Banana Bread with Orange Glaze

This is one of my new favorite recipes. It has a little more sugar than your standard banana bread, but it has whole wheat flour, so it must be good for you. For a dessert, serve warm with vanilla ice cream.... or that is good as a mid-morning snack too :o)

3/4 cup soft butter
8 oz. soft cream cheese
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
4 medium mashed bananas
1/2 tea vanilla
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 1/2 cups wheat flour
1/2 tea baking powder
1/2 tea baking soda
1/2 tea salt

Glaze
Juice and zest of one orange
1 cup powdered sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy, add sugar and beat again. Add eggs, vanilla and banana's and mix until combined, then add the rest of the ingredients. Bake in 2 8"x4" loaf pans at 325 degrees for 60 minutes. Pour the glaze over hot bread before removing from pans, let cool 10 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Death by Chocolate Cake

This is a very dense, rich cake, not to be taken lightly. You could call it the king of chocolate cakes. It is the best served while it is still a little bit warm.

1 Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mix

1 3.9 oz. package instant chocolate pudding

1 cup melted butter

2 cups (1 16 oz. container) sour cream

5 eggs

1 tea vanilla

1 bag mini chocolate chips

Combine all ingredients except chips and mix for 1 min. on low, and 2 min. on medium. Then fold in mini chips (optional: save about 1/8 cup to sprinkle on the top). Bake in a well greased bundt pan at 350 for 60 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Frosting

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup whole milk

3/4 cup + 1 TB granulated sugar

3/4 cup + 1 TB semi sweet chocolate chips.

Combine butter, milk and sugar over medium heat and cook for 4 or 5 minutes, or until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in chocolate chips gradually until it is smooth. Immediately pour over cake. Garnish with reserved mini chips or shaved chocolate.

*A few notes: This is very thick batter, I don't suggest trying to mix by hand. Also, don't try to cut the fat out of this cake, it will ruin it. If you are looking for a lower calorie cake, pick another recipe.

Steak and Veggie Soup

1.5 pounds steak*
1/2 onion, diced
1 28 oz. can petite diced tomato's
6 cups beef broth (6 cups water + 6 bullion cubes, or 3 cans beef broth)
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 large potato, peeled and cut into 1/2" cubes
1/4 head green cabbage, chopped very small
1 cup frozen corn
1/3 cup barley
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Brown the beef in a little olive oil with the onion, salt and pepper. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer on medium for 45 minutes until the veggies are tender. The beef stock has a lot of salt in it, so I usually don't need to add any except what I put on the meat as I am browning it.
*You can also use ground beef for this soup
**If you are planning on freezing any leftovers, leave out the potato. It doesn't freeze well.