Black Bean and Chickpea Curry

As some of you may know, I'm a little obsessed with hash browns. I bought some last week and felt like having them for dinner. But what to eat with them?

Curry, of course!

I know. That sounds weird. But it sounded tasty at the time. So I just kinda threw some stuff together to make a weird curry. It was missing something. Any ideas?

Black Bean and Chickpea Curry

One can Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce
One can chickpeas
One can black beans
Patak's vindaloo paste, to taste

Dump pizza sauce into a pot. Drain beans and chickpeas and stir them into sauce. Add vindaloo paste. Cook 'til hot.

I think I should write recipes for a living. People respond well to the direction "dump."

Chicken en Papillote

I found a recipe for this in Real Simple a long time ago. Michael and I decided to try it out once when he was visiting. Since he's vegetarian, we used Morningstar Chick'n Strips. I don't remember a lot about the recipe other than you cook it at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes. It's really all about eyeballing and throwing in a bunch of stuff. This is the combination we had. It turned out colorful and delicious!

Chicken en Papillote

Parchment Paper
Chicken Breasts (optional)
One can butter beans
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Carrots, julienned
Baby spinach
Yellow squash, sliced
Green onions, chopped
Olive oil, to drizzle
Lots of garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut parchment paper to size you wish to serve. Leave plenty of room to fold paper to seal. We used two pieces for each packet, like a sandwich, then folded the edges. I've also done it where I folded over one large piece.

Stir all ingredients, except the chicken, together until evenly dispersed. Drizzle in olive oil and add salt and pepper.

Spoon vegetables onto one layer of parchment paper. Place chicken on top. Seal by folding in edges.

Place sealed packets onto baking sheet and cook 30 to 40 minutes.

To serve, either place packets on plate, or open packet and dump onto plate. We opened them and ate with rice.

Banana Bread

This banana bread was much better than the healthy recipe. But to tell you the truth, I don't know what makes that recipe more healthy than this one. The original recipe called for all-purpose flour but I used King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour.

2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed, overripe bananas

Prehat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Heavenly Healthy Banana Bread

I've been doing a lot of experimenting with wheat flour. I had some overripe bananas and thought I'd try a wheat banana bread.

Apparently, I don't like healthy banana bread.

Heavenly Healthy Banana Bread
From King Arthur

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium to large bananas)
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups King Arthur 100% Organic Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add the bananas, honey and eggs, beating until smooth. Add the flour, then the walnuts, stirring until smooth. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pan, smoothing the top. Let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Bake the bread for 50 minutes then gently lay a piece of aluminum foil across the top, to prevent over-browning. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the oven; a long toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean. Allow the loaf to cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan, and cooling it completely on a rack.

Apple Crisp

I have a bit of an obsession with anything that ends with "crisp."

Apple crisp, peach crisp, sweet potato crisp; I want it. This is my favorite crisp recipe. I've adapted it from a bunch of different recipes.

I like to use wheat flour and have a few other secret ingredients that I don't really want to divulge here. I think the wheat makes it a bit heavier, though.

Jacque made an apple crisp awhile back that tasted quite different and lighter. If you like it better that way, use regular ol' flour instead of wheat.

Apple Crisp

6 cups sliced Granny Smith apples* (approximately 6 apples)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup wheat flour
3/4 cups quick oats
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9x11 baking dish.

Place the sliced apples in the bottom of the baking dish and spread out evenly.

Combine all the remaining ingredients together in another bowl and mix until well blended. The mixture should have a crumbly texture.

Sprinkle mixture over the apples. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

*Really, you can use any fruit. Or vegetable. Or I guess you could try some kind of meat. Just kind of eyeball it. One of my favorites is Cranberry Apple.