I’m totally exhausted… know why?

1) Stayed up ’till 4am taking conference calls and doing work
2) Woke up at 8am because the annual-fire-alarm-check was on (urk)
3) Cooked dinner AND baked

I do feel pretty accomplished now, though 😛 Dinner was quite a random choice.. I had some sour cream left over from when I made those chicken, mushroom, capsicum fillo wraps 2 nights ago, so I decided to make this sort of half-Asian half-Western chowder soup thingy. It was pretty healthy IMHO, apart from the healthy dollop of sour cream I put on top 😉 Medium-difficulty too, so it only took about half hour to cook it all up. Only downside was that there was a LOT of washing up since I used so many pots and whatnot! The chowder was lovely though – I loved how creamy and thick it was, and was pleased that it was that way because of the blended potato and not that I’d put in cream to thicken it. And the noodles added in just beefed up the soup a little to make it a proper, and more filling, meal.

Right at the start.. cooking everything up

Chicken, corn, noodle chowder soup.. served with a side of salad

1 brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, mashed
420g can of corn kernels, drained
4 potatoes chopped, boiled & cooked
1L chicken stock
400g chicken tenderloin, sliced thinly
250g fresh egg noodles
1 tablespoon sour cream (per serve)

1) Cook onion and garlic in pot until soft
2) Add 3/4 of the can of corn, potatoes, stock
3) Bring to boil, then simmer covered for 10 mins
4) Blend the mixture until smooth, then return to pot
5) Add chicken and noodles, simmer uncovered for 10 mins
6) Serve topped with sour cream, pepper and herbs

So after dinner, decided to make banana bread, with the aim to make it fudgy and moist, so I put in more bananas and eggs. I really love a good, fudgy banana bread.. toast it lightly so the outside’s crisp but the inside’s still warm and moist, and have it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Heaven!!! This particular one I made is my favourite now… it’s seriously better than any other banana bread I’ve made or bought – EVER! I know it’s naff to pat your own self on the back, but I just gotta do it for this 😛 It’s super super super moist and wet on the inside, and has a crisp crust on the outside. Ahhhh!!!! Plus I put in tons of banana so you really do get that gorgeous banana flavour and bits of it too. It’s so freakin’ good I wish I could send it across the internet so you guys could try it too 😛

Ready to go into the oven

Mmmm.. moist banana bread, freshly baked from the oven

2 1/4cups plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
salt
1 cup white sugar
200g plain butter
4 eggs, beaten
4 bananas, mashed
5 tbs milk
2 tsp vanilla essence

1) Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt.
2) Cream butter and sugar in another bowl until smooth.
3) Add eggs in 2 batches, beating thoroughly after each one.
4) Add vanilla essence, milk and mashed bananas.
5) Combine with flour mixture and mix together
6) Bake 180c for 30 mins or until top of crust is a golden brown.

I actually made extra banana bread ‘cos I want to bring some in to work on Friday morning. I decided to support The Cancer Council’s charity this week – Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea. I signed up earlier in the week and got my host pack today with lots of fun stuff to give out to people, etc. My plan is to let people order from a menu of drinks – I’ve got vanilla latte, hazelnut latte, tea with honey, etc… and on Friday at 8:30am, I’ll host the morning tea and make drinks for everyone and there’ll also be my banana bread and some biscuits for dipping into your coffee, etc. And of course, get donations which’ll go towards the charity. I’m really looking forward to it – it’ll be a lot of fun and I have high hopes that we’ll have a substantial donation to make at the end of it! 🙂

Fun stuff for the day!