Asian braised pork & Honey Banana Bread

What a crappy day outside today!! And of course I decided to do a little grocery shopping. I had to go because Kroger's last day to double coupons is the 30th!! I will now have to go to Giant Eagle if I want any doubled coupons. I got some great deals today too, not just with my coupons, but found a lot of "close out" items that were marked wayyy down!! I love getting a deal regardless of the weather and if I'm soaked!! I went to Kohl's last week and when checking out I saw a cook book. It was one of the five dollar items at the front. It's titled "Easy Everyday Dinners" (Women's Day). I opened it to start reading through the recipes, and I think I like every single item!!! I originally was not going to make this today but they had pork roast on sale buy one get one free so I went with Asian Braised Pork. I did not make the cucumber side that they suggest with the recipe but did a little something else. I will give you the cucumber side as well.

Asian Braised Pork

1/4c soy sauce
1/2t ground allspice
1/4 to 1/2t red pepper flakes
1/4c plus 1T brown sugar
Fresh ginger thinly sliced (I didnt have any so used 1/2t ground ginger)
Pork roast, shoulder, etc.

Mix all the ingredients together and pour over pork in crock pot. Cook on low 7 to 8 hours or high 5 to 6 hours. For the cucumber part take 1/4c rice vinegar, salt and pepper, 1T brown sugar, a little ginger, sweet onion thinly sliced, and cucumber sliced half moons.  Mixed it all up and toss with onion and cucumber. Serve over rice.  I actually made my own friend rice and served it with this. All you need to do is cook your rice, add frozen carrots and peas, two eggs, 1/4c soy sauce.

My baking agenda today was banana bread, but I wanted to spice it up or try something different. I found a recipe that seemed to suit what I was looking for.

Honey Banana Bread

2c flour
1t baking soda
1/4t salt
1/2c apple sauce
3/4c honey
2 eggs beaten
3 bananas mashed

350 bake 60 minutes.