Category Archives: Bread

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

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Chocolate Banana Bread.jpg

I might have to rename this site, “Jamie Makes Banana Bread.”  I’ve been making other recipes lately — this weekend I made Cinnamon Sugar Pecans that I thought I’d share with you — unfortunately, they don’t believe in photographs.  They tasted pretty awesome though…  Just so you know, I don’t only make banana bread…   but as I’ve said before, it is a weekly event, so when I’m in need of a recipe to make the blog look like someone cares about it, I just change it up a bit. 😉

This double chocolate banana bread turned out amazing.  We had it for dessert as part of a delicious Sunday dinner.  Even though it was only in the low 30s, Mike and the kids spent a few hours outside yesterday afternoon working in the yard and running around.  We are so desperate for Spring!  After they came in we had hamburgers on the grill (Bo ate nearly two!), coleslaw, baked beans, and baked French fries — followed up by generous pieces of this banana bread (Bo also ate two — he must be growing…).  Of course the trio loved this — it was banana bread — plus it had chocolate chips.  I couldn’t really go wrong.

As with all banana bread, this was quick and easy to throw together.  The chocolate make it rich and dessert worthy.  Definitely a new keeper to add to our banana bread rotation.

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Double Chocolate Banana Bread
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Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • ⅓ cup oil (Canola, Coconut, whatever you like)
  • 3 overripe bananas
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ cup cocoa powder
  • 1½ cups flour
  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 and spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. In the bowl of your mixer, combine the sugar and the eggs. Add the oil and bananas until the bananas are well mashed and combined. Add the vanilla, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.

 

Cinnamon Ribbon Banana Bread

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Cinnamon Banana Bread 2.jpg

At our house, banana bread is nearly a weekly occurrence.  The trio loves it.  It’s easy.  And we seem to always have ripe bananas ready for mashing on our counter.  I abide by the philosophy that one can never have too many bananas…

Since I make banana bread so often, I’m also often looking for ways to change it up a bit and this banana bread has a delightful cinnamon ribbon in the middle that gives it just a bit of crunch and extra cinnamony goodness.  This recipe makes two loaves, but it could easily be halved to only make one.

The trio and I had it for dessert last night and again this morning for breakfast.  It was a huge hit — and they appreciated the cinnamon ribbon.  Anna thought it tasted like a cookie.  Bo exclaimed that it was the best banana bread ever — but he often says that.  And Clara licked the plate, which I took as a compliment instead of poor manners.

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Cinnamon Ribbon Banana Bread
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Serves: 10
 
Ingredients
  • 4 cups flour
  • 1½ tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 stick butter, unsalted, softened
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • 6 small/medium sized overripe bananas
  • ½ cup yogurt
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare two loaf pans by spraying with Baking PAM and place them on a cookie sheet. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. In a stand mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time and then add the bananas. Mix until the bananas are no longer lumpy. Add the yogurt (you can use any kind you have on hand -- I actually used strawberry with chunks that the kids don't like, but by the time it was baked you couldn't tell there was strawberry yogurt in it). Add the flour mixture until the batter is just combined. In your prepared loaf pans, spread ¼ of the batter into each. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle ½ of the sugar/cinnamon mixture over each half loaf. Spread ¼ of the remaining batter on top of each of the loaves. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and mostly set.

 

Banana Baked Oatmeal

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Banana Bread baked oatmeal

I made this baked oatmeal on Tuesday morning for my trio to have for breakfast before school.  We had several very ripe bananas that needed to be used after spending the long weekend in the Wisconsin Dells.  The trio love to help me cook and both Clara and Bo helped to mash the bananas and combine the ingredients, which helped them to think that breakfast was extra wonderful since they helped make it.  Anna was still asleep (by some miracle) and they were sure to encourage her to thank them for making breakfast. 😉

This recipe is a great weekday morning breakfast — it’s healthier than many breakfast options and tastes great with a smear of peanut butter on top.  I served it to the kids with glasses of milk – and enjoyed a cup of coffee with mine.

This makes 12 servings, but it is very good leftover and can be frozen in squares for an extra quick “on the go” breakfast option.

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Banana Baked Oatmeal
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 5 overly ripe bananas, mashed
  • 2 eggs
  • ½ cup brown sugar (you can use an alternative sweetener)
  • 3 cups quick cook oatmeal
  • 2 tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 cup almond milk (any milk you have on hand will work fine)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 inch pan with PAM. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the eggs and brown sugar and continue mashing until it is well combined. Stir in the oatmeal, baking soda, salt, and milk. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cut into squares and serve. Great topped with a smear of peanut butter.

 

Homemade Breadsticks

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Breadsticks

Dislocated Olneans — this post is for you.  Growing up in Olney, Illinois, one of my most favorite places to eat is Joe’s Pizza.  The number of memories I have of eating Joe’s Pizza is a bit ridiculous — extra cheese, extra sauce pizza on Jenna’s 16th Birthday, countless orders of breadsticks with Mandy, and Sunday night pizza night at home. Joe’s Pizza is an Olney staple and one of the places that requires a visit each time I return to my hometown.

Now that I live in North-Central Illinois, I’m still shocked that the pizza places here don’t have breadsticks.  The “thing” in the Illinois Valley is garlic nuggets — which are okay — but I still crave and miss the traditional breadsticks from Joe’s.  Amazingly, I’ve figured out how to make them at home — and they are delicious.  Easy to make and oh, so good.  Now if I can just figure out Joe’s pizza sauce…
These breadsticks are great served with pizza sauce and cheddar cheese sauce (mixed together — it sounds odd, but trust me) for dipping.

I made these breadsticks twice this week.  The kids had friends over on Tuesday so I made a batch to have with our spaghetti dinner — and then I made them again last night — just to be able to eat more of them!  So much for that low-carb diet…  Last night, Bo came into the kitchen when they were almost done baking and exclaimed, “What is that amazing smell!?!”  (Yes, he’s 6…) These breadsticks were a huge hit with the trio.

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Homemade Breadsticks
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup warm water
  • ¼ cup canola oil
  • 3 cups white flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 3 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 2½ tsp. dry active yeast
Instructions
  1. Using a bread machine, combine all ingredients in the order listed. Turn the machine on the dough cycle setting. When the dough cycle is complete, roll out the dough and cut into 20ish slices and place on baking sheets lined with parchment. Let rise for at least an hour (I let mine rise for nearly 2 hours as it was pretty chilly in my kitchen).
  2. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-13 minutes until just beginning to brown. They are great plain or you can brush with a bit of butter for some extra flavor. Serve with pizza sauce and cheese sauce for dipping.
  3. *If you don't have a bread machine, I think you could use the dough hook on a mixer to make the dough -- just make sure you let the dough rise twice -- once before cutting into breadsticks and again after*

 

Cinnamon Crumb Cake

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School is officially in full-swing and that means my schedule of weekly breakfast dates with a few of my favorite people is also revamping.  Laura and I are meeting up on Wednesday mornings for breakfast and conversation before I work and she heads to the library with her youngest, Cara, who isn’t in school yet.

After talking about it for weeks, I finally made this delicious cinnamon crumb cake this week for our breakfast.  Bo and I were both up at 6 and he helped me make it.  My first attempt I was still asleep and used powdered sugar instead of flour — needless to say by the time it was ready for the oven I realized something wasn’t quite right!  We started over and still had delicious crumb cake for the trio to eat for breakfast and then to share with Laura and Cara after school drop-off.  And yes, I finally bought labels for my pantry staples this week — nothing like a complete disaster to finally motivate that purchase!

This cinnamon crumb cake is very easy to pull together — even for a weekday morning breakfast.  It tastes amazing — and extra special!  It’s perfect with coffee.  Or Coca-Cola if you ask Laura. 😉

This recipe received rave reviews from all who tried it!  Five Wooden Spoons for this one!

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Cinnamon Crumb Cake
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Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • Batter Base and Topping:
  • 1 cup canola oil
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 2½ cups flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Additions to the Batter Base after removing one cup for the topping:
  • 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk plus 1 Tbsp. white vinegar)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • Additions to the topping:
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 2 Tbsp. Flour
  • 2 Tbsp. Sugar
  • Glaze:
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 Tbsp. milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with PAM baking spray. In a large bowl, combine oil, brown sugar, sugar, flour, and salt. Mix well. Remove one cup of mixture into another smaller bowl before adding buttermilk, egg, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour this mixture into the prepared pan.
  2. Add cinnamon, flour, and sugar to the remaining mixture and combine until crumbly. If necessary, add more flour and sugar until it reaches the desired consistency. Sprinkle the crumbs on top of the batter.
  3. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
  4. While baking, combine powdered sugar and milk. Drizzle with glaze after the cake is removed from the oven.

 

Bananas Foster Muffins

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Sorry for the hiatus.  Vacation.  Work.  Summer break.  A brief stint in hard-core low-carbing.  None of it has been conducive to a cooking blog.

The trio and I have been going on outings on Tuesdays and Thursdays to enjoy summer.  Last Tuesday, we headed to Bloomington to go to Chuck E. Cheese with the Kilmartin’s — but before we headed out I whipped together these bananas foster muffins for breakfast with overripe bananas that were calling me from my countertop.  I’m always looking for new ways to use up old bananas…

These muffins were a hit with the trio — they all loved them.  The flavor is perfectly bananas foster.  Delicious!  These were great for breakfast but would also make a fantastic dessert served with ice cream and real bananas foster!

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Bananas Foster Muffins
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 ½ cups mashed, very ripe bananas (I used 4)
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1½ sticks unsalted butter, divided
  • 3 Tbsp dark rum
  • ¼ cup white sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a small saucepan, melt a stick of the butter. Add the bananas and brown sugar and caramelize. Remove from heat and add the cinnamon and vanilla. Allow to cool slightly.
  2. In a mixer, combine the remaining butter and white sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Add the cooled banana mixture, baking soda, and salt. Mix in the flour until just combined.
  3. Spray 12 muffin liners with PAM and fill ⅔rds full. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

 

Bacon, Fried Egg, & Avocado Breakfast Sandwich

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On Sunday morning, I awoke to the smell of bacon.  Mike was making these tasty, bacon, fried egg, and avocado breakfast sandwiches.  I emerged from our room just in time, as the kids were begging for pancakes.  While I made pancakes for the trio, Mike made these for us, and they were quite tasty.  I love avocado and bacon in all forms.

Overall, the sandwich itself is pretty basic – but the avocado/Miracle Whip mixture is the perfect, creamy, condiment for this breakfast sandwich – with just a hint of kick.  Mike rarely makes dinner (except for guac) but at least one weekend morning, I am promised some type of breakfast concoction. I’ll definitely be requesting these sandwiches again in the future.

These sandwiches were inspired by Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications HomeMade 115 Recipes for Home-Cooked Comfort.

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Bacon, Fried Egg, & Avocado Breakfast Sandwich
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Serves: 2
 
Ingredients
  • 1 large avocado
  • 2 Tbsp. light Miracle Whip
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1 tsp. minced garlic
  • 1 tsp. chili powder
  • 2 eggs
  • pepper
  • 2 slices of hearty bread (we used country white)
  • 2 slices of cheddar cheese
  • 2 slices crispy bacon
Instructions
  1. Mash half of the avocado in a small bowl. Stir in Miracle Whip, lemon juice, garlic, and chili powder. Slice the remaining avocado and set aside. Spray a skillet with olive oil spray and break eggs into the skillet. Sprinkle with pepper and cook for 4-5 minutes until the yolks are the desired doneness. Cut the bread in half (or use 4 slices - our bread was long) and layer our breakfast sandwich. Bread - cheese - avocado slices - bacon - fried egg. Spread the other half of the bread with the sauce mixture and place on top. Enjoy!

Vegan Banana Bread with Coconut Oil and Flax

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The picture doesn’t begin to do this banana bread justice.  It’s delicious!  Moist, yummy, and highly munchable.  My kids love it.  So much so that Clara and Anna got in trouble on Friday afternoon for ripping chunks of the warm loaf off and eating them in the kitchen while I was folding laundry.  Needless to say, even though the picture isn’t great, our loaf of banana bread didn’t look this nice for long…

I originally developed this recipe when I was out of eggs and wanted to make banana bread by replacing the eggs with flax.  I loved how it turned out so much that I’ve made it this way numerous times.  I think it yields a more flavorful loaf — with loads of extra fiber!

We ate this bread for dessert on Friday and breakfast on Saturday.   Gotta love recipes that double as a dessert and a breakfast! This banana bread receives 4 Wooden Spoons from our family.  Mike won’t touch anything that has banana involved.

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Vegan Banana Bread with Coconut Oil and Flax
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Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Tbsp flax seed mixed with 6 Tbsp water
  • 2 medium sized very ripe bananas, mashed
  • ½ cup sugar (I am sure you could replace with agave or honey, but I haven't tried it)
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • 3 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1.5 C flour (white/wheat/or a mixture)
  • ½ tsp salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a measuring cup, combine flax and water and stir. In a medium bowl, mash the bananas with the sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. Add the flax mixture and then add the baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix until just combined. Bake for 55 minutes. Moist and delicious! This recipe makes 1 loaf.

 

Banana Cinnamon Donuts

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I’ve been pining for donut pans for awhile.  I blame Pinterest.  Of course.  For Christmas, my MIL and Mike both bought me donut pans — one normal size and one mini and I’m enjoying trying my hand at baking donuts.

My trio loves anything with the word donut in it — so even if a few of the ingredients are questionable to them (such as bananas — Anna is the only one who will actually eat a banana) they will still eat it baked into a donut form.

Over the weekend, I had some bananas that were extra ripe, so I threw together these yummy banana cinnamon donuts.  I won’t say they are healthy — they aren’t.  But they still have to be better than the fried and processed ones.  They received Four Wooden Spoons from my family.  Mike wouldn’t even try them.  It’s the banana thing…  Honestly, the banana flavor isn’t super strong and if he didn’t know he wouldn’t even know it was in there.

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Banana Cinnamon Donuts
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Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • 3 small ripe bananas
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup vanilla Greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 heaping tsp cinnamon
  • 2½ cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 cup cinnamon chips (optional)
  • ¼ cup melted butter (topping)
  • ½ cup sugar and 2 Tbsp. cinnamon mixed (topping)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 325F. In a stand mixer, add the banana, sugar, and Greek yogurt. Add melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda and mix until flour is incorporated. Fold in the cinnamon chips if desired. Spray donut pans with PAM baking. Scoop the batter into a Ziplock bag and snip the corner of one side of the bag to pipe into donut pans. Pipe batter ¾ full. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove on to cooling racks. While donuts are still warm dip into melted butter and roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture. Enjoy!

 

All-Bran Muffins

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These aren’t the prettiest muffins ever, but considering the amount of fiber they pack, they are surprisingly tasty.  I made these on Tuesday morning.  I’ve been hitting the gym with a friend or two around 5 am on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so by the time I showered on Tuesday, I was starving and wanted to make a warm breakfast that I thought the kids and I would both enjoy.  A quick flip through the cookbook and I settled on these — they pulled together very quickly and by the time I’d dried my hair, found the kiddos clothes for the day, and allowed them to open their Advent calendars, we were ready for breakfast.

The kids enjoyed these with butter served with milk.  I enjoyed mine with a cup of steaming hot coffee to kick-start my day in the right direction.  Next time, I think I’ll consider subbing the white flour for wheat and try subbing the sugar for honey.  Subbing the oil for applesauce also seems like a no-brainer. I’ll update this post with the results.

These muffins received 3 1/2 wooden spoons from the trio and me!

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All-Bran Muffins
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1½ cup All Bran Cereal
  • 1¼ cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1¼ cup flour
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, mix cereal and milk. Add egg, oil, salt, and sugar and mix well. Add the baking powder and the flour, stirring only until combined. Using an ice cream scoop, fill 12 muffin tins sprayed with baking PAM. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.