A Recipe

I decided to share a recipe I discovered the weekened before last.  I spent some time with my friend of mine and she had this book called Power foods which you can get on Amazon.com.  After going through a few of the recipes I decided to copy two of them, Banana Bread with Walnuts and Flaxseed and Spiced Nuts and Seeds.

So, far I've only tried out the Banana Bread with Walnuts and Flaxseed recipe and thought I'd share it with you.  Again, I got the recipe from the book featured on the left.  I didn't have walnuts and didn't want to go out and buy them so I used pecans.  I also didn't bother to toast them because I was lazy, haha.  Finally, I didn't have a 9x5x3 pan so I used my 8x5x3 pan (basically a normal loaf pan).

I hope you enjoy the recipe and I highly recommended this book if you're looking for ways to improve your health through eating right.  Best banana bread I've ever eaten.

Banana Bread with Walnuts and Flaxseed

Ingredients
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus 1 teaspoon softened, for pan
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 large whole egg, plus 1 large egg white
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 2)
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Brush 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with softened butter.  In a bowl, whisk together both flours, flaxseed, coarse salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

2.  With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat whole eggs and egg white until thoroughly combined.  Add melted butter, the sugar, vanilla, and bananas, and mix until combined.  Add the flour mixture, and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  Stir in walnuts by hands.

3.  Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Let cool slightly in pan on a wire rack before turning out onto rack to cool completely, top side up.  The bread can be wrapped tightly in plastic and kept at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Makes 1 loaf; serves 8
per serving:  263 calories; 3 g saturated fat; 7.5 g unsaturated fat; 35 mg cholesterol; 37 g carbohydrate; 6.2 g protein, 231 mg sodium; 4/3 g fiber

Change

**WARNING**
I am a liberal/democrat.  This blog is an impassioned rant about a phrase I've been hearing lately.  I do not mean to offended just as those who offended me don't mean to.  Please keep comments to yourself because I will not be posting them.  And even though I'm posting on a public forum I'm being selfish and not allowing anyone to put their two cents in.  If you want to say something write your own blog. 

This will probably be the only time I speak on politics because my intention was never to make this a political blog.  We have enough of those and I'm no where near being an expert on the subject.  However, I wanted to say this one thing.  So here goes...


This morning I read my friend J's Facebook status and the subsequent comments that followed.  It was a rant about the petitions going to the White House asking to peaceably succeed from the United States.  He, like I, think this is a stunt by a bunch of sore losers who need to get over it.

However, that's not what I want to really blog about.  What I want to say is directed at one comment that I keep hearing and reading everywhere.  A lot of people keep saying they want change and that President Obama hasn't done that.  Here's the thing he caught Bin Ladin effectively beginning the end of a very costly war.  He even has a timeline to get us the heck out.  He appointed the first Latina to the Supreme court.  He has started a massive reform of the health care system.  Gays are now getting equal rights.  The Latino vote and women's vote are stronger than they've ever been.

So here's what I'm thinking, it's not that there hasn't been change it's that there hasn't been the change that certain groups want.  These groups want a backward change instead of a forward change.  They want to shove women back into the kitchen, gays back into the closet and minorities out into the gardens to mow grass.  

The problem is women, gays and people of color aren't going backwards.  We're moving forward.  Our vote spoke that loud and clear.  So everyone wanting backward change need to either get use to the change WE want or get the hell out of the way because we're moving forward not backwards.