M: Slow Cooker Pork Roast & Kicked Up Banana Bread

I have a confession...Sometimes I really just don't feel like cooking dinner. I know...it's a terrible thing to admit, as a food lover and foodie blogger. But there are some days where the last thing I want to do is cook up a gourmet meal. Usually it's the days where I've been at the office all day long or have just had a stressful week. I do have my usual go-to easy recipes for those days, but I was so glad when Erica loaned me her Christy Jordan's Southern Plate cookbook (disclaimer: she received this cookbook for free), which she posted about last month.

I came across this ridiculously easy slow cooker pork roast recipe. Don't ask me why I've never thought to do something like this before. I was so glad to have something different in my one dish dinner repertoire. The finished product after an 8 hour simmer =)



What are some of your easy one dish dinners?

I also baked up some Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread from Lovin from the Oven. Now, I know people tend to have strong feelings about banana bread - either you love it or you hate it. I happen to love it. But, I think there are always ways to make it better!

I found this recipe that added a simple cinnamon swirl to the bread and I knew I had to try it out. FYI, this bread is addicting! My entire loaf was gone in 3 days. I also love cinnamon in pretty much anything. The pairing of the banana and cinnamon was pretty darn rad. The top is also sprinkled with the cinnamon/sugar mixture which made for a thin crispy sweet topping. Here goes:

Mix bananas, sugar, butter, egg, and vanilla together in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with the salt and baking powder. Gently stir in the flour. In a small dish, mix the cinnamon and sugar together.



Add half the batter to your loaf pan, sprinkle with about half of the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Add the last half of the batter and then sprinkle the remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture on the top.



Bake for 50-60 minutes depending on the size of your loaf pan. I used an 8x5 and ended up baking for 50 minutes.



Banana Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
from Lovin from the Oven

For the bread:

3 over-ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
dash of salt
1 1/2 cups flour

For the swirl:

1/3 cup sugar
1 TB cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a loaf pan (I just used my trusty baking spray!) I used an 8 x 5. Just keep a close eye on your bread in the oven if you use a different size, and adjust the time as needed.
Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of the banana mixture. Then gently stir in flour. Be careful not to over-mix.
In a small dish, mix together the 1/3 cup sugar and 1 TB cinnamon.
Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle about half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the batter in the pan. Add the second half of the batter, and then sprinkle the leftover cinnamon-sugar on top.
Bake for 50-60 minutes depending on the size of your pan. Of course, the good old toothpick inserted in the middle is the best tester =)

P.S. Don't forget to enter our Shake 'N' Bake contest! You have until 7:00am November 5!

Signing off with a pic of Charlie, my best friend's chocolate lab puppy...yes, he's a puppy...a baby...huge mug right? He is so dang cute and cuddly =)