Banana Bread with Chocolate Swirls!

Banana Bread with Chocolate Swirls
Ingredients:
1 c margarine or butter
2 c sugar
4 eggs
2 c mashed bananas (about 5)
1/2 c milk
2 tsp lemon juice
4 c all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c nuts, chopped (optional, this is in my Mom's recipe, but I never put the nuts)
1/2 c chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:
Beforehand: Let butter/margarine soften. If your bananas are frozen, pull them out of the freezer.

1. Cream margarine and sugar
2. Add eggs and mix well
3. Add bananas, milk, and lemon juice. Mix well
4. Add in dry ingredients. mix

without chocolate swirls: pour in 2 large loaf pans or 3 medium loaf pans and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

with chocolate swirls:
-melt your 1/2 cup of chocolate chips
-once melted, mix 1 c of the banana bread butter in with the chocolate chips.

I made 3 medium loafs. I left one plain banana and did the swirls to 2 loafs. I liked the banana to chocolate ratio, but you can do it however you want.

First, put a layer of the banana batter down. Next, put a layer of the chocolate batter. Using a knife, swirl it around to create a marbled look. To do this, you'll want to bring the knife up and down while you're swirling. REPEAT as many times as you want. NOTE: you need to end with the BANANA batter on top. The chocolate burns. Make sure it is well covered.

Manicotti

Manicotti:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 container of cottage cheese
1 pkg. Itallian mix cheese
1 c. cheddar cheese
1 box manicotti noodles
1 jar Ragu Garden Combination Sauce  
Servings: 4 generous


Directions:

1. Brown the hamburger. Season with salt and pepper as desired. 
2. Mix all the ingredients (except the sauce an noodles, of course) together in a bowel. Save a little bit of the Italian cheese mixture for the end. Like a handful or two.
3. Get out a cake pan and pour a small amount of the sauce on the bottom of the pan, just enough to  cover it.
4. Stuff the mixture into the uncooked manicotti. (when I first started making this, I tried using a utensil to stuff the manicotti and  it took way to long. Now I use my hands. Warning: it gets kinda messy. oh, and don't pay attention to the dirty dishes in the background). Place in pan.
5. After all of the stuffed manicotti are in the pan, pour the remaining sauce on top.
6. Cover the pan with tinfoil and put in the oven at 350 degrees, bake for 50 minutes. *note, it is essential to top the pan with tinfoil in order for the noodles to cook! Don't forget this step.  
7. After it's done I always top the manicotti with some Italian cheese mixture and a little parsley, because I like how it makes it look fancy.
8. Eat and enjoy! I usually serve with green beans.

 

Cajun Chicken

This is one of our family favorites.  It tastes like the Cajun Chicken Pasta at Chili's.  Okay not exactly like it but pretty close :)  And it's way easy!

• 1/2 pound penne pasta
• 1 jar alfredo sauce
• 5 chicken tenders
• 1 tomato
• Cajun Seasoning--a little goes a long way. I use Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning that I got at good old Wal-Mart.

Cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking, sprinkle chicken tenders on both sides with seasoning and grill them. (for my kids I just leave the chicken plain so they'll eat it) You can grill it on a George Foreman Grill or just your outside grill. Drain pasta and put it back into pot with the jar of alfredo sauce and I sprinkle a little of the cajun seasoning to give it a little kick. After in is heated, place pasta on plate top with chicken cut into strips and diced tomatoes. Enjoy!

Cheesecake Miniatures

My mom made these a lot growing up and I loved them.  So for our ward party a couple of weeks ago I made them.  They turned out just as yummy as I remembered!

• 24 Nilla Wafters
• 2--8 oz. cream cheese 
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 24 foil cupcake liners
• 1 can pie filling--whatever your heart desires

Soften cream cheese.  Place foil liners in muffin tins.  Place one wafer in each liner.  Mix the rest of the ingredients together and place 1 heaping tablespoon in each cup.  Bake @ 350 for 15 minutes.  When cooled, top with 1 tablespoon pie filling.  Refrigerate.