Banana Split Cake

I don't need to say much on this post, I will let the pictures do the work =).  This cake is incredible!  It's a bit more work than your average cake but totally worth it.  This is one of my favorite cakes!  It's a bit messy because there's so much goodness on top so it tends to slide a bit, if it does just use clean hands to keep it upright.  A banana split in cake form, it's purely divine.  Enjoy!

You may also like to try my recipe for Banana Split Cupcakes.  I liked those so much I had to make a cake version too =).

This slices wasn't as "clean," but you've got to love all that 

chocolate goodness dripping down the sides!

Banana Split Cake
Yields 9 servings


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large overripe bananas
1 tsp lemon juice
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 ripe bananas, sliced
1/4 cup chopped pecans 
9 cherries (optional)


Chocolate Ganache:
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream


Sweetened Whipped Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar


Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.  Mash bananas on a plate with a fork and stir in lemon juice, set aside.  In the bowl, using an electric mixer, whip together butter, sugar and sour cream until light and fluffy about 2 minutes.  Mix in egg and mashed bananas.  Stir in dry ingredients alternating with buttermilk and mix until well incorporated.  Pour mixture into buttered 8x8 baking dish and spread into an even layer.  Bake 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely, at least one hour, and for prime cake at least 3 hours or overnight (this helps the cake to "ripen," you know how banana bread is always better later that day or the next.  If cooling more than 1 hour cover with plastic wrap after 1 hour).  
Once cake is cool, in a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate chips and 1/4 cup heavy cream.  Microwave on 50% in 30 second intervals stirring after each interval, until melted and smooth.  Allow chocolate ganache to cool 5 minutes then pour, and spread evenly over cake.  Cover cake with plastic wrap and place on an even platform in freezer and freeze 20 minutes.  Once cool, place a layer of sliced bananas evenly over cake (you will probably have a few extra that you can use to garnish top of cake slices).  
In a mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, whip 1 cup heavy cream until soft peaks form then stir in powdered sugar.  Whip until stiff peaks form.  Dollop spoonfuls of whipped cream over cake and spread into an even layer.  Garnish with chopped pecans, cut into slices and garnish each slice with a banana and cherry if desired (cake topping tends to slide just a bit so if it does just use clean hands to keep the topping balanced, this is a banana split cake after all =).  Store cake in refrigerator, note whipped cream will begin to separate after a few hours so this cake is best served immediately after frosted.
Note: I found this cake had cleaner cut slices after being refrigerated for 30 minutes, but you don't get that drippy chocolate so you decide =).

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Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Healthy grilled cheese, say what!? Can those three words even go together? This sandwich is amazing! Anyone who is a fan of grilled cheese (or not) I suggest you convert to this method. You won't regret it. In my opinion this tastes even better than the original version that's slathered in butter.  You get more flavor and you feel better about eating it.  This is obviously just a recipe for your basic grilled cheese but there are so many variations you can add to this recipe.  You could add in tomatoes or spinach, or your favorite herbs and seasonings or you can just keep it basic like this. Try this recipe out today and it's likely you will become converted to this method, like I have, for life.  Your heart will thank you later =).  Also, keep in mind you can use your favorite cheese but for a lower calorie, less fat cheese Mozzarella may be your better option. 

Healthy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Yields 1 Sandwich

Ingredients:

2 slices whole wheat bread (preferably fresh)

Sliced Monterrey Jack, Muenster, Cheddar, or Mozzarella Cheese (enough to cover bread)

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Preheat a small nonstick fry pan over medium low heat. Place cheese slices (enough to cover bread) between 2 slices of wheat bread. Once fry pan is warm drizzle with 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, slightly tilt pan back and forth to evenly spread oil. Place sandwich in oil, cover with a lid and cook until bottom is golden, about 2 minutes. Then lift sandwich with a spatula an add remaining 1 tsp olive oil to fry pan. Flip sandwich and cook opposite side until golden. Serve immediately.

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Frozen Raspberry Custard

This frozen custard is like silky raspberry clouds, I love it!  I'm definitely going to be adding it to the ice cream recipes rotation list.  If you don't have an ice cream maker there is no better time to buy one than now =).  I use mine about every week and sometimes more.  To me it's a kitchen necessity.  I purchased the cuisinart 1 1/2 quart ice cream maker several years ago and it has gotten more than it's moneys worth.  I bought mine from Williams-Sonoma because it came with an extra freezer bowl which has actually come in quite handy when you want to make two different flavors of ice cream.  
One of my favorite flavors of ice cream is raspberry.  Since I make ice cream so often I experiment with different flavors and ingredients.  I came up with this recipe because I didn't have any fresh or even frozen raspberries on hand, but I was craving raspberry ice cream and all I had was raspberry jam.  I love that this recipe uses jam because it's already ready to go, no need to puree berries.  I used raspberry freezer jam that I made this past summer (for the most incredible raspberry freezer jam ever try out this recipe from Sure Jell).  Who knew the less sugar recipe would make better jam?  It's the best jam I've ever had.  This is also some of the best frozen custard I've ever had.  It's so smooth and dreamy, and you would think it was made with fresh raspberries!  Too bad every bit of  it is now totally gone, it went quick =). 
   

Frozen Raspberry Custard


Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 3/4 cup whole milk
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup seedless raspberry jam
1 1/2 tsp raspberry extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
Red food coloring, about 8 drops (optional)


Directions:
Combine cream and milk in a medium saucepan, and bring the mixture just to gentle boil over medium heat.  Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, with an electric hand mixer on medium speed, whip together egg yolks and sugar until very smooth and light in color about 1 minute.  Once cream mixture has reached a low boil reduce heat to medium low.  Measure out 1/2 cup hot cream mixture.  With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the 1/2 cup hot cream mixture into egg yolk mixture.  Once thoroughly combined, pour egg/cream mixture into saucepan with hot cream/milk mixture and stir to combine.  Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 3 -4 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in raspberry jam, raspberry extract, vanilla extract and optional food coloring.  Pour mixture into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic wrap directly against the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming.  Cool completely in the refrigerator.  Once completely chilled transfer bowl to freezer and freeze mixture 1 hour.  Pour lightly frozen mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer directions.  Pour custard into an airtight container and freeze 1 -2 hours until slightly firm (the frozen custard I'm used to is similar to soft serve but thicker).

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Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal

Who says healthy food can't taste absolutely, amazingly delicious?  This oatmeal is incredible!  I could eat it three meals a day =).  I was so in love with the banana oatmeal that I made last week (I've been eating it nearly every morning since) that I decided I wanted to try more variations on oatmeal because I'm suddenly an oatmeal lover.  So, I came up with this recipe.  This oatmeal tastes just like a cinnamon roll!  The incredible things about it are, it's much healthier, much quicker and it's even more figure friendly =).  You get all the goodness of a cinnamon roll in 5 minutes, rather than waiting around hours for those freshly baked, labor intensive rolls.  You'll even get a kitchen filled with the warm, reminiscent scent of cinnamon rolls.  Serve this up for your kids and it's likely you'll get them to eat their oatmeal everyday =).  Turn an oatmeal hater into an oatmeal lover with this Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal! 
        

Cinnamon Roll Oatmeal
Yields 1 serving


Ingredients:
1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp light-brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp molasses
Pinch salt
1/2 Tbsp butter (optional)


Icing:
1 Tbsp Cream Cheese or Neufchatel Cheese, softened
1 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp milk


Directions:
In a large microwave safe bowl, combine oats, milk, water, brown sugar, cinnamon, molasses, and salt.  Cook oatmeal mixture in the microwave for 3 1/2 minutes.  Remove from microwave, stir in optional butter and allow to cool several minutes.  Meanwhile, in a small bowl, using a fork, whisk together cream cheese, powdered sugar and milk until well blended. Drizzle or pipe icing over oatmeal (if you'd like to make the swirl as I did in the photos just make an light indentation in oatmeal with a chopstick, when it has cooled slightly, then pipe icing into indentation).  Sprinkle lightly with additional cinnamon if desired.  Serve warm. 
Additional serving suggestion: if you like chopped pecans or raisins in your cinnamon rolls feel free to sprinkle some in.

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Sugar Cookie Rice Krispie Treats

What can I say, I'm on a Rice Krispie Treat kick lately (if you've been following you may have noticed I've recently posted Cookies and Cream Rice Krispie Treats and Cinnamon Roll Rice Krispie Treats).  I LOVE Rice Krispie Treats!  They are so quick, simple and incredibly delicious.  The possibilities of different flavors are endless.  The great thing about these is that they taste like a sugar cookie but they don't take nearly as long to make!  They are two amazing treats in one.  These are fun for kids and adults alike and they're perfect treat for parties.  Just be sure you have someone to share with when you make these or you're going to want to eat them all on your own =).  
If you are wondering what to do with the remaining sugar cookie mix, just save it in an airtight ziploc bag to make these again another time.  Also, if you love sugar cookies and want another quick sugar cookie recipe try Sugar Cookie Squares, they're amazing I make them at least once a month.

Sugar Cookie Rice Krispie Treats
Yields 12 


Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 (10.5 oz) pkg miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix (unprepared)
6 cups Rice Krispies Cereal
1 Recipe Sugar Cookie Frosting, recipe follows
Sprinkles (optional)


Directions:
Butter a 9 x 13 dish, set aside. Melt butter in a large nonstick saucepan over medium low heat.  Stir in salt.  Add marshmallows and stir constantly until completely melted.  Remove from heat.  Stir in Sugar Cookie Mix.  Fold in Rice Krispies Cereal and stir until evenly coated.  Pour mixture into buttered dish.  Using a buttered spatula, spread mixture evenly into pan.  Allow to cool slightly, about 2 minutes, then cut into 12 squares.  Using your hands, round edges of squares by cupping your hands and gently pressing on corners (I also flattened them a bit but not necessary).  Frost each "cookie" with Sugar Cookie Frosting and sprinkle with optional sprinkles.  Store in an airtight container.


Sugar Cookie Frosting


Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
Pinch salt
2 cups powdered sugar
Food coloring (optional)


Directions:
In a mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, whip together butter, milk, vanilla, salt and powdered sugar until fluffy and smooth about one minute.  Mix in several drops optional food coloring, stir until well blended.

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