Food glorious food...

So, food and I... we have this love/hate thing going on. I usually love it, but lately I just hate it. This pregnancy has been way worse than the others. I've been totally sick, was on Zofran for a while for my nausea (haven't had to take it in a little while now) but mostly I just feel sick in general. Food doesn't sound good, I have to force myself to eat something.... dinner is a big pain- we've had way too much takeout... yeah. Not to mention the dairy thing- not being able to have milk or cheese severely limits your options.

But some nights lately I'm pretty hungry. And when I can plan some decent meals, it's nice. Last night was soooo good, and I had a couple of the leftovers for lunch. Had to snap a pic and share it. If you've never had a teriyaki burger, you are so missing out. My favorite way to make them is using King's Hawaiian sweet bread/buns. It's the perfect combination. A little mayo, some lettuce and tomato, and it's the best ever. I'm not even big on hamburgers at ALL lately, but teriburgers are different. Last night I made mini burgers on the griddle inside (too cold to grill) and put them on the King's sweet rolls-- so good, and perfect size for little hands.

They're super easy. If you live somewhere more west, you can probably find a powdered pack of teriyaki marinade- you can just mix that into your hamburger and voila! If you don't have that, I've found here that the Kikkoman liquid Teriyaki marinade works just as good. I just add a little at a time, mushing it in with my hands until it's pretty mushy, but not to the point where it will fall apart on me when I grill it. I think last night on a pound of hamburger, I used like 1/4- 1/3 of the bottle and they were perfect.



This morning I made these banana muffins that the boys LOVE love love. Ben loves his "nuffins" in general, and Chris calls them "muh mins". They would eat them all day if I let them. I made them last week for the first time, and they were okay, but I think a little overdone. Today I reduced the baking time just a tad (plus only made half the batch- one pan) and they were sooooo good. The recipe is from the Food Network website, from Tyler Florence. The recipe is from that show, "How to Boil Water" so it's really easy to make, stuff you have on hand (when you have a couple of overripe bananas) and very yummy... (ps I omitted the nuts, I didn't have any).

Banana Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and lightly butter 2 muffin tins.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together like you mean it, for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out. Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The recipe is on their site HERE. It says it yields 12, but when I filled them 1/2 full, I got 24. This time I just made a half batch, it was quick and easy :) Also, for my oven, I reduced the cooking time, they only took 16-17 mins.