Love Of Oats

A blog dedicated to balancing a healthy and fun life… with oats!

Monthly Archives: September 2008

Bobby Flay: My Idol

Ever since I started watching The Food Network, I have been obsessed with watching any and all of Bobby Flay‘s shows… I am completely envious of his ability to develop unique and mouth-watering dishes and trying one of his dishes would make my dreams come true haha…

So, for my 25th birthday this year (in addition to surprising me with a candlelight dinner on the beach in Jamaica along with a birthday cake!), Bill decided to surprise me and take me to the Bobby Flay restaurant of my choice.  My choices, due to location, are either Mesa Grill (in NYC, which is a 2 hr train ride, which means spending all day in NYC w/ traffic) OR Bobby Flay Steak (in Atlantic City which is a 1hr car ride with relatively little traffic).  However, looking at both menus, I simply can’t decide.

So…

I NEED YOUR HELP!

I’m hoping I have some blog readers who have been to one of them OR both, who can provide me some reviews/opinions of them.  If you have, please share your thoughts in the comments section so that I can make my pic relatively soon so that we can pick a day to go and make an appointment.  I’m going to try to narrow it down by this time on Tuesday, so I’ll let you all know of my final decision :)

Peach-Banana Walnut Raisin Cake

I decided that on my first married Sunday at home, I should bake some fantastic treat after church… I wasn’t sure what to bake, but had been reading my blogs that baked creations originating from The Fitnessista’s 100% Whole Wheat Banana Bread… I decided that I should give her recipe a whirl since it sounded fantastic AND I had all of the ingredients on hand, too!  I was lacking a little bit in the banana department so I chose to use up some peaches as a substitute which caused the batter to be slightly dry,which is why I decided to add in the skim milk… All in all, I highly recommend this cake/bread, it’s hearty, super-moist, and deliciously textured!

Peach-Banana Walnut Raisin Cake (adapted from Fitnessista’s 100% Whole Wheat Banana Bread)

Ingredients:

  • 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
  • 1 cup vanilla nonfat yogurt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/4 cup Domino Light Granulated Brown Sugar
  • 1 cup California raisins
  • ½ cup crushed walnuts
  • 2 1/2 cups 50% blend white + wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup diced peaches
  • 1 cup skim milk

Directions

Mix the dry ingredients well then add the wet ingredients, whisking until well-blended. Pour into Parchment paper-lined cake pan (or if you don’t have Parchment paper, just spray well). Bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees (time could depend on your oven). Remove parchment paper-lined cake from pan and let cool for 10 minutes. Slowly peel away parchment paper and let cook for another 10-20 minutes or until cool to the touch.

Slice into “bread” slices or “cake” slices, whichever you prefer. I chose to cut mine into bread slices because it was easier and allowed for many more servings.

Pictured here is half of the cake cut up, I packed up the other half and gave it to my parents for a special treat! As you can tell this makes a large amount of servings, especially if you cut it into small pieces like I did.

You can choose to enjoy this cake plain (as Bill did), heated and then with a dab of margarine (as Bill did – can you tell he liked this bread?), or smeared with a little bit of peanut butter or fruit preserves (as I plan on doing).  Either way, enjoy!