Banana Nut Bread

A guest post from Katie...

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups cake flour we used 1 cup white flour and 1 cup wheat flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup milk
3 small or 2 large bananas mashed
1 cup chopped pecans

LETS GET STARTED!

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar. then add the eggs and vanilla.

beat until fluffy. mix together flour, salt,and baking soda.

add dry ingredients to the sugar mixture alternately with the milk, bananas,and nuts, beating well after each addition.

preheat oven to 350 degrees. pour the batter into a
bread pan. bake for 50 min. or until brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

then wait when its done its a great treat for the whole family!

HAVE FUN!

And the babies have the most fun licking the spatulas!

Basic Green Smoothie Recipe

1 cup coconut milk
1 cup spinach
(I don't know how to properly measure spinach. I just crammed it in a 1 cup measuring cup.)
1 cup frozen strawberries
1 frozen banana
2 Tbsp. honey

Begin by adding the coconut milk and spinach in the blender. Blend these together until smooth. Add in remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Add more coconut milk or a little water if your smoothie is too thick. All ingredients can be adjusted to suit your taste.
Enjoy!


You might also like to try this Kale Smoothie Recipe.

This post is linked to:

Easy Beef & Bean Burritos

I found this recipe on Money Saving Mom back when she was doing a series on freezer cooking. It's so easy and everyone loves it. Enjoy!


Easy Beef & Bean Burritos
2 lb. ground beef, we use venison
2 cans refried beans
1 can enchilada sauce ( 1 1/3 cups)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup dried onion or freshly minced
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried oregano
3 cups shredded cheese, mexican or cheddar
20 flour tortillas, burrito size

Brown meat, drain off fat. Add in remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20ish minutes. Spoon meat and bean mixture into tortilla and roll up. Top with sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese.
Ta Da! Done.
Wasn't that easy?

If you have a lot of leftovers, try freezing your rolled up burritos. Wrap a couple of burritos in a paper towel and then wrap in foil. Freeze. When you need a quick lunch just pull them out of the freezer, remove the foil and microwave for 1 minute.
Ta Da!
Easy lunch!

Raising Homemakers ~ Lesson 2 ~ Baking Bread

In this lesson we learned about baking bread. This is familiar territory for our girls because all their mamas love to bake bread. We used some freshly ground wheat in our bread, but this recipe will work well with all white flour too.

Items to cover in this lesson:

• Yeast~ Yeast is a tiny living plant. Cool! It's even mentioned in the Bible. Check out the verses at Bible Gateway.
• Types of yeast~ dry, active, rapid rise. What makes them different?
• What makes yeast grow?
• Different types of flour, white, wheat, freshly ground wheat
• How to measure flour ~ scoop the flour into your measuring cup and gently run a the straight edge of a knife across the rim to level the flour.
• How do you knead bread. This is the fun part! We used a three step method, fold-push-turn   

 

• Fold~ flatten the dough and fold it in half toward you.                                                               
• Push~ using the heels of your hands, push the dough down and away from you.         
• Turn~ turn the dough a quarter turn and repeat.

hard white wheat before grinding

freshly ground hard white wheat

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread
1 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups freshly ground whole wheat
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons yeast

Combine water, oil, and honey. Sprinkle yeast on top and let sit a couple of minutes then stir to combine. Mix in flour and salt. Knead for 5-10 min. Let dough rest for 30 min. Knead again for 5 min. Let rest again for 30 min. Knead for 1 min. and shape into loaf. Let dough rise in loaf pan in warm place for 30-45 min. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min. When done, let cool in pan a couple of minutes then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

I use this recipe almost daily. I place all ingredients in my bread maker and run the dough cycle then I let it rise and bake in a loaf pan. I have recently starting using less unbleached flour and more whole wheat and it has worked well. I find that using an electric knife works best for slicing bread.

The girls showing off their loaf shaping skills

You can find lesson 1 here.

Banana Creme Whoopie Pies

This was my first time making whoopie pies and they were delicious!

Banana Creme Whoopie Pies
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Filling:
1 package cream cheese (8oz.) softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Additional powdered sugar for dusting

1. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla. In another bowl combine banana and buttermilk. Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Gradually add to creamed mixture alternating with the banana mixture.
2. Drop by tablespoons 2 in. apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet. (I used a Silpat) Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 min or until set. Cool for 2 minutes before moving to wire rack to cool completely.

3. Filling: Beat together cream cheese, butter, and peanut butter until fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread about 1 tablespoon of filling on bottom side of cookie and then top with another cookie. Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

Leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator, if you have any leftovers ;) These pies are best right after they are prepared. Our left over whoopie pies were sticky after being stored in the refrigerator.
Enjoy!

Kale Smoothie Recipe

I love this kale smoothie recipe! In fact, I have cravings for this smoothie. It's strange how our bodies know good food and crave it. I usually make this in the morning and it gives me lots of energy for the day. My kids also love this smoothie, except my oldest, who was pretty much raised on a processed food diet (my own fault). I'm realizing how important it is to start your kids off on a whole foods diet!!

Start by adding 1.5 cups of coconut milk and 3-4 leaf/stalks of kale in your blender. Blend these together for about 1-2 min, or until you can't see any bits of the Kale.

See how you can't see any bits of Kale? I don't like leaf chunks in my smoothies :)

Next, add 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and blend them for a minute or so. (blueberries will leave little blueberry skin flecks in your smoothie if they are not blended well) Then, add 7-8 frozen strawberries, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 3 Tablespoons of honey. Blend until mixed throughly.

Enjoy!

A whole foods diet can be expensive. Here are some tips to help save money and eat well.

Kale~ Kale one of the cheapest and healthiest lettuces available. I think I paid $1.19 for a whole bunch. That will make about 6 smoothies.

Frozen Berries~ The best place to buy frozen berries is a Sam's or Costco. You can also buy them in season at Aldi for cheap and then freeze them.

Coconut Milk~ There are lots of printable coupons out there for coconut milk and I almost always find coconut milk marked down at my Kroger. I combine the mark down and a coupon to pay less that a dollar for a 1/2 a gallon.

Honey~ I buy local honey by the gallon directly from the farm to save the most money. 

How do you save money on a whole foods diet?

Christmas Candy

 We saw this recipe on Money Saving Mom and I wasn't really impressed with the ingredients. I mean candy from saltine crackers? Doesn't sound very good, but after reading all the wonderful comments about how addicting and marvelous it was we decided to give it a try. The finished product was, well, it was saltine crackers with butter, sugar, and chocolate on top. Surprise! I'm still not very impressed and the good news is I'm not addicted either! This candy is nothing fancy, but it uses common ingredients and was easy for my daughter to make. If you need a quick and easy dessert it would work out well. I think adding chopped nuts to the top would make a nice addition. Enjoy!

Christmas Candy

1 sleeve saltine crackers

1 stick of butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups chocolate chips
chopped nuts - optional

Lay out saltine crackers on a cookie sheet. Melt butter over low heat and stir in brown sugar until nice and gooey. Spread butter/sugar mixture over the crackers. Bake at 350 until hot and bubbly. Pour chocolate chips over the top. Let sit a few minutes so they start melting. Spread chocolate out evenly with a spatula. Place in freezer for and hour or two until hardened. Break into bite size pieces. Store in refrigerator.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

I took advantage of the pumpkin deal on Amazon and now I am in search of great pumpkin recipes. This is one of my favorites. These muffins don't taste like your typical pumpkin recipe because they lack all the pumpkin pie spices. They freeze well too.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 16oz. can pumpkin

1 1/2 cups oil

3 cups flour ( I like to use 1 cup unbleached all purpose white and 2 cups freshly ground wheat)

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups chocolate chips

In a large bowl beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and oil. Add in dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Fill muffins cups 3/4 full and bake at 400 degrees about 10-15 min. Makes 36 muffins.

Homemade Playdough

I came across this playdough recipe the other day and decided to give it a try. It's the best playdough recipe I've tried. You can add in food coloring, spices, glitter, or extracts. We added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and some glitter to ours. I wouldn't recommend adding the spices if you have little ones. My 2 year old thought it was food. It did smell like a cinnamon roll. 

Homemade Playdough
 1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
1 T. vegetable oil
1 T. cream of tarter
1 c. water
Mix all ingredients together in saucepan. After you've mixed them together turn heat on medium high and cook, stirring constantly, until dough forms into a ball. Remove from heat and knead until smooth. If the dough is too sticky you can knead in a little more flour. Store in a covered container or plastic bag.

How To Make Sweet Tea

Katie had so much fun making this video. Enjoy!

Buttery Yeast Rolls

These are the best rolls ever. They would go great with Thanksgiving Dinner. I found this recipe on food.com

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

1 egg

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

3 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 package dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon)

1/4 cup melted butter for brushing on rolls

Place all ingredients except the 1/4 cup melted butter into bread machine. Select the dough cycle and start machine. When the dough is done shape dough into balls and place in buttered pan. I just threw my dough in the pan, but if you roll them in nice little balls they will come out very pretty.

Take some of the melted butter and brush it over the tops of rolls, saving the excess for brushing on after baking. Cover and let rise in a warm place about 1-2 hours, or until double in bulk.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes. Brush baked rolls with remaining butter.

After baking you can freeze these rolls and when you are ready to serve just warm them in a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes.