As August draws to a close, I am suddenly realizing that my August challenge went to hell in a hand basket.  Whenever I have a challenge, and I have people participating with me, you might not see it on the blog, but I personally email the participants every few days to see how they are doing, if they need some cheerleading or just high fives because they are on track.

After I got bronchitis, the more I couldn’t work out to meet my challenge, the less I talked to my participants, and I apologize for that.  For the 32 people who joined my August challenge, I will be emailing you today to see how you did, and will be doing a recap tomorrow as well as picking a winner for the case of Chobani and my salsa.

I hope my getting off track didn’t put you off track – and again I am sorry I didn’t personally support the challengers this month.

I do have to give a shout out to one of my participants though, who I have been emailing simply because she took the initiative to email me, and I thank her for that.

Meet Louise!  Louise was my oldest participant at 65 years old.  When she first emailed me to say she’ll take on the 100 mile challenge on her exercise bike, I have to say, I initially thought that it might be too much for her.  But I couldn’t be more wrong!  As of a couple days ago, she was just two miles away from her 100 miles!  And knew that by tomorrow she’ll probably exceed her 100 mile goal.  I am so proud of you Louise!

Oh, and if you ever need some really creative greeting cards, she makes the cutest ones on Etsy – www.cards4ubylouise.blogspot.com – you are very talented Louise!

Ever leave your camera on overnight?  Typically after dinner is when I down load my pictures from the day and spend about 5 – 10 minutes figuring out which ones I want to post the next day.  The night before last after I downloaded them, I left the camera on all night, so when I went to take a picture of my breakfast, it was D.E.A.D.

My phone to the rescue!  Another slice of my summer quiche, an English muffin and sliced apple.  I love that I have all my meds on my desk at the ready!

I have stopped taking prednisone.  I am feeling about 90% back to normal.  The reason?  My doctor said my blood sugars would spike around 200 – um guess again.  The first day was fine, but the second day my blood sugar readings were in the mid 200s.  Last night before bed my blood sugar was 313!  I took 12 units of insulin to bring it down, took my long lasting night time insulin.  This morning?  My blood sugar was 422!  I haven’t seen numbers like that in years.  So long prednisone!

Lunch was a bunch of leftovers – grilled chicken left over from our grilled caesar salad morphed into a chicken and spinach quesadilla – on the side is a mixture of 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/4 cup refried beans and 1/4 cup of my grilled cherry salsa, with more salsa on the side to dip my quesadilla in.

Dinner didn’t work out as planned.  We are out of charcoal, so the Weber was out.  So I went to heat up the gas grill and . . . no gas!  Although we tried to think the last time we refilled it and its been a while.

I had Nicole’s pork satay dish on the menu.  I made the sauce exactly as the directions stated.  Instead of threading the pork, I just sliced of four thin slices from the pork tenderloin.  The problem?  My indoor grill pan didn’t really get hot enough, so the brown sugar didn’t caramelize  as it would have on the grill, then the grill got too hot and the mixture started to burn, so I kept having to move the pork chops around – they were tender, but didn’t get all the flavor as I would have on the grill – it was tasty, but I’ll definitely make this again when we have an operating grill!

I had Tony make his famous fried rice – the only veggies I had in the house were carrots and zucchini – I also diced up some of the leftover beef roast we had last week – I’ve gotten a lot of use out of the leftovers!

The drizzle of the extra sauce and tablespoon of chopped peanuts over the top made this dish for me – that and Tony’s amazeballs fried rice – I swear to God its perfect every time he makes it.  And it helped that I picked up a large white rice from my Chinese restaurant on my way home – best $2 bucks to accessorize our dinner.

I realized I never put any of my food into fatsecret.com yesterday, and now I am running out of time – I am going back to my doctor before work just so he can make sure I am really on the road to recovery.  I am so looking forward to exercising next week!

Has anyone been having problems leaving comments?  It’s been hit or miss for me – even trying to leave comments from home, or on two different browsers at work – I type the comment, and then it just disappears – so if I normally comment and you don’t see it – its not for lack of trying, but I am still reading!

Who has plans for labor day weekend?  I am not sure what we are up to, but I forgot to give a Happy Birthday shout out to my SIL Jody – her birthday was yesterday – Happy belated birthday Jody!  She works at a high school and the marching band surprised her by coming into her office and playing the fight song – so cool!

Alright, off to get ready for my doctor appointment – hope everyone has a great weekend and come back tomorrow for my August challenge recap.

I had to laugh at some of the comments yesterday to Tony’s Q&A!  Yes, I think we all agree that he will always be Tony on the blog!

And to clarify about Tony’s not eating leftovers as a child.  His Mom is a very good cook and Tony tells me that a lot of times they didn’t have leftovers was because they ate everything she made because it was so good!

And I listened and read all your concerns through the comments and email about prednisone, and I have no intentions of taking any more that the six days.  I have to tell you, I feel 85% back to normal.  I haven’t coughed yet once this morning, so that’s a great sign!

And Helen and I agreed that the 5k I signed up for is just going to become a fun run.  I hope to start working out again on Monday, and that is just a week away from when I return to working out.  If I have to walk some of it, so what?  At least I can say I did it!

Now you know when you get towards the end of the week and you have a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  I did a deep clean of my fridge over the weekend, you couldn’t find anything – Hannah would have been so disappointed in my keeping the fridge clean skills.  I decided that I am a condiment whore.  I should have taken a picture, but just for me, I probably have about 15 bottles of hot sauce, bbq sauce, mustards, pickles.

Since I am the only one who uses that shit, I put all my spicy shit in the downstairs fridge.  One of the things that had gotten pushed to the back was a generic box of laughing cow cheese.

Oh, and I may have dropped a can of pop from my cupboard that is right above my coffee maker – not sure why I was storing a solo can of pop there where it doesn’t belong, but needless to say when I was making the lasagna soup the other night and was reaching for the lasagna noodles, the can fell and smacked the counter super hard and proceeded to spray pop EVERYWHERE!

It took me nearly 20 minutes to clean it all up.  But I did find a can of diced green chiles I forgot I had!  And then I had two ears of corn and one zucchini.  So the Summer Quiche was born!

Summer Quiche

makes 4 servings (1/4 of a standard pie plate) 202 calories, 4.7 fat, 18.3 carbs, 1.5 fiber and 21 protein)

• 4 ounces shredded fat free mozzarella
• 4 jalapeno cheese triangles
• 4 ounce can of green chiles, drained
• 1 cup shredded zucchini, squeezed dry
• 1 cup corn (from 2 ears)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1.5 cups skim milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• sprinkle of cayenne pepper over the top

Heat oven to 350.  Mix the eggs, egg white, milk and cheese triangles together, making sure to break up the cheese with a whisk.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour into pie plate that has Pam in it, and bake for 45 minutes.

I literally took this out of the oven about 15 minutes before I had to leave for work.  It was too hot to slice, so I just wrapped it in foil and dish towels to transport it to work.

Once I got to work one of the attorneys asked what I had.  I told her it was summer quiche and when I said it had corn and green chiles in it I think in the back of her head was like “um, no thanks!”  But she skipped breakfast.  I told her if she didn’t like it I wouldn’t be offended. 

I gave her the exact same plate as mine, and it was a bit watery on the bottom – it probably could have rested a bit more, and when I sent her an email apologizing about it, she said “I’ve already eaten it all – it was delicious!”  And I couldn’t agree more – breakfast was only 267 calories, 4.9 fat, 35 carbs, 4.5 fiber and 21 protein, and it kept me full for hours.

I used to think that you should go to the farmers market when they first opened.  Turns out if you sleep in and read the Sunday paper and drink coffee for a couple hours and THEN go – you get some deals.  They are packing up and would much rather get rid of stuff rather than take it all back to the farm.

As luck would have it one of the vendors had a huge bushel of thai basil.  I asked how much?  He handed me a gallon size ziploc bag and said “as much as you can stuff in there for $2.”  Score!

I ended up making a thai basil chicken dish with brown rice and zucchini and maybe a few hits of sriracha.  I am going to have to go back to the drawing board on this recipe.  It was good, but I think I added a bit too much hoisin sauce so it was a little too sweet, luckily the sriracha was a nice balance, but I am going to tweak this a bit more before posting the recipe.  Lunch comes in at 485 calories, 9.9 fat, 81 carbs, 1.9 fiber and 17 protein.

Tony watched a program recently where a chef was making Anthony Bourdain the other day.  This chef said that you should never grill your burgers over the grill because all of the juices just run out of the burger.

We decided to make our burgers on our cast iron skillet.  Um, we may have agreed that starting with bacon would be the best idea.   (Kelly, I totally thought of you when I was cooking the bacon!)

I only had half the grill on, so once the bacon was done, I put it on the top rack on the cool side.  I drained some of the bacon fat, and then cooked our 4 ounce burgers.

Oh my, the crust on these were amazeballs.  And so juicy!  My first bite I had juice running down my chin straight onto my shirt.  I am pretty sure that there is not a meal that I don’t spill on myself one way or the other. 

With steak fries on the side – this plate comes in at 688 calories, 33 fat, 62 carbs, 4.7 fiber and 34 protein.  Although I ended up eating only 3/4 of the burger and 3/4 of the fries – the dog was a happy camper when I gave him the leftovers.

Stats for Wednesday

• 1440 calories, 48 fat, 179 carbs, 17 fiber and 73 protein
• 50% of calories from carbs, 30% from fat and 20% from protein
• my blood sugar average was 220 yesterday – I blame the prednisone, I am only taking 4 pills today so I’ll have to monitor it a bit more closely

It’s a gorgeous 65 degrees this morning – it would have been a great morning to take a walk – soon though!   I have to get my shit together – thanks again for all your comments yesterday.  I thought Veronica’s was funny!

I was actually terrified he’d have a name I could never associate with him, like Benjamin or Dan, and the entire universe would just collapse because everything would be wrong after it was revealed.

Make it a great day!

I have a new friend!  You know what his name is?  PREDNISONE!   Tony and I went to the doctor last night.  Basically my doctor said that 10% of people who have bronchitis go on to develop a sort of infection – loose particles that he described as “leaves” were annoying my bronchial tubes which would then make me cough.

So now I am taking prednisone, cirpro, a cough pill called Benzonatate AND an inhaler.  $100 after the office visit and meds, I feel so much better.  The only side effect of the prednisone is that it might make my blood sugars high.  I also didn’t pay attention when I read the instructions.

You basically take 6 pills the first day, 5 the next, 4 the next and so on for six days.  What I didn’t read was that you were to take 2 at breakfast, 1 after lunch, 1 after dinner and 2 before bed.  I took all six at once!  My Momma called to see how I was doing.  I told her what I did and she kind of freaked out like I had overdosed, but I told her I was fine.

It wasn’t until reading the package more closely it said that it was okay to take all six at once if you take it late in the day.  I failed to call my Momma back to alleviate her worry.  Just was we were getting ready to go to bed at 11:05, it was my Momma calling!  She read online that prednisone will spike my blood sugars and by taking six I  think she thought my blood sugars were 500!  But they were only 180 before bed.  Sorry to worry you Momma – but thanks for calling!

I know, I know you are waiting for Tony’s answers to your questions, but I did have awesome eats I couldn’t not post.

Breakfast was a roast beef hash from the left over grilled roast beef.  2 ounces diced beef, 1/2 cup egg whites, one grated zucchini, 3/4 ounce cheddar cheese and 4 ounces of baked potato diced.  I cooked it all in a touch of olive oil, the topped with Frank’s hot sauce.  I can put that shit on everything!  Breakfast: 411 calories, 16 fat, 25 carbs, 3 fiber and 39 protein.

Lunch.  Well, lunch was amazeballs.  I wish I took a better picture, but I “stole” Suzie’s picture so that you could want to make this.  This makes  A LOT  of soup.  For calorie purposes I called this 6 servings at 1.5 cups each, but I think it’s more than that. I ended up feeding 5 people at my office and was able to give at least 2-3 servings of the leftovers for my boss to take home – he son had a late soccer game and that could be his dinner.  (Six, 1.5 cups of soup is:  378 calories, 18 fat, 35 carbs and 18 protein).

I accessorized our lunch by going over to Jimmy John’s and buying a loaf of their .50 cent day old bread and made garlic bread on the side.  Lunch comes in at 457 calories, 21 fat, 46 carbs, 4.2 fiber and 20 protein.  The only difference from Suzie’s original recipe I made was that I left out the olive oil because I thought the sausage had enough fat.  Left out the onions (duh!) and instead of her cheezy mixture, I just put 1/4 cup fat free ricotta cheese in each bowl, then stirred it up.  It really did taste like lasagna!

Suzie’s picture:

We didn’t actually get home from the doctor and drug store until almost 7:30.  We picked up a pork steak for lack of a better word – I was kind of skeptical when Tony put it in the basket because it looked like a cut that needed to be cooked low and slow.  When will I learn the man knows his meat!

I seared it on both sides, then put it on the top rack of the grill for about 20 minutes.  Holy yum, super tender and delicious.  I kicked mine up with hot wing sauce.  Dinner comes in at 541 calories, 30 fat, 28 carbs, 2.1 fiber and 35 protein.  I have store bought mashed taters on the side.

So now the moment you’ve been waiting for! . . .

Q & A with Tony (or is it Tony?)

· debbidoesdinner on August 25, 2012 at 5:29 pm said:

Q:I love the idea of Ask Tony Everything! Except for what name his mama gave him!!

A: I don’t think there was a question posed here, but I will act like there was.

It is my understanding that my folks were having some negative feelings about the Italians when I was born. So I was named after some soap opera star named Jeff. Although I did not meet him until I was a teenager I always wanted to be named after my Grandfather Tonino, or Tony.

· Erica on August 25, 2012 at 5:31 pmsaid:

Love the kitchen at work Awesome decor. I am so excited for the ask anything segment:

Q: 1. What is your favorite meal?

2. Tell us something about Biz we don’t know

I would have a difficult time if I was on death row and was told I could choose anything for my last meal. But, I guess it would be sushi. I have tastebud-gasms when I eat fatty Tuna.

Wow, Biz talks on her blog about everything. She is not afraid of revealing anything about herself. Hmmm, she swears like a drunken sailor. She does not always blog about her nighttime snacks. She has a great fear of having her head below water, and of any sort of bug on her. She has seen ghosts, but does not believe in them. She snores sometimes and blames the dog. Also, do NOT go anywhere near her if her blood sugar is low. It’s like watching Mother Teresa slap a bitch.

· MaryBe on August 26, 2012 at 12:03 am said:

Q: That wallpaper is both terrible and awesome.
Ask Tony…if he ever smoked cigarettes, or just cigars?

I smoked for years, I quit just before Biz and I met. Oddly, she quit at about the same time. I only started smoking cigars a few years ago. I only smoke outside and keep it to a few times a week in the summer. I like to think that I look like the most interesting man in the world, but know I look like a funky golfer after a poor round.

Pubsgal on August 26, 2012 at 2:54 am said:

Q:  Very much looking forward to the “Ask Tony” feature! Let’s see…what if one doesn’t like vodka? Are there alternatives for keeping one’s balls crunchy?

That was Biz’s interpretation of my comment. I think I actually said scrunchy. This can only be achieved with Vodka, or Whisky. Cooler temperatures also are helpful.

M on August 28, 2012 at 3:03 pm said: Edit

Questions for Tony:
-What does YOLO mean?
-What stocks should I invest in?
-What is the best dessert you’ve ever tasted?

Well yolo can mean many things. As the kids use it with all their text paging and such it means you only live once. As my son is marrying a beautiful Hispanic lady it means darling in their language. To me it sounds like what I call Mr. Happy when I want to play wardens wife and the escaped convict.

I hate the stock market. It changes for no real reason. It’s all speculation and is run by fear of the unknown. But, with that said I hear a lot of good things about that Facebook stock.

Many years ago I was vacationing in an area of Wisconsin known as Door County. We went out for ice cream. We were in an old ice cream parlor and I was lucky enough to get the last scoop of Spumoni. I was very happy as I could see chunks of nut and cherries in that scoop. I went to lick it and it fell to the floor. I’m not proud of this but, I picked it up and wiped it with a napkin and went ahead and ate it. So my answer is Portillos chocolate cake. I would eat that off a dogs butt!

Louise on August 28, 2012 at 5:06 pm said:

Question: How WOULD he solve world peace and what does he forsee for this country in the next 4 years???

I think a good start is alternative energy. If we can make our own renewable source of energy it takes the power from the Middle East away and defuses a lot of problems. Next, everyone should have a pet that loves them. Who can feel like killing with a kitty curled up on your lap? Also, congress has to all live together like Big Brother, until they can all play nice and get this country going again. I am available to be King, and will do so if I am asked. My first order of business you ask? I will illegalize serving raw onions! Also there would be a new holiday..topless day!

Suzie on August 28, 2012 at 4:51 pm said:

Question for Tony: Is there any one thing that you wish Biz could cook?

I wish she was a sushi chef, and I would call her BizMoto. Biz is a great cook, and I have found nothing that she can’t master…wait unless you count the bain of her existence…scalloped potatoes. I have eaten some very crunchy potatoes.

debbidoesdinner on August 28, 2012 at 5:42 pm said:

Question for Tony: Since being married to Biz, what food have you eaten that you never thought that you would eat?

I have not allowed her questionable food choices to change my life much. I can honestly say I have eaten more pizza and Mexican food than at any point in my life. I still hate the practice of breakfast for dinner, and will never give that fight up!

MaryBe on August 28, 2012 at 7:35 pm said:

Ask him why he never eats leftovers??

When I was a kid somebody asked my Mom something about leftovers. I looked over at my Mom and asked “What’s a leftover”.

We never had leftovers; we ate until the food was gone. So now, I just don’t care for the taste of reheated food. Also I am always in fear that I will get one of Biz’s fiery hot food, and that frightens me. She sticks peppery cheese in everything, it’s a minefield of death in there.

Veronica M asks:

Of course a million people are going to ask and not get a response, or at least a real one, but I have to ask! What is your real name???  And since he won’t answer that one, hows about: What is your favorite food that Biz makes?  Least favorite?

Well consider yourself verbally slapped I answered the name question in my first response.

I really liked the Caesar salad the other night, but generally give me a wedge of cow flesh with garlic salt and butter and I am a happy boy. In the years that Biz and I have been together she has become an excellent grill master. We do have to work harder with the smoker, the last ribs tasted like baby poo. A baby who ate something nasty! Least favorite? Um, everything she makes for lunch. You can take that stuff and throw it in the river. Half the ingredients I have never heard of and the other half are sour and spicy..ick.

So there you have it!  A glimpse into the man who makes me laugh on a daily basis.  For those of you who haven’t read our story, you can check it out here.  His first email to me still makes me laugh.  He said “I am a divorced father of a 10 year old boy, and while I am Italian, I am proud that I have two separate eye brows and no back hair!

Alright, I have to go check on my quiche I am making for breakfast – another thing Tony (Jeff!) wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole – I am calling it a summer quiche, it has fresh corn off the cob, shredded zucchini and green chiles – hope it turns out as good as I think it will be in my head!

Make it a great day!

You know how hard it is to get through to a doctors office on a Monday morning?  My cough is as annoying as ever, in fact, I think its even worse – well, at least that’s what my co-workers told me.

I tried calling from 9:00 a.m. on and didn’t get through until 10:30.  By then, the next available appointment wasn’t until 6:00 p.m. today, but I took it.  I guess I am fine if I don’t move, but the more I do, the more I cough.  But other than the cough I feel fine – so weird!  And I am feeling fatter every day without being able to work out, when I do get to start to work out again, it will feel like I am starting from the beginning.  I still plan on doing the 5k in September no matter what – I just feel bad that so many of you joined my August challenge, and I won’t even make my 100 mile goal.  I did read a book though!

Breakfast was one of my mini banana breads with a sliced apple – called a Pink Lady – not sure I’ve ever had one of those before, but it was very sour – or at least sour compared to the sweet banana bread – I may have to try it on its own.

419 calories, 12 fat, 71 carbs, 6 fiber and 8 protein. Taken with my phone because my camera battery was dead.

Lunch was a 6 ounce baked potato with 1 cup of Cincinnati chili and a bit of cheddar cheese.  530 calories, 33 fat, 38 carbs, 5.7 fiber and 29 protein.

The work day went by pretty quickly for a Monday.  Tony was flipping channels over the weekend and saw a recipe for a grilled caesar salad.  I’ve always wanted to try it.  He loves Caesar salad – he used to frequent a restaurant back in the day that would actually make the salad table side – rub the bowl with fresh garlic, then smash the anchovies and whisk in the olive oil, lemon juice, etc.

Anchovy’s kinda gross me out.  They have hair!

But I had a solution!

Two inches of anchovy paste equals one fillet.

Caesar Salad Dressing

six servings:  186 calories, 19 fat, .3 carbs. 0 fiber and 2 protein

• 2 anchovy fillets
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan (not classic, but I added it)

Put everything in the food processor and let it emulsify for 2 minutes.

I brushed the cut Romaine with white balsamic vinegar before hitting the grill.

Tony was my trusty sous chef – just admiring the sunset?  Trying to solve world peace?  Trying not to fart?  Not sure!

Note to self:  Deep clean the grill this weekend!

I cooked all the chicken, but only used half for our salads.  I got a big mixing bowl, put 1/3 of the dressing the in the bowl, then added the chopped romaine and the chicken to coat everything with the dressing – this is a very lightly dressed salad, but oh so good – with croutons and 1 tablespoons of fresh grated Parm over the top – dinner comes in at 467 calories, 26 fat, 12 carbs, 2.6 fiber and 32 protein.

You guys have to come by tomorrow for Suzie’s lasagna soup recipe – its amazeballs!   I made it last night for my lunch today – cannot wait. 

Alright, it’s that time again – put my shit together for the day and hope I get some meds that knock this bronchitis to the curb!  Make it a great day!

Oops – forgot to add . . . not too late to ask Tony anything!  Just leave a question in the comments section, or send me an email at mybizzykitchen.com.  Answers will be posted tomorrow. 😀

My post was so quick on Saturday morning that I didn’t have a chance to tell you that I had Party Pizza Friday!  This time I picked up a $5 pizza at our local grocery store, I tricked my side out with leftover roasted jalapenos from my salsa making last week, and diced green peppers.  Tony had sauteed mushrooms on his side, and I may have added a touch more cheese.

And guess what I had at twin fest on Saturday??  Deep dish pizza!

My bronchitis cough?  Still very much alive and well.  I’ve gone through two Z-packs and 3 bottles of prescription cough medicine – I have to call my doctor this morning and see if I can get something stronger.  I haven’t worked out in 12 days!  And when I don’t work out, you can see I tend to throw the healthy part of the diet out the window.

When I work out, I am not as tempted to eat shit because I think to myself “do you really want to undo that 50 minute workout?”  The answer is usually no.  The problem is that I feel fine, but this barking cough is getting a bit annoying – I think even Tony is getting sick of it.

I did make a delicious roast Saturday night though – I came up with a new rub:  2 tablespoons of dijon mustard smeared all over the roast, then mixed together dried rosemary, 1 teaspoon of lemon pepper seasoning, and 2 cloves minced garlic.  I also cut slices in the top of the rub and put in whole cloves are garlic while it grilled.

I took the meat out exactly at 125 degrees.  I let the roast rest for 20 minutes before slicing.

So fricken good!  Thumbs up from Tony on this one too – woot!

I got up at a more respectable 8:30 on Sunday.  Tony made me another one of his amazeball breakfasts – this time he used leftover stuffed green pepper filling I had leftover in the fridge.  It was basically some ground sirloin, peppers, crushed red pepper and a bit of tomato sauce scrambled with two eggs and some cheese.  He put it on top of a crusty corn tostada. 

Its another birthday in our office –one of the named partners.  I was wondering what to make for the office, when I remembered Teresa just had a recipe for peanut butter banana bread with a peanut butter glaze.  Um, yes please!  My changes are bolded.

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

I got six mini loaves – each loaf is 2 servings: so each serving is 177 calories, 6 fat, 27 carbs, 1.5 fiber and 4.2 protein)

Cooking Light August 2010

Ingredients

• Bread:
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
• 1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed (I used 1/4 cup wheat germ)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts (left out)
• Cooking spray
• Glaze:
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon 1% low-fat milk
• 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare bread, combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add granulated and brown sugars; beat until blended.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Stir in nuts. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; cool.
4. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar, milk, and 1 tablespoon peanut butter in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over bread.

Holy yum.  The peanut butter glaze completely makes this – still won’t touch my MIL’s banana bread, but this is a pretty close second.  And in case you are wondering, I can be artistic in my photography – ha!

Tony made the call for Sunday night dinner.  Scott Conant’s Tomato Basil Sauce.  The only difference is that I leave out the crushed red pepper – Tony can’t handle the heat.

The key is to remove the skins – just put the tomatoes in boiling water for about 3 minutes, then put in an ice bath.  Let them sit to cool, and the skins come right off.

I may have burned my garlic bread a bit!  

Alright, time to get my shit together for the day. In case you missed it in Saturday’s post, I am adding a new installment to My Bizzy Kitchen – “Ask Tony Anything!”  Just leave a question in the comments or shoot me a side email at mybizzykitchen@gmail.com.  I’ll post his answers on Wednesday.

Make it a great day!