Banana Bread 4 Ways

Whenever I have overripe bananas on my counter I feel the need to bake banana bread.  I found so many banana bread ideas that I loved that I couldn't pick just one.  So I made all four.  Win win.

I also found a healthier banana bread recipe on Sally's Baking Addiction.  I loved that I had all the ingredients on hand - no trip to the grocery store required!

Ingredients:
2.5 cups white whole wheat flour (all-purpose will work too)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar, loosely packed (or dark brown sugar)
1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 2 large very ripe bananas)
1/4 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt (or any yogurt)
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk (almond milk, soymilk, cow's milk, rice milk)

Mix-Ins:
Fresh or unthawed frozen blueberries
Chocolate Chips
Chopped nuts
Raisins

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 325F degrees. Spray mini loaf tin with nonstick spray.
2. In a large bowl, gently toss the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together until combined. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the honey and brown sugar together - it will be thick and lumpy. Try to get out as many lumps as you can - a fork works well to break it up. 
4. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, and beaten egg. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Gently begin to fold it all together. It will be very thick. 
5. Add the milk slowly and continue to gently mix the ingredients together. The milk will thin everything out, but the batter will still remain thick. Don't over-mix the batter, which will lend to tough, dry bread.
6. At this point, I divided out the batter into 4 bowls using a 1 cup measuring cup.  Each bowl had about 1 1/3 cups of batter.

7. Gently fold in your mix-ins, being careful not to over-mix the batter.

8. Pour the batter into the mini loaf tin. I topped the batter with the mix-ins so that I could tell each loaf apart (and to make it look pretty!).

9. Bake for 25-30 minutes OR until very lightly browned on the edges. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Allow to cool completely.

You can't go wrong with chocolate chips and you don't need a lot to notice the taste. Ava calls it her "treat breakfast"!

I was surprised at how much I liked the blueberry banana bread, considering I don't like blueberries.  I think I may have liked it more than the chocolate chip bread, which totally goes against my policy of not mixing fruit with treats!

I gave the other two loaves away so I don't have pictures of their insides, but I got good feedback so I think they were a hit too!

Notes:
Tastes best the next day, like most banana bread recipes.  
Bread will remain fresh when wrapped in foil or plastic wrap  and stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.  
Bread will freeze well, up to 3 months.

Family Thumbprint Tree - 50th Anniversary Gifts

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past summer.  It's so hard to buy gifts for parents, right? I searched all over Etsy for the perfect gift. In the end, I ended up getting them several gifts.  

I made them a Family Thumbprint Tree. I found this free PDF file online (click here). Then I edited it by adding a new heart on the tree trunk with "R+C" inside the heart.  I also added their anniversary date to the bottom of the image. I was able to get all of our family members' thumbprints, including my mom and dad's, and then I found a cute frame on sale at Michael's.

My parents renewed their wedding vows so my brothers and I surprised them with this 50th anniversary Unity Candle Set from Things Remembered. 

I took pictures during the ceremony and the dinner afterward and made them a Shutterfly photo book. I scanned photos from their actual wedding for the book also.  This was my favorite gift :)

I have one last gift for them that I'm saving for Christmas. I don't think my parents even realize that I have a blog so the odds of them seeing this is slim to none. But just in case, I'm going to wait to post it.  It's too good to ruin!!!!  Be sure to check back after Christmas!  If you're looking for an anniversary gift and want to know about this mystery gift, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send you the info. 

Happy 50th Mom and Dad!!

xoxoxoxo

Dining Room Update - Part 2

My dining room furniture is complete.  I honestly don't think I could love our updated dining room set more.

My friend, Emily, painted my dining room table, chairs and china cabinet about a year ago.

I recently acquired the matching server from my parents' set and immediately called Emily to ask her to paint it.  Here is the before:

I thought the room needed some color so Emily painted some options on the back of the buffet:

We went with the color on the right, General Finishes Persian Blue. After applying two coats of paint, Emily distressed it and then applied a cocoa wash.  She also stained the top of the buffet to match the stain on the top of the dining room table.  We left the hardware as-is - I love keeping a bit of the original piece in tact.  Here is the finished product!

My grandma passed away this summer and I inherited a beautiful mirror that we hung over the server.

Thank you Emily!

thirty seven

Having your birthday fall on the weekend is the BEST.  You are given the green light to go ahead and celebrate all weekend long.  So that's what we did.

On Friday, my actual birthday, my parents took Clara and I out to lunch.  We had the most beautiful weather on Friday and got sit and eat outside.

Lunch was followed by a trip to the mall to ride the carousel and the train.  This was more for Clara.  I nearly threw up riding the teacup on the carousel with her.

My sister-in-law came over with my niece and nephew after Clara and I picked up big sisters after school.  Living in the same neighborhood with my brother and sister-in-law is such a blessing and having our kids growing up near each other is irreplaceable. 

Tim came home from work with these beautiful flowers too :) 

On Saturday, I got to FaceTime my niece who just went away to college.  She's the first grandchild to go away to college (and 1/2 of my dynamic babysit duo).  We are all having a hard time letting her go.  I can't even imagine how hard it will be when my own kids leave for college...

Saturday afternoon, my mother-in-law and father-in-law came over to celebrate my birthday as well as my father-in-law's birthday.  My in-laws live near Ted Drewes and always offer to bring over a truck load for special occasions.  My #1 favorite treat!

Saturday night, Ava had her first ever sleepover!  

All of the calls, texts, emails, FB messages from family and friends made me feel like the luckiest lady on earth. Aside from almost visiting the ER and my dishwasher breaking for the gazillionth time, I couldn't have asked for more.  Thirty seven is going to be a great year, I can feel it!

Meet the Teacher Gifts & the Leukemia Lymphoma Society

It's Back to School time!!  So much preparation goes into the start of school. Not just for us parents and our kids, but for teachers too. My oldest is starting 2nd grade and my middle one is starting kindergarten.  The teachers at our school have been so good to us and have so much care and concern for my girls. They really try hard to make the kids feel important. They even give them little "welcome" gifts that the kids LOVE and each year I think to myself "I wish I had thought to give the teachers a little gift." 

This year I remembered!  My cousin, Cindy, is the BEST baker I know. She could honestly open a bakery she's that good. She is also a fantastic IT Consultant and has her own IT staffing solutions company so she doesn't have time to open a bakery. 

Cindy's claim to fame are these fabulous sugar cookies that she bakes and decorates. She takes orders from friends and family and friends of friends, etc. I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to order cookies from her and the time has come!!  Here are the "Meet the Teacher" cookies that Cindy made (and packaged!) for us.

Aside from these cookies being beautiful and delicious, Cindy does not ask for payment for her time and materials and talent. Did you hear that???  She does it for FREE.  All she asks is that you make a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. How amazing is that??!!??!!

If you're looking for gifts that "give back" you can Google "Shop with a Purpose" for more ideas.  I can't wait to give these cookies to the girls' teachers.  And I need to get them out of my house soon or I'll eat them all myself!!

Perfect Summer Salad

I haven't posted any dinner recipes in months because I haven't been cooking lately.  Our garden has been producing a tasty variety of lettuce so we have mostly been eating salads for dinner.  We never seem to get tired of mixed fruit and nut salads.  

Here are the ingredients for our favorite summer salad:
1.  Variety of lettuce (We grow spinach, arugula, butterhead, romaine, looseleaf, oak leaf, kale and swiss chard and use a little of each in our salad)

2.  Fruits (We pick 2 fruits from strawberries, blueberries, peaches, pears and mangoes)
3.  1/2 avocado
4.  Pistachios (costly but totally worth it)
5.  Blue cheese (I know it sticks but you don't notice it when it's mixed up in a salad and it really does taste great)

5.  Sweet Italian dressing (If you're from St. Louis, you can't go wrong with Zia's!)

TIP: The key to making a great salad is dicing up all the ingredients, including the lettuce, so that you get a little bit of each ingredient on a bite :)

As a side, I also like to make a tomato salad using California Olive Ranch olive oil (it's the BEST!), fresh ground pepper and chopped basil.

Homegrown tomatoes are honestly better than store-bought.  I don't know why but they are. We had a little bit of success with our tomatoes this year.

We also have a fierce addiction to Whole Foods Olive Bread - sliced, warmed and dipped in California Olive Ranch olive oil.  Mmmmmmm.....