Whole Wheat Banana Bread - YUMMMMOOO

WOW!! I haven't been on since April 09! SORRY!!! Here we go, we are gettting ready for Christmas and can't wait to share what we are doing!!

Today, Black Friday, we are making banana bread! Wait until you see this recipe!! It is awesome! There is 0 (yep, I said ZERO!!) sugar in it! You use honey!! Here's the recipe; ENJOY!!

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, beat oil and honey together. Add eggs, and mix well. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Stir in flour and salt. Add baking soda to hot water, stir to mix, and then add to batter. Blend in chopped nuts. Spread batter into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
3. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 1/2 hour before slicing.
We added 1/2 c. of dark chocolate chips too!

If you make this, let me know what you think!

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies-Yummo!!

Sorry, this is from Wednesday! I never downloaded my pictures until tonight! We talked about kindness today! We decided to make cookies to share with friends today. This was a perfect day to do this because of Ash Wednesday. Cameron is bringing his cookies he made today to church to give to his "friends" at church. Of course, we had to bring a few over to Rich, our neighbor, too!!
Here's our favorite kind of chocolate chip cookies right now! Cameron insisted on making these for his Aunt Stephanie two weeks ago! The recipe is easy and they are really, really simple!

Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies
Makes 24-26

1 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
3/4 cup trans fat free soft tub margarine spread or butter
2 large egg whites 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
15 oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed
2 cups (12 ozs) mini semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (I omitted this)
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar and margarine with a wooden spoon or on medium speed until smooth. Beat in the egg whites or egg and vanilla, then the chickpeas and chocolate chips. Add the flour, oats, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until a thick dough forms.
3. Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheet, spacing hte cookies about 1 inch apart. Flatten slightly with a fork. Bake for 11-13 minutes, do not overbake. Leave on cookie sheet to cool and then transfer onto wire rack until completely cool. Do try one in the process of cooling as the gooey chocolate is wonderful in the cookie.
4. Store in airtight container for up to 3 days.

Try them and let me know what you think!

We made these regular chocolate chip cookies with 1/2 mint chips and 1/2 chocolate chips too!

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter flavored shortening
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup mint chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter flavored shortening, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla .Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until light brown. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely

Bakin', bakin' and more bakin'

I think Cam is burnt out of crafting with me! ): I LOVE making, crafting, painting, doing things with him. The only thing that is wants to do play with McDonalds disney characters t hat Chris and Cam get off of ebay and animals. He loves to play pretend, which I don't mind doing for a little while but NOT ALL DAY LONG!! I told Chris last night that I was going to open up an art studio where kids can just come in and make/play with craft and art materials. You can just move around the room and there would be easels, painting, chalkboards, playdough, every kind of art materials. I would love that; if only I had the time. Enough dreaming for now.

Today we made Buckwheat bread in the bread machine. Yum!! Even the older kids love this kind of bread. If anyone knows of another great bread machine recipe, please let me know. I'm really into my bread machine right now. Here's the recipe:
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 2/3 cups bread flour
3/4 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water
Directions
1. Add all ingredients in the order recommended by your bread machine manufacturer.
2. Process on the bread cycle.

We also made apple cinnamon muffins. They turned out great and Cam loved them.
The last thing we made today was banana pudding. I let Cameron cut up bananas to put in it. He did a great job with the knife (it was a plastic one we got from IKEA; I love that store). Well that's been out day so far and it's only 10:30. I think we'll try to go outside and play for a while. We haven't been outside to play in about a week and a half and its finally warm enough (20 degrees is warm enough, right????)

What are we going to make today?!? Take 2

Alright, here we go again! Cameron and I came downstairs this morning and the first thing he said, "What are we going to make today?" I had to think quickly because I hadn't planned on making anything today so we decided to make pancakes for breakfast.

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 c. Buckwheat pancake mix

1/3 c. milk

1 c. applesauce

1 egg

1 TBSP. applesauce

1/2 c. chocolate chips, opt. (Cameron wanted these added)

Mix everything together until just blended. Let stand for 5 minutes. Cook on one side until bubbles form on the edges, then flip and cook on other side until golden brown. Serve with your favorite toppings! For thinner pancakes, add more milk. For thicker, use less milk.

For blueberry pancakes, add 1/2 c. blueberries.

For cheese, add 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese.

Thanks to my cousin Amy for introducing us to buckwheat pancake mix.

Cameron got to "taste" some of the mini chocolate chips.

We had to make some that looked like Mickey Mouse!

Yesterday, we made yummy, yummy oyster crackers!!

Here's the recipe:

1 pkg. oyster crackers

1 c. oil

1 tsp. garlic salt

1 tsp. dill weed

1 pkg. original ranch-style salad dressing

Mix all ingredients together. Bake 250 degrees for 10 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning.

This recipe came from the Holy Communion cookbook. The kids love these and so do we!!!