Banana (Nannerrr) Bread

I'm pretty sure that I subconsciously buy bananas just to let them get really ripe so that I can make banana bread. Honestly, I never finish my entire bunch of bananas, so I'm constantly making banana bread. Not sure why I've never posted my recipe before now, but I've made some tweaks to my original recipe, and here it is!

Nanner Bread

4 ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup of Egg Beaters*

1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce**

1 tablespoon skim milk

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Use butter or cooking spray to grease a bread loaf pan.

2. In a small bowl, mash the bananas, milk and cinnamon (I leave big chunks of banana in mine, but you can mash them as much or as little as you please!). In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set both bowls aside.

3. Beat applesauce and sugar together. Add Egg Beaters and vanilla and beat until smooth.

4. Add banana mixture to sugar mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix until the flour is combined. Don't over mix the dough!

5. Pour batter into pan and bake for an hour or so. Check if it's done by putting a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out clean, it's done!

6. Let cool. Slice yourself a nice, thick piece and enjoy!

Pan Fried Tomatoes

I've been craving fried tomatoes for the past few days. I'm guessing it's because I printed out a Fall Festival Munchie Map, and those were one of the things I decided I had to get (for those of you who don't know, the Fall Festival is a huge street festival in my hometown; there's over a hundred food booths that serve pretty much anything you can imagine: fried candy bars, brain sandwiches, lollipops with crickets in them, etc).

I had two heirloom tomatoes on hand, so I used those. But I'm sure this would work with any tomato you prefer. I sliced up those tomatoes, mixed up a simple batter and went to town.

Fried Red Tomatoes

2 heirloom tomatoes (sliced, patted dry)

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 egg

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

milk (I didn't really measure this)

1 cup bread crumbs

1 cup parm cheese

salt & pepper

cooking oil of your choice (I used vegetable)

1. Slice up those tomatoes. Pat them dry (this will help the batter adhere to them better)

2. Wisk the flour, baking powder, milk and egg. You're going to want a thicker batter so that it doesn't slide off the tomatoes, so use your own judgement on how much milk to add. Remember: you can always add more but you can never take anyway (although I suppose you can just add some more flour).

3. Mix the bread crumbs, parm cheese and salt & pepper together in a separate bowl.

4. Dredge the tomato slices in the batter, then pat both sides with bread crumb mixture.

5. Add to hot oil (be careful not to splash any of the oil on you!) Cook until golden brown.

6. Remove from oil and place on a plate that is covered with paper towels. Let cool and enjoy :)