A Rather Long Post

Today, after school, I came home and made Banana-Strawberry Sourdough Bread. I knew that I had to do something with my sourdough starter and we had some spotted and lonely bananas sitting on the counter, so I decided to make the bread from this post. As I was mashing the bananas I saw a box of strawberries on the counter and added a couple. Another change I made was that I used two leftover egg whites in place of the egg(I’ll get to that recipe later)and substituting one cup of oats for a cup of the flour. Lastly, I added a dash of ginger, cloves, allspice and nutmeg to the mix. The bread is still in the oven, so I don’t know quite how it will taste yet, but it smells so good.

The egg whites that I mentioned earlier were leftover from a pineapple meringue pie that I made. I used the recipe off of the Tasty Kitchen Blog and entered it in a pie-baking contest. Sadly, I did not win anything,darn those professional pie bakers( just kidding). I had a good time though and got to test out the pie recipe before I entered it.  It was very good, the filling was not chunky or over pineapple-y.

The last thing that I have to post food wise is a linkback to my lentil soup recipe. It is Soup-a-Palooza and you should come join Soup-a-Palooza at TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers.

Now on to the non-food portion of this post. As I did last week, this week I am posting five food related products from zazzle.com. Enjoy!

Click for Link

Click for Link

Click for Link

Click for Link

 

Click for Link

~thechildcooks 

P.S. We just had the bread for dinner and it was really good.

Sourdough Banana-Strawberry Bread

1/3 cup oil

2 egg whites

1 1/2 cups mashed banana

A few mashed strawberries

1 cup sourdough starter(remember:feed you starter afterwords!)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Dash of cloves, ginger, nutmeg and allspice

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup oats

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan. In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil and sugar. Add and mix in the egg then stir in the banana/strawberries, starter and vanilla. Ad the dry mix gradually, being careful not to overmix. Bake in oven for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the loaf comes out clean. Remove from pan onto a rack to cool immediately after coming out of the oven.

Lentil Soup by Me

Serves 8-10

The Stock

3 quarts of water

2 large carrots,chopped

2 stalks of celery,cubed

1/2   of a medium onion,chopped

4 cloves of garlic,chopped

Salt and Pepper

The Soup

1 1/2 cups of lentils

2 large potatoes, cubed

2 carrots,cut thin

1 cup chopped spinach

15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained

Put the 3 quarts of water into a 4 quart pot and heat on medium heat. In a saucepan, sweat the onions and garlic until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add to the water. In the same pan, sweat the carrots and celery until soft, 4-5 minutes and add to the pot. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and pepper to your taste. Cover and let cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Strain to remove all small particles and then return to pot.

To the vegetable stock, add the lentils and let cook for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare remaining ingredients. After 10 minutes, add the cubed potatoes and let cook for another 10 minutes. Add the carrots and continue to cook for 10 minutes. After the last 10 minutes has ended, add the spinach and tomatoes. Let cook for another 5-10 minutes or until potatoes and lentils are cooked. Serve hot with bread and a light salad.

Lentil Soup

As it was the weekend, I had more time to do what I love:homework! No, just kidding, that should really be cooking. I made dinner for my family out of some common kitchen staples. After doing another thing I loved-searching food blogs- I came up with enough to make my own simple recipe for yummy and healthy lentil soup. Even though I scaled the recipes down, it still make an incredibly large amount of soup, some of which went to my grandmother and more of which is going to my neighbour. This soup goes very well with a slice(or two, or three, or well, nevermind)of home-made sourdough bread. Just a note, but you may want to add more spices to your soup, because my family is slightly bland.

~thechildcooks

Lentil Soup by Me

Serves 8-10

The Stock

3 quarts of water

2 large carrots,chopped

2 stalks of celery,cubed

1/2   of a medium onion,chopped

4 cloves of garlic,chopped

Salt and Pepper

The Soup

1 1/2 cups of lentils

2 large potatoes, cubed

2 carrots,cut thin

1 cup chopped spinach

15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained

Put the 3 quarts of water into a 4 quart pot and heat on medium heat. In a saucepan, sweat the onions and garlic until soft, 3-4 minutes. Add to the water. In the same pan, sweat the carrots and celery until soft, 4-5 minutes and add to the pot. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and pepper to your taste. Cover and let cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Strain to remove all small particles and then return to pot.

To the vegetable stock, add the lentils and let cook for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare remaining ingredients. After 10 minutes, add the cubed potatoes and let cook for another 10 minutes. Add the carrots and continue to cook for 10 minutes. After the last 10 minutes has ended, add the spinach and tomatoes. Let cook for another 5-10 minutes or until potatoes and lentils are cooked. Serve hot with bread and a light salad.