what's cooking wednesday - banana bread

Well wouldn't we all love it if our kids just simply ate whatever we put in front of them with glee. Oh it would be a slice of heaven on a cracker. That, of course, never happens at least not around here. Maybe you lucked out and got the kids that will eat salad and pizza "with stuff on it" and vegetables. Those dreaded vegetables. The most Abby will do with them is allow them to briefly touch her lips before declaring them the most disgusting thing ever. Although to her credit she does let the veggies down easy, promising to eat them when she's older. To combat this I've done what a lot of other Mom's have done recently and bought Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cook book, the one that has you hiding veggies in your kids favourite foods like......




Banana Bread (with cauliflower)

non stick cooking spray
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
2 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups banana puree
1/2 cup cauliflower puree
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9X5 inch pan or two mini pans with cooking spray.

In a bowl mix the flours with the baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon if using. Set aside.

IN a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar and oil with a wooden spoon until well combined. Mix in the egg whites, banana and cauliflower purees and the vanilla. Add the flour mixture just until combined.

Pour batter into the loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55 - 60 minutes for a large loaf, 25 - 30 minutes doe two small loves. Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes then turn out of the pan.

Recipe Notes: For the puree, steam cut up cauliflower for 8 minutes or until cooked and toss in a blender or food processor. I did about half a head and froze the rest in freezer bags (1/2 cup in each bag). I didn't bother with the cinnamon, because I've never used it in banana bread before. I couldn't taste or smell the cauliflower in the finished product and the kids have been eating it all week without complaint. Michael claims he can taste it, but he saw me making it and now it's in his head that there's cauliflower in there, so I can't take him seriously. Although, that being said, he did say it was good banana bread. And to be fair I was more interested in this for the kids and it was a home run there.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret. Much to Kaffy's chagrin, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday.