Banana Tea Bread

Makes 2 Loaves

2 C. Flour (I use all-purpose)
1 tsp. B. Powder
1 tsp. B. Soda
1 1/3 C. Sugar
1 1/2 C. Chopped Nuts (I substitute Chocolate Chips and put them in right before the Bananas)
1 1/2 tsp. Salt (I only put in 1 tsp.)

3 Mashed Bananas
2 Large Eggs
1/2 C. Plain Yogurt or Sour Cream (I mostly use Sour Cream, but have also used Yogurt with same results)
2 Tbsp. Rum (I use Captain Morgan)
1 tsp. Almond Extract
1/2 C. Melted Butter

1. Mix dry ingredients.
2. Beat eggs and add rest of liquids & bananas - add to dry ingredients.

3. Bake in greased and floured pans at 350 Degrees, 50-60 minutes.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes a generous three to four dozen.
* stolen from my RTD photog's blog.

2 1/4 C. bread flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks of butter, melted
1/4 C. white sugar
1 1/4 C. packed dark brown sugar (light brown is ok too)
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract (use the good stuff)
1 whole egg. 1 egg yolk, 2 Tbs. whole milk
2 C. (1 pkg) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Beat melted butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl until creamy. Add whole egg, egg yolk, and milk into mix, one at a time beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill (very important!). Drop by rounded teaspoon (or use an icecream scoop like I do) onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown- usually closer to 9 minutes. They will look slightly undercooked in the middle, but this is when they're just perfect. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely. Always start your cookies on a cool pan.

Everything Bars

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

3\4 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

3\4 cup butterscotch chips

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press crumbs into bottom of 9x13-inch baking pan.

Pour sweetened condensed milk over crumb mixture and spread to cover (be careful not to break up the crust). Layer evenly with chocolate chips butterscotch chips and nuts. Cover with coconut. Press down lightly with a fork.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Cool until firm. Cut into desired sized bars.

Low Fat Cookies and Cream Ice Cream

Found a good low fat vanilla ice cream recipe, but since I'm not much of a plain vanilla person, I throw Oreos in.

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cups fat free half and half
14 T. liquid egg product (like Eggbeaters)
1/4 t. salt
1 T. - good vanilla extract (*NO more!) -- I reduced the vanilla slightly and next time will probably cut it in half
Oreos - crushed (I like to keep them in fairly large pieces but it's a matter of preference)

Mix all ingredients together except Oreos. Pour into the freezer container - (paddle in place first). Freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. About 5-10 minutes before ice cream is ready, add the crushed Oreos. I used 16 Oreos with this mixture and found it to be just right for me...but I love a lot of Oreos in my ice cream.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

Highly recommended!

Recipe
Yields 6 servings (3/4 cup size)

1 1/2 cups 2% reduced fat milk
1/2 cup bottled key lime juice (such as Nellie and Joe's) or fresh squeezed key lime juice
1/2 cup whipping cream
Dash of salt
1 (14 oz) can fat free sweetened condensed milk
6 graham crackers (1 1/2 cookie sheets) coarsely crushed, divided
Key lime wedges (optional)

Combine first 5 ingredients, stirring with a whisk. Pour mixture into freezer can of an ice-cream freezer, and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Stir 1/3 cup graham crackers into ice cream. Spoon ice cream into a freezer-safe container, and cover and freeze for 1 hour or until firm. Sprinkle each serving with 1 teaspoon graham crackers. Garnish with lime wedges, if desired.

Modifications I made - I couldn't find key lime juice at the store, so I bought a bag of Melissa's key limes and cut them in half and squeezed the juice into a 1/2 cup container. It ended up taking every single one of the key limes to get 1/2 cup of juice! Also, I pretty much tripled or quadrupled the graham crackers the recipe calls for and put them all in the ice cream. I felt like the graham crackers took some of the "bite" out of the lime tart-ness and made it more pie like, since you got a good chunk of graham crackers in each bite. Plus, I'm a big fan of stuff in my ice cream.