No Friday Night Takeout?!!!

So, it's my first Friday night in this new world.  No eating out and no takeout on Friday night.  I don't know about you, but I have always hated to cook on Friday nights.  It always seems like the start of the weekend, time to kick back, order out and relax.  But of course, that's not happening anymore. So, I've decided that Friday nights need to be simple, easy dinners (and everyone else does the cleanup!).  While I was working on dinner I got a little sidetracked and decided to make Banana Chocolate Chip Bread for my kids so they would have a good snack when they came home.  It came out great - I love my recipe, it even has yogurt in it so we can pretend it is a health food! :)  Of course, they weren't the only ones snacking on it; unfortunately I got a little too into it .  Did I say it was yummy?!*recipe below

So now it was 4:00 and I still did not have a meal plan in place.  Fortunately, a bell went off and I was saved.  Well, not really a bell, but the phone rang.  My wonderful neighbor Jeanne called to say she was making zucchini pie, had too much and did I want half? You cannot imagine how thrilled I was by this!! This was better then takeout!!!! :)  So, I decided to make some quick cheese steaks to go with it.  Easy and hearty enough for my boys.  Ran to the butcher, got some wonderful thin sliced beef and I was set.  All I had to do was saute some onions and peppers and dinner was ready!  ( I ended up using round hard rolls as that's what I had in, but there were no complaints)

So, it is 7:30 and here I am, plopped(emphasis on plopped!) on the couch while my husband cleans the kitchen!  (The kids all have a better social life then we do and ran off to their plans).  No one seems any worse for eating in tonight and we are a little closer to our savings goal!


Banana Bread(makes a big loaf, or  I sometimes make it in a cake pan to add a little excitement!)

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3-4 mashed very ripe bananas - at least 1 1/2cup
1/4 yogurt(nonfat or lowfat)
2 large eggs - room temperature
6 Tblsp unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2-3/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour loaf or cake pan.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, salt in bowl, set aside.
Mix the mashed banana, yogurt, eggs, butter and vanilla together in bowl.  Fold lightly into the the flour mixture,just until mixed.  ( This is where I add chips - I don't like too many so I use about 1/2 cup)
Bake about 55 mins until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 10 mins and then move to wire rack.  Yummy warm or room temperature!  No chocolate chips?  Great with strawberry jam! :)

Enjoy!