Blueberry Banana Bread

Since this is primarily a food blog, I guess I can start with talking about food, but I really want to bitch about inadequate kitchen lighting which caused my photos to look nasty and off-colored. But first the food. Now, like many bakers and cooks and, well, frankly anyone who enjoys creating pretty much anything (cars, paintings, bombs), the amount I bake or cook increases exponentially during times of stress. This is why I think the holidays are kind of nice. Not really because I love spending time with my always amicable family (eye roll), but because I have the joy of baking a smorgasbord of cookies and pies and such. Kitchen therapy is so much cheaper than an actual therapist.

That's where this blueberry bread came from. It's stress bread. Well, actually, it should be a chocolate chip banana bread (which gets baked in our house at least once a week), but I wanted to change it up. Pretty sure my family almost killed me for leaving out the chocolate, but before they could impale me with their swords, I shouted out all of the phytochemicals blueberries contain for like an hour and forced them to listen! They loved it. Truly. Hence why I am still alive.

Ok so I can bitch now right? I'm very disappointed with the lighting of the kitchen. These pictures look like I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Maybe I don't, but I promise, I'm working on it. One day, I'll probably win some pretty bad-ass photography awards or something. It's debatable, but I'm thinking I might be a prodigy. However, right now I just really hate these lights and am going to need to find a solution like buying a new house or some other highly logical solution.

Blah blah blah... but what all five of my readers really care about is the recipe. I know. I can hear you all right now yearning to know how to make this super delicious and healthy bread. Oh but I failed to say just how healthy it is! Blueberries! Whole wheat! Bananas! Applesauce! Low fat! Tender! Delicious! Amazing! Food of the gods!

If that didn't convince anyone, it's because nobody has read this blog...

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 scant tsp salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup apple sauce
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups blueberries (or chocolate chips, or nuts, or dried fruit, or skittles... but that might be odd)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Combine both flours, salt and baking soda in a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the oil and sugar until well blended. Beat in both eggs, one at a time. Once blended and light in color, slowly add the flour mixture and stir until ALMOST combined (you don't want to stir too much because it will overdevelop the gluten which will cause the bread to be chewy).

Add apple sauce and mashed bananas and blend until just combined (still don't stir too much!!). Gently stir in the blueberries and pour into well greased bread pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then flip onto cooling rack to continue cooling.

Dig in (hint: if using chocolate chips, eat this bread warm).

Pizza No. 1

Things to note about me. I love cheese. LOVE CHEESE!! Thus, pizza could possibly be my favorite meal. Unfortunately, I completely lose all self control when it comes to pizza and just want to eat the whole thing with complete disregard to my health and stomach size. Usually, a meal of pizza ends with me moaning on the couch saying things like "I want to die!" and "never again!" I believe this to be a lifelong struggle that may or may not require years of therapy. Alas, I always live (which consequently means that I will inevitable eat pizza again; it's an endless cycle).

Because of this tragic lack of self control, I limit my pizza consumption throughout the year. This self-inflicted abstinence has led me to a state of depression. I realized at some point that there was a simple solution: make my own healthy, portion controlled pizza.

Ok now here is the part when I have to admit something to the world (yes, the world I eat). I can't just eat any pizza. I'm a pizza snob. It's frustrating and annoying to pretty much everyone around me. I stick my nose up to the typical take-out, shun the frozen section at the grocery store, and judge people for partaking in buffets. Sorry national pizza chains, I don't like you. That being said, I couldn't just go get a personal "healthy" pizza from the grocery store or something and call it a day. So I did what any normal pizza loving person would do. I read for hours on the internet about pizza and soon came up with a game plan to make my own. I must admit, my personal pizza skills need some work, but at the end of the day, if you smother anything with Fontina and garlic, how can you really go wrong?

My recipes were adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Pizza Dough:

2 cups WW flour
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 tablespoons olive oil

Stir first four ingredients in a large bowl. Once mixed, add the remaining two ingredients and mix until combined. Dump ingredients onto clean surface and knead for one or two minutes.

Return dough to well oiled bowl and wrap with plastic wrap and put in the fridge. Leave in fridge all day (my fridge is too cold so I took it out an hour or so early to warm up and rise some more). When doubled in size, take out of fridge and press down to deflate with the palm of your hand. Separate into three balls, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an additional 20 min.

Once dough has almost fully risen, heat oven to the highest temperature (mine was 550 F) with pizza stone placed in upper third of the oven (due to the demise of my pizza stone, I used an upside down heavy cooking sheet). Roll out each crust onto a piece of parchment paper lightly dusted with cornmeal. Add desired toppings to first pizza crust. Slide the parchment paper with pizza onto the pizza stone. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is browning lightly on top.

Pizza Sauce (This recipe is really for pasta, but I was too excited to try it so I used it for pizza as well. As my family learned later, this sauce is definitely better as a pasta sauce, but whateves.)

28 oz can whole pealed tomatoes
4 tablespoons butter
1 medium yellow onion pealed and cut in half
Salt to taste

Pour tomatoes into a saucepan with butter. Add onion halves. Stew sauce over low heat for 45 min, stirring occasionally. When the onion has softened, remove it from the sauce and reserve for a later use.

Pizza Toppings:

Pizza 1: sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil
Pizza 2: crushed garlic, fontina, prosciutto, and topped with arugula after it was out of the oven
Pizza 3: mozzarella, Fontina, Gorgonzola, olives, red onion, and mushrooms

All and all, I need to try attempt number 2. "Jenny Eat World" might turn into "Jenny Eat Pizza... Often".