Moist banana bread

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

No need for a mixer for this banana bread recipe.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.
Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla.
Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.
Add the flour last, mix.
Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.
Bake for 1 hour.
Cool on a rack.
Remove from pan and slice to serve

Corn bread

Ingredients

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 cup yellow cornmeal
* 2/3 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 egg
* 1 cup milk
* 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk and vegetable oil until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

rolls

KitchenAid Sixty-Minute Dinner Rolls
Adapted from a recipe found on The Bumbling Baker
Erin’s Note: This recipe yields 24 large dinner rolls. If you don’t want 24 rolls kicking around your house I would definitely halve the recipe.

1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons butter
3 packages of dry active yeast (Erin’s Note: This equals 6 3/4 teaspoons if you use yeast from a jar).
1 1/2 cups warm water (105F – 115F)
5 – 6 cups all-purpose flour

In a small saucepan, stir milk, sugar, salt and butter together. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool until lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 1/2 cups flour to yeast mixture, and using a dough hook, mix on low speed for about 1 minute. With the mixer still going, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix about 1 1/2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Knead on low speed for about 2 more minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic – the dough will still be slightly sticky to the touch.

Place dough in a greased bowl, turning it to grease the top. Cover the dough with a clean, dry dish towel, and let it rise in a warm place, free from draft, for about 15 minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into 24 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball, and place in a greased muffin pan. Using kitchen shears or a pizza cutter (a knife will also work), cut each ball in half, then in quarters, and replace in the muffin pan. (Erin’s Note: Alternatively you can simply shape the dough into 24 balls and set them into a greased 9 by 13 baking dish. If you make the full recipe you will only be able to fit around 12 rolls in the baking dish at a time). Cover the muffin pan with the dish towel, and let the dough rise for about 15 minutes.

Bake at 425ºF for 12 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown. Remove from pans immediately, and cool on wire racks. (Erin’s Note: At this point, in my family, we always brush the tops with a little butter

Taco Soup: brown a pound of meat, drain. add a medium onion and saute one min...add 1 tbsp taco seasoning, 16 oz can corn (don't drain), 16 oz kidney bean (drain and rinse), 28 oz can stewed tomatoes (don't drain), 8 oz tomato sauce. sim...mer 20-30 min. top with cheese, cornchips, freetos, sour cream, or anything else. we do a side of corn bread or mini corn muffins.

Chicken/Rice Burritos: large skillet cook 2 1/2 c chicken (or one can chicken) and shred. add 3/4 c rice (uncooked), 1/4 c taco seasoning, 1 3/4 c water, 8oz tomato sauce. boil, cover, simmer 20 min. add large tomato (or can of tomato) and 1/3 green onion (or some dried onion to taste). serve on tortilla. I add refried beans, sour cream and salsa but anything is fine.

Taco soup

Taco Soup
1 lb ground beef
½ cup onion, chopped
1 cup water
1 quart tomatoes, cut up
16 ounces kidney beans, undrained
16 ounces chili beans, undrained
8 ounces tomato sauce
16 ounces can corn, undrained
1 envelope taco seasoning mix


Brown ground beef with onion, drain fat. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 1 hour. Serve over corn chips, sour cream and grated cheese.

Chili

Ingredients

* 1 pound ground beef
* 1 onion, chopped
* 1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans
* 1 1/2 cups water
* 1 pinch chili powder
* 1 pinch garlic powder
* salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the beef and onion and saute until meat is browned and onion is tender. Add the stewed tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, beans and water.
2. Season with the chili powder, garlic powder, salt and ground black pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes.

Suggestions

This is the quickest thing I have made for dinner in a long time. However, I like my chili on the thicker side, and this chili was a little too watery. To solve this problem, I added half a can of tomato paste, and this made it perfect. I also added just a little extra chili powder because I wanted it to be a little spicier. Because I didn't have stewed tomatoes, I used canned diced tomatoes instead. They were just as good and gave the chili a nice flavor. I have already made this for dinner twice, and I plan on making it a staple in my recipe collection. It's great served with a portion of baguette.



It has snowed 5 feet here in Denver and I really wanted chili tonight. I can't believe how easy this was!!! It was sooooooooooooo good. I can't believe it. I tastes like I worked all day on it. I did make a few changes, I only put 1c. of water, and put about 1TB of chili powder. When I browned the meat I put 2 cloves of garlic in with onion. This was the tastiest dinner I've had! Thanks!

chicken enchiladas

For my chicken enchiladas, I mix up a cup of sour cream, 1 can diced green chilis, and 2 cans cream of chicken, then spread half of the mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Then I roll shredded chicken and cheese (sometimes I mix green oni...ons in with the cheese, gives it more of a Mexicany taste) in tortillas (between 8-10, depending on how much you smash them together), and layer those on top of the sour cream mixture. Then spread the rest of the sour cream mixture on top of the tortillas, sprinkle a little cheese and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. A staple at our house...