Best Banana Bread Recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

Homemade Granola

What you need:
3T - EVOO
4 Cups slow cook oats
Put the 3 T EVOO in a large skillet and warm it up - pour the oats in and cook for about 5 minutes on medium until the oats start to toast - very light brown. I usually stir this a lot.

Pour the cooked oats on some wax paper

In the same skillet - still on medium
1 stick of butter
1/4 Cup honey
3/4 C brown sugar
Cook this together until bubbling - let bubble for about 3 minutes.

Add the oats back into the mixture above.
Also add in:
3/4 C. sliced almonds
3/4 C. dried fruit ( I use dried cherries and blueberries) - I usually add more then 3/4 C because we love it.

Stir until it is all mixed together and then cook on medium for 5 minutes.

Pour it out onto wax paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray - and spread it out evenly. It will take about an hour to dry and cool.

This granola is chewy and amazing over yogurt and fruit!

Amazing Spaghetti Sauce

I made the best spaghetti sauce tonight. This is my best friends Dad's recipe and I must say it did not disappoint! I doubled the recipe so I could have left overs and I am planning another pasta dish at the end of the week.

What you need: - This is the original recipe.
2 pounds ground beef
1 onion finely chopped
2 - 15 oz. cans of Contadina Extra think and Zesty tomato sauce
1 6oz can of Contadina tomato paste
1 handful of basil leaves - I used fresh. - 12 leaves
1 handful of Italian seasoning - about 2 Tablespoons
1 T. garlic powder
1 T. garlic salt
6 cloves of garlic
1 T. crushed red pepper
2 T. parsley flakes
1 pinch of sugar - no more!
3 T. EVOO
3 T. grated Parmesan


Brown the beef until fully cooked, add onion while browning.
Remove from the burner and add all the other ingredients, stir well and return to the burner on low. Let simmer for at least 1/2 hour stirring once in a while.
This will cover a pound of spaghetti so you can have left overs.

Holy Guacomole

My sister-in-law gave me this recipe and I can honestly say it is a HUGE HIT every time I make it.

What you need:
6 large avacados - chop into small pieces and mash just a little - we like chunky guacamole!
1/2 red onion - diced small
1 lime - squeeze over avocados - sometimes I even use 2 limes!
1 - 2 jalapenos - deseeded and diced super fine
1 big bunch of cilantro- chopped
salt to taste

combine all the ingredients and mash together with a fork until desired consistency.