Good Eats

Now that my hectic spring teaching semester is behind me, I am trying to get my cooking groove back. I love to cook and I particularly enjoy trying new recipes. I imagine a psychologist would conclude that I enjoy cooking as a creative outlet that I am in complete control of. I have a few months worth of Cooking Light magazines that were neglected during the recent months, and I can't wait to dive back in.

Here are two dishes that I made recently. I think these turned out beautifully and I can see them becoming regulars in our house. The hyperlinks should take you to the original sources if you are interested in the recipes.

First up, a healthy and easy salad from www.recipegirl.com: Avocado Pine Nut Salad. This salad sounds basic, but for some reason the combination of ingredients with the dressing just sings and tastes amazingly fresh. I used a mixture of spring lettuce, romaine, shredded carrot, thinly sliced red onion, diced fresh mozzarella (made fresh daily at Central Market), toasted pine nuts, cherry tomatoes, and diced avocado. The dressing is made with olive oil, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. I also added a dash of dried italian seasoning and some fresh basil from my pot on the back porch. I suspect the squirrels are trying to kill my herb plants (basil and cilantro) so I want to enjoy them while they last! 

Next is a delicious quick bread recipe from the Cooking Light cookbook my mom gave me for my birthday last year: Peanut Butter Banana Bread.

This bread is a delicious treat! Plus, it's relatively healthy, or at least much better for you than your average quick bread. I followed the recipe for the bread closely, except that I used slightly less sugar (maybe about 1/8 cup less), I added a handful of semisweet chocolate chips to the batter, and left the glaze off. Delicious! The nutrition facts state that a serving of this bread (a decent-sized slice, mind you) has less than 200 calories and a decent amount of protein from the peanut butter. I made this in mini loaf pans, and then sliced the bread into individual portions (wrapped in saran wrap) and froze the whole batch. Now I have to-go portions of a healthy snack to take out whenever I need them.