ARF/5-A-Day #45

Nicholas finally slept through the night last night. I don’t know what was in the meds the doc gave us yesterday, but whatever it is, it worked. Still coughing, but at least he was able to sleep. Baby steps. Getting him to chill a bit is another story. He is a whirling dervish of activity and fails to comprehend that running around = more coughing. Sigh. The life of a four-year-old. Of course, I have managed to get sick now too, as the beginning of a very unwelcome sore throat reared its ugly head this morning, bringing along congestion for good measure. To DayQuil I go.

Nicholas requested pizza for dinner tonight, and who am I to deny a sick child his wishes? ARF/5-A-Day be darned. Luckily the six, blacker-than-black bananas sitting on my counter saved the day, turning themselves into a double batch of Paula Deen’s Banana Bread. Her version is right up there with Nigella’s spiked recipe as the top two of Banana Breads out there, and goodness knows there’s thousands of recipes for it. Definitely a win-win-win situation – used up the bananas and saved them from garbage can fate, snuck in my entry for ARF/5-A-Day and now have something to munch on.

Let’s see what everyone else cooked up. Until tomorrow…

A year ago today… first day of vacation … hard to believe it’s been a year already!

Stacey from Just Braise was thinking bread too and made the very festive Cranberry Sweet Bread. I just got a mountain of groceries delivered last night, which includes two bags of cranberries that will be finding their way into this recipe later in the week. And speaking of Stacey, be sure to check out her new site, Just Praise.

A newcomer to our weekly roundup, it’s Paul from Cookies Et Cetera with the very healthy Northwoods Bran Muffins:

Transition to Vegan makes a dish of Fall-friendly Roasted Vegetables:

Another newcomer, this time from Australia, it’s Kathryn from Limes and Lycopene with some tummy-warming Corn Chowder:

Cooking, Stamping and Scrapping cooks by way of Donna Hay this week with her Roast Chicken with Honey Sweet Potatoes:

Cooking is Medicine celebrates the season with Autum Apple Crisp:

Albion Cooks shares a recipe for the very gorgeous Romanesca Cauliflower:

Love homemade pizza and this veggie one from Cook’s Hideout is packed with antioxidants:

And lastly, The Chocolate Lady from New York City bakes up a pie with the unique combination of chocolate and pumpkin:

Banana Bread
Recipe courtesy of Paula Deen

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar; mix well. Add the salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, baking powder and bananas. Mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes.