Chocolate Banana Oatmeal cookies

I had a very overripe banana (and only one so no good for bread) so I decided to try to make banana cookies, but since I'm not a huge fan of banana baked goods, I added cocoa powder too (peanut butter would be better instead/in addition to the cocoa, but two of my friends are allergic to peanuts, so I decided to make them shareable). I didn't measure much (for instance the brown sugar and vanilla were just finishing off a package), but I'll do my best to guess. Though I would probably recommend more vanilla, mostly because I put at least a teaspoon in everything I bake. Also note that I usually use a heaping measure of cinnamon, so when I say 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, I probably used closer to a full teaspoon, but I do this for all recipes as a matter of personal taste. I would however suggest using more butter, using peanut butter, or adding chocolate chips. Or all of the above. As with the brownies, I underestimated the fat, so if i make these again, I will certainly use more.

1 medium banana
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4-ish cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2+ teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup flour
3/4-1 cup oatmeal (or until dough is not too moist and holds together)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350. Mash the banana beat in egg, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, brown sugar, until smooth. Add flour, 1/2 cup oatmeal, cocoa, and baking powder. Add oatmeal until it reaches the desired consistency. Spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet by heaping teaspoon. It made 15 small cookies. Bake for about 10 minutes.

I love Trader Joes

I don't always have time to cook a full meal, so on these nights Trader Joe's is my best friend. My favorites are things I pretty much always keep on hand, and I'll often buy one or two other items for fun and a super fast, relatively healthy, tasty meal. I will soon do a report on their Harvest Grains Blend, which everywhere I've found online raves about.
I thought I'd take time to list a few of my favorite products and what I do with them (listed in the order I pick them up in the store):

• Stoplight peppers, these are frozen, precut bell peppers. They are not as good as fresh, don't get me wrong, but they are good to zest up spaghetti or make a tasty addition to my scrambled eggs. Actually, my scrambled egg "recipe" is so good that it is beyond a convenience food at this point. I like to add peppers, cilantro, and crushed red pepper. Yum.
• Frozen cilantro/basil cubes. Lets face it, fresh herbs can be expensive for a grad student, when you cook for one it's hard to use a whole bunch, and when sharing a fridge with 3 other people there isn't really room to keep these AND all the regular vegetables. Trader Joes sells them in cubes with a teapoon of frozen herb, which is perfect for adding to eggs, soup, pasta, my favorite thai stir fry, or really almost anything you would normally add these herbs to. And it's much better than substituting dry for fresh in recipes.
• Black cocoa almonds. Trader Joe's has everything covered in chocolate, but I'd say these are my favorite, not too sweet, very chocolatey and the almond provides a nice crunch. But like I said, they also have the best collection of chocolate covered things I've seen, and lots are good, but not the chocolate covered ginger. I would stay away from that if I were you.
• Pesto tortellini. My suitemate introduced me to this. It's simply an awesome quick meal, I like it with a little Parmesan/Romano cheese blend (which incidently, I also got at Trader Joe's)
• Precooked/seasoned chicken/turkey sausage. Pork sausage is something you will never see me eat. But I don't mind chicken sausage in the right context. These are delicious because they come in many great flavors, and oh so easy because they are precooked. Keep them in the freezer and just defrost. I like to cut them up and cook them with (fresh, not frozen) bell peppers and brown rice. It might be my favorite quick and easy meal, and one sausage and one pepper plus a half cup of rice has the perfect amount for lunch leftovers the next day. I've tried and like the sweet basil pesto, but I'm sure they are all really good.

A few other things I've noted that are good: ground beef is actually cheaper at Trader Joe's than at Publix or Kroger, unless by some miracle you find it on sale (and i won't eat the stuff in a tube). Also, I may be the pickest yogurt eater you will ever find: I hate gelatin, preservatives, artifical sweetener, and excessive natural sweetness in my yogurt, which means I stick to the somewhat expensive Stonyfield Farm. But Trader Joe's yogurt is not only tolerable (which is not a weak statement for me), but actually pretty good. And it's about 25 cents cheaper than Stonyfield Farm per carton, which is a lot given the amount of yogurt I eat. I also like the texture of the long skinny fruit leathers at Trader Joe's. I would also encourage you to give many of their sauces a try, there's a few I've tried and they are all pretty good, but which ones are good is a matter of personal taste. Also, I've found lots of gems in the frozen convienence foods (masala seasoned veggie burgers, samosas, chili lime chicken burgers, etc), but those seem to rotate.

And for the record, Trader Joe's did not pay me for this endorsement, but maybe they should have.

Garlic Sauce

I found a recipe for rigatoni with eggplant and garlic sauce, but I guess I don't like eggplant enough to eat it regularly. But the garlic sauce was fantastic, and actually relatively healthy, as far as creamy sauces go, so I thought I'd share. And on a more personal note, I would encourage you not to eat this before swim practice, I had awful stomach aches due to all the dairy.

• 1/2 head of garlic
• 2 cups milk
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 3 branches thyme or 2 pinches of dried
• 2 Tablespoons chopped basil or 1 teaspoons dried
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 1/3 Tablespoons flour (ie. 1 Tbsp+1 tsp)
• Grated parmesan/romano cheese to taste
  

Peel and press the garlic and cook in the milk, with the nutmeg, thyme, basil, and bay leaf over low heat. Make a roux (new cooking term, yay, which essentially means a thick sauce made from a mixture of fat and flour) by adding the flour to the butter and cooking for a few minutes. Then add the milk mixture and whisk. Cook over the lowest heat for half an hour, stirring frequently. When done cooking, add cheese and use as you like.

My recipe involved browning eggplant and making rigatoni, then baking it all together. This was okay, but like I said, I'm not a huge fan of eggplant, but I wanted to try it according to the recipe before making recommendations. I think this would definitely be a great sauce with some sauteed red pepper and maybe some spinach.

The Easiest bread (so far)

So this week I made whole wheat bread with brown sugar, rather than honey from this website. I cut it in half, which I doubt caused any problems, but the bread did not turn out well, despite the straightforward directions. It did not rise as much as it should have. It does however, taste fantastic and I would definitely be willing to try this bread until I get it right. It is probably the only whole wheat bread I've loved eating without jam. But it probably won't work for sandwiches this time. I know I posted the link, but to help you cut it in half (or to help me cut it in half next time), since I can never remember how many tablespoons are in a cup (though it shouldn't be that hard).

Whole Grain Wheat Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoon, 1/2 teaspoon plus 1/2 Tablespoon brown sugar, divided
1 cups warm water (105F-114F)
1 packages active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon)
2 1/2 to 3 cups whole wheat flour
3/8 cup powdered milk
1 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tbsp and 1/2 teaspoon oil

Directions:

1. Dissolve 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar in warm water in a small bowl or measuring cup. Add yeast and let mixture stand.

2. Place 2 cups flour, powdered milk, remaining brown sugar and salt into mixer bowl. Attach bowl and with dough hook, mix on Speed 2 (low speed) for about 15 seconds, until ingredients are combined. On the same speed, gradually add yeast mixture and oil to flour mixture and mix about 1 1/2 minutes longer. Stop and scrape bowl as necessary. (Note that I just stirred this with a spoon, which might be my problem. I usually knead dough with my hands)

3. Continuing on same speed, add remaining flour, 1/4 cup at the time and mix until dough clings to hook (it will be very sticky and thick). Knead dough on speed 2 until sides of the bowl are clean.

4. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a dish towel (note, use a damp towel or plastic wrap). Let rise in a warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

5. Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf* and place into a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

6. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake 30 minutes longer. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks. (Note: I think this might be a problem, next time I'm going to try baking it on 350 for the full 45 minutes)

*To shape dough into a loaf, roll into a large rectangle, about 9×14 inches. Starting at the short end, roll dough tightly and pinch to seal the seam. Pinch ends down and turn them under, placing the dough seam side down in a loaf pan.

I finally learned what this meant, thanks to this video on youtube. I should really start watching food network more...

My cheapest healthy dinner

Okay, so the spices aren't always extremely cheap, but once you have them, they last a while. Also, I have a farmer's market at which I can buy spices for about $2-3 a pound, so several ounces costs about 50 cents. But this is actually a delicious recipe. I'm not a fan of split peas, so I was a little concerned the first time I made it, but I love it. It's extremely filling an has a great flavor. Plus it is basically split peas, which are great for you!

Split Pea Dahl
1 cup dried split peas
2 tablespoon oil (not olive!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1/8 teaspoon red pepper

Boil split peas in a quart of water until they are tender (about 45 minutes). Then fry the spices in oil until they are fragrant. Add a half cup of the split pea juice to the spices, simmer for a few minutes, then add the mixture to the split peas. Simmer the peas and spices for a few more minutes, then serve with brown rice or eat like soup.

Edit 2/20/10: I computed the cost of this meal for the food stamp challenge.  At the prices I paid for spices (an average of about 60 cents for 2/3 of a cup), this meal cost me 54 cents.  For 3-4 servings!  That's ridiculous!