Letter B: Banana Bread (w/Chocolate Chips)

Wow! Sorry I have been lacking on the recipe posts. It's been busy in the Corbett house (more about that later). So, I've been looking for a simple, delicious banana bread recipe for awhile and THIS ONE IS IT! It's incredibly simple to make...

Banana Bread (w/Chocolate Chips)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 and 2/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 medium sized bananas)
• 1/2 - 1 cup chocolate chips 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, spray 3 loaf pans (medium sized, mine is 4.5" x 8.5") with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, oil, and eggs.
3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. Alternate adding milk and dry ingredients into the large bowl. Mix until just combined.
5. Add bananas and chocolate chips. Mix slowly.
6. Divide dough evenly.
7. Bake all 3 loaves together for 55 minutes, rotating as needed.

Serves 12-14

Adapted from Tasty Kitchen

***Note: This recipe makes a lot! I ended up putting a lot of the mixture into zipper bags and freezing them. You can definitely tweak this recipe to your taste. For those of you who are more health conscious, feel free to leave out the chocolate chips and add nuts as a substitute. I'm nut a big fan of nuts, so I left them out and opted of chocolate chips instead...what can I say? I love CHOCOLATE!

Next week's ingredient: D = ??? It will be a surprise (mainly, because I haven't though of something yet..suggestions are welcome!)

Letter A: Artichoke Dip

I normally do not eat artichokes, especially if they are plain. I remember when a friend from Virginia made them one time and it was just so bland. I didn't like the taste. Good thing, Logan's wonderful Aunt Valerie gave us this recipe while we were down in Southern Utah visiting a few weekends ago. Everyone raved about it while we were visiting, so she was kind enough to give us the recipe. Thanks Aunt Valerie!! And, also thanks to Heidi (sister-in-law) who made most of this recipe!! She came down from Utah State to visit for my birthday weekend; it was so nice having her come stay with us.

Artichoke Dip 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 package of cream cheese
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 1 can artichoke hearts, chopped
• 1/2 - 1 cup sour cream (increase quantity if you want it more creamy) 
• 4 - 6 tablespoons jalapeños, chopped (increase quantity if you want it more spicy) 

DIRECTIONS

1. Warm garlic and cream cheese in microwave for 1 minute. 
2. Add grated cheese, artichoke hearts, sour cream, and jalapeños. 
3. Mix all the ingredients. Adjust to taste.
4. Refrigerate for approximately 1 hour. Serve with crackers. 

Serves 10-15  

Adapted from Aunt Valerie

***Note: This is a perfect dip as an appetizer or for a party. We made this for my birthday party last weekend; everyone loved it. We added more jalapeños which gave it a nice kick--you could definitely taste the spiciness (is that even a word?) It was pretty easy to make; it took Heidi about 20 minutes to prepare. Make sure you adjust the recipe to your taste. There is room to tweak the ingredients; you could even add some chopped spinach to it. This was a great recipe and I loved how it tasted even with the artichokes!! 

Next week's ingredient: B = brussels sprouts (if I can find them) or bananas

Letter C: Cucumber Salad

We decided to tweak our cooking project just a little. So, we are still picking one ingredient and creating a new recipe, but NOW we are going to go through the whole alphabet using a new ingredient for each letter! Pretty creative of us, huh? I know! We started off with C...but that is only because C stands for CORBETT!!! Okay, here it is....

Cucumber & Egg Salad

**Sorry for the picture quality, I will get better at photographing food**

INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs
• 2 small seedless cucumbers
• 2 small dill pickles, chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. paprika 
• 1/2 cup of shredded chicken or tuna (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Place eggs in a saucepan and cover completely with cold water. Bring water to a boil. Remove from heat and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 minutes. Remove from hot water and cool.
2. Peel eggs. Chop into eighths and transfer to a medium size bowl.
3. Cube cucumbers and chop pickles, then add to eggs. 
4. Add shredded chicken or tuna (optional). 
5. Mix in mayo, salt, pepper, and paprika (add more or less depending on taste). 
6. Refrigerate until cold. Serve over bread.

Serves 2.

Adapted from All Recipes

***Note: This is a perfect meal for lunch or early dinner. It's very light and tasty. We used chicken the first time, but tuna would also make a lovely combination. This was so easy and quick to make. It only took us 15 minutes to prepare and it was so fun taste-testing and trying to figure out the best combination of spices to use. Next time, we'll remember to dry out our cucumbers, so it's not too watery. Overall, a good start to our cooking project!! 

Next week's ingredient: A = artichokes

Cooking Project

One of my goals in life is to be a good cook, just like my mama. Unfortunately, being as good as my mom will probably never happen. She is just too good of a cook. Seriously. So, I have decided to at least try to be better at cooking by making more of an effort! 

We were doing pretty well in Provo last school year trying different recipes (mainly because we were watching the Food Network everyday), but the summer really dampened my cooking opportunities. We were too busy going out to eat, enjoying the beach, and all that jazz to really try any new recipes. Well, now that we are back in Provo...I am determined to get into a cooking frenzy! Here's what Logan and I came up with....we want to use a different ingredient every week (something that we don't normally eat) and try at least one NEW recipe with it. 

I am excited to get started! Logan and I love cooking, so this will be a fun project for us but we need some ideas! What are some ingredients we should use? I already have a few ingredients in mind, but I would love to hear your suggestions! So, let me know!! I am going to be trying a new recipe using CUCUMBERS in the next few days! So, be on the look out for my next blog post....