Food For Thought

I have this nasty habit of buying bananas in bunches of 6 or more, thinking, “oh, I’ll have one a day for the next week or so.” What actually happens is I eat one, and then the others sit on my counter like a neglected bunch of orphans. In an effort not to be wasteful, I’ve been making a lot of banana bread lately to use up the (almost) overripe bananas.

I love this recipe because it doesn’t require a bunch of tools, bowls, spoons, mixers, space stations, etc. to make, and can be done in about ten minutes.  One bowl, one spatula, a couple commercial breaks and boom, banana muffins.  What’s even better is this recipe is very flexible.  You can add things like chocolate chips, walnuts (or any nut for that matter), coconut, dried fruit, whatever you want, and it’ll still be done in no time at all and be delicious.

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This completely goes against my pet peeves of recipes without pictures, but I’m currently operating without a functioning camera (:[) so it will just have to do.

I had a craving for something tuna-y for dinner, and called my Mom to ask her how she makes tuna salad.  She started listing off ingredients, and I kept cringing.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mom’s cooking, but hard-boiled eggs and globs of mayonnaise just aren’t something I can get behind.

So I took things into my own hands, and started grabbing things from my cabinets and my crisper and went to town.

Spicy Tuna Salad

I find this to be a much lighter and less stodgy way to do tuna salad.  The heat from the peppers and hot sauce also cover up the inherent fishiness one gets from canned tuna.

2 cans tuna (in water), drained

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

1 tomato, seeded and diced

1/2 bunch cilantro (although I thought it was a bit much, but I don’t like a lot of cilantro), minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 celery stalk, diced

1 small red onion, diced

2 tablespoons adobo sauce (get chilis in adobo and use the sauce they’re in)

4-6 tablespoons light mayo (more or less depending on the how much lime juice you get)

Juice of one lime

1 tablespoon hot sauce

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Mix everything in a bowl and spoon into lettuce cups, or on toast, or on bread, top with cheese and make a tuna melt.

If you’re feeling adventurous, add an egg, ½ – ¾ cup seasoned bread crumbs, and portion out into 8 discs.  Shallow fry them in 4-5 tablespoons olive oil about 4 minutes per side and serve on their own, over a salad, or in a lettuce wrap.

Lisztomania – Phoenix

A while back when I was going through my blogroll, I noticed a cake on a site frequent regularly.  Not only did it have blueberries in it (my absolute favorite fruit) but it was simple, fast and versatile.  I bookmarked it and went about my life always knowing that it was there, but never really having a reason to make it.  So last week, I was sitting in my kitchen with Jen, my roommate, and we started talking about what we should do for dinner (are you seeing a trend yet??).

[Sidenote: I try to spend time, or get all of my roommates to spend time together, because we rarely see each other for more than 10 minute intervals during the day.  While I know we’re only in college and we’ll all be moving apart in a year (whoa, sad) I want it to feel as family-like as it possibly can.  That or so we at least know what’s going on in each other’s lives.]

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Miike Snow – Sans Soleil

Last summer when I started this ship, I made a form of Thai pizza with my roommate at the time, Jen.  It was a humble creation, made on flatbread with our pizza pizzazz and bore no real resemblance to a pizza.  It still tasted fine, and for the time it was sufficient.  Ever since that day, anytime Jen and I got together we always reminisced about that wonderful creation.  This year I’m living with Jen again.  I’ll give you three guesses what we had for dinner the other night.

Yep.  We made it again.  But better. Before it had precooked refrigerated “chicken” strips and no real dough (it was flatbread with flaxseed in it.  I’m all for health conscious cooking, but let’s get real).  Taking a step higher than unleavened flax bread, we used a packaged pizza dough mix – again, we could’ve made our own dough from scratch, but we wanted to eat before it was time for bed – and five minutes later we had dough.  I grilled up a couple chicken thighs (which I have lately discovered are much better than chicken breasts, and now I know where they are in the store, my freezer is lined in them) and chopped some green onions.
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Ok Go – White Knuckles

So there was this one time, when my nieces turned six, six, and four.  Yes, there are twins, but I feel like I’ve mentioned that before, so there’s no need to beat around that old bush.  On top of the graduation from Kindergarten (which was hilarious, and fantastic – there was multilingual singing!!) Alex and Abby, the twins, were inexplicably excited to start 1^st grade.  Abby, while playing with me one day over the summer, said to me, “I can’t wait to be 6! I get to go to school all day and even eat lunch there!!”

Enjoy the enthusiasm while it lasts – you’ll be in school for at least the next 12 years.

More exciting news – Mom and Dad have been doing Weight Watchers, both intentionally and otherwise since last October, and Mom is down nearly 40 pounds!!  In trying to keep said weight off, any chance she gets to throw a recipe at me and say, “make it healthy” she takes.  This time was no different.

Some people have birthday cakes that are traditional white or yellow cakes, with regular vanilla frosting – others have intensely chocolate cakes with fruit thrown in for some dimension and color – and other yet (this includes me) ask for a mixture of pudding and cookie crumbs playfully displayed in a large flower pot with gummy worms poking out the top.  I love Dirt Cake.  I wanted to take the traditional birthday cake, and make it healthier than the pounds of butter and sugar that tend to go into those fantastic once a year (yeah, right) little bundles of joy.  I also had to make sure to avoid nuts at all costs, the young’uns are allergic.
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