Vegan Banana Cake & Shrimp & Grits

Hope you all enjoyed the rest of your weekend. After crashing early Saturday night, I got up early to start into some work work and to get some baking done. I baked up a vegan banana cake using my vegan banana muffin recipe as a base, and made some adjustments to make it more cake like.

Vegan Banana Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon flax & 3 tablespoons water (or 1 egg)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3 bananas
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• chocolate or carob chips

Directions:

Mash bananas with the back of a fork and then combine with all other wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just combined (do not over mix). Add in chocolate chips. Place in sprayed 8” pie pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean).

  

My parents also came down to take Josh and I out to brunch for our anniversary which is Wednesday (3 years!). We went to Crave. Their Sunday brunch is $11 and includes your choice of juice, coffee (which I got):

tea or soda, an entree, fruit & corn bread muffins.

I got a 3 egg omelet with onion, spinach & tomato plus extra fruit (instead of home fries). The omelet was fabulous and not greasy at all. The fruit was super fresh. Their coffee was just OK.

 

Josh went with Crave’s Big Breakfast (2 large eggs scrambled, a ginormous pancake, home fries, fruit & bacon):

 

My Mom got the Fried Green Tomatoes topped with ham and eggs:

 

My Dad got the Black and bleu chicken (which I didn’t grab a picture of).

Overall, we all really enjoyed our food! It all was cooked perfectly and was filling without being too heavy or greasy. The kitchen did seem very slow, our waitress had to apologize quite a few times.  I would go back….but I would rather go to Charleston’s Cafe :)

It was wonderful to spend some time with my parents and catch up. It seems almost funny to celebrate a 3rd wedding anniversary with my parents who have been married for 36 years and have been together for 44 years(my parents have known each other forever- my Dad was in my Mom’s Dad’s boy scout troop). My Dad took an anniversary picture of Josh and I. I am on my tip toes (as always) and Josh is holding himself up with his crutches…haha:

The rest of my Sunday was spent on errands and work. Josh’s friend Jeremy came over for the usual Sunday night Entourage meet up. After seeing Amelia make shrimp and grits, I knew I wanted to try my hand at it. I made  it for the boys and I enjoyed vegetables and grits. I used this Bobby Flay recipe, but subbed prosciutto in for the bacon and added lots of old bay and hot sauce to the shrimp.   The vegetables (yellow summer squash and zucchini) were roasted in the oven with a little olive oil and spices and were added into the dish. The result:

The boys were raving! For dessert, I heated up some banana cake with ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Thank you all who entered my tofu xpress giveaway. The winner is….Stephanie from Cooking Fanatic!!!! Send me an email with your address (itzyskitchen at gmail dot com) and I will have your prize out to you ;)

Its another crazy week! Josh’s parents and brother are coming to visit on Thursday and I cannot wait! What are you looking forward to?