Buckwheat Banana Bread Recipe

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by POM Wonderful about trying another new product of theirs. They have a new line of drinks, POMx Iced Coffees.

I was assured that the iced coffees did not taste like pomegranate. Thankfully. Because that would just be weird. Much like the rather odd music and sheep on the website.

Well, I love coffee, so I was happy to receive the free POMx Iced Coffees that they sent me to try out. However, by the time that I received them, it was getting colder here in Massachusetts. For the most part, I only drink iced coffee when it's hot out, so it's taken me a bit of time to try them out. I received two flavors, Chocolate and Café au Lait. The third flavor is Vanilla, but I didn't get to try that one.

All the POMx Iced Coffees contain a blend of antioxidants, caffeine, and rich coffee. I loved the Chocolate! I drank it straight from the bottle and used it in the Buckwheat Banana Bread recipe below.

I didn't like the the Café au Lait too much. The texture was nice, but I found it bitter. I have a super sweet tooth, so I poured it into a glass and added some sugar. I'm sure most people would like the flavor just fine though.

Well here's the recipe below. I used my mother's banana bread recipe as a start and adapted from there. It's really good! The buckwheat adds a fuller flavor to the bananas and the Chocolate POMx Iced Coffee adds a bit more sweetness, texture, and antioxidants. I hope you give it a try. Enjoy!

Buckwheat Banana Bread

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cups buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup Smart Balance
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup Chocolate POMx Iced Coffee
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (about 3)
1 tsp. vanilla

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients well. Oil and flour a loaf pan. Bake at 350degrees for about 65 minutes. Let cool before removing from pan.


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Fig & Whiskey Whole Wheat Shortbread

This shortbread recipe was inspired by none other than our own beautiful First Lady Michelle Obama. As a quick aside, if you haven't looked at the fashion and style blog Mrs. O, I highly recommend it.

Back to how I developed this recipe. Marian Burros who writes blog posts for The Caucus, wrote a post about the high cost of hotels during the Inauguration. In the article, she included a wonderful recipe. I halved the recipe. Replaced the egg with Greek yogurt, made a few other changes and voilà! My new shortbread recipe was born.



In case there is any confusion, I do want to make it clear that I received the OIKOS Organic Greek Yogurt found in this recipe free from Stonyfield Farm, which I mentioned in my last related post.

Something new that I noticed since this last post is that their website has a store locator. I found it difficult to find this yogurt, so this should make it easier for people to find stores that sell it.

Fig & Whiskey Whole Wheat Shortbread
(Adapted from Michelle Obama's Shortbread Cookies)
Makes 6 large pieces

1 T OIKOS Vanilla Organic Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup Smart Balance (softened)
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 T honey whiskey
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 diced figs (approximately 2 T)

Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir well. This is a very small amount of dough.



Place the dough in an ungreased round cake pan. Bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly, then cut into pieces while still warm. Enjoy!

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OIKOS Organic Greek Yogurt Cake

I hope you're all enjoying your Memorial Day as we remember those who've served our country. I finished baking a cake and it's cooling in the fridge. After I make a pasta salad, I'll be getting ready to pick up my brother, then we'll be headed to my parents' house for a visit and a nice meal.

Even though I moved out of my parents' house decades ago, it's still says "home" to me. And it's nice to be able to go home again. I'm sure that those who are serving in the military abroad are eagerly anticipating their return home too.

The concept of home and what makes someplace home is something that I've pondered often since I was a child. I've always loved The Wizard of Oz and remember Dorothy's magical words "There's no place like home."

The people at Stonyfield Farm understand that there's a powerful tie between food and home. OIKOS is Greek for house, household, or family. And OIKOS is the name of their new Organic Greek Yogurt.

I was contacted by Stonyfield Farms and asked if I'd like to try their new Greek style yogurt. I had never tried this type of yogurt before, so I eagerly awaited the overnight yogurt shipment. They gave me a large variety of their Greek yogurts, which I happily ate straight from the container and used in baking. Greek yogurt is smooth and creamy. Click here for coupons and try it yourself. The only bad thing that I can say about this yogurt was that I had a problem finding it in the grocery store. Hopefully you won't have that problem!

Over the next week or two, I'll be sharing more recipes and information with you. For now here's the cake recipe. I have to head out of the house!

OIKOS Organic Greek Yogurt Cake
(Adapted from Chocolate + Zucchini's Yogurt Cake)

1 cup plain OIKOS Organic Greek Yogurt
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 T honey whiskey
a pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 2/3 cups flour

Oil and flour a round cake pan. Set oven to 350 degrees.

Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. You may want to use a large whisk to make sure the eggs are well incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes.

The cake will be well browned. Cool and serve. I'm assuming this is really good, but I haven't tasted the cake yet. Only the batter. Which was quite tasty. You may want to top the cake with a bit of whipped cream, some fruit, or a simple vanilla glaze. I think this will taste just fine plain though. Enjoy!

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Creamy Carrot Soup

As much as I love sweets, sometimes I crave vegetables. Recently, I’ve been craving carrots. Maybe because they remind me of Spring. Carrots are naturally sweet and nutrient rich. What’s not to love?

I decided to create a new soup. It had to be simple, because I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it. I was really downright lazy with this recipe. I was working fast when I made it and didn’t stop to write down ingredients. This is a very loosely pulled together recipe based on what I remember. The amounts are not exact.

But it’s good at demonstrating that homemade soup can be quick. You can make it spur of the moment with what you have. I used the last of the POM Pomegranate Juice for some added antioxidants and flavor. Use butter or margarine, if you don’t use Smart Balance. Use olive oil if you don’t have grapeseed oil, or just increase the amount of butter, etc. Substitute with similar ingredients.

This carrot soup may be the best soup that I ever made. Both G and I loved it! I kept meaning to photograph it again, but we ate it all before I got the chance. I’ll be making this soup again soon.

Creamy Carrot Soup
(makes about 2 quarts)

8-10 medium carrots (washed + skin peeled off)
sweet white onion (roughly chopped)
4-5 cups chicken broth
1/8 cup ground ginger
1 T lemon pepper
2 T garlic powder
salt to taste
1/8 cup brown sugar
½ cup POM Pomegranate Juice
1/8 cup grapeseed oil
1/8 cup Smart Balance

Use a large pan that has a cover. Add the Smart Balance and oil to the pan and turn up the heat. Cut the carrots into thirds and add with the onions to the pan. Sauté onions until soft and light brown.

Pour POM Juice over carrots and onions and cook until juice is almost fully absorbed. Add ground ginger, garlic powder, lemon pepper, salt, brown sugar and cover with chicken broth. Stir ingredients. Cover and turn down heat a bit. Let simmer until the carrots are soft. Let cool. Use an immersion blender to cream the soup. Enjoy!

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Color + Design by POM

This Wednesday, April 22nd, is Earth Day. I recycle already, but have been trying to find ways to reuse things too. "These are the perfect shape and size!", were two things that I thought immediately upon opening the package of POM Wonderful bottles. I always need small bottles to root plants. Since they will be out in the open for display for a period of time, I want them to look nice.

In general, I also like to have containers like these to double as portable flower vases. You never know where or when you'll want to bring some flowers. So, if you buy POM's pomegranate juice, after you drink the juice, wash out the bottles and keep them to use for later.

Another way to use Pom Wonderful's juice is to naturally color frosting. I always feel a little odd using food coloring. They contain more chemicals than I even want to think about. With the arrival of Spring, I've been thinking pink. And as always cupcakes.



I could use POM's juice as a natural way to color the frosting pink and get a nice bit of extra flavor too. I used this chocolate cupcake recipe and the frosting recipe below.



POM Pink Cupcake Frosting

1 tsp. POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
1 cup powdered sugar
pinch of salt
heaping 1/8 cup Smart Balance (softened)

Combine ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir very well until smooth. Frost cupcakes. Enjoy!


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POM Wonderful Tea + Cookies

Recently, POM Wonderful contacted me and asked if I’d like to try their 100% percent pomegranate juice and share my thoughts. They sent me several bottles, and I was really excited to try it.

Over the last few years, I’ve read that drinking pomegranate juice is one of the best ways to get anti-oxidants. And I’m always trying to get as many anti-oxidants as I can get. Thank you POM Wonderful!

As I write, I’m sipping some of the juice now mixed with some ginger ale. It’s very good and quite refreshing. Now most of you know that I have a serious sweet tooth. Pomegranate juice is quite tart, so I didn’t like drinking the juice straight. Although, G loves it! I had to ask him not to drink all the juice, because I want to experiment with it.

How many ways can I use pomegranate juice? I’m not sure. We’ll see. I’ll be using POM Wonderful’s juice in all sorts of things and blogging about it over the next couple of weeks.

The other night it was a bit cool out, so I decided to make some hot tea. I often add lemon juice and honey to tea, so this time I decided to add POM Wonderful and honey. It was great! And I was giddy imagining all those tea and pomegranate anti-oxidants going to town!

I may have neutralized the positive effect with the Lemon Butter Cookies, but they sure were good! I took some serious liberties with this recipe to make them quickly, à la World Peace Cookies – Impatient Version. But it worked. I’ll be making these goodies again soon.

Lemon Butter Cookies
{Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini- makes about one dozen cookies}

Scant ½ cup Smart Balance (softened)
Zest of one lemon
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg yolk
1 cup + 2T all-purpose flour

In a medium bowl combine Smart Balance, sugar, lemon zest. Add salt, egg yolk and combine. Stir in flour. The dough should be easy to handle. Roll into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Enjoy!


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