If you want to make this bread more kid-friendly, I suggest omitting the chili powder and cayenne. That way, it will just be a tender, mildly sweet loaf without the grown-up kick. You could easily make this in a bread machine, just make sure the beans are thoroughly incorporated into the liquid before you add the flour.

Black Bean Molasses Bread, on Tasty Kitchen.

I make this differently every time, so feel free to experiment.

Chicken and Dumplings
Serves 4
Time: 20 minutes of prep and 2+ hours of cooking time with a store-bought roast chicken. Add 10 minutes of prep if you’re using raw chicken.

Ingredients for the Chicken
1/2 of a store-bought roast chicken or 5 raw chicken thighs or 2 chicken breasts
Chicken broth
1 clove garlic
1/4 c. diced onion
1/2 c. diced cooked or frozen carrot
1 c. frozen peas
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. milk or half-n-half

Ingredients for the Dumplings
1 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp diced fresh herbs: thyme, marjoram, parsley, etc.
1/3 c. cold milk

Whether you’re using cooked or raw chicken, put it in a large pot, cover with 1/2 water and 1/2 chicken broth, and set it to simmer for about 2 hours. You could easily do this in a crock pot, increasing the time to 4 hours on high. When the chicken is falling apart, remove it from the liquid with a slotted spoon and separate the meat from the bones and skin, if there are any. Shred meat.Taste the liquid and add salt if necessary.

Return shredded chicken to the cooking liquid, along with diced carrot, peas, onion, and garlic. In a small cup, mix together milk or half-n-half with flour. Drizzle this into the liquid while stirring. Cover the pot and let this simmer to thicken while you mix the dumplings.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Using a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingers, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. Add diced herbs and milk, stir lightly until just combined. The dough should hold together but still be rather dry. Turn dough out onto lightly floured cutting board, dust flour over the top, and pat gently into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Slice rectangle into 1-inch strips, and cut strips into 2-inch lengths.

Drop dumplings one at a time into the thickened, simmering chicken mixture. Cover. Let simmer for 15 minutes, or until dumplings are cooked through. Serve hot.

To make up for the horrible picture of the food, I give you Abbey, sulking because Lily has taken her bed.

A visit to Ranch 99 this weekend yielded two pounds of gorgeous shrimp, so I whipped up an enchiladas de mariscos recipe for them. Incidentally, isn’t that just the most quintessentially American thing to do? Make enchiladas with shrimp purchased at the Asian grocery store. I love this country.

These enchiladas are super tasty, with tender whole shrimp, rice, mild sauce, and flaked tilapia. Even though they feature seafood, they aren’t fishy at all. As always, the recipe is on Tasty Kitchen.

The recipe can be found at Tasty Kitchen, and the progress shots are below.

One of the pizzas I made was roasted chicken/ mushroom/ mozzarella. It was fantastic.

And that’s all there is to it.

Lemon-Yogurt Cupcakes

Recipe based loosely on Joy of Cooking‘s Four-Egg Cake. Sometime, I’ll post about my love affair with the Joy of Cooking.

Yield: 9 (You could easily double or triple this. I just live in a two-person household.)

1 1/3 c flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 c sugar (I used 1/2 c sugar and 1/2 c Splenda)
1/2 c butter
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp lemon juice
1 6 oz. tub plain full-fat yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together, add egg yolks and lemon juice and extract. Blend until smooth.

Add flour mixture and yogurt to butter mixture, alternating, in thirds. Blend well after each addition.

Whip egg whites until “stiff but not dry.” (I love that direction. I have no idea what it means. I just go for slightly bendy peaks.) Add 1/3 of egg whites to batter and blend in by hand to lighten batter. Gently fold in remaining egg whites.

Divide batter among 9 cupcake papers placed in a muffin tin. If your muffin tin has 12 holes like mine, pour 1/2 inch of water in the 3 empty holes to ensure even baking. Bake cupcakes for 20 minutes, checking after 18.

Frost with cream cheese glaze and top with a ridiculously large sliced strawberry. Enjoy.

Cream Cheese Glaze

3 oz. cream cheese
1 tbsp half-n-half
1 c powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and half-n-half together until smooth. Beat in powdered sugar.

Fudgy, moist, and satisfying, this recipe came about because I had two sad-looking bananas in the fridge. I found both Baker’s chocolate and a few chocolate chips in my cupboard, along with some dutch-processed cocoa, and decided to cobble together a quick bread recipe. I made it with Splenda, but sugar would work just as well. I’m not sure if this is good for you, but I’m pretty sure it’s not bad for you. And it definitely packs some chocolatey tastiness.

Triple Chocolate Banana Bread

Yield: One 7 1/2x3x3 in. loaf

Ingredients:
1/4 c butter
2 1 oz sq unsweetened Baker’s chocolate, chopped coarsely
1 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 large or 3 small overripe bananas, mashed (about 2/3 c pulp)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c sugar or Splenda
1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 7 1/2 x 3 in. loaf pan by lightly greasing bottom and sides. If desired, lay a strip of parchment paper in the pan the long way to help get the loaf out after it is baked.

Melt together butter and Baker’s chocolate in the microwave. Put it in the fridge to cool while you mix the other ingredients.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Mash bananas. Add eggs, sugar (or Splenda), and the cooled chocolate-butter mixture. Mix well.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three batches, mixing a few strokes after each batch. Batter should be just blended. Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick or knife blade comes out clean when inserted near the center. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Slice and eat warm with whipped cream or peanut butter.

This bread will keep very well if wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the fridge. Freeze in a double layer of foil inside a gallon freezer bag for up to three months.