Foodie Week - Banana, Strawberry and Chocolate Chip Muffins

Hello!

I'm back today with a very yummy breakfast muffin!  I bought a big bunch of bananas from Costco last week and was amazed at how quickly they went brown!  I've really been trying not to waste food, so I was disappointed that we didn't get a chance to eat them all - so I jumped onto Pinterest and looked up banana recipes - I was NOT disappointed!  There were so many, I should've made a new board dedicated just to banana's!  And I don't even like banana's that much!  But I really really really like these muffins!

{Recipe and Photo courtesy of  fortheloveofcooking.net via Pinterest.com}

Banana, Strawberry, and Chocolate Chip Muffins:

Recipe and photos by For the Love of Cooking.net

• ½ cup of butter, softened
• ¾ cup of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 overripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• 10-12 fresh strawberries diced
• 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees then coat a muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the eggs, bananas, and vanilla then continue beating until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together, mix well. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir until just combined. Add most of the diced strawberries and most of the chocolate chips then gently mix them into the batter.

Spoon the batter evenly into each muffin tin. Place the remaining strawberries and chocolate chips on top of each muffin.

Place into the oven and bake 18-20 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the muffins cool on a rack. Slather with butter and enjoy!

 

Okay, so these muffins are delicious!  I LOVE them!  They are moist, not chewy, packed with flavor, easy to make and I feel good that Adam's getting fruit in every bite!  Here's a few changes that I made due to ingredient shortage...

 

I used 1/2 C brown sugar and 1/4 C sugar because I didn't have enough brown sugar

I used 4 bananas because that's what I had!

I used 15 fresh strawberries... mine were sliced and I wish I would've diced them!

I used more chocolate chips... just because I can!

I used silicone cupcake liners because I feel like their less mess!

I also used a mini-muffin tin because I wanted to give some to friends too!

Here's what mine looked like...

Yum!

See what I mean about extra chocolate chips?  And the chunks of strawberries are such a yummy compliment to the banana and chocolate! 

Also, since I cannot pass up a cute packaging idea, and since I'd just gotten a new shipment of dies from QuicKutz, I grabbed the strawberry container die and packaged the mini-muffins up for a friend!

I put half-a-dozen mini-muffins in a cello bag, tied it with a twist tie and added a ribbon.  I then die cut the container and put it together - it's a good size!  And easy!  I really like it and can't wait to use it this summer!  I added shred in the bottom of the container and made a little tag with a strawberry on it (strawberry 2x2 QuicKutz die).  Simple but cute and summery!

Okay, so here's my review (1-10, 10 being amazing!)
Taste: 10!
Ease: 10!
Cost: 10!  Anything that lets me use something that we'd throw away otherwise is great!
Healthy: Well, the recipe is probably a 8, my version is probably more of a 5-6!  I love that it doesn't have oil!  Ya for no oil!

I will make these again... they're a great little breakfast, snack or desert!  Next time I might add some rolled oats too!

I'll see you tomorrow with a delicious veggie enchilada bake recipe!  I LOVE pinterest recipes!  I may never buy a cookbook again!
Andrea 

PS - My husband told me that the lemon cookies from yesterday are his favorite cookies that I've made - EVER!

Foodie Week - Lemon Bar Cookies

Hello! 

Today I'll be sharing a recipe that I found on Pinterest for Lemon Cookies - the idea of biting into a tangy/sweet lemon cookie makes me think of taking a bite of sunshine!  In the Pinterest description area, it said "just like a lemon bar!", well, that got my attention.  I really like lemon bars, but I like my lemon bars extra lemony... just keep that in mind when reading my review...

{photo and recipe courtesy of sophistimom.com via Pinterest.com}

I've been craving lemon bars lately, it's what I wanted for desert on Mother's Day but the bakery that my husband went to, closed early for Mother's Day... so, when I was revisiting my "Yum" board, I saw these, looked in the cupboard for the ingredients and baked them up myself! 

Here's the recipe:

chewy lemon snowdrop cookies
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
zest of 2 lemons
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup agave nectar or honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons lemon juice
about 1 cup powdered sugar, for coating

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Set aside.

2. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, lemon zest, sugar, and agave nectar. Mix until very smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides.

3. In a small cup, combine the lemon juice baking soda. With the mixer on low, add in flour mixture and lemon juice mixture. Scrape down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula and mix the dough by hand a few times to ensure an even distribution of the ingredients.

4. Roll the dough into balls, one inch in diameter. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheets , and then toss in powdered sugar to coat.

Here's our cookies...

These cookies were very easy to make, I had everything on hand and my little guy helped me with them.  I did like that, since there were no eggs, he could eat the dough raw.  We also had fun with the baking soda and lemon juice combo - Adam was amazed when it started fizzing and erupting like a volcano! 

{Cookie Face}

Review (1-10, 10 being AMAZING!)

Taste: 7-8 - these weren't as lemony as I would've liked - I think next time I'll add more lemon juice and zest...
Ease: 10 - super easy
Cost: 10  - normal supplies that I believe most cupboards have on hand
Shelf life: 10 - we baked these 4 days ago and they're still perfectly moist and chewy...

I would definitely make these again, but like I said, I would add more lemon and maybe a pinch less sugar.  I just don't think that they taste like lemon bars in the present recipe, but I'd be happy to keep playing with it until they do! 

That's it for me!  And doesn't yellow just make you think, "SUMMER!" - I know it does me!
Oh, and I made red sauce enchilada's last night with the left over shredded beef - they were a hit!  I'll post that recipe tomorrow!

Have a delicious filled day!
Andrea

Pinned Up Mondays! Food Week!

Good Morning!

Today we're kicking off food week!  So far we've had Mom and Teacher Week, Kiddo Week and now we're doing Food!  There will be food posts and recipes all from Pinterest... with my reviews or anything that I would do different!  I'm no chef, I can follow a recipe just fine, but I don't have the vision to put things together and make up a recipe, so I'm just telling you what works for me and my family based on the recipes that we're trying! 

We'll be trying a little of everything, from breakfast to snacks and dinner... even some frozen yumminess since it's HOT-HOT-HOT!  And, since we tend to eat every day, there will be a new recipe every day!  Even over the Memorial Day Weekend!  Yay! 

Okay, so the first recipe that I'm sharing had numerous pros for me:
1.  You cook it in a crockpot!  Yes!  No hot oven on a hot day!
2.  I had all of the ingredients on hand - I think they're staples (except 1, but I didn't miss it)
3.  I can get 3 different meals out of this one recipe!  Yes!  That's 3 nights of dinner from 1 roast!
4.  Easy!  This recipe was super easy and didn't call for multiple pots and pans (ya for little clean-up!)

Shredded Beef Slow Cooker Recipe!

{Photo and Recipe courtesy of  cookingclassy.blogspot.com via Pinterest.com}

Shredded Beef Tacos

Ingredients:
1 (2.5 lb) chuck roast
1 (14 oz) can beef broth
1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder
1/2 Tbsp cumin
1/2 Tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
Juice of 1 lime

Serve with:
Warmed corn tortillas or warmed fresh flour tortillas*
Green or Iceburg lettuce, chopped
Monterrey Jack or Cheddar cheese, shredded
Guacamole or diced avocados
Sour cream
Cilantro

Fresh Salsa
Freshly squeezed lime juiceHot sauce
Directions:
In a small bowl whisk together chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place roast in a slow cooker, pour beef broth over roast then squeeze with fresh lime juice. Sprinkle roast with spice mixture. Cover slow cooker with lid and cook on low heat 8-10 hours. Remove roast from slow cooker, shred beef (remove fat) and return shredded beef to slow cooker. Cover with lid and cook additional 30 minutes. Remove beef from slow cooker with tongs to remove juices when plating or drain in a colander. Serve with desired toppings.

So, this meat was delicious!  Seriously delicious!  I'm a little bit of a Mexican food snob... I know, how can you be a snob about Mexican food, but I like traditional Mexican food, cooked the way my Mom or my friends Mom's (Mrs. Annaguey and Mrs. Juarez) did... and this recipe was so good, I'd do it over and over!  The only ingredient that I didn't have was the Onion Powder, but I did everything else exactly like the recipe called for.  It was super moist and had wonderful flavor in every bite!  I topped our taco's with chopped lettuce, finely chopped cilantro, tomatoes, Mexican style cheese, avocado pieces and homemade salsa. 

I also used homemade baked corn tortilla shells:

{Recipe and Photo courtesy of eatingwell.com via Pinterest.com}

Like I said, I used corn tortillas, but you could easily use flour if you prefer.  Here are the instructions:

Working with 6 tortillas at a time, wrap in a barely damp cloth or paper towel and microwave on High until steamed, about 30 seconds. Lay the tortillas on a clean work surface and coat both sides with cooking spray. Then carefully drape each tortilla over two bars of the oven rack. Bake at 375°F until crispy, 7 to 10 minutes.

So, I couldn't remember the exact times while I was making mine, so I ended up steaming mine for 1 minute - they were super pliable.  I then laid them on the paper towel in my sink so I could spray the cooking spray and not get it everywhere in my kitchen - I do not like cleaning up cooking over spray!  Since I got the times wrong, I ended up baking my shells for 12 minutes... they were crispy but still yummy.  Any longer and they would've burned, but I was lucky and took them out just in time.  Use a tong to grab them, I'm pretty sure I don't have fingerprints left from grabbing these hot guys with my fingers!  Yep, I wasn't thinking and kept saying "Oww oww oww oww" every time that I grabbed one while my 4 year old looked on, probably thinking that I wasn't using my thinking cap... which he would be right about!

Anyways - I would totally recommend this meal to everyone and anyone!  I couldn't have made it better if I'd tried!  I made Spanish rice and beans to go along with the the meal, but I think we would've been happy with just the tacos!

Ratings (1-10, 10 being awesome!):

Ease: 10!

Taste: 10!

Cost: 10! (I got my roast on sale and had it in freezer, but meat's pretty expensive - but I'll get 2 more meals from the roast, so it still gets a great score!)

Mess: 10! - little mess!

Recommendation:  Highly recommend - I think you'll be super pleased with the shredded beef recipe!

That's it for me today!  I'll be back tomorrow with another Pinned recipe from Pinterest!  Happy eating!

Andrea

   

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... Light Fixture Flower Pots and a healthy treat!

Good Morning!

Today I'm sharing 2 great ideas that you can do with your child{ren}!  First, a fun gardening project that will help you teach your little one about recycling while enjoying time together.

My little guy is 4 years old and loves trash.  Anything to do with trash.  Recycling, yard waste, trash, compost... you name it, he's into it.  So I decided to show him that you can take something that might be thrown out and recycle it into a cool garden flower pot.

When we bought our house, the sunroom (which is the playroom) came with a stained glass ceiling fan. Now, it was never my style, but since it worked, well, one can't complain.  The other day our ceiling fan broke, it actually came apart from the ceiling and was hanging by a wire, which is scary but luckily we weren't in the room.  My husband took the fan down and took it apart, but I asked him to save the light covers.  Here's what we did with them...

We turned them on their tops...

Then I put a coffee filter to cover the hole in the bottom...

We then added gardening soil and planted our flowers.  Adam did everything, I just held the coffee filter in place while he dumped the dirt in!  I know, I normally like to get photo's of him doing things, but my hands were covered in dirt, so handling my phone didn't seem possible!  You can find old light fixture all over the place, if you have a Re-Store (the Habitat for Humanity Store) near by, they often have there... so do yard sales and thrift stores.  Adam and I both love our pretty flower pots and he's been the lookout for other items that we were going to throw out to turn into a planter!

And since the weekend is upon us, and it's been super hot around here, we're sharing a frozen treat today - you probably have everything you need on hand even!

 
We grabbed out Popsicle forms (you could use a disposable cut and a Popsicle stick or plastic fork too!), 100 juice and some grapes (you could use different fruit but this is what we had on hand!).  I cut the grapes in half and then asked my helper to fill the cups with juice... yes, I was a little nervous about this part, but hey, I've got to let him figure things out!  (and I had a hand on the juice box too!)

Then have your little helper put the grapes in each of the pop-forms.  I had him count out 10 grape halves each - hey, might as well practice counting while making something yummy! 

He then put the lids on - look at those yummy grapes! 

We put them in the freezer while he napped - I promised he could have 1 once he woke up!

And he remembered!  He's my little guy, half asleep, eating his 100% fruit Popsicle!  Yup, I think his eyes are still half closed - he really was still mostly asleep!

The frozen grapes were so refreshing - the Popsicle wasn't too sweet and the chunks of grapes were like getting a prize!  I'm already planning on making more of these... maybe with strawberries and kiwis?  Or oranges and pineapples?  Oh, and we talked about why and how liquid freezes and how they melt, so it was a pretty educational treat as well!

Have a great weekend!
Andrea

Pinecone Bird Feeder

Good Morning!

I know that his project may not be new to most of you, but it might be a good reminder!  The traditional pine cone bird feeder!

Start off with 2 fun little boys...

Err... Monkey's....

Send them out on a pine cone hunt-

Remember to tell them that they only need 1 pine cone, not 20!

Grab peanut butter, bird seed (Thank you DollarTree!), a plastic knife or plastic spoon, a tossable plate and your funny faced boys!

Spread peanut butter all over your pine cones...

When Mommy asks you to smile, make a ridiculous face...

Put your pb covered pine cone on your plastic or paper plate and sprinkle/roll in bird seed...

Wrap baker's twine around cone to hang.  Mental forehead slap for not thinking to do this before the pb and birdseed.

Hang - preferably somewhere that you can watch the birds arrive and snack! 

Yum.  Lucky birds, silly boys, outside fun.  A great, simple, quick and inexpensive project.

See you Friday!
Andrea 

Pinned Up Monday's - Water Pillows!

Hello!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!  I know I did, my boys know what Mommy likes and they did it all with a smile! 

Since we dedicated some time last week to Mom, this week I'm sharing crafts or activities for kids!  With Summer quickly approaching, I've been on the lookout for fun, inexpensive and educational activities... I've found quite a few!  Today I'm sharing a super cool and inexpensive outside activity that you can do with your little ones, let's take a look!

{photo courtesy of  themommiesmademedoit.blogspot.com via pinterest}

This looked like so much fun, I couldn't wait to try it on a hot day (we've had plenty of those lately!).  So I grabbed the supplies, I bought the plastic sheeting at Home Depot, grabbed my husband's duct tape and we went to work...

Our HD didn't have a large supply of plastic sheeting, they were out of almost all of it, so our water pillow isn't as large at the Pin-spried one... bummer... but it was still totally fun.

We taped off all the edges put left a little opening for our hose.  We folded one end just for ease so we wouldn't have to tape off all 4 edges.  I do wish that we would've done this on a flat surface, like our concrete patio, then we may have avoided the little wrinkles and maybe some water escapage.  Yep, that's a word for today.

We filled it with water, and somehow, the boy knew exactly what to do...

We called them Water Pillows... the Pin-spired one called them water sensory... either way, they're fun.

They jumped on the water pillow, did a little yoga, drove their cars... they didn't need any instructions and I'm pretty sure this would've gotten us through an entire afternoon...

Even Rango got in on the action.  I walked out into the backyard after putting my little water monster's down for nap and Rango was lounging on the water pillow.  Yes, look at his back legs, he doesn't get much more relaxed.  He cooled off and drank the run-off water... I think he was on the water pillow the whole time the boys were napping! 

That's it for me today!  We'll see you later this week!
Andrea

Mom's the Word

Good Morning!

I don't know about everyone else, but I really really really look forward to Mother's Day.  I think it's because I didn't really know if I'd get to be a Mommy, and then when we were blessed and Adam was born, we were so scared and nervous about his health, that every day of being a Mommy felt like I was walking a very shaky tight rope.  I like the idea of Mother's Day, not for the gifts or anything like that, but for the fact that I am lucky enough to be a Mommy and have this extraordinary little boy in my life that is part me and part my amazing husband... oh, and not having to do dishes is a perk as well!

I'm also lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing, wonderful, selfless women in my family who showed me what it was to be a Mommy.  I like to let them know what they mean to me, how important they are and how inspiring they are.  My Mom always tells me that I don't need to get her anything, that she's fine, blah blah blah, but this year I really wanted to do something amazing for her, something that was totally and completely her.  So, my husband and I made her this...

We took different pieces of china tea cups and saucers and made her a lamp.  It's right up her alley, I was banking on her liking it and I'm pretty sure, by her squeal of delight, that she did!

And, even tho I already shared the Flower Brooch that I made, I wanted to share the different tags that I made to go with them.  I used the same sketch, it's one that is always in my head, for all of them, but just used different paper to give them a different look.  I made 6 tags, 2 of each set of paper... take a look.

I made 2 of these, one with the crown sticker and the other with a bee sticker - they turned out pretty cute... then I made these...

I like this one because, while it's pretty busy, it's cute.  I used a corner punch by EK to create my chevron leaves for the flower.  I have another idea along the same lines... maybe I'll get to try it and share it next week?

And my last set of tags...

This tag is my favorite.  I love the burlap star and I used a star punch to punch the orange and white paper star to sit in the center.  I created the banner from the same star punch - I punched the star from the patterned paper, then cut off all of the ends and those turned into my banner.  Pretty easy, huh? 

That's it for me today, I hope that everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day weekend, either being celebrated or celebrating someone else!  I'll see you next week - since this week was all about Mommy's and Teachers, next week will be all about the kiddo's!

Happy Friday!

Andrea