Easy Like Sunday Morning (Avocado Toast)

It’s a Sunday!

And it’s a day of rest, altho I’m sure for some, it’s pretty hectic spending time with family and kids and chores and errands and groceries and …. gosh, I’m feeling tired already.

Feel blessed you have things to do. Feel blessed you have people to do it with.

As for me, I’m taking a break and taking it easy. For lunch/brunch. 

There’ll be some face stuffing later with the tribe.

It’s been a lovely yet stressful week. (How can a mere seven days cause so many mixed feelings?)

Had someone very close to my heart visit for a few short days. It’s always too short. But it was good.

I miss her already.

That’s obviously not the stress part.

A word of advice on texting that most probably already know but we all need reminding, esp folks like me who have diarrhoea of the mouth and thumb/fingers.

Anything you type/text can be misread. It all depends on the other person who’s reading it, what kind of a mood they’re in, whether they’re menopausing/andropausing and possibly a host of past traumatic history they’ve gone thru and one word might just trigger some negative response. 

They could read it as a ‘Grrrr’ or as an ‘Awwww’. 

Sometimes concern can be misread as criticism … how? …. only they know. 

And sometimes, they’re just too damned sensitive. Bah! Humbug!

I have no energy for dramatics.

And then I find out I have no chickpeas …. AARRRGGHHH!!!

*Breath*

*count to ten*

Make do….

1 Avocado, nice and ripe

2 Garlic cloves, nice and chubby

1 can Canellini beans, Chickpeas would’ve been nice

1 handful coriander leaves

Juice of half a lemon

Drizzle of sesame oil

1/4 cup Grapeseed oil, or Olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Some toasted pine nuts

Plonk them all into a food processor except for the pine nuts (you can add it in but I like some crunch).

Buzzzzzzzzzzz

It’s up to you how smooth you like it

Sprinkle pine nuts.

Use as a dip, a spread on toast or toss with some cooked pasta (just add some grated parmesan for extra flavour)

Easy!

No stress ….. 

Rosemary Ginger Banana Cake

I thought I’d posted my favourite banana cake recipe awhile ago. Can’t seem to find it anywhere. 

But, no biggie. 

Here’s a twist to the basic.

That worked really well …. lightly fragrant with rosemary and ginger. I used crystallised ginger instead of fresh, so as not to have it too pungent and spicy. And a sprig of rosemary on the top and not chopped nor mixed into the batter. It is after all, a banana cake and we don’t want to confuse the main hero of this recipe.

And if you’re a stickler for tradition, just omit the herb and ginger and stick with the same proportions, it’ll still yield a lovely loaf…well, three little loaves if you use the same tins I did. 

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1+ 3/4 cups flour, sifted

1+1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp fine salt

3 large eggs

1+1/2 cups soft brown sugar

1 cup mashed bananas (I used pisang emas, also known as monkey bananas)

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 cup vegetable oil (or any unflavored cooking oil)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

coarsely chopped crystallized ginger

rosemary sprigs

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C.

Oil and line loaf pans. I used 3 mini loaf pans (6”x3”x2”)

Whisk sifted flour, baking soda and salt together.

In another larger bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, mashed bananas, vanilla extract, melted butter and oil until well mixed.

Add flour and fold evenly into mixture.

Stir in chopped crystallized ginger.

Fill tins.

Place a sprig of rosemary on the top of each loaf.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 mins.

Remove from tins and leave to cool on rack.

*(Remove rosemary sprig before consuming.)