1. Mini Banana Whoopie Pies with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling
These little beauties were delicious. The recipe came from Culinary in the Desert, a blog I found through Tastespotting. I tweaked the recipe a little bit, using some lower calorie ingredients that I had on hand and adding the cinnamon to the filling. I think it added something different, but didn’t overpower the banana flavor. (My mini-pies came out to about 100 calories a piece – the perfect little snack. Leave me a comment if you want my specifc recipe changes).
2. Bread Salad
Nick and I usually reserve bread salad for our picnics, but I just couldn’t resist using the final few tomatoes this way. My bread salad is always just a little different – I tend to just throw together what I’ve got hanging around the kitchen. In this case, I had a few tomatoes, a day-old wheat baguette, a cucumber and some provolone. I toasted the bread first, then spritzed it with some water to soften it up (so the bread doesn’t absorb all of the dressing and leave the tomatoes dry). I topped it all with a simple balsamic vinegrette, some garlic powder and some parmesan cheese. I was kicking myself for not having fresh basil, but the result was still as tasty as ever!
3. Whole-wheat Zucchini Bread
I got the zucchini bread recipe through Tastespotting as well – on a blog called Foodie with a Family. I changed this recipe, too, using whole wheat and all purpose flour (i didn’t have any bread flour). I doubled the recipe and used half for a large loaf and the other half for 8 mini-loaves. I also subbed cinnamon since I didn’t have nutmeg. The bread is moist and it tastes outstanding when spread with some of the left-over cinnamon cream cheese from the first recipe.
In other news, I went to my first AFIT Spouse’s Cooking Club this week, and took Vegetable Enchiladas (they were a hit, but I forgot to take pictures). I also brought home my new baby, a yellow KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer. I got it on sale at Williams Sonoma for $140! Amazing.
Glad to be up and running again. More ovenlove (and mixerlove) to come!