Home made Banana Bread

This is an old recipe handed down to me by the interwebs. It's actually one of the better tasting recipes I've found.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/3 cups mashed over ripe bananas
1 tablespoon molasses (optional) 

Preheat oven to 350, lightly grease a standard bread pan, and then prepare to make a mess. First mix the butter, brown sugar, and molasses together, then add your mashed bananas. Once all of this is thoroughly mixed, you can add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix until flour is completely incorporated into the batter. Now just dump into the bread pan and pop it in the oven for about an hour to an hour and ten minutes. Walla!! Banana Bread 8)

Navy Bean and Ham Soup

2 lbs dried navy beans
2 packets instant vegetable soup mix (I prefer Knorr's but Lipton will work almost as well)
1 lb ham or bacon (I have used everything from bacon to all types of ham to hot dogs, it's up to you)
1 large onion chopped
1 tbs crushed garlic
salt and pepper to taste

I make this in a 2 gal crock pot. Soak beans over night to soften. Rinse beans and add the rest of the ingredeints. Add water to fill crock about 1 inch from top. Let it simmer in the crock pot for 6 to 8 hrs or until beans are soft and easy to smoosh.

My Corn Bread Recipe

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


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Spray or lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan.
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.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meatloaf

3 lbs ground beef
1 large onion chopped
1 bell pepper chopped
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 + 1/2 cup ketchup
2 eggs (raw)
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tbs parsley flakes


Take all of these ingredients except the extra half cup of ketchup and mix them together in a big bowl(it's much easier to mix with bare hands than any other way). Once mixed, dump it into a 9x9 baking pan and flatten out to fill the whole pan evenly. Now take the extra half cup of ketchup and poor it on top and spread it out to cover the entire meatloaf. Bake at 350 for about an hour(your time may vary) or until the center is at 160 degrees. There will be grease in the pan once the meatloaf is cooked, so I drain it off before cutting up the loaf. slice to desired thickness and serve with either gravy ( my preferred condiment) or ketchup. This recipe will make enough to feed 5 or 6 hungry people if served with mashed potatoes

Guacamole

3 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup diced bell pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)

Make sure your avocados are a bit soft, if they are too firm they won't mash easily and won't taste as good. Once your avocados are mashed just mix in the rest of the ingredients and there you go 8)

Spaghetti Sauce

1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1 15oz can tomato sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 large onion chopped
1 large bell pepper chopped
5 or 6 medium mushrooms sliced
lots of garlic crushed or chopped
1 lb hamburger(optional)
1 lb ground hot Italian sausage(optional)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
1 cup red wine*
6 or 7 bay leaves
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil flakes(or you can use fresh for a better taste)
1/2 tsp paprika
dash celery seed
1 1/2 tbs salt
2 tsp pepper

This recipe is very simple to make. First you will need to brown and drain the hamburger and the ground sausage. You cal also substitute mild sausage for hot. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, you can just skip the meats and still have a very good sauce.

Once your meats are ready, it's just a matter of dumping everything into a 2 gal crock pot or slow cooker and set it at low for about 8 hours. stir everything up when you first get it in the pot and then after 2 hours stir once an hour for the next 6 or so hours. It will be done when all the veggies are soft to almost falling apart. This sauce is great over pasta or can be used as a base for various other dishes that require a red sauce.

Baked chicken with potatoes and vegetables

This one is pretty easy.

2 leg quarters or 4 boneless breasts
3 potatoes
1 med onion
1 roma tomato
1/4 bell pepper
1 can mushroom soup
1/2 cup chicken broth
garlic to taste
Montreal steak seasoning

Place chicken in 9x9 pan. Chop potatoes and fill pan with them. Chop onions, tomatoes and peppers and spread over potatoes and chicken. Season with steak seasoning and maybe a little paprika. Cover everything with mushroom soup mix and try to smear it over everything as best you can. bake for approx 1 hour at 375 degrees. once it's done baking take the chicken out a scrap excess mushroom soup back into pan. Take everything else and dump it into a sauce pan and add chicken broth and bring to a simmer. While simmering remove vegetables and potatoes. Simmer sauce till thickened. Wala!! you have dinner 8)