Canned soup for dinner? Oh, yes!

What a splendid idea! Read all about how to do it right here on the Farm Girl Trails blog:

farmgirltails.blogspot.com/2012/01/layered-chicken-soup.html

This idea comes to you via the Petaluma East Side Farmers Market Facebook Page.

Cha-Cha-Cha! Dessert in a Cup

Don't be surprised that the Mighty Mango makes another appearance—it brings me back to Mexico where mangoes drop from the trees, and we eat them almost every day with abandon. Here, mangoes are readily available in the summer, and we always have them in the house.

Which brings me back to the Cha-Cha-Cha! Just because you don't have ice cream in the freezer, or the will to whip up a batch of hot cookies, doesn't mean you can't party tonight. Take last night for example: after a humble bowl of beans for dinner, I was looking for some excitement. I found some dessert-friendly ingredients in my fridge, and choreographed a perfect combo! Most of you are familiar with fruit and yogurt, but I think it was honey and key lime that made this baby so hot last night....

What to do: Mix 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt with 1/2 cup plain yogurt, and a bit of honey—not too much because the vanilla yogurt has some sweetness already. Cut the fruit into bite-sized chunks, place in a mixing bowl, and toss with just a tad more honey to amplify fruitiness, and the juice of 1/2 key lime. Top 1/2 yogurt generously with fruit in a pretty glass or bowl. Get down.

Options: In Mexico, yogurt with are a popular snack, usually involving finely diced apples. Try yours sprinkled with chopped walnuts, macadamia nuts, shredded, unsweetened, toasted coconut, raisins, or granola... swap fruits in season; strawberries or blueberries are perfect... Also, this is almost just as delicious without the addition of vanilla yogurt, and you can vary the amount of honey as you like. This Meal is Diver Doug Approved.

Bake 'n' Take

Do you ever crave pancakes but not the time it takes to make them? Bake your healthy whole wheat pancake mix with berries in a muffin tin, and then you can take your breakfast with you! I thought this was such a groovy idea, I had to share.

Get the Recipe Here

Ultimate Banana Bread

Ultimate Banana Bread
by America's Test Kitchen

Today I'm talking bananas. I made this recipe, found on AmericasTestKitchen.com, and can attest that it really does have great banana flavor, so here it is (quoted from the website):

"Why this recipe works:
Recipes for ultimate banana bread abound, but because they include an overload of bananas for flavor, the bread’s texture is often soggy. We wanted a moist, not mushy, loaf that tasted of banana through and through.