Grammy's Here for Dinner and Banana Cake!

Last night was the highly anticipated arrival of Grammy! Auntie Kelly and my baby cousin went to pick her up from the airport while I stayed at the house helping Gabrielle finish her homework. Look at this sweet face enjoying writing out her vocabulary words.

As Grammy's flight didn't come in until 5:30 pm, Kelly wanted to have an easy dinner, crock pot style. Earlier yesterday, she gave Gabrielle a few options and put her to work. Gabrielle chose a Beef Bourguignon recipe from Fix-It and Forget-It. She excitedly put the meal together and was very proud of how delicious it came out!

I enjoyed my serving very much, especially knowing how carefully it was prepared ;) Thanks, Gabby!

After dinner, Gabby and I decided to make a recipe from the November 2010 Cooking Light magazine: Banana Snacking Cake.

Of course Zachary couldn't be left out of the fun.

Despite it being considered a healthy recipe, I found additional changes I could make to reduce the amount of calories and fat. 


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt 6 oz container fat-free vanilla yogurt
• 3/4 cup mashed ripe banana 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup canola oil 1 6 oz container cinnamon applesauce
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• cooking spray

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375*.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon in salt in a large bowl. Stir with a whisk. Make a well in center of flour mixture.
3. Combine yogurt, banana, applesauce, vanilla, and egg in a small bowl and stir until blended. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture, stirring just until moist.
4. Pour batter into a 9-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes. 

While the cake was in the oven, we licked the bowls clean. No need for a dishwasher in this household! Just kidding. 

20 minutes later... 

 

Everyone loved the final product. It was very light and fluffy, just like banana bread. I'm not really sure why Cooking Light refers to this as a "snacking cake." Sure, the title is much more enticing, but c'mon, who are they trying to fool? This is essentially bread, just baked in more of a cake shape. Those tricksters got us. 

I shall leave you with a hilarious picture of my cousin. He stuck his head through the arm hole of Grammy's shirt and ran around yelling that he was a "black ghost." :)

And that would be him knocking his sister off the chair a few minutes later. Sibling love!

What are some simple recipe changes you like to make to "healthify" them or reduce calories/fat? Have a good night!