Foods of late summer's past...

Well, it's been awhile. Again. People seem to be asking me if I'm still cooking, and despite the inaction on the blog, I am! Really.

Summer was a bit crazy. Work of course (that's one thing that's different from when I was in school). Not working, but real work. Grown-up work. And then we had a sort of spur-of-the-moment move that ended up not being quite as quick and easy as we initially thought it would be. But the good news is we now have a new kitchen to play in! Packing all our kitchen equipment and utensils in is a bit of a puzzle, but it's working for us.

Above photo courtesy of Evelyn Kritler.

There were also some lovely trips down to Oregon and to the coast with my family for our annual trip to Arch Cape. We had fun cooking for the family again this year, but the food pictures are definitely lacking from that week of the summer, unfortunately. However, Zack had an incredible cooking endeavor...think homemade marshmallows. Uh yes. He had talked about it for awhile and I'll admit, I was kind of like, "whatever." Call me crazy, but I am not the hugest marshmallow fan. When we have s'mores at the coast, I'd rather just eat the graham crackers and maybe a couple pieces of chocolate. Ha. Well, let's just say...huge success. And Zack's cool factor increased even more so after that trip.

Pearl barley risotto with corn, parmesan, basil, and sliced turkey breast.

The photos you see here are just a scattering of some yummy things we made in August and September. My first risotto (with pearl barley), which consisted of a lot of standing in the kitchen whilst stirring. There was also some killer chicken salad, a recipe for which I need to re-find in a library book that has been returned. We had some really tasty grilled sandwiches; one had ham, thinly sliced granny smith apple, and swiss cheese. Lots of muffins..."French toast muffins" (which didn't really taste like French toast, but were very delicious), banana chocolate chip muffins (best banana muffin recipe I've found thus far), and blueberry cornmeal muffins (which was just a must taking my corn obsession into consideration).  Whole wheat penne with skinny asparagus and tomatoes. Salmon with a cilantro sauce and carrot quinoa to name another. I'm telling you, Costco has wild salmon fish fillets (packaged separately and frozen), and it's a good way to go. Pull out a few fillets at a time and it's always fresh. We just got some halibut, so you may see some creations with that coming soon.

Healthier chicken salad sandwiches.

Ham, swiss, and granny smith apple grilled sandwiches with succotash.

"French toast" muffins.

Banana chocolate chip muffins.

Blueberry cornmeal muffins.

Whole wheat penne with skinny asparagus, tomatoes, and basil.

Salmon with cilantro sauce and carrot quinoa.

Moving on. I'm on a new endeavor. Meal planning. Okay, I know this is making me sound ultra-organized and maybe slightly obsessive compulsive, and I was thinking the same thing until I read this Seattle Times article titled How to create a customized meal plan. And yes, this article is probably geared towards families or people with kids, but whatever, what they talk about is really helpful.

Now I'm not going crazy with this, but I have extracted a few great ideas from this article. It makes a lot of sense to create a sort of "weekly menu" and then save these menus (if they turn out to be good) to re-use in the future. I mean if you think about it, sifting through recipes and really planning for meals takes time. Especially if you are trying to eat healthily, and even more so if you shop at multiple places to save money and/or to buy fresh. So obviously this could get really boring if you just use your old menus and don't continue to search for new ways to cook and new ingredients to try. But I'm not too worried about that. Be back soon. Cheers.

Banana-Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

When you see those overripe bananas going brown, I know the first thing you think of is banana bread. Well, at least I do. But now, I have options. Because I've found this incredible banana cookie; thanks to Martha Stewart's Cookies.

Chopped walnuts and rolled oats provide a great texture, and the combination of two classics (banana bread and the chocolate chip cookie) is unbeatable. Especially if you use super ripe bananas; the flavor is concentrated and that much more rich and tasty as a result.

Just be sure to mix well. I'm always trying not to over mix my cookie dough. I don't know why. But then you may end up with a bite of baking soda when you're expecting delicious cookie. I think I'm going to dump my dry ingredients through a sieve (even if the recipe doesn't mention sifting) from now on. It works really nicely for not only breaking apart chunks, but for providing an even distribution of the ingredients prior to mixing as well.

If you like banana bread and chocolate chip cookies, then this might be a dream...

Banana Crunch Muffins

Okay. After all my muffin research, I have come to the conclusion that Ina Garten's Banana Crunch Muffins are the best muffins ever. They are. Hands down. There's no question about it. And Zack agrees.

They are definitely a dessert muffin, but they are large and hearty. They're sweet; the flavor of the banana is so bold and the coconut contributes enough. There's mashed bananas, diced bananas, and banana chips in these. When I saw the recipe and that it called for nuts, granola, and banana chips, I knew that I wanted to use Bear Naked banana nut granola. I know you can find it at Trader Joe's. And it has all those things in it. Plus more: pure deliciousness. I think it made these muffins.

But the greatest thing about these is the crunch, not to mention the rich flavor. Sprinkle some of that granola on the muffins before you bake, and it will toast right up. I'll be making these again. And again. And again. Banana crunch muffins forever.

Banana-Oat Muffins

Yes. It's been a little while. I guess life goes on outside of keeping up this blog. There were a few nights of not too much cooking, and then I'm a little behind on my posts, but don't worry...we'll be on track in no time. Some good recipes coming your way!

First off, something simple. Banana-oat muffins. With a few little oats sprinkled on top, along with some brown sugar, these muffins make for some nice presentation. I've made quite a few sort of healthy muffins and breads in the last few months, but the one thing I'm sure of is they sort of taste the same. I'm on the hunt. The hunt for a delicious, but healthy, muffin. These, like the carrot-zucchini muffins I posted last, are good (don't get me wrong) but they don't have a lot of "wow" factor. However, if you just want something semi-sweet yet semi-healthy to munch on, such muffins are a great option!

You could really taste the banana in these. And I am so pro-banana. Put bananas on anything and it's delicious. You name it: pancakes or french toast, yogurt, cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, anything chocolate....okay, this list consists of mostly breakfast items, but still, they're so good. And such an amazing flavor. What is it about bananas?

One last note about baking muffins that contain fruit/vegetables. For goodness sake, just spray the paper liners with cooking spray. Just do it. Otherwise, you will be gnawing half of your muffin off the paper liner. But don't over-do it! If you soak the liners with muffin spray, the liners will not even be attached to your muffins when they come out of the oven. In such times, there was apparently no point in you even using them in the first place (as can be seen in the picture of my carrot-zucchini muffins). Maybe I'm the only one. But I have found that spraying muffin liners and the extent to which you do so, is a very fine line. So maybe this will help someone out. Although, it has been a great source of laughter for Zack and I, so maybe it's okay to mess up sometimes. :)