Lazy W Marie

Carpeing all the diems in semi-rural Oklahoma...xoxo

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Marathon Monday: Flourless Banana Oat Pancakes

Hello, and Happy Monday! Marathon training is still going really well at the Lazy W. I now have two longish paved tracks from which to choose for my boredom buster runs, and last week I divided my energy and miles between them and the elliptical machine. A 15 mile run this Saturday taught me how much better I feel being really well hydrated, a sharp contrast to that Lake Hefner run a few weeks ago when I suppressed violent thoughts toward strangers. So much better!

 

This track was technically closed. But I ran it anyway, along with about a million other runners and sun worshippers. No one arrested us or even openly ridiculed us for it. As I ran the closed section I imagined Mission Impossible music playing loud behind me.
This track was technically closed. But I braved it anyway, along with about a million other runners and sun worshippers. No one arrested us or even openly ridiculed us for it. As I traversed the closed section I imagined Mission Impossible music playing loud behind me. It was awesome.

 

This week’s training is starting strong, too, because the marathon is in less than a month and soon it will be tapering time. Soon my anxiety will start to rise in direct proportion to how low my mileage sinks. I’m enjoying these high-adrenaline weeks while I can.

But that’s not today. Today I have a quick and easy, delicious, healthy recipe to share. You’ve probably seen it on Pinterest; maybe you’ve already tried it. But just in case, here ya go… Plus I tweaked it a little. It’s so good!

Flourless Banana Oat Pancakes

1 ripe banana

2 whole eggs, beaten

1/4 cup quick oats

dash vanilla

dusting of cinnamon

All you do is mash the banana and combine it with the beaten whole eggs. Stir in the oats and some vanilla and cinnamon, then drop in thick puddles onto a hot skillet (I sprayed mine with cooking spray). Let them cook on both sides like regular pancakes, testing the edges for dryness. Mine didn’t bubble like regular pancakes, so don’t wait around for that to happen. They cook quickly!

flourless banana oat pancakes
flourless banana oat pancakes

 

These readily accessible ingredients made three hefty 4-inch pancakes. After eating them and some strawberries, I was nice and full but not all sugared up. Big score! It’s an easy meal that provides lots of nutrition and lasting energy, especially for runners. Don’t you ever get slightly bored of raw bananas and runny oatmeal? I do. This is a great new combo. And if you’re interested, here is the pancakes’ nutritional breakdown: calories 325, carbs 43 g, fat 12 g (the good fats), protein 16 g, fiber 5 g. Not too shabby.

I think most recipes like this are strictly banana and egg, but that mix looked too runny to me. Adding the quick oats made it the perfect amount of bulky. And the finished product is not fluffy but light. Fresh tasting and satisfying. Just sweet enough, even without syrup. I have made a new addition to my ever-growing list of favorite foods!

Okay, thanks for stopping in! I hope your week is happy and healthy. I hope your meals are delicious and nourishing. I hope if you run that you sweat out all those negative thoughts and worries, replacing them with dazzling new ideas and a brighter outlook! And remember to hydrate.

“Our minds are like our stomachs; they are whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.”

~Quintilian

XOXOXOXO

 

Basic Scottish Shortbread

   Introducing the simplest, most versatile, and therefore the most crowd-pleasing cookie recipe you’ll ever memorize: Basic Scottish Shortbread.

   It requires just  three common ingredients, a little time, and no complicated methods; and the variation possibilities are endless. I love this stuff. My youngest daughter does, too, as does a lady you all know and love… M. You know M, from that danged forest incident ? M, who recently challenged me about acknowledging my perfect age and gave me the phrase #furioiuslyhappy? M, who blogs at May I Have a Word? Yep, her. She and Jess have so much in common, besides my unending love and a mutual liking for shortbread. But today let’s talk about shortbread.

   Shortbread is just plain delicious. Delicious and plain. Soothing. Tender. Almost crunchy, yet buttery, like a blank canvas of pleasure in your mouth. It is really good with a big, steamy cup of tea. It is decadent with toasted chopped pecans and turbinado dressing it up. Oatmeal added in actually makes it a filling snack. Shortbread always makes you feel homespun and British and sugar-conservative. Ladylike, even. Also? This super simple recipe doubles or triples extremely well, and the extra cookies will save in a lidded box for a million years. Assuming you or my daughter or M don’t eat them.

   Shall we? Okay.

What You Need:

  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter
(I’m not kidding you. That is all you need for the basic dough, and the basic dough it wonderful!)

What You Do:
  • Sift together the flour and sugar.
  • Cut-in the butter until the mixture resembles crumbs (just as if you’re beginning to make a pie crust, except that you never add a liquid).
  • Form the mixture into a ball and knead till smooth-ish. (This is not going to be silky smooth like pizza dough. It will remain a bit dry or crumbly. That’s okay.)
  • Now, you get the choice to either form individual cookies, which is best with flavor variations, or make a classic shortbread disc. 
  • A shortbread disc is easy. Just pat the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet or pan, finger-pressing it into a circle about 8 inches across. It will end up being about 1/4″ thick. You can prick it here and there with a fork, in pretty designs, but you don’t have to. You should, however, use a sharp knife to perforate the disc like a pizza. Do not separate the wedges. Flute, crimp, or ignore the outer edge however you like. I tend to go with what I call the “French Rustic” appearance with this and all dough-related issues in my life. Which is open for interpretation. (It’s quite casual and only pretty to me.)
  • Bake at just 325 degrees, for about 25 minutes. When done, the edges will be slightly brown. 
  • Cut through the perforation lines again, this time separating the wedges. Remove these to a wire rack to cool.

Possible Variations:
  • Add 1/3 cup quick oats to the exact dough above, before baking of course. This is delicious! Possibly my personal favorite.
  • Alternately, add about that much flaked coconut. Also addictively good! You will probably end up adding some form of chocolate to this, out of sheer evolutionary force.
  • Add in some chopped pecans for a “Pecan Sandy” sort of taste, then sprinkle oven-fresh cookies with turbinado. Fancy schmancy! This one reminds me of my Grandma Stubbs.
  • Add 1/2 cup drained & dried maraschino cherries, plus a speck of red food coloring and a half a speck of nutmeg to the dough, then form into balls and flatten slightly before baking.
  • After baking, drizzle any of these variations with skinny little lines of melted chocolate.
  • Oooohhh!! It’s Christmas! Add some holiday food coloring, colored sugars, and candies! Scottish Shortbread for Santa! Hint-hint, parents of toddlers: These cookies display individual bite wounds VERY well…  (wink wink)
  • Lemon shortbread! I am working on this variation for M. Maybe that one gets its own post later.

   With shortbread, there will be no rising on your counter top or shape shifting in the oven. There will rarely be trips to the store to buy what you need. Just a quick collection of pantry staples and some very basic cooking of your gorgeously simple ingredients. So, it’s like manna. Manna from heaven. Unleavened, simple, nourishing, just sweet enough. Mysterious. Wonderful. My youngest and I even have a song we always used to sing when we made it, and here are the lyrics:

Basic Scottish shortbread, shortbread, shortbread!
Basic Scottish shortbread, shortbread, yum!
Bake it up and eat it, eat it, eat it!
Bake it up and eat it, shortbread, yum!
   We would always sing it with super pretentious fake British accents, with a little falsetto thrown in, because we don’t really know what Scottish accents sound like, although it’s doubtful we are spot-on with our British choice. You should try this. Also? Dance. Dance your heart out while you bake and nibble. You’ll be glad you did.
   Merry Christmas! Thank you so much for stopping in, and go check out the other cookie recipes on Edie’s fun link-up. (Click on the caption beneath that gorgeous, colorful photo there!) Here in Oklahoma we are anticipating another bitter winter storm, so a few days of yummy recipes to keep me busy sounds really nice.
I love you Jess!
I love you M!
I miss you both, you Shortbread Girls!
xoxoxoxo

Winter Wellness Salad

   Friends. Fellow veggie-lovers. Kindred salad addicts. I have stumbled upon a most wonderful raw food combination that you should try immediately. I’m calling it…

Winter Wellness Salad

   In a season when nearly every day of the week, for many consecutive weeks, we have good reasons to celebrate… and celebrating often means rich, sweet, salty, and otherwise decadent (but not so good for you) food… In a time of year when carbs and sugar are the fashionable thing to both crave and serve… I often end up fed up and in need of a potent dose of fresh, raw, vitamin-heavy nourishment to set my body straight. And I’m no nutritionist, but these particular ingredients are kind of famous for their health benefits: Kale, spinach, carrots, pomegranate, and lemon. It’s all kind of a no-brainer, and these items are abundant in wintertime. The fact that they taste downright amazing together is reason enough to eat Winter Wellness Salad several times a week.

Oklahoma is in the throes of our first big winter storm of this season.
It is so very beautiful… and frigid cold!
Just because it’s snowy outside doesn’t mean your only meal option
is chicken and dumplings followed by homemade fudge.
Although that does sound pretty darn good.

   Okay, here ya go… My Winter Wellness Salad. The basic components are kale, spinach, pomegranate seeds, olive oil, and lemon juice. As with all salads, this is open to interpretation and you can customize it wildly based on what you love, what you grow, or what you find at the store. My favorite extras so far have been raw broccoli, firm fresh pear chunks, tomatoes, hard-cooked egg, and roasted sweet potatoes. Tonight I plan to top the whole thing with a blackened tilapia filet. Yum.

 

  • First, clean and chop about a half a bunch of both fresh kale and fresh spinach. Maybe you want to add romaine lettuce too? Whatever you like. To me, what’s special here is the kale. I have fallen so madly in love with kale that I plan to grow it from now on. Look out, basil. I have a new green obsession.
  • Then drizzle the voluminous pile of fresh, raw greens with some yummy olive oil. Massage the oil into everything, the kale especially. The notion here is that it tenderizes the rather stout, somewhat prickly leaves. Sure, this could be a myth, but my food blogging friend Katie got a kick out of the idea! And she knows her stuff. Anyway, I whisper to my kale with a Swedish accent and say sexy, relaxing things to it just in case it really works. Set aside your now supple, agreeable, pliant, lightly oiled leaves. Let them rest.
  • The next step is the only time-consuming part of the whole raw salad wellness party. You quarter your pomegranate and using a fork and your fingers, remove the very juicy,very colorful, delicious, sweet, tart seeds. Just gently pluck and wiggle them out of the white, styrofoam-ish membrane in which they’re all encased. It is slightly tedious but completely worth the effort. One pom will last you several days. I think tonight’s salad only has less than a fourth of the total seeds in it, and it is QUITE FULL. Pom seeds pack a ton of flavor. Also, one pom should only cost a couple of bucks, so give em a try.
  • At this point I also shred at least one good, bright orange carrot. Right down to the bone. Then eat the carrot bone as a snack.
  • Add any extras you crave and combine all of your gorgeous, raw, bite-sized foods into one bowl. Squeeze half a lemon over the whole operation, glitter it all with sea salt and cracked pepper if you like, and you’re done!

   I have been making giant batches of this magical stuff and keeping it successfully in a covered bowl in the fridge for a solid week. Every day, delish. Every day, fresh and flavorful. Energizing. Filling. Crunchy, sweet, tart, oily, salty, even umami… but totally healthful. It might give you magical powers of your own. I am in love with this salad. And I predict if you try it, you will be too. It is the cure for what ails you in the depth of a heavily sugared and breaded-and-fried winter. This, plus lots and lots of water, plus some good, sweaty exercise and time outdoors, no matter the weather. But mostly this salad.

   What do you eat when you’ve had too much fun food? How do you set your body straight? How’s the weather in your corner of paradise?

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well,
 if one has not dined well.”
 ~Virginia Woolf
XOXOXOXO

Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Casserole (aka Tex-mex Chicken Lasagna)

   Tonight for supper at the Lazy W… “Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Casserole.” Or maybe, how about this… “Tex Mex Chicken Lasagna.”

   Either way, it is delicious and easy. The ingredients are pretty much just some leftover chicken, a few basic pantry ingredients and dairy products, and maybe some fresh hot peppers from your garden. The main inspiration for this recipe was a growing stack of broken corn tortillas in my fridge. I don’t know why, but for a month or more I cannot seem to lay my hands on good corn tortillas. Weird.

   See what I mean? They come out of the dang package this way. You could say that the broken tortilla scandal has been putting a damper on our weekly Taco Tuesday fun. Have you ever tried to eat a fish taco from a limp, crumbly, noncommittal corn tortilla? Not easy.

   Anyway, if you have some leftover chicken, dysfunctional tortillas, and some other stuff and you’d like a nice, quick weeknight meal… Give this a try. Really filling and yummy!

What You Need:

  • Three pre-cooked chicken breasts. Either grilled or baked, whaevv, it’s a texture or convenience choice. 
  • Olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, and a few fresh hot peppers. Maybe some onions if you’re an onion person.
  • Basic spices: salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic powder, cayenne, paprika, etc. You will see later, just seasoning the sauce to taste.
  • Two to three cups or more of shredded Tex-mex style cheeses. YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT.
  • A short stack of broken up corn tortillas. I think flour would also be delicious, Decadent, in fact. What is already in your fridge? I am guessing I used about twelve.
  • A can of condensed cream-of-chicken soup.
  • One cup of sour cream.
  • Less than a cup of heavy cream. (Milk also works, but I am a heavy cream snob lately, which partially explains how my jeans have been fitting.)
  • I think that is probably it.
  • Okay.

What You Do:

  • Preheat your oven to about 350 degrees.
  • Shred or finely dice your cooked chicken. Your choice… It’s just a texture thing.
  • In a saucepan that seems too big at first, saute some garlic and some chopped hot peppers. Again, it’s a personal flavor thing, so your choice on exactly what or how much. I had some gorgeous habaneros and jalapenos ready to go, so I grabbed those and had some fun. Use olive oil and watch closely for burning garlic. And do NOT rub your eyes at any point during this process, like I did. Hey, if you like onions (we do not), add some diced onion to the party.
  • Now, in a big mixing bowl, add the softened, flavorful sauteed stuff to your tiny chicken pieces and also add an ungodly amount of shredded cheese. Any Tex-mex cheeses you groove. Stir it really well.
I kept thinking how other veggies, like mushroom and spinach would be great in this mix. 
And cilantro, tomatoes, etc. Yum! The possibilities are endless. AVACADO.
  • Okay.
  • Now, in that same sauce pan as earlier, to pick up the flavors, mix together the can of condensed soup, the sour cream, and the heavy cream. Season it all with nutmeg, salt and pepper, garlic powder, etc, to your liking. Maybe some cayenne? Or Paprika? Just heat it all through and whisk it to a smooth consistency. Taste and change as you like. 
  • The assembly is so much like lasagna. Use a 9 x 13 baking dish. Drizzle and spread a small amount of sauce over the bare pan, then arrange the broken tortillas into a flat layer. Then scoop some spicy chicken-cheese mixture over that and smooth it flat. Then evenly ladle some creamy, yummy sauce over that and repeat: Broken tortillas, chicken mix, sauce. The proportions I tried tonight were exactly enough for two layers.
  • Sprinkle a little extra cheese on top for good measure.
  • Bake in a hot oven for less than half an hour, really just until it is all hot and the cheese on top is bubbly.
   There you go! Easy, fast, and pretty economical, especially if you use leftovers. Served with salad, tortilla chips, and EXCELLENT salsa made by Junior, I got my Tex-mex food fix without driving to a restaurant or feeling like I overindulged. I mean, not too much…
   What is for dinner in your home tonight?
   Also, I had the best weekend and the best first half of the week, including a lunch date today with my eldest daughter. Lots of prayers being answered. 
   And on the blog front, in case you hadn’t heard, the month of October is going to be lots of fun. Tiny T is searching for love, and we are having a little choose-your-own-adventure party right here to help him! 
   So excited. Check out the new Tiny T tab up at the top of this main page!
Have fun, be happy!
XOXOXOXO

Zucchini Bread

   Friends. My house smells sooooooooooo good right now. Last night we had our traditional Tuesday night fish tacos for dinner (YUM) and I made a shiny little glazed chocolate sheet cake for Handsome for dessert, but the main aroma-maker from last night which is still delighting me this morning is zuchinni bread. Wowsa. I haven’t baked anything remotely like this in many moons, and I must say that it has drummed up something seasonal in me. It probably doesn’t hurt that yesterday we enjoyed rain and clouds all day and a temperature no higher than about 87 degrees. And this morning is almost crisp outside.

   Zucchini bread is the perfect bridge food between seasons. You are making excellent use of summer’s most bountiful vegetable and lacing it with autumn’s favorite spice, cinnamon.

   This is delicious, fragrant, filling, and relatively healthy, and I would love to share it with you.

   Okay. The following recipe came from Martha Stewart’s lovely mint green cookbook, “Collected Recipes for Everyday Use,” c 1995. I have owned this thick hardback copy since my early twenties, so, you know, just a few years. *wink*

Martha Stewart’s Collected Recipes for Everyday Use

   It’s falling apart now from heavy use and is crusted together in several delicious places, but the recipes are certainly still worth exploring. Tonight was the first time I finally tried the zucchini bread. Total success.

   A few notes first: While it is technically a “quick bread,” meaning, it does not contain yeast and therefore doesn’t need to rise, zucchini bread takes just a little extra time to prepare. So it may be a quick bread, but it isn’t fast. Also, it requires the biggest mixing bowl you have ever seen in your entire baking life. I actually feel like I say that a lot. Does everyone else have ginormous bowls, except me? Do I need to buy bigger bowls? Or have I been watching too much Shark Week?

See what I mean? The bowl on the left still needs to be added
to the very full bowl on the right. I was a nervous wreck.

   Okay. Other than large quantities of basic pantry staples, the only unusual ingredients are zucchini (obviously), nuts, and walnut oil. I had never purchased walnut oil before yesterday. It is a little pricey (almost five bucks for a small bottle), but I do not foresee using it too often or too quickly. Verdict: worth the almost five bucks.

Now I am actually wondering if walnut oil would be good in pesto. Thoughts?

   The first thing you should do is grate a few large green squashes. You need a finished amount of five cups of shredded zucchini. So if you grow them like I have been lately, you’ll need like half of one:

Perhaps you have heard it’s been a great year for zucchini here at the W.

  I just used my cheese grater and considered it meditation. Grate, grate, grate. Think good stuff, pray, say thanks. Grate, pray. Grate, say thanks. Grate, imagine only love. Grate, pray for your enemies too.
  Then wrap the wet, shredded stuff in several layers of paper towels to drain some of the water out. Later, if you have chickens, pour that pale green water into their treats, Free vitamins!
   While the shredded zucchini rests, you can mix up the bread batter.

Martha’s Ingredients:
  6 eggs
  3 1/2 cups sugar
  1 3/4 cup light vegetable oil
  5 cups unpeeled grated zucchini
  5 teaspoons vanilla extract
  6 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  2 teaspoons baking soda
  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  6 teaspoons baking powder
  6 teaspoons cinnamon
  2 cups chopped walnuts
  1/4 cup walnut oil

Marie’s Instructions:
  Using the biggest bowl you can find, even if it is your empty swimming pool…
  Beat the eggs until light.
  Add the sugar, mix well.
  Add the veggie oil, zucchini, and vanilla, and mix again.

  Now sift the (5) dry ingredients in a separate bowl. This one can be normal sized.
  Add the dry mix in small amounts to the swimming pool full of the egg-zucchini mixture.
  Continue mixing until it is all blended. This takes about four hours.
  Now add the chopped nuts. Note: I accidentally bought only 1/2 cup of walnuts, so I subbed in a big handful of     pecans. Still delish!

  Prepare loaf pans (either four large bread pans or eight small ones) by smearing with soft butter then dusting with a little flour and cinnamon. Add lots of the thick, wonderful, crunchy batter to each and bake at 350* for close to an hour. Just wait for the fragrance to overwhelm your soul then test the bread. Clean knife = done. Easy peasy!
   I used both metal and glass pans to get all the batter baked, and every single loaf came out perfectly. The finished bread all slid right out of the slightly cooled pans, still steaming, perfectly in tact, and wonderful.

   Thank you Martha Stewart for this classic recipe! It makes enough for me, the lovely ladies who run the front desk at Handsome’s office, and our neighbors. And all of Rhode Island, probably, although I have never been there. This bread is dense and heavy, too, so one slice is like a meal.

   I am not exaggerating. This morning I plated myself two skinny slices with an orange and can barely finish it. In other news, this week I’m reading Same Kind of Different as Me for Friday night’s book club meeting. It is so good you guys. Can’t wait to talk to you about it.

   What are you cooking with your abundant zucchini? They continue to just tumble off the vines here, so I am happy to collect recipes.

Buy Bigger Bowls
xoxoxoxo

Linking up with Mama Kat today!