Chicken with Coconut Sauce and Banana Cake

Pinterest Review #3 *

I finally got around to making this chicken.  I knew S would love it, so I wanted to make it a day he would be home for dinner.  Turns out that didn't happen a lot last week.  But, this chicken was well worth the wait.  Although this dinner took about 45 minutes to make, most of it was off hands: reducing sauce, roasting pepper.

Like most of what I do, I took this dish to a much less spicy zone.  Instead of an entire pepper I did 1/4.  C really liked it, and it let the sweetness of the coconut come through, but you really couldn't taste the jalepeno. I would suggest maybe 1/2 for a less spicy version.

If you're going for a budget meal, this is great.  It's only a couple of ingredients, you can use white rice instead of Basmati, and the sauce goes a long way.  It could easily be used for 5 or 6 chicken breasts.  I think this would be great for a night when you have a little more time than the busy nights, but if you want something low key.

Thanks, Bridget, for sharing your idea.  Get the recipe here.

* Picture from Bake at 350

Pinterest Review #4 *

First of all, let me say, I really did have every intention to make cinnamon chip bread.  I still think about it every day.  But, the store I'm currently shopping at doesn't carry cinnamon chips.  So, I need to do some digging before I can make them.  Hopefully it will happen soon.

But, this cake was a good replacement.  Patricia, at Butter Yum, shared this recipe.  I really like snack cakes.  I think there is something fabulous about having a sweet little something in the shape of a square.  Like all banana recipes, this is a perfect way to use leftover bananas.  I actually purposefully didn't eat our bananas so I could make this cake.

I like the combination of vanilla and banana.  I didn't have vanilla paste, so I used extract in the frosting.  It was good, but the vanilla bean flavor would have made it 100 times better.  If you don't have paste, you can always seep a vanilla bean in the cream before you make the frosting.  But, extract is an okay replacement.

Instead of measuring the bananas I used 3 small. The texture was changed a little bit because of it.  But, it made it spongier, almost like a bread pudding texture.  I liked it.  Again, go light on bananas if you want it a little more crumblier.

Lastly, this cake is a great blank slate.  You could replace the frosting with cream cheese or chocolate.  It would  be great with an almond streusel on top.  Swirl in some peanut butter.  It was a great treat.

* Picture from Butter Yum