Kurby's Kitchen

This morning, I woke up extra early (aka 9ish a.m.) to bake a small batch of oatmeal banana bread, courtesy of (yes yes, I know, I know) Joy the Baker.  

The occasion?  My best friend, Sophie, is currently on a plane to Africa (well, technically Amsterdam, but after five brief hours in the real Holland, she’ll be reboarding a plane bound for Kenya).  This recipe was the perfect breakfastyish, healthyish, car-ride-to-Detroitish snack.

Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread (My Modified version)

Makes 1 loaf or a dozen muffins

-1 cup whole wheat flour

-1/4 cup all-purpose flour

-1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

-1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp baking soda

-1/4 tsp baking powder

-1/2 tsp cinnamon

-dash of nutmeg

-1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats

-3 Tbsp Greek yogurt

-2 large eggs, beaten

-3 large bananas, super ripe

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together all dry ingredients.

In a smaller bowl, mash bananas with a potato masher or fork.  Add yogurt and eggs.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.  Batter will be fairly thick.  A splash of milk can be added.

Pour/scoop batter into pan and bake until the top is firm to the touch (45-50 minutes for a loaf of 15-20 minutes for muffins).  Remove from oven and cool in the pan for 5 minutes.  Flip out and cool on a wire rack for at least another 10 minutes.  Nom and enjoy!

I made bubble tea!

It was good.

It was cheap.

It was easy.

(TWSS).

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One trip to the Asian grocery store I never knew existed and $1.99 later, I was filling up a pot with water to boil.  Here’s how I made this delicious iced coffee bubble tea, step by step:

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Serves 4

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Tapioca Bubbles:

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In a medium saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a rolling boil.  Pour in 1/2 cup of tapioca pearls and stir softly for a couple of minutes (until the powdery coating has gone and the pearls have plumped up).  Then, turn the heat down to medium, cover the saucepan, and let the pearls cook for 4 minutes.  Immediately drain and rinse with a gentle stream of warm water.  Set aside.

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I decided to make a chocolate-y iced coffee - something like a mocha Frappuccino.  Bubbles can be added to any drink: a fruity tea, iced tea, orange juice, lemonade, milk tea… the possibubbleteas are endless!

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• 1 1/2 cups strong coffee
• 2 cups milk
• 5 tablespoons granulated sugar (if you use an artificial sweetener or Truvia, use 2-3 tablespoons as they are usually more sweet than natural sugar).
• 2 tablespoons hot fudge sauce or 4 tablespoons chocolate syrup
• 12 ice cubes

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Blend everything but the ice, then add the ice and finish blending until it’s liquid smooth.

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Scoop your preferred amount of bubble into a clear glass and pour in the coffee.  Grab a spoon and drink/eat away!

Have you visited Joy the Baker?  She’s kind of the greatest thing to happen to food since schools started selling raw cookie dough.  Anyhooverville, I decided to make her Spicy Chickpea Salad today because the gorgeous collage she put up was too reminiscent of Anna Maria Island - my favorite spring break destination.  After picking up a few ingredients that we didn’t have on hand, I got to work.

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Except, there’s really not that much work involved in this salad.  Technically, you could make this with a knife and fork.  I used a few tools - like a mortar and pestle, microplane, and juicer - only because I had them on hand and, indeed, because they made the job a tad bit easier.  But you’re talking to someone whose dorm made a key lime pie by hand.  You really can skip those handy helpers if you must.

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A few modifications - I skipped out on the jalepeño pepper because, quite franky, they’re too expensive ($2 per tiny pepper!).  According to my mom, we had some frozen (if you haven’t already learned, the freezer is my mom’s best friend), but I didn’t want mushy jalepeño ruining an otherwise delicious salad, so I omitted the fiery fiend.  I went with cashews instead of almonds and honey instead of agave - not really because of personal preference, but because we didn’t have the other options on hand.  However, I did buy the whole grain mustard.  It’s was only $1.50 and worth it - the mustard is a key flavor to the dressing and too much of a good thing would be the result of putting in pungent yellow mustard.

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Make it! Just do it! Stop walking towards that industrial-style shelving unit in your room to grab an Easy Mac.  If my dining hall is pretty typical, you could “steal” the following from yours: garbanzo beans, red onion, olive oil, spinach leaves (all from the salad bar), honey (from the tea station) and maybe even the lemon (just fill a cup up with those pieces they put by the water).  Your salad bar might even have a red wine dressing that you could substitute for the red wine vinegar.  If you really want, you could hit up Whole Foods, but only if you’re willing to dish out at least $15.  One of the greatest things you’ll learn at college: the value of Tupperware.  Use it, y’alls.

First REAL food post!  Collective ‘hurray!”

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I made tonight’s dinner because my mom had to work both jobs today (she’s been at it since 8am… a moment of silence for those incredible beings we call mom).  She left out some thawed chicken breasts and told me to “do whatever” with them.  She suggested I do something Parmesan-y, which I (obviously) agreed to.  RULE: If you are ever forced to decide between cooking something “Parmesan-y” or cooking something that is NOT “Parmesan-y” YOU ALWAYS CHOOSE THE FORMER.  Parmesan cheese is good, ok?

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I Googled “parmesan chicken” and found a delightfully easy recipe from allrecipes.com.  I cut it down by half since I only had 3 chicken breasts; however, I still cooked the chicken for the full 30 minutes and they came out perfectly.

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For the salad, I simply added baby spinach leaves to a raw veggies mix my mom made up yesterday.  It’s filled with crisp and flavorful veggies like cauliflower, bell peppers, and snap peas. *It’s called “Green Thumb Salad” because the peas came from my mom’s garden.  She harvests a ridiculous amount of green vegetables in the summer and freezes them until… well, basically until she gets fresh ones next summer.  I then looked up a recipe for Italian dressing and found one named (to my delight) “Olive Garden Italian Salad Dressing.”  Yes, it came gloriously close to recreating the tangy yet smooth dressing that coats that addicting Olive Garden “never-ending” salad.  I modified it by leaving out the raw egg and pectin.  I used a whisk, but if you have time to quickly blend this dressing, it would save it from the dreaded “cheese-at-the-top-liquid-at-the-bottom” syndrome that plagues chunkier dressings.  I also halved this because I only needed it for two small salads - obviously, there was still some leftover (perfect for the extra salad in the fridge).

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The bread is a delicious whole grain baguette I think my mom picked up at Family Fare.  To “doctor it up,” simply brush on a mixture of melted butter and olive oil (about 2 parts olive oil to 1 part melted butter).  Sprinkle with some rosemary and oregano to complement the seasonings of the chicken and salad dressing.  Don’t salt and only a little black pepper.  This is bread, not a 20 oz. sizzler.

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To end on a sweet note, I topped some Oikos plain 0% fat Greek yogurt with banana slices, roasted peanuts, and cinnamon sugar.  The cinnamon sugar really balanced out the tanginess of the yogurt and the mushy bananas were so good with the peanuts.  Then again, anything banana and anything peanuts go together.  Sadly, I didn’t take a picture (we ate it too quickly, anyways).

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And so went today’s dinner.  If your mom works, give her a break and make this eazy-peazy meal for her.  She’ll love you even more than she does when she has to make dinner and you’re Facebook stalking your high school teacher.