Simple Banana Pancakes

I had a sad looking banana to use so I was looking for recipes that only use one banana. Most of what I found needed several, like for banana bread. I finally found a recipe for banana pancakes. They are super quick to throw together because there's hardly any measuring!

2 eggs
1 banana
1/2 cup oats (ground up, they say to use a magic bullet but I just used a food chopper thing)
1/4 cup applesauce
vanilla extract
cinnamon

As you can see, there's no flour or added sugar (although I do think my applesauce might have added sugar). I'm not necessarily calling these healthy but they are definitely healthier than some other pancake recipes I have made. They cook up pretty nicely too (but it does take a little bit to get the hang of it if you're new to pancakes. Usually, David does breakfast foods in our house so I still haven't mastered these).

They taste pretty good. The oats give them a weird texture but that's partially because I didn't grind them up as much as I could have. I definitely like regular pancakes better but if I wouldn't say no to these either. I'd probably give them a 7/10. David wouldn't try them but that's because of the bananas. My toddler LOVED them, even cold!

Simple Orange Chicken

We were given little jars of orange marmalade at Ruby's Pantry and I am not a fan. Those little pieces of orange zest suspended in the jelly just don't appeal to me. I didn't want it to go to waste though. I am really trying to not go grocery shopping unless I need to. We have a chest freezer and pantry full of food so ideally, I would only go to the store for produce and dairy.

So going along with that, I found a recipe for orange chicken. The recipe link claims that it is only 3 ingredients but that's not exactly true. It's 3 ingredients for the sauce but then you have to add in the chicken, flour, egg, and oil for cooking. I don't like when recipes to lie to me but I guess it's pretty close.

I will also mention that after reading through some of the comments on the recipe, I added in a few drops of sesame oil and some ground ginger. Apparently, I don't make recipes as written very often. I also took the original poster's suggestion and added in green pepper, after sauteing it first.

I used chicken thighs that David skinned and de-boned for me. This turned out just great. I never know how much it matters to use the part of the chicken that they ask for. I know the white meat vs. dark meat thing but especially when used for a recipe, I substitute in whatever part of the chicken I have.

This recipe really turned out great! David rated it a 9 out of 10 (but he isn't sure what he would change to make it a 10). The sauce made a nice coating for the rice, my chicken turned out crispy, and the peppers added a slight, nutritional crunch. It probably isn't but it actually did taste pretty authentic. I would make this instead of take out! It really is a simple recipe but I'm unsure about making it again because I don't see myself buying more marmalade.

I wonder if other flavors of jelly would taste good too or with other meats. Raspberry and pork might be yummy. I also used a pretty basic barbecue sauce so you could get a different flavor by altering that too. But don't get me wrong, nothing needs to change. I'm just always looking for alternatives.

Shepherd's Pie

So I know I titled this post shepherd's pie but in reality, this is going to be a recipe for cottage pie. However, when I'm searching through my recipes to make this one again, I will mostly likely call it a shepherd's pie. This is because it wasn't until very recently that I learned a shepherd's pie has to have lamb in it to be called that. The ground beef version that a lot of us making here in the US is really called a cottage pie.

This is the recipe I started with and I tweaked it a bit. I made this for David's birthday dinner (with a pound cake for dessert---talk about a heavy meal!) so I made it the night before and baked it day of (the original recipe says 25 minutes. I baked it for 40 minutes, probably because I didn't bring it back up to room temp before putting it in the oven).

We had a big bag of frozen mashed potatoes from Ruby's Pantry so I didn't bother making my own (and because I was trying to use up this bag, our casserole ended up more potato than anything but it turned out okay). I left out the celery and mushrooms. I used onion powder instead of onion (can you believe that I think we are out of onions??). I didn't use fat free beef broth. Instead, I used beef stock (from Ruby's again!). I also used dried spices instead of fresh. Then, I don't keep tomato paste on hand so I just used the equivalent amount of tomato sauce (mushroom flavored). We also don't have Worcestershire. I always substitute this with liquid smoke. And I didn't sprinkle it with paprika because I didn't know how the Ruby's potatoes were already seasoned.

This turned out SO good. David's family was over to celebrate and everyone gave it rave reviews! I do wish the ratio of potatoes to meat had been a little more equal but that was my doing, not the recipe's. Definitely definitely definitely going to make this again.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Before the holidays, I had to pick up my brother from college because he was going to come home with me for Christmas. It's about a 45 minute drive (each way) to his campus so given the timing of it all, I had David make dinner. To be honest, I don't even remember what the main dish was but the side dish was Parmesan roasted potatoes.

I apologize I no longer have the link to the creator of the recipe. I always try to give credit where credit is due but in this case, I can't.

Ingredients:
5-6 medium sized potatoes, skins on, diced
3-4 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. The spray may seem unnecessary given that we are using the foil but some of our potatoes stuck on and nobody likes eating foil. Put the potatoes on the pan.. Coat the potatoes with oil, making sure to stir them around a little. In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the potatoes, again making sure all the potatoes are seasoned. Cook for 35-45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes so that they are evenly cooked and don’t get burned on the bottom. 

This recipe was really great. My picky brother even had four helpings! We did use shredded Parmesan because that was what we had on hand but the grated stuff would work much better. A lot of potatoes didn't have any cheese at all because it mostly stuck to the pan. I will definitely be making these again!

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

I have previously made a summer squash mac and cheese (that I don't know if I posted about it because we didn't really like it). The squash didn't blend well and it was just...stringy. I suppose I should've known but I had heard good things about mixing squash with the mac and cheese to get more veggie content in a meal. I had given up on the idea until I saw this recipe on Pinterest. It sounded promising!

So that afternoon, I roasted my squash (poke holes in squash, put in pan (foil lined for easiser clean up if you wish), and put in the oven for 90 minutes at 400). Then I scooped out all the good parts (not the seeds or little stringy parts) and mashed them in a bowl. I put it in the fridge until I was ready to make dinner.

Then I followed the recipe (for the most part). I will say that you definitely need more noodles than what was called for. There's no way you can make that much sauce for only 8oz of noodles! I used a whole 16oz box. I also have to say that the squash sauce looked heavenly! I could've just had noodles stirred into that without the cheese! I'm not necessarily a big fan of baking mac and cheese or with the bread crumbs on top but this did turn out really good.

With the squash and the breadcrumbs, David and I thought it tasted a little bit like Wheat Thin crackers. My toddler tried it and liked it too but she'll like anything if it's a noodle. I think I would rate this a 7/10. The leftovers are just as good as the first time too. And good thing for that because this makes about 6 servings (and that's generous servings).

I think I would make it again. It's fairly simple but not too quick, especially if you have to puree your squash first.

Roasted Cauliflower and Raspberry Pork Chops

For dinner tonight, I wanted to try something different. I found a pork chop recipe and modified it a little. I basically cooked the pork chops until cooked and then I added the ingredients I had mixed in a bowl to the pork chop pan. I cooked this for a few more minutes to incorporate the flavors and then served. The ingredients in the bowl were (no measuring) raspberry vinaigrette (from Ruby's!), brown sugar (about a spoonful), liquid smoke, onion powder, rosemary, and paprika.

This was a very simple recipe that took about 35 minutes. The cooking of the pork chops took much longer than expected because they were so quick. I didn't finish them off with fresh raspberries, simply because I didn't have any.

It turned out quite good and was a different recipe for pork chops than I usually make. I would definitely make this again but I might finish it off in the oven, if I use the thicker pork chops again, to make the cook time faster and more predictable. I did spend a lot of time in front of my stove top wondering why they weren't cooking as fast as the recipe said they should. It actually ended with my husband finishing the cooking process (he has more experience cooking meat than me) while I watched the kids (instead of the other way around). So if you keep in mind that the cook time is a more than it sounds like in the original recipe, this recipe is so basic and easy.

I served this with roasted cauliflower. I come across recipes all the time for roasting vegetables but they always start with raw vegetables. I'm never sure how to modify them for frozen vegetables. That's what makes this recipe unique: it uses frozen cauliflower! This recipe is also quite easy and simple. I used shredded Parmesan because that's what I had. I don't think it coated the cauliflower as well but the flavor was still there. I also left out the pepper. In other words: I coated my pan with non-stick spray, sprinkled my partially thawed cauliflower with garlic powder, salt, and shredded cheese and then threw them in the oven.

I could not believe how delicious this was! It smelled good before I even put them in the oven and when I pulled them out, they smelled even better. I'm not sure of pairing them with the raspberry pork chops but they were still good. I will definitely make this again and again and I look forward to trying it with other frozen vegetables too.

Review of Our New Mattress

We used to have a queen size lumpy mattress. David had bought it when he moved out of his parent's house and since we figured there was a good chance it would become our mattress after we got married, I helped pick it out. It was on sale for about $500 and in the store, we loved it! After he bought it, it quickly started to shape to his body...and not bounce back. He had it on the free-with-mattress-purchase boxspring but it was still saggy so he put it on the floor. Somehow, it still felt saggy even with the entire thing supported by the floor. 

When we got married, we decided to keep it since it was only a year or two old and mattresses are supposed to last 8+ years. After enduring it through being pregnant with my daughter, I knew we definitely needed a new one sooner rather than later. Ours wasn't going to make it many more years. Then I got pregnant with our son and we looked into getting a new mattress (because the third trimester is unbearable enough, even on a good mattress). They were all too expensive and it was a big decision to make because we didn't want to make the same mistake twice. 

Then (when I was no longer pregnant), David found a PuraSleep mattress for less than $500 on a daily deals site. It was a 10 inch thick, firm, all memory foam mattress. It sounded too good to be true. With the site, we had only four hours to decide if we wanted it. We justified that it wasn't an impulse decision because we had been wanting a new mattress basically since David had bought our old one. We read lots of reviews and they were all positive. Without the daily deal site, this mattress is over $2000. We debated between the king and queen sizes. Finally, we decided on the king.

We did have to rearrange our bedroom furniture to fit the king but it was SO WORTH IT! Just upgrading to a king was better. We had our own space when we wanted it and when our kids play in the bed (they never sleep with us), they can even fit sideways in between us! The extra space is just SO nice. The only downside was having to buy new sheets and build a king size bed frame (they recommend not putting the mattress on a box spring so David and his dad spent a Saturday building a simple bed frame with built in storage). 

The bed itself is AMAZING! It's firm and gives you support but still lets you sink into it. You can move around on your side of the bed as much as you want without disturbing the other person (a problem with our old bed. Every time one of us would roll over, the other person would get rocked). This bed makes it even harder to get out of bed in the morning. I look forward to going to bed (you think that's true when you have a newborn and you're always tired but our old bed sometimes made me consider sleeping on the floor instead). 

I had back pain if I slept on our old bed on my back for more than 20 minutes or so. With this bed, that pain is gone! I can't recommend this bed enough. I'm not sure if I would pay full price for it but every so often, it does come on woot.com (the daily deals site). If you get it for that price, it is SOOOOOO worth it. 

It comes vacuum sealed in a box the size of a kitchen chair and weighs 87 pounds (try lugging that up the stairs!). It takes up to 3 days to fully pop up to life and lose that new memory foam smell but we slept on it from day one anyway. These mattresses are made when you order them so it's not like it's been sitting in the back of a warehouse for years, sad and alone. 

If I haven't implied it enough, buy this mattress if you need a new one (or even if you don't!).