Making a quality gravy from scratch can be a challenge depending on the ingredients you have or don't have. But now you can make a quality gravy for your holiday meals with no fuss or stress using the club house gravy mixes recipes. I just love this and i'm going to try this for my family because my kids and wife love gravy on their meat and chicken. Just check out the video and when your finished, don't forget the newsletter sign-up and contest entry. I think i will surprise my family with this recipe and see their reaction on their face when they taste the flavor and aroma of my gravy.

How to make lasagna in your dishwasher

I just couldnt believe this when i heard it but someone actually was able to make italian lasagna in their dishwasher. Now isnt this the strangest thing you've ever heard? No joke but someone actually was able to do it not that i would ever try it. I havnt tried to cook lasagna yet but i think i'll stick with my trusty oven.. hehehehe Here's the low down on the recipe. Bon apetit!

Set dishwasher on normal cycle and select 'heated dry' and 'sanitize' for extra heat. This cycle should take about two hours. Once the cycle is completed, let the lasagna stand for a few minutes before serving. partselect.com I wonder how much idle time the person who discovered this "cooking method" had on their hands.If (for some crazy reason) you want to try your hand at dishwasher "baking" check out their recipe for dishwasher lasagna florentine.

Hot and spicy szechuan chicken

I finally got to get back into the kitchen again and play the family cook. Tonight i made Hot and spicy szechuan chicken but i used the packaged brand of spices and just added the vegetables to the spice package and stir-fry the vegetables and mix everything together. It came out pretty good. My wife and i really liked it but my son wasn't to hip about it. But then again try to get any 2 year old to eat when you want him to I'll be very surprised. I miss the kitchen but the last few days i didn't have to cook because we went out for dinner last night and i buy my lunch for work yesterday. Oh well, its the only day every 2 weeks that i get this special treatment. I want to make some fresh pan de sal or dinner rolls but i need a mixer with a dough fork attachment. I wonder what that will cost me? Anybody have any ideas how i can make fresh bread without mixer or where i can find cheap mixer?

Beef Kabobs With Grilled Onion And Zucchini

I found this recipe online for beef kabobs and tried it and it was just so delicious i had to share with my blogger friends. The beef was very tastsy and moist. I modified the ingredients alittle to give it more flavor and taste. I would recommmend this recipe to anyone who enjoys beef roast. I served it to my wife with white rice but only because she's filipina and filipina's love white rice but you can serve it with just about anything you want. This is just the best beef i have ever tasted. Yummy yummy with white rice and alittle soy sause on the rice.

1 3/4 pounds beef tenderloin roast, trimmed
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon of pepper

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 teaspoon ground cumin
6 (1/4 inch thick) slices red onion
2 teaspoons olive oil
4 medium zucchini, sliced 1/4 inch thick lengthwise

1 tablespoon of hot chili garlic sauce
Cut beef into cubes. mix together soy sauce, lime juice, salt, hot chili sauce, and cumin in a bowl and add beef, tossing to coat well. Marinate beef, covered, at room temperature 2 hours.
Prepare grill for cooking (make sure coals are nice and hot)
After beef has been marinating for 2 hours, lightly brush onion rounds with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill onion on a well-oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over hot coals, turning once with a metal spatula, until lightly browned and tender, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate and keep it warm in an oven or warmer.
Arrange zucchini on grill and grill until lightly cooked and brown and just tender, about 1 minute on each side. Transfer to platter and season with salt.
Pat beef dry with paper towels and toss with remaining oil. (Discard marinade.) Thread 4 pieces beef onto each skewer and grill, turning occasionally, until charred, about 5 minutes total for medium-rare.
Serve warm kebobs with onion rings and zucchinin slices

Filipino Pancit

Today when i went to work, i bring leftover Chinese food for my lunch. i ate chowmein noodles and it was tasty and i eat the whole dish. I was hungry boy because I'm working so hard today. I work in transportation industry in San Diego, CA for a company that provides bus service to the city so really I'm bus mechanic and i do heavy work repairs on buses and build up appetite. Anyways, I love to cook and I've been in the kitchen lately cooking for my family instead of my asawa and one thing i really like is pancit with vegetables. I cook chicken adobo last week and my asawa love it so much she save the juices so she can use it for some other dish. Funny thing is i don't know how i made it taste like that and i have hard time to replicate it. Anyways, i visit some blogs today and found one for pancit and it look so good i want to learn how to make pancit like that. Hopefully, i will be able to do it someday. till then, I'll continue to experiment with my chicken adobo.. thats all for now.....