Banana Bread

This recipe is fast, easy and very basic.

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Optional: Walnuts

• 
  
• Preheat the oven to 350°F
• With a wooden spoon, mix melted butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add walnuts if you wish. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan.
• Bake for 1 hour.
• As soon as I pull it out of the oven, I add brown sugar to the top just to give it a little extra sweetness.
• Cool on a rack until you are able to remove from pan for easy slicing.

~ Kassandra

Lasagna Roll-Ups

One of my most favorite dishes to make.

12 Lasagna Noodles

2 Cups Ricotta Cheese

1 Egg

1/4 Cup Chopped Parsley

2 Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1 (28 ounce) Jar Marinara Sauce

Optional:

8 Ounces Italian Sausages

Preheat Oven 375.

Cook noodles to package. Drain noodles and rinse with cold water. Mix together ricotta, egg, parsley and 1 cup mozzarella.

Spread 1/2 cup sauce in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Spread 3 tablespoons ricotta mixture on each noodle. (If you are adding sausage, you would want to add the sausage in the roll at this point). Roll up noodle. Arrange noodles with the seam side down in baking dish.

Top rolled up noodles with remaining sauce and mozzarella.

Bake loosely covered with foil for 15 minutes. Remove cover, bake for an additional 10 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

Happy Eating!!

The Spaniard Salad

There seemed to be a theme of mexican foods going so I thought I would continue it with a salad. Easy and very low calories, only 319. This is another recipe you can adjust the ingredients to make for 2 or for a large party.

3 Corn Tortillas
1 pd chicken (or you may use ground beef)
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
2 tomatoes, diced.
6 cups shredded lettuce
2 green onions sliced
1 can black olives, drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup fat free thousand island dressing

Optional: If you want to add some spice, you can add hot chilies of your choice.

Oven set to 350.
Cut the tortillas into strips and place on a cookie sheet. I would recommended using butter or cooking spray before placing them on the sheet as they will stick as the brown and will break easy. Cook strips until lightly brown. You may have to shift them on the sheet to get all sides.

Cook chicken and add taco seasoning mix according to the packet. Combined separately lettuce, tomatoes, green onion, olives and kidney beans. Add chicken, tortilla strips and thousand island. Toss altogether and its ready to serve.

Enjoy!!

Easy Lemon Pork Loins

I learned this dish years ago and probably have made it well over 100 times. Its an extremely easy dish to make and you will never forget it. You can make it for 2 people or 10 or more. This is a recipe that I don't measure so you can adjust the ingredients as much as you like.

You will need:

Pork Loins (as many as you want to cook)

Lemons - 1/2 a lemon per loin and have an extra for juice

Onion - 2 rings per loin

Ketchup

Brown Sugar

Foil

Thats it!

Preheat oven to 425.

Place pork loins in baking dish. Cut lemons and onions into rings. Place lemon slices directly on top of loins. Squeeze extra lemon over entire dish to add some juice. Then stack onion rings on top of lemons. Sprinkle brown sugar over whole dish. And top with ketchup. I just make pretty lines about 1/2 inch apart over complete dish. Cover with foil. Place in oven for 45 minutes. Or until throughly cooked.

You can adjust the ingredients to taste after making this dish for the first time. If you want more lemon taste, add more lemons. You can do the same with onions. Add more or less. The taste of the dish will change with the adjustments. More brown sugar will give it a more intense taste. Feel free to try with chicken too.

Enjoy!

~Kassandra

Inspiration

"Cooking has always brought me a happiness that I didn't think was available. I just fire up the stove, and things start to fade away." - Paula Deen

I could not agree more with that quote. No matter how bad of a day I have had, getting in the kitchen and getting my hands dirty creating a dish seems to make all the bad things disappear. I have always found great inspiration in the kitchen. I am Kassandra, a 26 year old Southern California girl with Spanish and Irish heritages running through my veins. Currently engaged to be married this October to a wonderful man who has three daughters who are 17, 13 and 7. I love large families and cant wait to start adding additions to our family. Call me nuts. I grew up in a family that gathered in the kitchen to cook meals every day. My great grandmother was an artist in the kitchen. I don't recall ever seeing her measure out ingredients and her creations were to die for. As you will see in most of my recipes, I don't have an exact measurement for ingredients as I have taken on her inspiration but I will try my hardest to give you the exacts.

I make home cooked meals 5-6 times a week to keep my family healthy. I believe its the most health way to live nowadays. I am always looking to create and find new inspirations so I really hope you all enjoy this blog as much as us ladies.

Till Next Time....

~Kassandra