Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Here is the awaited post!

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yummy and Delicious Banana Cake topped with an even yummier Cream Cheese Frosting! If you haven’t picked up on it by now…I LOVE cream cheese frosting!!

The Recipe was very simple. I made the two round cakes one day, then frosted them the next day when I intended to use/eat them.  It didn’t take very long and made a delicious dessert. I will definitely pull this one out again! If you’re interested, you can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients
-3 cups all-purpose flour
-2 cups sugar
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp salt
-3 eggs, beaten
-3/4 cup vegetable oil
-4 large ripe bananas, mashed
-1 cup pecans, chopped
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, room temp
-1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temp
-1 lb powdered sugar
-1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Cake
1. Grease 2 round cake pans and set aside. Preheat oven to 350F or 175C
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Then add the beaten eggs and oil. Stire until the dry ingredients are just moistened – don’t go crazy here, less is more.  Stir in the banana, and pecans and 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla.
3. Divide up the batter between the two pans and back for approximately 25 minutes – until a toothpick or knife comes out clean.
4. Cool the cake layers in their pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out on the rack to cool completely. While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting.
Frosting
1.  Blend together the cream cheese and butter. Gradually add in the powdered sugar and beat until it’s all light and fluffy. Beat in 1 tsp of vanilla.
2. Put a layer of frosting on top of one layer of cake, then put the next cake on top. Then frost the top and sides!
3. Top with nothing or anything (more pecans, sprinkles, chocolate, etc)

Notes
-If you don’t have pecans, you can substitute for any other type of nut, or nothing if you prefer.

Chicken Chorizo Paella

Chicken Paella

It was recommended to me a few weeks back to make a Paella dish. I’ve seen this on some of those cooking shows before – but they always seem to layer it up with fish…and I hate fish, so I’d never really considered making it.  Then a lady from church told me about a recipe that she used – and there was no fish in it – so I decided to give it a try. Now admitted, I can’t remember the recipe she actually said to me, but I just googled and looked around at a few other blogs until I found one that looked like it could be pretty tasty.

It was super quick, super easy, and I could see this becoming a regular dish! James liked it too…although he’s not much of a food critic for me – he basically eats anything I give him and I don’t remember hearing him say he hasn’t liked anything (even when I think it’s been awful!).

Here is the recipe I found on BBC Good Food, and below is my slightly altered version.

Ingredients
500g chicken breasts (either chop them up small or get mini fillets)
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken broth
2 carrots (chopped)
1/2 medium sized broccoli (chopped)
1 red pepper (chopped)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Thyme
115g Chopped Chorizo

Directions

1. In a large frying pan, cook the chicken on medium high heat. Once it is browned add in a bit of onion powder, garlic powder and thyme. Let cook for a minute or so.

2. Add the rice, stock, and chorizo to the chicken. Bring to a boil then cover and let sit for about 10-15 minutes.

3. Add in the vegetables and cook uncovered for another 10ish minutes on medium to high until the liquid is absorbed by the rice.

 

Notes
I used garlic and onion powder as it’s what I had, but you could use an chopped onion and minced garlic if you prefer.

 

Then I made chocolate cheesecake for dessert…recipe to come later!

Chicken Divan

I tend to forget about this recipe…but when I do pull it out, it’s always a favourite!

Sadly, last night we had a “goodbye” dinner with a good friend. Unfortunately, her partner is in the army and they are being re-posted!  This is the problem with living near an army base – making friends who are only around for 2 years.  But we are excited for her as she’s starting the next part of her adventure – but we’ll miss her.

We thought to make it simple, so no one was stuck in the kitchen all night instead of chatting, we’d each just bring a part of dinner and come with it already prepared. Since I’m off on a Monday I volunteered to do the main course. So I pulled out this handy recipe! Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture as we were in a bit of rush, and then when we go there it didn’t last very long before I had an empty pan! Next time, I’ll remember to take the time to snap up a picture!

This is a recipe I’ve learned from my mom. I can’t actually find the original recipe anymore…so this may not be exactly as she makes it, but close enough and it still tastes delicious!

Ingredients

-1kg Chicken Breasts, chopped into bite sized pieces
-1 Package frozen broccoli
-1 Can of Cream Soup (Chicken, Broccoli, Mushroom, Broccoli & Stilton, etc)
-1 Soup Can of Milk
-Cheese, Grated
-2 cups Bread Crumbs
-2 Tbsp Butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450F.
2. Cook chicken in a frying pan
3. Once cooked, put the chicken and frozen broccoli into a large oven safe dish. Make sure they are fairly evenly distributed.
4. Mix together Soup and Milk then add over the chicken and broccoli
5. Put grated cheese over the top (however much or little you like)
6. Mix the melted butter and the bread crumbs. Then add over the top of the dish.
7. Put into the oven for about 25 minutes – Done!

Notes

-I’ve only ever made this with Cream of Chicken or Broccoli & Stilton soup, but I’ve seen other recipes using other ones. As long as it’s a cream based soup, it will go fine!
-You can make your own bread crumbs…even if you’ve forgotten to leave them out long enough to harden up…by taking a few slices of bread and breaking it up and leaving it out for a few hours and/or pop into a slightly heated oven. When ready to use, pull them apart even more then add the butter. The cooking process will make them crispy!