So how does the Duchess celebrate a year of blogging bliss? Cupcakes? Bananas Foster? How about both!

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Bananas Foster Cupcake. Isn’t she cute? I think I’m in love.

Start with a few bananas…give ‘em a slice.

Then proceed to caramelize them in butter and brown sugar. Oh yeah.

Fill the cupcake liners about half way up, then top with a few caramelized banana slices and a sprinkle of butterscotch chips.

And then top with some more batter before popping in the oven. The result?? Warm banana perfection!

I have to say, these cupcakes were amazing! Next time I make them I’m going to add more bananas to the cupcakes. The sweet buttery bananas were the best part.

I hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as I’ve enjoyed blogging for the past year. Here’s to another great year of fabulous recipes!
The Duchess

The Duke and I had been dating for about a year and a half, and we’d been talking about marriage. We both knew it was going to happen, but I just didn’t know when he would pop the question. I was in my senior year of college at the University of Florida, and was home for Spring Break. Along with my parents, I hosted the Duke and his parents for dinner. Mom made her famous Garlic Fried Chicken and I made this cake.

That would be the one and only Hummingbird Cake. This cake is a staple in the South. It’s moist and rich, thanks to the mashed banana, crushed pineapple, and decadent pecans.

After that spring dinner with the Duke and his folks, my sweet Granny Flash leaned over to me and said, “If that meal doesn’t get you a ring, I don’t know what will.” Granny was right. The Duke proposed about two weeks later!

To make this cake, make sure you’ve got plenty of good pecans, preferably from Georgia.

This recipe first appeared in Southern Living in 1978, and it continues to be one of the most-requested recipes by readers. I’ve tried a few different forms of the recipe, but this time I used one that I found on Oprah’s website. Art Smith, her long-time personal chef, authored this sweet recipe.

The batter was thick and oh, so sweet. I inadvertently baked the cake it two 8-inch pans, instead of the 9-inch pans that were called for. They came out ultra thick, which is something that I find hard to achieve. I was so thrilled with the thick layers!

Can you see why the Duke continues to request this cake? I make it every once in a while, for special occasions. The cake is so sweet that I don’t really think it needs to be iced all the way around. Plus, I love the look of the layers. It looks really homemade and rustic.

You have got to make this cake this Spring!! It will be the perfect dessert at your Easter dinner. And if you get the urge to make Hummingbird Cake, this is the only recipe to use. Like I said, I’ve tried a few recipes before, but this blew all others out of the water!

Have a great week! I’m off to ladies’ lunch. Life is so good when you’re on vacation.
The Duchess

Is she not such a cutie patootie? She’s actually one of my students. I just love her to death. This little lady loves food just about as much as me, so she was more than happy to bake with me in the kitchen. She was also stoked about our pool in the backyard, so we splashed around while our cookies were in the oven.

The Duke even got in on the action, too. He whipped up his famous banana pudding. Oh yes.

Just look at that home made meringue. The Duke has so many tricks up his sleeve!! He made this pudding because we were headed to his folks’ for a Southern BBQ dinner. Get a load of all that smoked pork!

The Duke’s mom has a smoker in the back yard that she uses, then finishes it off in the slow cooker. I love that she lives it dry and doesn’t drown it in BBQ sauce. I like to add a little sauce on the side, but I don’t need my pork swimming in it.

A funny thing about the Duke’s family is that they don’t really like veggies. Well, I take that back. They like veggies, but they prefer them in casserole form. I like a casserole every now and then, but I could go for some fresh veggies, too. On the side of the BBQ we had a broccoli casserole topped with plenty of crushed crackers and butter.

I promise that broccoli is under there somewhere.

We also had some good and mayo-drenched coleslaw.

The Duke’s parents live about a mile and a half from us, so we decided to take his Grandpa’s new Benz for a beer run. Pretty sleek car, huh?

I told the Duke I could really get used to driving this bad boy. But maybe an SUV. In white.

I’ll leave you with a peak of the Duke’s parents’ latest addition…a maltese puppy named Sampson. He loves me! I could just snuggle with that little face all day long.

The Duke and I agreed to volunteer at church today, so we’re off. We’re also hosting both sets of parents tonight for burgers and healthy sides!! Like oven roasted potato wedges and a big green salad. Catch you guys later.
The Duchess

Have you heard of the website Eat Better America? I discovered it last summer and I just adore it. It’s got tons of great tips for living a healthy life and hundreds of wonderfully healthy (and more importantly, tasty) recipes. I subscribe to their E-newsletter, and last week a recipe for a breakfast cookie popped up in my inbox.

One of my friends had asked if I knew a recipe for a breakfast cookie a while back, so this was just perfect. It’s a very wholesome recipe, packed with honey, peanut butter, bananas, dried fruit and nuts. They’re quite moist and very filling…the perfect morning fuel!

I chose to stir in dried cranberries and pecans, but the cookie would be great with any dried fruit and nuts. I’m thinking of trying dried apricots and maybe even toasted coconut next time.

I like eating these cookies straight out of the fridge with a dollop of honey Oikos on top. The creamy yogurt and hearty cookie really get me going for the day.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Only two weeks until Spring Break! Woohoo!!! The Duchess

After following Tina at Carrots ‘N Cake for a while, I discovered that she adds egg whites to her morning oatmeal mix. I was a little hesitant, but decided to go for it this morning. It’s always nice to have a little extra protein, right?? Especially since I just got back from a kick ass workout. Yes, at 6:15 a.m. I’m already done with my workout for the day

All I can say is Tina is a genius! This stuff was amazing. I was worried it would be too eggy and almost omelet-like. Not the case at all. Here’s what I used:

• 1 packet Maple & Brown Sugar oatmeal
• 1 sliced banana
• about a tbsp. egg whites
• enough water to cover (but not drown) oatmeal

I microwaved the mixture for about a minute and a half and voila! I topped it with a tbsp. of chunky peanut butter. The whole thing was delicious. I may even have to have an encore presentation for lunch. I also think I may add a bit more egg next time. We shall see…

Alright, I’m off to get my Friday workday over with. Bring on the weekend and that perfect Florida sunshine!! The Duchess

To power up for the day, I made myself a bowl of plain oatmeal with skim milk, chopped peanuts and cashews (leftover from the peanut sauce the other night), craisins, cinnamon and agave nectar.

It was the perfect warm breakfast to get me going.

I also want to share a delicious and very healthy muffin recipe with you. I stumbled upon on a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal muffins from Eat me, delicious a few months back. I’ve had it in my recipe file for ages, and finally bit the bullet and made these little guys. They’re incredibly most from the peanut butter and bananas and are wholesome thanks to the whole wheat.

They’re also not overly sweet, which allows you to slather on some vanilla greek yogurt or even another dollop of peanut butter…but I don’t know who would do such a thing

I enjoyed mine with greek yogurt and chopped apples all weekend long.

Mmmm mmmm good! Click here for the recipe. Have a glorious day.The Duchess

I spent today doing homework and studying for the dreaded FTCE, which is on Saturday. Check out my stack of flash cards.

Let me tell you how much fun that stuff is. Between breakfast and lunch I snacked on a handful of Annie’s Honey Bunnies, topped with a dollop of greek yogurt, half of a banana and a drizzle of honey. It was such a good snack! I’ll definitely be having this again.

After a bit more studying, I was in the mood for lunch. I had been looking forward to leftovers from last night. We ate all of the chicken tenderloins, but the brown rice, sesame cucumber relish and peanut sauce were excellent the second time around.

I ate EVERY last bite. After venturing out to the grocery store, I decided to make cookies. My dad gave me a Meyer lemon from his garden a few weeks back, and I wanted to use it up before it bit the dust. Look how yellow it is…almost a mustard yellow.

The flesh is slightly sweet, almost like a grapefruit. It was delicious!

I didn’t feel like exerting a whole lot of effort to make cookies, so I decided to make cake mix cookies. They’re so easy (I’ll share the recipe soon), and you can mix in anything you want. I used classic white cake mix and stirred in the zest and juice from my lemon, some white chocolate chips and toasted almonds and coconut. How good does this batter look??

I won’t lie…I had a small scoop of batter with some sugar-free cool whip as my afternoon snack. I just couldn’t resist. Is there anyone else out there that likes the batter even more than the baked cookies??

The finished product was equally as good (yes, I also ate a baked cookie).

I had big plans for the gym, though. Our trainer has been out of the country for a month, and we scheduled our first appointment in a long time with him tonight. I ran two miles at a speed of 6.3 before the work out. The Duke and I then endured a solid hour of dumbells and abs with Zoli, the trainer. It wasn’t all that bad, but I’m sure I won’t be able to move tomorrow. Though the Duke and I have been pretty good about cardio and strength-training while Zoli’s been gone, it felt great to have him back and get into the groove again.

Dinner was quick and simple. I picked up these beautiful whole wheat kaiser rolls at Publix while shopping.

Aren’t those puppies big?? I used half of a roll to make a veggie pizza, complete with caramelized onions, spinach, feta, marinara sauce and provolone. It was indescribably good!

I made the Duke a panini with caramelized onions, spinach, ham and provolone. We each had a huge salad on the side.

All in all, my three-day weekend was great. I’m excited to get back to reality. We’re taking the Pre-K students to a concert on Wednesday, which should be interesting. Have a great night!! The Duchess

Before I left for the review, I filled up on a breakfast of a Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal muffin (will share recipe soon) topped with a dollop of Greek yogurt and some apple chunks.

These muffins are so great. They’re made with 100 % whole wheat flour, mashed bananas and oatmeal. Oh, and my favorite food in the entire world: peanut butter! They’re healthy and satisfying.

Fast-forward through my study session. It was at a community college that’s about half an hour away. I stopped by the grocery store on the way home and shopped for the week. It’s so nice to have that chore out of the way already(don’t get me wrong, though. I LOVE grocery shopping. Most certainly my favorite household duty). When I got home I was starved. I knew I wanted to make whole wheat buttermilk pancakes, so that’s just what I did. I used this recipe from Cooking Light. It uses half all purpose flour and half whole-wheat flour. I followed the recipe exactly, but may try it with all whole wheat flour next time. The Duke freaks out if I try to alter a recipe, so I just went with it. The finished product was ah-mazing!

The batter was really thick and made the pancakes hearty and perfectly chewy. I topped mine with chopped pecans, sliced bananas, and a mixture of sugar-free syrup, regular peanut butter and chocolate peanut butter (I probably used about 1/2 tablespoon of each of those ingredients).

This was the perfect dinner after a loooooooong and tiring day of elementary review.

Aren’t pancakes just so comforting? Next time I think I’ll put some chopped pecans and mashed bananas inside of the cakes, along with using all whole wheat flour. You really need to make these soon! How about tomorrow morning? They’re great alongside a cup o’ joe and your sweet heart.The Duchess

I obviously didn’t even come close to eating the whole thing. She topped about a half cup of brown rice with 2 massive ladles of gumbo. Yes, that’s an entire chicken thigh!! It was soooo good, though. Just what I needed to ease me back into reality after a few days off.

This morning I had the other half of my 45 second oatmeal cookie topped with peanut butter and half a banana. I ate the other half of the banana on the side.

Lunch was a microwavable bowl of Spicy Thai Soup from Fantastic World Foods. It was just ok. I mean, the entire cup of soup only had 150 calories, so I guess I can’t complain.

This picture makes me laugh. I ate lunch during the kids’ rest time, so all of the lights were out. I hovered under a small lamp for the picture…looks kinda sepia, huh??

After school I met the Duke at the gym. I was planning on running a mile before our strength-training work out, but I only managed to run for 7 minutes before he showed up. Oh well…it certainly got my heart pumping. We pumped some serious iron for the next hour, so all in all, it was a great workout.

Tonight I made another recipe from the Williams Sonoma Essentials of Slow Cooking Book. This time it’s Summer Coq au Vin. It’s the traditional chicken dish with a twist…white wine instead of red!

I have class on Wednesday nights, so I try to make something big on Tuesdays so the Duke can have leftovers. This is certainly a big dish! I cooked an entire chicken for the two of us. At least we’ll have lunch and dinner for a few days.

Here’s the finished product:

It was pretty good…really just comforting chicken and vegetables (squash, carrots, peas) in a tasty wine and shallot broth. I dredged the chicken in just a tiny bit of whole wheat flour (instead of the all purpose that was called for) and no egg wash. I thought the wheat “breading” came out great! Not sure I’d make this again, only because it’s pretty labor intensive for just so-so results. If I’m going to cut an entire chicken and then proceed to make my hour-long meal, I want it to knock my socks off!!

I guess it’s time for me to get off the computer and spend some time with my hubby. Have a great night! PS- I’m really proud of myself. I’ve only consumed 1550 calories today, despite all that yummy food! I’m just paying attention to what goes in the trap. G’night! The Duchess

I don’t know about you, but I just cannot skip breakfast. I’m not that kind of girl. Ever since I started losing weight (summer of ‘06 I lost about 20 lbs. and have lost another 15-20 over the course of time), I just must have breakfast. A bowl of whole grain cheerios, a mini wheat bagel with peanut butter, greek yogurt with fresh fruit…whatever. I simply have to get some fuel in the morning.

The other day I was reading Carrots ‘N’ Cake and saw a very healthy recipe for an Oatmeal Pancake. A nice hot bowl of oatmeal is one of my favorites, so I decided to give it a try. Tina actually got the recipe from Kath Eats Real Food. Anyway, it’s really simple and quite filling. I topped mine with some sliced bananas and about a tablespoon of peanut butter mixed with a squirt of sugar-free maple syrup (I microwaved the combo to make it warm and spreadable).

Alright, gotta run. Busy day and busy week ahead. See you later tonight, after the Duke and I have our personal training session at the gym. Ta ta for now!The Duchess