Banana Chocolate Nutella Smoothie

This was inspired by our team's ever memorable team building trip in wherelse but there (?!)


For a little twist, I combined peanut butter and Nutella for a more nutty action.

For 3 medium sized cocktail glasses, I used:

3 ripe lacatan bananas
about 1/2 cup of nutella
about 1/2 cup of peanut butter (local - Lily's peanut butter. Love it to bits!)
about 3 cups full cream milk
1 tsp of vanilla
brown sugar - I suggest you drop a teaspoonful one at a time and do your taste test.
1 cup of crushed ice


Lucky you if your blender can crush ice really well!

Mine cannot crush thoroughly so I manually shaved ice through my manual ice shaver! Yes, like pawis-steering.

For more creamy texture - if you have vanilla ice cream handy, by all means add a scoop!

What to do: mix them altogether in your blender and slurp-slurp-slurp! (Or you may opt to chill it longer)


The heat is definitely ON! How's your aircon doing?

I have been to this wonderful promised land for just four times and been ordering Mango Shake like there's no tomorrow on the first three trips. Just for kicks, I tried this on my fourth visit and so glad I did. Of course, I will still have my Mango Shake - but now I know what else to get on my 5th, 6th and so on...

BORACAY, 'til we meet again!

Mango Cream Pie

For a change, I waved TTFN (tata for now!) to the hanging
B-A-N-A-N-A-S and said hellerr to the pretty mangoes sitting on the fruit stall.

Suki! Matamis ya-an! (Those are sweet!) said the lady. Ok, she got me there!

Segue: Matamis ya-an! was from a tv commercial back in the '90s. I forgot what the product was though. Since then, fruit vendors have used it as one of their selling spiels!

This Mango Cream Pie has been a family favorite since God knows when. I could say the recipe has improved over the years based from our experiences in making it almost all the time.

From whole grahams, condensed milk and big slices of mangoes (plus pineapples!) to adding heavy cream, bananas, nuts and fruit cocktail. Fruit Galore!

Thanks to MY San for selling crushed grahams. At least we need not exert a lot of effort in crushing those whole graham crackers like we used to, through our mortar and pestle or batong panghilod (LOL) and I have, unfortunately have almost crushed my thumb several times because of this. Well, let's add carelessness to that!

I am proud to say that I have made a pretty small-small amount of fortune with this cream pie (aka "ref cake"), way back when salary was not enough for a young lady's lifestyle, living in the south, maintaining an old car with premium gasoline, paying toll fee to and fro, working in the Makati CBD....blah blah blah. I could go on and on, mind you.

In other words, this Mango Cream Pie I am talking about gave me a short stint as an entrepreneur. Taking orders left and right, making them after a zombie shift, meeting the number of orders and trying to produce additional ones. Short stint it was - because it only lasted for 4 weeks.

Hindi na kinaya ng powers ko!

Though I was very happy making this for my colleagues (who were my loyal clients!) and it was fun to see them eating the cream pie in their workstations while taking calls! That time, we can still eat in the "Operations Floor" even when there was an e-Rat scare (lol). we really didn't care.

By the way, the small-small fortune i mentioned became a nice pair of sunglasses that is rarely used. Just so you know. ;-)

Segue #2: e-Rat is our term for a roaming mouse in the office. as agents/CSRs, we were called "e-Reps". Now guess where I came from!


Okay, so back to 2009.


Once I got hold of the mangoes from the fruit stand, I had Mango Cream Pie already in mind. Oh I missed making it!

After fixing the market goodies, I got the ball rolling.

Based from experience, it is best to make the filling first before the crust. Time is of the essence.

This recipe fits into an 8in X 5in X 2in rectangular container.

For the filling, I used:

2 ripe mangoes, diced
2 packs of Nestle all purpose cream
About 6 tbsp of white sugar (you can put less, depending on your sugar level)
a small drop of vanilla essence

mix the cream and the sugar first, make sure that the sugar has dissolved, then add the mangoes and vanilla, taste, and if it's sweet enough, cover it and chill it first for about 2 hours.

*you might want to put the white sugar little by little onto the cream mixture so that you can do the sweetness taste test!


For the crust and graham topping:

about 1 cup to 1 and a half cup of crushed MY San graham
about 2 to 3 tbsps white sugar (you can put less, depending on your sugar level)
a small pinch of salt
about half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder
about 3 to 4 tbsp melted butter (I used Magnolia's Baker's Best)

mix the dry ingredients in a bowl then create a well in the center, add the melted butter. make sure the butter is evenly distributed and as much as possible try to achieve a kind of "slightly wet and sandy" kind of crust. Just like the texture and feel of a slightly wet sand in a white beach (not the taste! LOL) *wink*

Put half of the crumbs on the bottom of a rectangular container and press it down and set aside or put it in the fridge. Set aside the other half but do not put it in the fridge. The butter will harden and it will not be easy to loosen up the crumbs for your topping. (experience said so!)

So after waiting for 48 years... just kidding.

So after waiting for an hour or two, pour the chilled mango filling onto the crusted container and smooth the top with your spoon or with a spatula if you want. Top it with the remaining crumbs and chill it one more time for at least an hour before serving.

A few of my friends like it frozen than chilled. Para daw ice cream cake!

Depends on your mood I guess!

You can add diced peach halves also and make it a Mango-Peach Cream Pie!

After chilling, serve it plain or with chocolate syrup. Just like the one on the photo! ;-)


Happy weekend! :-)

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread and Custard Top

Banana is a staple fruit in our household. Hubby loves it, little Javier loves it, I love it and my Angels love it! Yeah, as in everybody in the house!

When I do my weekly Friday market with Dad in Law, I always make it a point to buy ripe lacatan bananas and well, as said, since everydody loves B-A-N-A-N-A-S, it would take only 3 days and they are gone, gone, gone. As a homemaker, I want to have a stock of it since we always run out of it. So last week, I decided to buy the green ones (aside form the ripe ones), those that are about to reach their riping glory in a couple of days. Me - wishing that it will be enough of a wait until the ripe ones disappear.

For some reason, the green lacatan bananas ripened so fast (is it the weather?) that we were already na u-umay to eat them. We are avoiding it to reach the rotting stage and be thrown into the garbage with a sad face.

Thank goodness I have Yummy Magazine for this month (for May too!) and I have found the perfect way to use them and justify their presence and usefulness! Thanks to Aileen Anastacio's recipe! It's soooooooooooooo d-lish!


Banana Chocolate Chip Bread by Chef Aileen Anastacio (Yummy Magazine, June 2009, p30-31)

1 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup corn oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 Preheat oven to 350F (177C). Grease and flour an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan

2 Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir to mix. (the first four!)

3 In another bowl, combine brown sugar and corn oil. Add eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and mashed bananas.

4 Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture. Stir until combined. Lastly, add the chocolate chips and mix just until combined. Pour mixture into the loaf pan.

5 Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Remove bread from the oven then allow to cool for about 20 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool for another 15 minutes on a wire rack before serving.

Just a thought:
I think you can add one or two more bananas to give more banana-full-a-flavor!



So after the success of the banana chocolate chip bread (Thank you Lord!), my next plan was to create a collaboration of the bread and a custard recipe (well, i guess, even food/recipes can collaborate! Hindi lang si Justin Timberlake at Madonna! Oh, I love JT!)

Where will the custard go? On top of the bread just before serving. Parang icing effect!

I found this nice custard recipe in Good Housekeeping's Easy Everyday Meals vol 6. It's not too sweet, that's why I like! And my party people liked it too!

For the custard (got this from the Banana Cream Pie recipe, p134) :

2 cups of fresh milk
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup of fresh milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 large egg yolks
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

mix 2 cups of fresh milk, white sugar and salt over low heat. In a bowl, dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup of fresh milk, then whisk in egg yolks. Combine the two mixtures and cook, whisking constantly, over low heat until it thickens and bubbles, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove the custard from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.

Then transfer to a bowl and cool. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer.

I am glad to have at least a cheap icing bag with a few pins to go with it for only a hundred something pesos! Heheehee! Ang arte ko!

Hmm.. why not add a few sprinkles of Cinnamon Powder?

Wow! That was fun!!!

Just thinking, maybe next time, I will add a little cream cheese in the custard! What yu tink?

And this was another unexpected morning baking session! I like impromptus!

I know, i know, this is another pampa-jubis (keyword: majubis) food but what the heck, it's yummy! And it happened in God's and nature's perfect timing. Me and my bingeing time! :P So ladies, let's eat sweet!

Happy weekend! :-)