Normally, I’m not a big bread eater, but lately I’ve become enamored with all kinds of bread-y goodness. Jimmy John’s has the best sub bread ever. I think you can even just buy the bread from them. We haven’t done it yet and hopefully, after my 5-minute-a-day bread, I won’t be tempted (see below).

We’ve also been munching on homemade parathas. Not ours, but Durga’s. She makes the best parathas in the world. While she was here, she whipped up a bunch of pea, potato and cauliflower ones. Our freezer is stocked! Must ration them wisely.

Today I made more of Jessica Seinfeld’s banana bread, but with my own twist. I always double the batch and mess around with the purees. This time I used a can of pumpkin and two bananas. I guess it’s really pumpkin banana bread. Gotta get Super Foods into my family however I can! I baked these in mini tins for easy freezing and they are so cute!

The last bread is the one I’m most excited about: the 5-minute-a-day basic artisan bread recipe. I first read about this book on Amy’s site and put it on my Amazon wish list. A few weeks ago it arrived on my doorstep! (Thanks, Mom!) It was hard not to read the whole thing from cover to cover right away. Then, life got in the way and T went away for the weekend and wait, wasn’t this supposed to be easy? Today I mixed up the dough and the book is right: total work today was about five minutes. Well, ten if you count coloring breaks with Bella. My dough is in the refrigerator and I think I’m going to try my first loaf tonight. Wish me luck!

The other day while we were iChatting with my parents, Bella pulled the bananas off of the counter and opened four of them. I’ve been itching to make something out of Deceptively Delicious because I love hiding good-for-you stuff in my cooking, so I decided to try the banana bread. It called for 1 1/2 cups banana and 1/2 cup cauliflower purees. Surprisingly, four bananas doesn’t make a lot of puree and I didn’t have any frozen cauliflower on hand, so I microwaved a sweet potato to make up the difference. I was a little worried being so adventurous, but it was sweet potato, after all.

The bread turned out fabulous. It smelled so good it was hard to wait for it too cool. I immediately ate two slices and could eat more. I’m not planning to tell T about the sweet potato until he tries it. We’ll see if he can tell. This one has 1/2 cup of sugar in it, so he should be happy. (My zucchini bread wasn’t sweet enough for him.) It also has a good bit of whole wheat flour in it. I’ll definitely be making this again, even if I am the only one who eats it.

UPDATE: T and M both LOVE the bread. T wasn’t even phased by the sweet potato. I’ve trained him well.

I’ve been stepping it up on my routines this week. There is something about the basement being almost finished that is making me want to finish up a lot of things upstairs. I’ve also been working on a few side projects, so time has been limited for healthy, non-take out dinners. I dug out my slow cooker recipes from flylady.net and have been making enough for leftovers the following night. (You’ll have to scroll down to find the recipes on her site.)

last Saturday and Sunday: Easiest Swiss Steaks
Monday and Tuesday: Sloppy Joes #2
Wednesday and Thursday: Beef Vindaloo — this is from my Maya Kaimal cookbook
Friday: date night
this Saturday and Sunday: Cranberry Turkey

The Sloppy Joes were last night and they tasted awesome! The recipe makes a ton, so I froze half, but I could eat this all week long if T let me. I’m also going to make some curried lentil and spinach soup for Bella and me to eat for lunches. What are you cooking this week?

Last night I spent way too much time in the kitchen. I haven’t spent that much time making dinner since before Bella was born. T and I have been watching Alton Brown and were amazed at how easy it looked to make gyros. I guess I didn’t realize how much I have mastered making a “quick and easy” dinner. By pre-Bella standards, this was quick and easy, but by post-Bella standards, it was a gourmet meal.

We got our ground lamb at the Farmers’ Market and only had one pound, so I halved the recipe. I just made a smaller loaf and baked it in the waterbath in the oven. (A rotisserie is not a kitchen gadget I really need.) If you like gyros, I highly recommend the recipe. They turned out really good. In fact, they might just be the best gyros I’ve ever had.

We’ll see how today goes. I had feta and a healthy portion of tzatziki sauce. So far Bella seems to be handling it ok, but these days she seems to react to dairy about 24 hours afterward. I’m thinking I’ll make a dairy-free dinner for tonight and save the gyro leftovers for tomorrow just to be safe.

Oh, yeah. About a year and a half ago, I was raving about my new favorite cookbook. Then I got some kind of stomach bug after a big holiday blowout of meals made from the book and I didn’t want to open it up ever again. Until now, that is.

I’ve really been missing Indian food lately, and decided to dive back into experimenting with Keralan cooking. It all started when I discovered some ground beef in our freezer and I was trying to decide what to do with it. I made Beef in Fragrant Coconut Milk and we had it with Turmeric Rice (recipe from my friend Teresa). It was a total meat and potatoes kind of comfort meal. Afterward, I got really excited. I even asked T if he would mind if I made Indian food for dinner the rest of the week. But then things got busy and I didn’t have a lot of time to experiment, so the next meal I made was an old staple (again from Teresa): Spiced Kidney Beans. T made rotis to go with it. Oh, how I wish I could have yogurt! Yesterday I had more time to experiment, so I went back to the Keralan cookbook and made Chickpeas with Onion. I had to substitute regular chickpeas for black chickpeas, and I omitted the coconut slices, but it was still awesome. We served it with Turmeric Rice and rotis.

I think one of the things that makes southern Indian food so different from northern is fresh curry leaves. They give a nutty taste that really can’t be substituted by anything else. There’s a store up by the university that sells them, and I freeze them for future use. They make even the most simple dhal taste exotic. I need to plan my menus for the week, and I’m going to have to include another recipe from this book. I’m officially addicted.