Love is in the Air! Valentine’s Day!

You see hearts everywhere, so you know The Cupid is near!  

Hearts filled with chocolates, scrumpous cakes decorated beautifully and gifts to show you care! 

A friendly reminder, just in case your Post It® it got mistakenly blown away by Cupid!  

 

Valentine’s Day…in two weeks!  Great cake ideas by Cake Central!  

Letia 🙂

Photo by Cake Central.

Banana Oatmeal Bread! Easy!

I shop weekly for fresh fruit for making smoothies and green juices.  My plan to include bananas daily did not pan out and they also ripened very quickly!

The bananas are the sweetest at this stage and I was left with the decision; what should I do?

This year I’ve said I was going to embrace trying new things; one being cooking more! Then it dawned on me that I can make a banana bread; but use ingredients that were towards the healthy side!

The recipe is real easy and less than an hour to prepare.   And on this cold winter morning, the baking made the home smell wonderful!  The banana bread came out perfect!  So here are the steps and the recipe!

You will need 3 bowls, spatula, large spoon, mixer (if you don’t want to mix by hand), measuring cup, measuring spoons, whisk and a smile!

Get all the ingredients; to double-check you have everything! It’s nothing worse than starting and you find out that you thought you had everything and you don’t!

My substitutions were the walnuts, I like the walnut taste…..not necessarily the walnuts in the bread.  So I used walnut oil (1/2 teaspoon)!  If you don’t like walnuts; you can try raisins, pumpkin seeds,  anything you like.  Instead of white sugar, I’d used trubindao sugar.  I also used coconut oil; instead of shortening.

Oh! I’d also increased the measurements, because I had a lot of bananas – as you can see!  So my banana bread is larger than the proportions in the recipe.

 

1/2 cup coconut oil

• 3/4 cup Sugar in the Raw (turbinado sugar cane)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

 

In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the banana and vanilla.

 

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat into creamed mixture. Stir in oats and nuts.

Pour into prepared pan.

 

Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.  Let the bread rest for about 30 minutes and then go for the slices!

 Letia 🙂

 

All photos by Letia Mitchell LifeStyle & Design® (excluding sugar image).

 

 

Thai Carrot Soup to Start the New Year with Spice!

I wanted something satisfying and warm to eat!  So while grocery shopping, I decided to make some soup!  I love-making soup, where I can make it how I like it and be creative!

So Thai Carrot soup it is!  It came out wonderfully and for the upcoming nights when arriving from work; I can effortlessly choose to have a nice warm bowl of soup and little spinach salad!

It was quite easy and in less than an hour in the early morning;  I was done and ready to venture out to enjoy the rest of the day!

If you love carrot soup, try it!  You can add what you like…coconut milk, ginger, yogurt….what ever you like.  I just wanted a Thai peanut, very spicy, carrot soup! And I mean spicy…which you can omit!  Here are the steps; if you decide to make it also and add your delights; please share!

Happy New Year!

2 pounds of peeled carrots, 1 large sweet Vidalia onion, 2 tbsp of minced garlic, hot chili pepper flakes, peanut butter and 1 granny smith apple + Sriracha.  It will make about close to 1 quart and 1/2 of soup.

In a Dutch Oven, saute onions, apple, garlic in one teaspoon of hot coconut oil (about 2 – 3 minutes).

 

Add all the carrots and it’s ok to eat some while they go in!

Add 1 box of Vegetable broth (or any broth you like) and simmer for 20- 30 minutes; until carrots are tender.

Once tender, now puree! Either a food processor or hand Immersion blender.

You want to have a smooth consistency!

Now you add the peanut butter, blend then taste! A little salt, basil and hot chili flakes, then taste again. Then judge is it to your liking.

For me! Not all, I added more Sriracha hot sauce!

Add to a beautiful bowl. Topped with chopped basil and more hot sauce!

 Letia 🙂

The peanut butter is added last. For those who are allergic to nuts; it can be skipped without compromising the taste you want for a wonderful carrot soup!

Photos taken by Letia Mitchell LifeStyle & Design®