What's for supper? Cold day, warm food

On our "calendar of firsts" would be the first (short) snowfall of the year.  Tonight's dinner menu:

Reuben Chicken, made with bone-in chicken breasts (that is, sauerkraut in the bottom of the casserole, then chicken, then some Thousand Island dressing; bake till done)
Sweet potatoes
Peas
Whole wheat bread from the bread machine

Banana cake made with this muffin recipe (muffin batter baked in a 9 x 13 pan; we leave out the chocolate chips)

What's for supper? Good for what ails you

Or me, as the case may be.

Chicken thighs Adobo, in the slow cooker
Rice
Frozen mixed veg with peppers, asparagus, spinach, and things like that

Fancy-glass desserts made of the last bits of banana bread, a sliced banana, and a little dollop of fudge sauce made of some chocolate chips microwaved with a bit of cream.

What's for supper? 4 S's

Tonight's dinner menu:

Smoked Sausage with Sauerkraut
Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans

Strawberry-Banana Soft Serve (frozen bananas, strawberries and yogurt put through the food processor)

P.S.  Green Beans don't start with S, but they count because they were Schnippeled.  But I didn't schnippel them, Green Giant did.

What's for supper? Pizza chicken

Tonight's menu:

Pizza chicken (cut-up chicken breasts cooked with canned pizza sauce, green peppers, and mozzarella cheese)
Whole-wheat spaghettini

Banana-Bread Sundaes (a fancy-dessert-glass concoction of a bit of banana bread, a bit of mostly-thawed banana, a bit of mostly-thawed yogurt, a spoonful of peach jam, and some frozen strawberries warmed in the microwave)

What's for supper? Turkey fajitas and corn

Tonight's dinner menu:

Turkey fajitas, with green peppers, sour cream, and grated cheddar
Corn on the cob, in the pressure cooker

Banana cake, baked in the toaster oven, and made with butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips (usually we leave the chips out altogether, so this was a  special treat)

Banana cake, a little different

Ponytails asked me to post about this because she said it was amazing.

Ingredients:  1 batch standard muffin batter (I added a teaspoon of vanilla); two sliced bananas; one cup chocolate chips.

Directions:  Scrape half the muffin batter into a greased 8-inch pan.  Top with sliced bananas and chocolate chips.  Cover with remaining batter (it's okay if it doesn't quite cover).  Bake at 350 degrees for about half an hour or until it tests done.

If you eat a piece of the cake still warm from the oven, the chocolate chips will be gooey and the bananas will have that slightly strange, hot, cooked taste (like a baked banana) that some people like and some people really don't.

But if you chill it, the chocolate chips revert to a rich kind of cold chocolate chunkiness, turning the whole deal into a chocolate-banana-muffin-sandwich-cake.

You could probably get the same results with individual muffins.

So if you ever start making plain muffins and decide too late that you would rather have had banana bread, or just want a change, try it this way.

What's for supper? Fish and veggies

Tonight's supper:

Baked Alaskan pollock (frozen block of fish)
1 large sweet potato, sliced and baked
Canned black beans, baked along with the sweet potato
Kale
Reheated couscous
Cottage cheese
Banana mini-muffins

What's for dinner?

Earl's Soup (Potage Paysanne)--lots of chopping but worth the effort...and probably the only time all year that I buy leeks

Frozen pizza in the toaster oven (could have been garlic breadsticks, or Peasant Bread, or rolls, or just toast, but we got the pizza on sale and it seemed like it would bulk up a meal of what is basically vegetable soup)

Banana-peach freeze (frozen bananas and a bit of peach jam run through the food processor, with plain yogurt added if needed to make it run better) (could have been fresh bananas, but we don't have any)

Wheat-free banana bread/muffins (thanks DHM)

The Deputy Headmistress posted this recipe yesterday for wheat-free banana bread that uses oat flour (what you get when you run rolled oats through the blender or food processor). I tried it out this morning with a couple of changes: I used half a cup of brown sugar, oil instead of margarine, beaten egg whites instead of whole eggs (only because I had them in the fridge), and baked it in mini-muffin pans instead of having to bake one big loaf for an hour. You could bake regular-sized muffins too. I got about 20 half-sized ones out of that amount of batter, so you would probably get ten good-sized regular ones, or twelve if you're careful.

They rose very well and have a nice nutmeggy flavour. Thank you DHM!

What's for supper? (Leftover pork and a twist on banana cake)

What we had to work with: leftover pork, leftover perogies, leftover roasted potatoes, leftover gravy. Frozen vegetables. Two frozen bananas and a cupful of mango-yogurt freeze.

What we did with them:

Scalloped Pork Casserole

Cut the pork, potatoes and perogies into smaller pieces. Combine in a large casserole and cover with gravy (adding extra liquid if you don't have enough gravy). Add a chopped onion if you're going to be baking it long enough to cook the onion through--otherwise you might want to saute the onion first. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake until everything is cooked/heated through and most of the gravy is absorbed. Add some sour cream if you want, and let that heat through as well. You could also do this whole thing on top of the stove.

Frozen Green Beans

Put beans in water. Bring to a boil. Eat.

Canned Beans in Sauce

To stretch the meal and make the youngest Squirreling happy. It also kind of went with the pork.

Tangerines and Mango-Banana Cake

I made a guess about whether to use the standard 2 tsp. baking powder or switch to the baking powder/soda combination that you use for more acid mixtures; I think I guessed right because the cake rose well and had a good texture. We have a few pieces left for breakfast too.

Ingredients:

2 bananas (I used somewhat thawed frozen ones) and 1 cupful of mango/yogurt puree, somewhat thawed
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Small amount of additional liquid
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup brown sugar

Mash, cut up or otherwise combine the fruit, and blend it with the egg, vanilla and oil. Mix the dry ingredients separately and add to the fruit, adjusting liquid as needed. (I added just a little water.) Bake in a greased 8-inch square pan for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees, testing with a toothpick. (This one took about 40 minutes.) This could also be baked as muffins, at 375 to 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.