Tales from the Shark Tank

I was talking to a friend the other day, and mentioned that I’d made myself a banana cake.  I wanted something with at least some nutritionally redeeming features that would indulge my sweet tooth.  Knowing me very well, she asked if it was from a recipe, or if I’d made it up.  “No, this one’s not mine; I pulled it off the ‘net” I told her.  “I just changed a couple of things.  I cut the amount of butter and sugar, used brown sugar instead of white, added an egg, put in some wheat flour….” and then, hearing what I was saying, ran down.  “I guess it is mine” I concluded.  I changed over half the ingredients as to amount, type or both, added several, and changed the mixing technique.  I doubt the person who originally posted it would recognize their cake in mine.  So….

BANANA OATMEAL SNACK CAKE

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla powder (or 2 tsp extract)
• 1/2 tsp orange extract
• 1/2 tsp ginger or cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white wheat flour (regular whole wheat will work, but has a stronger flavor)
• 3/4 cup oatmeal or mixed grain cereal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 over-ripe medium bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup extra dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Spray a 10″ round cake pan with non-stick spray, and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar.  Add flavorings and eggs and beat well.  Combine flours, oatmeal, baking powder and baking soda.  Combine mashed bananas and buttermilk.  Add dry ingredients alternately with milk/ banana mixture, ending with flour.  Stir in chocolate chips and raisins.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until it passes the classic toothpick test.

Enjoy!

Being in need of comfort food and wanting to have something moderately healthy that fit that description, I set about making myself rice pudding last night.  Mom’s rice pudding was nice, but I thought a bit of creativity was in order, just because, well, it’s more fun that way.  It came out so well I’m putting it here.

APPLE RICE PUDDING

Heat 1 quart of milk in a heavy pot with a lid.   Add 2 Tbsp. turbinado or brown sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla power (or 1 tsp liquid vanilla), 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and  1/2 cup brown rice.  Cover and start cooking.  Peel and chop up 2 tart apples, like Granny Smiths, and add to the pot.  Put the lid back and cook on very low heat for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300 F.  When the rice has cooked somewhat, stir the pudding, replace the lid, and put it in the oven.  Bake for 2 hours.  Remove and eat.   It’s a little chewier than the usual rice pudding, but the texture isn’t bad, just different . Hot, it was lovely with vanilla ice cream.  Cool, this morning, it made a really nice breakfast, as it’s not too sweet.

As to ingredients:  For milk I used organic 2%.  It really does taste different than the standard mass produced stuff.   The rice was sweet brown rice, a short grain rice that breaks down in cooking and so is used for desserts (hence the name), but long grain would work.  It would just be another degree more chewy than it comes out with the sweet rice.

And I have another quart of milk to use up before it goes bad.  I think the next experiment will be with mixed chopped dried fruit, slivered almonds, almond extract and a little ground ginger.  But that will wait.  Right now I want to take advantage of a sunny day with a good breeze and moderate temperatures and go for a walk.