Lee Lee's Journeys

Banana bread is one of those staple recipes everyone should have on hand for those times when we have too many bananas that are quickly ripening and need to be used up. Most times we use a recipe that is simple, just a few ingredients and voila! A banana bread that can be toasted, spread with butter and enjoyed for breakfast or any time of the day. But how about a banana bread that is rich, decadent and more dessert-like than the average recipe - and who can say no to CHOCOLATE for dessert? Mix the two together and you have a triple chocolate banana bread! This recipe produces a delectably moist banana bread oozing with three types of chocolate - milk, dark AND white chocolate. It is so deliciously moist, soft and full of flavour that you just can't stop at one, two or even three slices. And to make it even more naughty - go ahead and spread on plenty of butter! This is a banana bread breakfast treat recipe that you should definitive have on hand when the regular banana bread

Rainy days call for some comfort food. Whilst we would usually gravitate toward a stew or roast - how about something much quicker to put together, is absolutely delicious and will be on the table in about 30 minutes? Call on a cream sauce to wrap this together - cream sauce is perfect teamed with rice, mashed potatoes and well, any vegetables of your choice. And we all know we love a cream sauce! Behold my Chicken and Kale in Cream sauce recipe - much quicker to put together than a stew or roast, and is just as comforting, delicious and perfect for a rainy, cold or dreary day. Prep time: 5 mins Cooking time: 20 mins Serves: 4 INGREDIENTS: 8 skinless chicken thighs 1 1/2 cups kale leaves chopped (about 5 large leaves or one pound) 2 medium brown onions chopped 2 cloves garlic crushed 250 ml cream 2 tbsp olive oil salt pepper INSTRUCTIONS: 1) In a large skillet or non-stick frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat. Add the chicken t

The golden (or orange) Sweet potato is one of my favourite vegetables. If you google 'sweet potato' you will be directed to a plethora of health websites that praise it as one of the vegetables we ought to have in our diet on a regular for its nutritional benefits, it's filling properties, and as one of the few carbohydrates that is actually considered good for us... Apart for the above reasons - I love sweet potato for its delicious sweetness and ability to be paired with practically any dish. I had two sweet potatoes in front of me - and coming up to lunch time, with little time, feeling very hungry and not having much in my fridge or pantry, I thought of turning the sweet potatoes into a meal unto itself - and paired with sour cream, it certainly was! The cumin certainly brings out the more savoury side of the sweet potato, so that it feels more like a main meal (rather than the very sweet side like most recipes which usually team it with honey or maple syrup). W

I wanted to experiment with using fresh fruit water to feed my starter and see how the sweetness from the fruit juice effects the speed and liveliness of the starter. When doing my weekly stroll through the grocery store, I came upon a bundle of almost over ripe peaches on special - so of course a bunch of ideas popped into my head of what recipes I could possibly turn these glorious pinky-orangey-yellow round fruits into, and I grabbed the bundle... One of my ideas was to use the juice freshly squeezed from the fruit to feed my starter - and see how it affects the bloom, and speed of the growth of the culture. I proceeded to soak 3 of the fruits in just boiled water for about one minute and once cooled, removed the skin. I cut the flesh from the seed and using a potato masher, squished the peaches to smithereens in a large bowl. I drained the smashed fruit in a sieve to separate the juice from the flesh. I wrapped up the flesh and put it in the freezer for later use. I used the

Sunday is the day for food prepping - and here is an easy food prep idea - lemony chicken, with a touch of sweetness from honey and the earthiness of sage - and the butter at the end brings it all together! It is delicious with vegetables or rice - and you can make it as saucy as you want - have it liquidy to drizzle on your rice and vegetables, or reduce it to a rich thickness. It doesn't take many ingredients and is quick to put together. It stores well in the fridge or freezer and you can easily double the recipe to make a big batch and feed yourself and the family all week. INGREDIENTS: 850 gm (1.7 pounds) chicken breast or thighs, cut onto 1cm cubes 1 tspn salt 2 tbsp corn flour 2 tbsp olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed Juice of 1 lemon 1/4 cup of honey 1 tspn brown sugar (optional) Sage leaves (about a handful) salt & pepper (to taste) 1 tbsp butter DIRECTIONS: 1) In a bowl, mix the salt, corn flour and chicken together until th

So I've been on a coconut kick and wanted to use up what was left of the bag of desiccated coconut still sitting in my freezer...so naturally, I wanted to make a coconut banana loaf (or bread, whichever you like to call it). It was perfect that I had three overripe bananas waiting to be used up - it was like they were calling out to me - "I'm ready to be mashed up and thrown into a bowl with the coconut!", so I obliged. In this recipe, I wanted a dense loaf that would hold it's shape when sliced and toasted, yet be soft and moist on the inside - so I substituted some of the all-purpose flour with cornflour to make a home version of cake flour. I prefer 'bread' type loaf's to be a little on the dense side to ensure that it does not break apart when you take it out of the toaster, and also not crumble apart when you try to spread 'not-quite-soft enough-yet' butter over it. What resulted was a 'strong' loaf with a soft interior that ro