Happy Mother's Day

I really want to like banana bread.  I always agonize over those brown, squishy bananas because the truth is, I think banana bread is dry.

Enter:

Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Source: www.myrecipes.com

Course: Breads

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
• 1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons butter melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 6 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 tablespoons chopped dry-roasted peanuts
• Cooking spray
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon 1% low-fat milk
• 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. To prepare bread, combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed. Add granulated and brown sugars; beat until blended.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended. Stir in nuts. Pour batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan; cool.
4. To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar, milk, and 1 tablespoon peanut butter in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over bread.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 198
Fat: 7.4g
Cholesterol: 28mg
Sodium: 200mg
Fiber: 1.9g
Protein: 4.7g

Powered by

Enjoy.  Happy Mamas-can-avoid-wasting-leftover-bananas-and-feel-totally-decadent-at-the-same-time Day

Girls Only...

I am so excited about the new homemade shout I whipped up two days ago.  If you have ever talked laundry with me, you know that I am just bad at stains.  I can never get them out even if I remember to try.  Enter Jillee, writer of One Good Thing.  I love this lady...she spends time reading about how to make things like shampoo or deodorant so I don't have to.  She has a recipe for "Shout" that is changing my life.  Not only does it work, it leaves no trace of the stain and doesn't distress the fabric (like scrubbing fruitlessly with a toothbrush).  Not that I am a lunatic, I haven't bathed my children in it, but now that I think about it...no...well, Annabel's head does always smell blonde.  Ok, so I think this mix is awesome.

Clever segue to new laundry routine.

(Sounds of subsiding laughter...boy, that Andrea, she is a wit)

Ok!  The big idea.  The system that makes my laundry piles disappear.  The genie in the washer.

Not happen' ladies (I assume all curious men are now gone).  Laundry is laundry is laundry, and in this house there is a lot of laundry.  Three kids, two sets of cloth diapers, cloth tissues, cloth wipes, cloth paper towels (made the break over two years ago...not nearly as hard as you would think) adds up to about 12 loads a week, but I did find a way to make it less overwhelming.

Picture this: You dump a washer full of unsorted laundry into the washer.  Process in your preferred way. Put the dried clothes into a basket and walk to the kitchen napkin/washrag/towel drawer then fold the clothes and put them away into that drawer with out piling up in-between.  This has changed my life.  Truly.  I have a hamper or bag and a day for each type of laundry.  Linens in one, kids clothes in another, and another for adult clothes (come on...Luke and my clothes...as if I have any of those that fit).  When I am done with that type of laundry, I quit (or do diapers which I also put on a schedule...thanks Jenn).  So. Much. Better.

I don't keep up.  I pretty much never get it all put away, but at least I sometimes feel like I have finished something.  That is worth a lot in my world.

My Laundry Week:

Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Linens and diapers
Tuesday: Kids
Wednesday: Linens and diapers
Thursday: Adults
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Diapers and ironing

There it is!  I do two or three loads per day.  I still start the first load the night before and let it soak.  Then I chase it for the rest of the day.  Leave a comment if you have a laundry routine that works for you.  Mom, you could leave a comment and then come see if your idea works.

Cheap and Cheeper

I am tired.  My head is tired, my feet are tired, my fingers are tired.  I cooked for the month today. So, instead of something witty, challenging, brilliant and life-changing, I bring you what I like to call--cheap and cheeper.

Cheap

Made my own laundry powder this week.  Really really really cheap.  Not sure how well it works.  Everything seems clean.  No one is itchy.  I call it a win.

3 cups WASHING soda
1 cup Borax
1 cup Oxyclean
1 cup BAKING soda
1 bar of finely grated Fels Naptha soap

Mix together.  Use 2 tablespoons per load.  I added a sachet of rice because the internets said it would get clumpy.

Cheep

We have chicks!

3 Ameraucanas
1 Black Australorp

So so cute.  Laine is in love.  He begs everyday to go see the chicks.  He is very, very gentle with them.  It truly makes me happy to have chicks in my garage.  Can't wait to see his face when he finds the first blue egg (please let one of them be a hen).

Blueberry Granola

Simple, good, easy.

I like granola, but my kids adore it.  Laine would eat it for three or four meals a day.  Therefore I have been searching for just the right balance of crunch, clump, and flavor (subtle for the kids and yet still interesting for parents).  Commercial granola is a bit pricy, and let's face it...I am kinda stuck on doing things myself.

(Tangent)

I have been on a journey of self discovery lately.  Recently I announced in a room of my closest friends that everything is a competition and that I hate to lose.  Apparently this came as absolutely no surprise to this dear group of geniuses.  I had always thought of myself as uncompetitive because I hated competing. Come to find out I only avoid competitions I am not almost assured of not losing.  Not the most attractive trait.  And it drives you to make granola from scratch.  Darn it!

(Skip to here to avoid (well-written and witty) tangent)

Here is my greatest achievement in granola making.

Leave a comment if you try it!

Dry ingredients:

4 cups oats (if they are all "old fashioned" I process some of them to avoid the breakfast work out)
2 cups coconut (also chopped/processed/blended)
1 pkg graham crackers (smashed/processed/crumbed/blended)
1.5 cups almonds (chopped/you know the drill)

Spices:

2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tsp sea salt (I have truly fallen in love with Maldon sea salt)

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup oil (canola, walnut, veggie, grape seed)
1/3 cup honey

After baking additions:

2 cups dried blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F (just for clarity)

Mix dry ingredients and spices.  Mix wet ingredients.  Combine until evenly moistened.  If you like a clumpy granola, add some juice (apple, orange, cranberry-pomagranat...left over from Christmas that you bought in bulk for one little recipe and now have tons left over which you can't drink because you are trying to count calories so you can fit back into your old pants...or whatever).

Spread evenly over a couple greased baking dishes and bake until golden brown (around 35 mins) stirring every 10 minutes or so.  I use two glass casserole dishes, but anything will work.  If you spread it out really thinly, reduce the baking time.

Add the dried fruit and store in an air-tight container.

There you go!  It makes about 6 cups and I would imagine without help it would take about 15 minutes to put together.

Update on Spaghetti Sauce

Laine pronounced that a second pass at mom's fantastic spaghetti sauce was "horrible!"  Might need some tweaking.  Or maybe just his nose!

Epic Battle

Today I told Laine we were locked in an epic battle between practicality and creativity.  He protested that it wasn't "an EPIC BATTLE," but I think I am going to pull rank on him.  My whole personality is a battlefield.  I know that if I let my children mix the granola, I will have to clean up a major mess, BUT it is such a joy to watch them engage in cooking their own favorite food.  I love hearing them ask if they can taste each ingredient.  With a level of seriousness that would impress a supreme court justice, Laine tastes each and every ingredient (except the oil and honey...I'm not crazy).  He declares that he likes some (coconut) and that some are too spicy (cinnamon).  Laine's mix was pretty close to the recipe while Annabel's was a bit low on the sweet ingredients.  

Granola

I started with a recipe from The Food Network, and adjusted it to fit my pantry and taste.  This is my best guess.  Technically I use whatever nuts or dried fruit I have on hand.  What is important is to get the dry/wet balance so that the mixture is moist but not wet.  

Source: www.foodnetwork.com

Course: Breakfast

Cook Time:
1 Hr 25 Min



Total Time:
1 Hr 25 Min

Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups crispy rice cereal
• ¹⁄₄ cup ground flax seed
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup cashews
• ³⁄₄ cup shredded sweet coconut
• ¹⁄₄ cup brown sugar
• ¹⁄₄ cup honey
• ¹⁄₄ cup vegetable oil
• ³⁄₄ teaspoon salt
• apple juice add until you get the right consistency
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar).
3. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients (honey, oil, juice and salt). Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.
4. Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.
5. You can adjust flavorings to suit your taste.
6. Recommended combinations:
7. Vanilla and dried blueberries
8. Apple juice, cinnamon and raisins
9. Cranberries, orange zest and orange juice

View recipe at plantoeat.com