Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

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 I am still on a major kick of baking, and specifically loaf breads. I have found myself with a lot of time in the afternoons and on weekends, and it’s been best for me to stay around the house. I get my exercise in the mornings on the weekends or chasing Lily during the week. I’m too tired to run errands, and don’t really have many left, so I bake. I also don’t have any home chores left–we’re just waiting to move. Baking and cooking it is.

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My latest creation is also something I saw on Pinterest recently. It’s a banana bread with a chocolate marbled layer. I’m not sure I “marbled” it enough, but it’s still pretty cool to have a big chocolate spot in the middle and on top. It turned out super dense and yummy inside, and really tall too. That just means bigger pieces.

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And when is chocolate not ok for a breakfast food? Ok by me. But you can call it a snack bread if you aren’t into the chocolate for breakfast.

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Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
  • 1/2 cup egg substitute (I used two eggs)
  • 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (I used Vanilla Greek yogurt instead)
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • Cooking spray
 Instructions:
  • Preheat oven to 350°.
  • Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
  • Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add banana, egg substitute, and yogurt; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.
  • Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave about 1.5 minutes or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined.
  • Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.
  • Swirl batters together using a knife.
  • Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
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This one is really good! I recommend it for sure.

 

Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread
Print
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 75 mins
Total time: 1 hour 35 mins
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
  • 1/2 cup egg substitute (I used two eggs)
  • 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt (I used Vanilla Greek yogurt instead)
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • Cooking spray
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°.
  2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.
  3. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 1 minute). Add banana, egg substitute, and yogurt; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist.
  4. Place chocolate chips in a medium microwave-safe bowl, and microwave about 1.5 minutes or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 cup batter to chocolate, stirring until well combined.
  5. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter into an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray.
  6. Swirl batters together using a knife.
  7. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Pictures of Lily

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I am tired and cranky and have nothing else pregnancy related to write about except complaints and whines. So how about some cute pictures of Lily for this week?

Above is Lily wearing her new ThunderShirt. It’s like the infomercial, supposed to calm dogs in thunderstorms and act like a hug for them. It’s cute on her, but the thunder still wins. We’ve had a lot of rain recently which has meant a lot of sleepless nights.

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On sunny days, she loves to sit on the balcony or look out the door. It’s so cute and she gets so calm!

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She is just so cute. Even when she is scruffy in need of a bath.

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And cute when she’s tired and tucked into bed.

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And cute basking in the sun watching the birds and trees and cars and people.

Enchiladas Times Two

Recently, we hosted a dinner for our neighbors at our house. We live in a group of six townhomes and we have become friends with everyone in the nearly four years we’ve lived here. From time to time, we get together for brunch or dinner. It’s so small town of us. Since we are moving away, we decided to host everyone for one more dinner together. We decided to do a fiesta potluck, and we were responsible for the main course. I chose two kinds of enchiladas–chicken and veggie.

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We had never made enchiladas in our house before. It always seems like you need more than two people at home to make these. And it seems so cheesy and saucy. Regardless, it was on our list of things we want to make.

I found the chicken enchilada recipe on Eat Live Run, one of my go-to food blogs when I’m looking for something to please a crowd. We decided to double it, assuming people might eat two each and we had 8 guests. Knowing I wanted to have a vegetarian option too, I made a second dish of vegetarian enchiladas from a Martha Stewart recipe.

(Chicken pictured above, veggie pictured below before cooking)

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The chicken recipe used a canned enchilada sauce as the topping, and the veggie one used a homemade sauce. Both recipes ended up making huge enchiladas and we had about 2/3 of each recipe leftover! It was also interesting that one topped it with cheese on the very top layer, and the other had sauce on top of cheese.

Both recipes were pretty labor intensive. I don’t have a lot of energy or patience to stand on my feet for a long time, so Jeffrey helped a lot. It was extra work to make two separate recipes with no overlap, and our kitchen was quite a mess! It worked out fine, and we ended up with three casserole dishes in the oven baking for about the same amount of time.

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I tried both, and really liked them both. I ended up taking the veggie ones for lunch twice that next week, and we gave away some leftovers to the neighbors. Just beware that it makes a whole lot.

Below is our final table setting for a dinner party at this house!

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We had salad, rice and beans to go with it. Cheesy and saucy, just like I remembered enchiladas to be. And there is one of our final kitchen adventures before baby and before moving! Not many days left!

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Back to Basics: Overnight Oats

Back with another basic recipe that I eat all the time, at least twice a week for breakfast. It’s overnight oats!

It is very hard to get a good and appetizing picture of this, but just go with it…

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Overnight oats are basically cold oatmeal made with milk and yogurt instead of water. I write often how I don’t like to prep my breakfast in the morning and much prefer to “grab and go” of something I prepped the night before. Overnight oats are also eaten cold, which is perfect because it’s too hot for a hot breakfast most days!

I like this better than hot oatmeal because it has more protein from the milk and yogurt. The texture is kind of like mush, but I like it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you’re expecting it to be like oatmeal. Adding something crunchy helps.

Here is the basic recipe of how I like my overnight oats, and below I list some ways to change it up.

Basic Overnight Oatmeal

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 C old fashioned Quaker oats
  • 1/3 C vanilla Greek yogurt
  • 1/3 C milk
  • 1/2 sliced banana
  • 1-2 T gold or black raisins
  • dash cinnamon
  • ~1T peanut butter
Instructions:
  • In a tupperware or the bowl you’re going to eat breakfast in, mix everything together.
  • In the morning, top with something crunchy, more fruit, or leave as-is. Eat and enjoy!
Other mix-ins or toppings could be any kind of nut butter, a jam, a cereal on top, chia seeds mixed in, nuts on top, coconut, other dried fruit, etc. I really keep it as simple as in the picture all the time! The peanut butter mixed in is my favorite part.

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For more of the Back to Basics series, see the How To page.

My Pregnancy Journey: Week 36

Well around now, you may be coming here on Thursdays to see if I’m still here! I am, but my belly sure feels like it doesn’t have too much longer to go.

This week, BabyCenter says the baby is the size of a crenshaw melon (I have no idea what that is) and about 6 pounds pounds and over 18 inches. I actually go to the doctor weekly now, and today I have an ultrasound to see exactly how much the baby weighs and how long it is, and other important things like making sure it’s in the right position. I’ll try to update the post later today.

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The theme of this week has been being uncomfortable! My belly is so big, it is hard to sit in a chair and eat meals or sit at my desk. It’s more uncomfortable than hard. But it feels like I’m squishing the baby, when it is more comfortable to lay on a couch or on the bed reclining. It is also less comfortable to sleep, harder to get out of bed, and I’m a slower walker. My few shirts that fit are getting shorter too. Doesn’t this sound like fun? I sound like I’m 90.

Luckily, there is an end in site, and I really can’t wait to have normal energy again and my body back soon.

This week we also finished our classes at the hospital. We ended up signing up for four and attending three. Not bad when one of us was dragging our feet at all of them! We ended up going to Infant CPR, Prepared Childbirth and Infant Care. We skipped Breastfeeding, but I spent that day doing research and asking friends far too personal questions!

Here are some doctor stats and other random facts:

  • Weight gained at 35 weeks: 23.5 pounds
  • Weeks until full term: ONE
  • Number of weeks until we move: THREE
  • Odds we will move before baby arrives: I say unlikely
  • Blood pressure: Still really good averaging below 120/80
  • Baby’s heart rate: Always between 140-160
  • Fundal length at 35 weeks: 35 centimeters (these should match to show you’re growing on schedule)
  • Random food interests: oranges, Pop Chips, homemade banana bread (I made it twice) and a strawberry bread once
  • Number of failed trips to find a Dairy Queen for a blizzard: 1 (we ended up at Amy’s Ice Creams instead)
  • Number of “workouts” in the last week: two at the gym plus one full lap of the mall and countless walks around the block and laps up and down three flights of stairs chasing Lily

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That is it for this week. I have also been trying to finish up as much as I can of things I want to get before the baby arrives, and start packing a hospital bag or at least deciding what I’ll need. It would have been nice to spend this time on the baby’s room, but those things will come together quickly when we move in.

See you next week!

Strawberry Blood Orange Bread

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One thing that hasn’t slowed at the end of pregnancy is my urge to bake. I guess why not while I can, right? Last week, Chobani Greek yogurt sent me 12 of their three new flavors to sample and tell you about. They came out with Apple Cinnamon, Blood Orange, and Passion Fruit. I have been raving about Chobani for a few years now, and am glad they are expanding their flavors and becoming so popular.

I actually like the Vanilla flavor best and rarely buy the other flavors. But since they sent me some…I’ll try them. With 12 yogurts to eat, I used one of them to bake something.

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I reviewed their site and Pinterest, my new favorite place to find recipes, and decided to adapt one of their recipes to use the new flavor (Blood Orange) and a more seasonal fruit (strawberries in place of cranberries).

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This is quality control from the back end of the loaf. No one will know…

I loved so many things about this bread. Let me tell you:

  • It was so easy to cook–just two bowls and a spatula and measuring tools. No fancy mixers.
  • I had all the ingredients in the house already (Thanks Cho).
  • It was so soft on the inside, thanks to the yogurt.
  • No butter or oils.
  • Has a great gooeyness from the strawberries and yogurt and a nice bite from the nuts.
Now obviously, you can trade out the Blood Orange for the Plain or Vanilla yogurt flavor, but since I had it, I wanted to bake with it.

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Strawberry Blood Orange Bread

Ingredients

  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t each baking soda and salt
  • 3/4 C (6 oz) Chobani Greek Yogurt Blood Orange flavor
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 C orange juice
  • 1 T grated orange zest
  • 1 1/2 C fresh strawberries, sliced
  • 1/2 C pecans, chopped coarsely

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
  • In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, mix together Chobani Greek Yogurt and sugar. Add egg and combine. Stir in orange juice.
  • Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir with spatula.
  • Fold in orange zest, strawberries, and pecans.
  • Pour into prepared pan.
  • Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully invert pan to remove, and finish cooling on rack.

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Strawberry Blood Orange Bread
Print
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 15 mins
Ingredients
  • Strawberry Blood Orange Bread
  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t each baking soda and salt
  • 3/4 C (6 oz) Chobani Greek Yogurt Blood Orange flavor
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 C orange juice
  • 1 T grated orange zest
  • 1 1/2 C fresh strawberries, sliced
  • 1/2 C pecans, chopped coarsely
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.
  2. In medium bowl, combine dry ingredients. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, mix together Chobani Greek Yogurt and sugar. Add egg and combine. Stir in orange juice.
  4. Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir with spatula.
  5. Fold in orange zest, strawberries, and pecans.
  6. Pour into prepared pan.
  7. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully invert pan to remove, and finish cooling on rack.

Nearing the end and slowing down

Happy Valentine’s Day! Not a holiday we really do much acknowledging around here, we will probably pick up dinner and have a normal Tuesday! I might get some chocolate covered strawberries from Central Market. Did you know their roses are $3/stem?! That seems not worth it to me.

Today’s pregnancy related post is about slowing down. Usually, I have a to-do list and like checking it off, my day gets started with exercise, and I am pretty scheduled all day. But in late pregnancy, I’ve just been not doing those things.

Some mornings, I wake up around 7 a.m., eat breakfast, and get back in bed. That used to be unheard of, but not anymore. I feel part guilty for being lazy, and part ok with it for savoring the quiet time with my puppy and taking it easy. I used to be out the door at 5:40 a.m. for exercise! That seems so long ago.

I have actually completed most of my “before baby comes” list the best we can without actually being in our new house yet. While it would have been nice to have a nursery ready, have the furniture delivered, and put clothes away in the dresser, it’s probably not going to happen. We are scheduled to move on March 7…when I’m 39 weeks pregnant. I am confident that the baby will have a place to sleep and clothes to wear no matter what house it goes home to. We’re just trusting that it will all work out.

I have also almost stopped exercising. While not a big deal to most probably, exercise is a big part of my daily life. Before pregnancy, I would work out 6-7 times a week and I enjoyed it. I am telling myself that this is temporary and I’m doing what feels right. This past weekend, I walked twice on the treadmill for 35 minutes, and did light stretching. Everyday activities are more of an exercise than they used to, like walking the mall, running errands and climbing the stairs.

My days are quite different than before–Besides going to work, I try to accomplish one errand a day, take time to rest in the afternoons, and am falling asleep by 9:30 each night. It’s nice to take the end of pregnancy to slow down and remember it will never be like this again, and it is still very strange that we know our lives will be changing so soon.

Savory Oatmeal

Happy Monday, I’m still here, but the cooking has gotten a little less impressive. We hosted our neighbors last night for a potluck dinner and made two kinds of enchiladas–veggie and chicken. I’ll post those as soon as I sit down to upload pictures.

It is getting much harder to grocery shop, unload groceries, cook, clean, serve, clean, etc. You try doing your daily chores with a large kettlebell strapped to your stomach! Luckily, my husband is the sous chef on the weekends and enjoys cooking too. There would definitely be less homemade food on Sunday nights without his help!

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One thing on my “to cook” list for a long time has been savory oatmeal for dinner. This is basically treating raw oats like any other grain used for dinner–rice, quinoa, pasta, etc. Instead of adding milk and sweet ingredients, you add vegetables and spices. It sounded easy and interesting, and like a simple dinner for one!

Savory Oats

Serves 1

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 C old-fashioned oats
  • 1 C water
  • dashes of salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika
  • 1 fried egg on top (cooked separately)
  • handful of raw spinach
Instructions:
  • Bring water to a simmer in a small sauce pan.
  • Add oats and whisk.
  • Add spices and keep whisking.
  • Stir in spinach and stir to wilt
  • Top with egg and more salt and pepper.

I cooked my egg so it wasn’t very runny since you can’t eat runny eggs while pregnant, but an over-easy egg would have been gooey and great too. Other toppings if you plan ahead could be avocado or cheese whisked in, also sounds really good.

I liked that this was super simple and different. You can modify the spices to your liking, but I liked pairing oats with savory ones.

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Have you ever tried oats for dinner like this?

Back to Basics: Hot Oatmeal

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While hot oatmeal is nothing new and special, I have finally figured out the proportions that I like to make a good bowl of thick oatmeal. I don’t like it too soupy, and I don’t like it when I still want more at the end of the bowl. What I also don’t like about making hot oatmeal is that it’s hot (so I don’t eat it most months of the year), and that it takes time to cook. One pot to cook and one bowl to eat=more mess. I promise it has redeeming qualities too.

However, I do think it’s filling, and a good way to get some important nutrients. It is also a good alternative to a dairy breakfast, which I eat most days. I want to learn to like oatmeal because some babies don’t tolerate mom’s dairy well. This Winter, I have made hot oatmeal maybe a dozen times total, and I’m liking it more and getting faster.

Here is my recipe for my best hot oatmeal, made in one small pot and ready in under 10 minutes.

Basic Hot Oatmeal

  • 1/3 C old fashioned Quaker Oats
  • 1/3 C milk (or milk substitute)
  • 1/3 C water
  • dash cinnamon
  • 1 T gold or black raisins
  • spoonful peanut butter stirred in at end
  • 1/2 banana, thinly sliced

Instructions:

  • In a small sauce pan, I bring the water to a simmer, then add oats and whisk. Then I add the milk, cinnamon, raisins and banana and stir. Let thicken until bubbly, stirring often.
  • While still on the heat, I stir in peanut butter to get it nice and melty. This is the best part.
  • I top it with a variety of things, usually granola and berries like in the picture.

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My Pregnancy Journey: Week 35

Week 35 is big time! That means this baby is about 95% cooked! Can you believe it? 37 weeks is considered full term, and safe for arrival. We are still hoping for baby to make its debut sometime on schedule because we scheduled our move on Week 39. Can someone relay that message to baby? It really is hard to believe that it’s almost safe for the baby to come anytime now.

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Backing up a bit, BabyCenter says the baby is the size of a honeydew this week. It is over 18 inches long and 5.25 pounds. Also around now, BabyCenter starts to become inaccurate in its size guesses since full term babies range in weight from 6-8ish pounds and varying lengths. But it’s still nice to know what it looks like inside.

This past weekend we had a lot of family in town for my baby shower. I got some cute gifts, along with many practical and necessary ones that we’ll need for the first days at home and beyond. It’s nice to feel a little more equipped. My mom and I also did a Babies R’ Us run and got some other necessary items like newborn pacifiers, wipes, diapers, and velcro swaddle wraps.

I have a few odds and ends I’d like to get before the baby arrives, and I try to tackle a few things a week but not all at once.

Sleep–This has been very touch and go lately. If I have a bad night of a few hours where I can’t sleep one night, I’ll be tired all day and then sleep great the next night. It’s not ideal, but I appreciate the good nights more, and know most of my future sleep will be broken up into few hour stretches.

Exercise–Last weekend was probably the first weekend in all of my pregnancy where I didn’t have any real gym exercise. We had family here and my shower and I wanted to be rested, and also, I just didn’t feel much like it. I’ve gotten much slower and more tired, and I took the time to rest. I think exercise may be on hiatus besides everyday things like walking the dog and chasing her up and down the stairs.

Eating–I am still baking and taking my breakfast and lunch to work, and trying to cook something at home each week. Hoping to keep that up a little. Having Jeffrey as the sous chef on the weekends helps too! However, it’s hard to know when I’m full because I always look gigantic. It is true that you eat less but more often.

Kicks–This baby is definitely an active one. Especially at night or after a meal, I feel the baby moving all over. We can see it kicking and moving around, and new this week is a lot of movement on my left side. I hope it’s still head down! I think it is elbows or feet or something on the sides.

I have lots of to-do lists going all week long, have computer spreadsheets and long reminders ready of things I need to do before the baby arrives and right after, and still doing various research on things that come up.

That’s about it for this week. Starting today, I go to the doctor every week!

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