Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I can't stand Giada

I, like most of my friends, don't like Giada De Laurentiis. However, she does make some pretty bomb food most of the time. I was watching her show the other day simply because the first thing that she made looked so light, healthy, and delicious! (not to mention easy)

She made fruit spring rolls (found here) with strawberries, mango, mint, and honey. I can't wait to get to try these!

For the rolls, you'll need
1 1/2 cups cooked Pad Thai noodles, cooled and drained
1/4 cup honey
1/4 packed cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
6 (8-inch) rice paper rounds
Strawberries, stemmed and sliced
Mango peeled and sliced
Toasted sliced almonds 

In a medium sized bowl, toss the noodles with the mint and honey until well-coated and set aside. Soak one rice paper round in warm water until soft and place on a damp towel. Arrange a small amount of noodles, strawberries, mango, and almonds on the rice paper round (while doing this, soak the next rice paper round in the water). Wrap the roll as you would a burrito, folding all sides so that the filling is fully encased. Wrap finished rolls in a damp towel to keep moist until serving. Serve with dipping sauce listed below.

For the dipping sauce, whisk together the following ingredients and serve in a small bowl for dipping.
 
1/4 cup packed fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 to 3 large limes)

Or, if you'd rather follow along with Giada, here's a clip from the original show...

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Cinnamon and vanilla are two of the best things in the world

So it's been forever since I last blogged. I suck, I know. Even worse than that? I've posted no recipes. I suck even more now, I know. Still, what's worse than that is that way back in July, I promised the recipe for my beloved banana bread. Well, it never made it up here, obviously. That being said, before I move on to anything else, here's the banana bread, that way I'm not a total jerk-face liar...

Source




















Nana bread!
(Tip: When bananas are too ripe to eat, freeze them. When you thaw them to use for baking, they're perfectly sweet and totally mushy! I never use fresh bananas)

1/2 c butter
1 c sugar (plus extra for dusting)
2 eggs
3/4 c mashed very ripe bananas (I usually just use how much I have on hand which is usually a bit more than that)
1 t baking soda
1 1/4 c flour
2 t cinnamon
2 t vanilla
Sliced almonds

(sidenote: I really have no idea how much cinnamon and vanilla I use. These are my favorite ingredients in just about everything so I always do them to taste. Thus, this is my best guess, which still probably isn't very good, haha)

Butter and flour a 9x5x3" loaf pan
  
Combine all dry ingredients.

Cream the butter and sugar. On medium speed, add eggs one at a time. Add bananas and mix well. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients until batter comes together.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle the top of the batter with sugar for a really nice, crunchy crust. On top of the sugar, add sliced almonds to taste. They look great and add a really nice texture to the crust, even after it's gone a little soft after a day or so.

Bake at 350 for about an hour or until the crust darkens and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

I really don't have an idea of how many servings this doles out because I just slice off however much I feel like eating (bad habit, don't do this!) but, let's just say that you got 10 slices out of it. That's about 150cal for each slice. Aka, totally not good for you. Don't make this stuff. You won't be able to stop yourself at one slice, trust me. Fo real.
Adapted from here