Homemade Banana Bread

In an effort to continue to ween us out of summer.....thinking thoughts of sweaters and fireplaces. I decided to make homemade banana bread over the weekend. Every time we have a banana that is about to go bad I throw it in the freezer, in hopes of making the bread. We had quite a decent collection of banana's in the freezer and since I was having a sweet tooth, I figured now is a better time than any to try my hand at this festive fall treat. I'll admit I was a little nervous, while I can bake cookies and cakes....bread is a whole different story! Good thing was, the hubs liked it so much he went back for seconds!

What You'll Need:
3 or 4 Ripe Banana's
1/3 Cup Butter (Melted)
1 Cup Sugar
1 Egg (Beaten)
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 Tsp Baking Soda
Pinch of Salt
1-1/2 Cup Flour
4" x 8" Loaf Pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degree's. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed banana's in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Then mix in the baking soda and salt. Finally add in the flour and mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Cool and serve!

I hope you all try your hand a baking this fall! It really makes the house smell so festive. Recipe found here.

Lovin' on my Smoothies!

The hubby and I both have major sweet tooth's. Sometimes it's hard to tell whose worse, but we both like to end our day with a little something special. This usually can include any of the following: cookies, cupcakes, brownies, bagged candy, ice cream, chocolate.....I think you get the picture. But in looking towards the future we both know that we should try and cut out the refined sugar and go for the healthier option. Enter, the smoothie. A great way to get your daily intake of fruit/veggies if your don't get them during the day. We have tried the Oatmeal Smoothies but have found that these really are better for breakfast as the tend to fill you up, and I don't know about you, but I hate trying to fall asleep with a full belly. So I took my handy blender and some frozen and fresh fruits and went to town. The hubby loved it and it was a great sweet ending to our evening. Maybe even diabetic friendly?

What You'll Need:
(2) Cups frozen mixed berries
(1) Apple (Cored and diced)
(1) Banana (Peeled and diced)
A Dash of Light Cranberry Juice (Or whatever liquid you prefer)

Directions:
1. Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. If your smoothie is a little thick, continue to add small amounts of juice until you get your desired thickness.
2. Pour into cups, add a bendy straw (cause they make everything more fun) and enjoy!

Simple, and also healthy dessert. I have tried this with peaches, pears and oranges as well. Next on my list.....veggies. Eek! I'm a little scared! Let me know if you have tried and interesting smoothies lately.

Desserts and Cleaning go together right? - Pinterest Review

So I tried a couple of things this past week that were all the rage on Pinterest within the past couple of months. I figured I would do a little review post instead of a separate post for each item.

Banana Ice Cream
D had a hankering for dessert but neither of us wanted to go out and get something. So I took to my dessert board and remembered this recipe from Use Real Butter. We already had frozen banana's, peanut butter, but we didn't have cocoa powder. I could have cheated and used Hot Chocolate mix, but I thought it was weird. So I substituted it with chocolate chips and some frozen strawberries. I don't have a food processor so it was a slow go dessert with the not so good blender. Once done it was a little runny so I popped it in the freezer to solidify it a bit.
Verdict: D liked it, I was kind of eh about it. I think it needed the cocoa powder cause there was just too much banana taste for my liking.

Source

Oreo and Peanut Butter Brownie Cakes
I made these for my father-in-laws birthday this past Sunday. Everyone is a brownie and Oreo fan (I am meh about Ores, but if I need a chocolate fix they work.) If you want to head on over to Instructables to find the recipe. These are fairly easy to make and bake. I bought 2 packs of Oreo's not realizing that there are more than 24 cookies in the package, and some extra peanut butter. (we can always use peanut butter in my house) I considered making the brownies low fat, but who are we kidding here. We are slathering Oreos (chocolate cookie with LARD) with peanut butter and baking them in more chocolate and lard (vegetable oil)! This calls for full force brownie.

Verdict: 3 ingredients, and 30 minutes. Super easy to make! Really all you need is a cupcake pan. I did use liners in my cupcake pan, but you don't have to. Taste....I was skeptical about them, because of the oreo, but they were really tasty. Maybe a little rich, but none-the-less yummy!

Miracle Laundry Whitening Solution
Ok the recipe for this is from One Good Thing by Jillee. There were a couple of oopsies that I did. I did not have any powder dish washing detergent. I only had the tabs. So I substituted with extra borax. Then I assumed (because every other washing machine that I have used does this) that leaving the lid open on my machine would turn it off so that the solution could soak into my comforter. Well, as I am cleaning my bathroom I hear it start to drain! Gah! So I close the lid and just let the cycle finish.
Verdict: It did a really good job cleaning it. I can only imagine how it would look it would have soaked! Next time I will try again and soak it!

There you go. Some good reviews and some iffy reviews. Have you tried anything on Pinterest

S'more Croissants

Ok so like most husbands, D love's S'mores. They are his ultimate dessert. I even went to the extreme one year for Christmas and bought him a S'more Kit from Target. So when I saw this recipe today I thought to myself "Hmmm. D will LOVE that!" So I went to the store and got all the stuff for quickie spaghetti and S'more Croissants!

What you need:
1 package croissant dough
Mini Marshmallows
Milk Chocolate Chips

Put the chips and mallows in the opened dough, roll loosely and bake according to package directions! They came out warm, fluffy and light. A perfect rainy night dessert! See link for source recipe!

http://www.northerncottage.net/2011/07/smore-croissants.html