Best Banana Nut Bread

2 c. ww flour (I prefer organic)
1 t. baking soda
½ c. oil (or ¼ c. oil and ¼ c. apple sauce--better for you!)
½ c. honey (or agave syrup)
2 eggs
2 c. banana pulp (don’t worry much about being precise)
½ c. nuts and/or raisins (I prefer pecans and craisins. May be omitted)

In one bowl, mash the bananas and add wet ingredients, mixing after each.

In another bowl, mix the flour and soda.

Add the dry to the wet in parts, mixing in as you go. Add nuts and raisins last. Spray a loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50 minutes, or until toothpick in center comes out dry. Cool a bit before removing from the pan.

S & M Mothers Day Frittata

We get to take credit for this recipe and rename it in our honor! Michael suggested an asparagus and crab omelet. I don’t really care for omelets, and found a quiche recipe online. We tweaked it and the result is below. It was soooo good!

1 c. crab meat (drained if needed)
1 ¾ c. scalded milk
3 eggs, beaten
10 asparagus spears, separated
1 c. cheese (approximately equal parts swiss, parmesan, and Neufchatel cheese)
nutmeg, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Place crab in bottom of sprayed pie plate. Cut off tips of asparagus and reserve. Cut the rest into ½ inch slices. Place the slices on top of crab. Cut or shred cheeses as desired and scatter cheeses over asparagus. Beat eggs and milk with seasonings. Pour over. Arrange asparagus tips like spokes on a wheel. Bake until GBD, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let set at least 15 minutes. Cut and serve!

Antique Cake!

This is a post on the Betty Crocker website:

Butter Cake

You must take a dish of butter, and beat it like cream with your hands, two pounds of fine sugar well beat, three pounds of flour well dried, and mix them in with the butter, twenty-four eggs, leave out half the whites, and then beat all together for an hour. Just as you are going to put it into the oven, put in a quarter of an ounce of mace, a nutmeg beat, a little fack (?) or brandy, and feeds (?) or currants, just as you please. (I don't know about you but I don't know the difference between a fack or feeds. And my goodness, wouldn't your arm get tired after beating the batter for an hour?)



We have a facsimile copy of the first cookbook published by an American in American: American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons, 1796.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread or Muffins

½ c. olive oil
½ c. apple sauce
3 good eggs or 4 store bought
3 1/3 c. ww flour (or I like whole grain spelt)
1 ½ c. sweetener (I use Splenda)
½ c. agave syrup (or honey)
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon (or more)
2/3 c. milk (I use a mix of soy and cow)
2 c. pumpkin (not pie mix stuff)(I recycled Halloween pumpkins, I know, it's too much!)
1 t. baking soda
½ t. baking powder
1 t. salt (I use less)
1 c. chopped nuts (I use pecans)

Mix all the wet in one bowl and dry in the other. Add the dry to the wet in 1/3’s. Mix well. Pour into 2 bread pans or muffin tins. Bake at 350 for about an hour on loaves, 25 minutes on muffins. Watch them for doneness!

Old-fashioned Oatmeal Pancakes

From Sunset Magazine’s Favorite Recipes II cookbook

This is the real deal. No casual sprinkling of oats on a plain pancake and then calling it oatmeal pancakes. These are too good for words!


Mix 2 c. oatmeal with 2 c. buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Or not, it will work without setting that long

In this bowl, beat 2 eggs and stir into oats mix, with 4T. melted and cooled butter. Stir just until blended.

In another bowl, mix dry:

½ c. ww flour
2 T. sweetener
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
½ t. cinnamon

Add to wet mix, stirring just until moistened. If it seems too thick, add more buttermilk.

Cook on griddle, spreading the batter out.

Traditionally served with sausages and applesauce.

Fabulous Healthy Seed-filled Buns

2 t. yeast
2 ¼ c. ww spelt flour
¾ c. unbleached white flour
2 T. sweetener (honey, agave are good)
2 T. gluten flour
1 t. salt
1/3 c. water
½ c. buttermilk
2 T. olive oil or other fat

This was not nearly enough water. Added about a cup more as soon as I could see it was too dry to form a ball.

Add random seeds: sunflower, sesame, flax, poppy. I used about ¼ c. of each.

I used the manual cycle and cut the dough into 16 pieces and made rolls. Let rise until suitably big, about an hour in a slightly warm oven. Turn oven on while rolls are inside to 350.

Ole Quinoa Salad

Olay, not Old! Don't know where the accent is!

1 c. dry quinoa, cooked to directions you use. Fluff and refrigerate.

Saute in a bit of olive oil, 1 chopped onion. When about halfway to tender, add 1 chopped green pepper and 1 chopped red or orange pepper. Saute about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add to your taste: cumin, chili powder, garlic pwd., cayenne pepper. I chill briefly in freezer to remove warmth.

When cool, add to quinoa, along with:
1 diced avocado
1-2 diced tomatoes (about 1 cup)
1 drained can of black beans
juice of 1 lime
chopped cilantro, about a cup

Add about 1/3 c. shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese. Toss and serve.

It has no dressing but didn’t taste dry. You could easily add other things, salsa, sour cream, other vegies, olives, whatever! The recipe called for baby spinach leaves, cut up, but we had none. Low fat, vegetarian.