Too-Short Weekend

This weekend has gone by entirely too fast. It seems like it was just Friday afternoon and now I'm prepping lunches and gearing up for another week ahead. I am super excited that this is the last full week of work before Thanksgiving and a nice little break from the usual routine.

Although this weekend felt short, it really was a nice and relaxing one. Friday evening was low key with dinner and a movie at home. I had a meeting up in north Jersey and arrived home about 6:00 to the smell of Ahi tuna cooking in the kitchen.

Matt seared it in the cast iron skillet with a little butter, soy sauce and sesame seeds, and served zucchini slices on the side. So good! I fell asleep on the couch watching Just Friends, an oldie but goodie, and one of my faves to get into the Christmas movie season.

Saturday consisted of a bunch of errands, grocery shopping and stuff around the house, but it started with a delicious family breakfast at our favorite diner, Four Seasons.

We had absolutely no food in the house and our grumbling tummies wouldn't have made it through a whole shopping trip without some breakfast, so it was a good excuse to go out for lox eggs Benedict. I think I get this every time I go out for breakfast now; never gets old. I asked them to sub out fruit for the potatoes, but they ended up bringing me fruit AND potatoes. Which kind of stunk because I can't not eat at least a few homefries when they're sitting right on my plate. Oh well. I made up for it by having yogurt and berries for lunch.

The best part of the day though, was meeting up with a few of my best girlfriends for a girls evening out.

We haven't had a girls dinner in a while, and our little group has a lot of things to celebrate all the sudden - new jobs, new houses, and new babies on the way. So many exciting things going on! We had planned to get together anyway, but then we found out it was Jersey Shore Restaurant Week, so the dinner date was sealed. After much back and forth and multiple reservations made and broken (we are so picky about menus!), we finally settled on The Lobster Shanty in Point Pleasant. I joked that it seemed a little classy for our group, since it was reserved and quiet, and we can get a little loud and giggly when we're all together. Hopefully no one minded. ;)

In addition to having Restaurant Week, they were also featuring a "Lobster Mania" fixed menu so I went with that option. I started with lobster bisque and then my entree was a broiled half lobster with coconut shrimp.

How huge is that plate? I had thought the lobster would be de-shelled since it was broiled rather than steamed, but they made me work for it. It was really good though.

Dessert, however, was sorely disappointing. There were three options - blueberry cobbler, key lime pie (my first choice, but they were sold out) and a chocolate fudge sundae. Something about hot fudge sounded really appealing to me so I went with that. And was served something out of a hospital cafeteria.

There was no hot fudge on there, my friends. It was plain old boring Hershey's syrup. I was so bummed! That didn't stop me from eating the whole thing though. Apparently I have a problem not eating things that are sitting in front of me for too long.

Dessert aside, it was a great evening and so fun to catch up with the girls.

***

Today Riker and I were home the two of us all day since Matt left before the crack of dawn to go striped bass fishing (and brought home 6 fresh fish!). I made yogurt bowls for breakfast and then we settled in for a morning of watching The Polar Express and doing some online Christmas shopping.

I don't know what it is about this year, but I am getting into the spirit waaaay earlier than I usually do. Maybe it's because of Riker, maybe it's because T-day is a little later than usual this year, and maybe it's also partly because I'm already having to start planning some holiday posts for Jersey Bites and Recipe ReDux...which resulted in a little kitchen playtime today.

Oh mama. I whipped up some salty & sweet popcorn this afternoon that will be up on the blog in a few days, and it.is.so.good.

Good thing I ate a somewhat decent lunch - a simple sandwich on sprouted wheat bread with mesclun greens, cucumbers and Cabot cheddar, with a side of celery sticks - because after munching on sugary popcorn late afternoon, I completely lost my appetite for dinner.

I think I'm gonna skip the evening meal and just make some tea to sip on for the weekly ritual of Sunday Night Football and laundry-folding.

How was your weekend?

Healthy Banana Bread (Grain-Free)

I promised you a banana bread recipe.

Here it is!

I'm a huge lover of banana bread, have been my whole life. Now a lot of banana breads are unfortunately, in my opinion, really dry and flavorless. I've perfected my version of this warm fall/winter loaf over the years, adding more cinnamon and nutmeg, more bananas to keep things moist, walnuts, chocolate chips (I mean, banana and chocolate, come on) and a sugary crust on top. It's to die for.

But I'm actually not here to share that one with you. Sorry!

That one I actually haven't made yet this year, and am trying to hold out on doing so. As you can imagine, it's pretty carby and sugary, and not very healthy at all. It's a great treat, but ends up getting eaten for breakfast and snacks until the whole thing is gone in less than 24 hours. I wanted to stay away from that, but I can't shake my annual fall banana bread baking/eating craving completely - especially when there are two sad-looking brown bananas sitting in the fruit bowl begging to be mashed up and bread-i-fied.

So for this recipe, I swapped out wheat flour for nut flour, cut the chocolate chips from half a bag to only a few teaspoons, removed the walnuts (nut flour is nutty enough so you don't need the extra crunch), and traded my usual refined brown and white sugar for unrefined, all natural coconut palm sugar. I also used grapeseed oil instead of canola oil or butter, since it's a healthier fat.

The result was delicious (note: that piece up there looks a little smooshed because I couldn't wait more than 5 minutes to cut a piece and eat it, warm with a smear of butter). I'm not going to lie and tell you I liked it better than my chocolate chip sugary crust loaf, but I could eat it guiltlessly for breakfast with a little peanut butter, and it honestly is really moist and flavorful. It's also gluten free if you're into that. Unfortunately it still disappeared in 24 hours, so I'm probably going to have to make another one on Sunday.

Grain-Free Healthy Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients
2 cups almond flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup organic coconut palm sugar
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup agave nectar (may substitute honey or maple syrup)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup grapeseed oil or other flavorless oil
2 eggs

Topping (Optional)
1 tsp. coconut sugar
3 tsp. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and sugar. Set aside

In a separate bowl, combine mashed bananas, agave nectar, milk, oil and eggs. Whisk well to combine. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine; do not over beat.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan. Top with remaining coconut sugar and chocolate chips, if desired. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Sunday Cooking

Happy Monday, everybody! Hope you had a great weekend. Our stay-at-home three day weekend was nice and relaxing, just what I needed.

After my lazy Saturday morning, I met up with Heather and Cathleen for our usual 10:30 am yoga class. I don't get to go every weekend, but try to make it whenever I can. It's such a great way to start the weekend. Even better, Matt agreed to watch Riker and Heather's girls for a few hours so we could go out for coffee, snacks and catching up afterward. Perfect little Saturday morning.

Yoga and girl time relaxation was followed by doing my duty as a teacher's fisherman's wife: bundling up and heading to the cold November beach so Matt and his dad could try to catch some striped bass.

It's been a while since we all went fishing together, and actually I really do enjoy going, even if I'm frozen and, let's be serious, not fishing. I mainly sit under a blanket drinking Starbucks, chatting with MomMom and calling out when the lines look like they caught something.

It's serenity. Being at the beach always makes me thankful for where we live. The guys didn't catch any fish, but Riker had a great time running around and we all got to enjoy an incredible sunset.

Is that magnificent or what?

A new takeout Thai & Japanese restaurant just opened by us and Matt and I have been dying to order from there (we've actually called every weekend for the last 4 weeks to see if they were open yet - stalkers), so after the beach we booked it straight home to take hot showers and order up some spicy food for dinner. Matt's dad and MomMom joined us, so we ordered a bunch of things to share. My favorites were the penang curry with tofu, and the shrimp tempura sushi.

Sunday was a true homebody day and all I really felt like doing was cooking, baking and watching football. So that's what I did. Somehow about 5 loads of laundry found their way into my life too, but folding isn't so bad when you're watching the games and seeing your fantasy football points go higher and higher.

The last time I was home my mom gave me a ton of lentils, so I finally put them to use and made a big pot of lentil soup for a late afternoon dinner. I used my Moosewood cookbook recipe, but adapted it for the crockpot. Something about fall Sundays just really call for using the crockpot.

The recipe called for serving the soup with a drizzle of red wine vinegar, which I'd never heard of. It was fantastic! The vinegar gave it a nice little perkiness without having to use lemon, which would've really changed the flavor of the soup.

I also made a loaf of paleo banana bread, which is now almost completely devoured. I'll share the recipe with you soon!

***

For a quick Monday dinner recap, tonight the frittata made its lovely first cold-weather appearance.

Easy and delicious as always, this one was filled with baby bella mushrooms, kale, cheddar and mozzarella cheese. We had some roasted asparagus on the side for extra greenery.

There are plenty of leftovers, so I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow.

Riker's curled up in bed and now that my blog post is done, I'm about to boot Matt off his Wii Golf game so we can watch last week's episode of Top Chef. I'm so cliche. Enjoy your evening!