more summer cooking

Last night I was staring at some quite brown bananas wondering what to do with them. I didn't feel like making banana bread again, I certainly wasn't going to eat them and I didn't want to just throw them out. I found a box of Jiffy fudge brownie mix and made banana brownies! I just replaced the called for egg and oil with 2 mashed bananas (which just so happens to make them vegan as well). They are very fudgy and tasty!

1 box Jiffy fudge brownie mix
2 over-ripe bananas
1 tbsp water
chopped walnuts optional

mix, pour into lightly greased pan and bake at 350 for 30 min.


While searching for a recipe I came across one for pesto that I'd been saving. Ever since I started growing basil I've wanted to make my own pesto. I didn't quite have enough basil to make a full batch so I used half spinach/half basil. I also didn't have pine nuts or much olive oil so here's what I did:

2 cups fresh spinach
2 cups fresh basil
4 cloves garlic
handful of raw mixed nuts (cashews, walnuts, brasil nuts, pistachios, almonds)
1/2 cup or so grated parmesan cheese
enough oil for desired consistency (I didn't measure, only had a tiny bit of olive oil left so I filled in the rest with canola oil)

put spinach and basil into food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add garlic, nuts and cheese and mix until well blended. Pour in oil while processing until it looks like pesto.


Also, since I haven't posted a photo of Meiby in a while, here she is "helping" me in the kitchen :)


She's always underfoot, waiting for something to fall...