Fun Food

Today's post is just going to be a quick one. Every week my son, my husband and I have "family night." That's one night a week where we do something together as a family like play games or watch a movie together. Not that we don't do those things any other time, but we have that to make sure we do something at least once a week. Another family night tradition is having a "fun food" for dinner. That translates into something my four-year-old thinks is "awesome." My son loves breakfast food and he loves peanut butter and banana sandwiches. So last night I decided to combine the two and created this fun recipe. It turned out really good. I'm going to try experimenting with different types of fillings later on.

I just kind of made this up as I went along so I don't have a true recipe with measurements and all that. Just base amounts on the number of sandwiches you want to make.

Peanut Butter and Banana Stuffed Crunchy French Toast
Cinnamon swirl bread (2 slices per sandwich) *
Peanut butter (smooth or chunky - your choice)
Sliced bananas **
Eggs (two eggs and about 1/4 cup milk will make four - five sandwiches)
Milk
Crushed cereal flakes***
Butter

Spread peanut butter on one side of each bread slice. Place sliced bananas on one piece of bread then top with another piece. You will have a sandwich with banana slices in the middle and peanut butter on both sides of the bananas. Beat eggs with milk. Dip sandwiches into egg mixture coating both sides of exposed bread. Dip each side of the coated sandwich in the cereal crumbs to coat. Melt butter on a nonstick griddle or skillet. Cook sandwiches untils golden brown on both sides. Serve with maple syrup, honey or jam.

*This would also be good with raisin bread or plain.

**You could try other types of fruit such as raisins or sliced apples.

***I used crushed Honey Bunches of Oats because that's what I had and I thought it would go well with the peanut butter and bananas. Any type of flake cereal would work - corn flakes, Frosted Flakes, etc.

Let's Wing It!

We love chicken wings at our house. Along with the classic Buffalo wings, we also like lots of other sauces. I'm always looking for something a little different. I just wanted to share one I made earlier this week for dinner. My son, who is almost five and doesn't seem to like very many things I cook, proclaimed them to be "awesome."

Honey Garlic Chicken Wings
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons ground ginger (or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh)
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 cloves minced garlic
20 whole chicken wings, cut apart and tips discarded

Combine all ingredients, except wings; mix well. Place wings in a large zip-loc bag. Pour about half the marinade over the wings. Marinate wings for at least one hour and up to 24 hours. Reserve remaining marinade to baste the wings during cooking.

Heat oven to 375. Remove wings from marinade and discard marinade left in the bag. Arrange wings in a single layer on a foil lined baking sheet (trust me - the foil is very important). Brush wings with some of the reserved marinade. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn wings and baste with a little more marinade. Bake another 15 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 450. Baste one more time and bake for about 15 more minutes or until wings are brown and slightly crispy.

You can heat any remaining marinade until slightly thickened and use as a dipping sauce. I served the wings with egg rolls and roasted asparagus. They'd also be good with fried rice, lo-mein noodles or some other Asian-style side dish.

Enjoy!