YUMMY!!! Whole Grain Banana Bread

Yum!! We made the BEST Whole Grain Banana Bread! It was so good!! We had some bananas that were past their prime and I couldn't just throw them away so we decided to make banana bread with them. I've never found a recipe that I really liked because most recipes use 2 cups of sugar and NO ONE needs that much sugar!

Cameron had a great time cutting up the bananas to put in.

He even helped mix it.
Doesn't it look yummy!!??!!
Next time, I might add nuts! I'm not really crazy about using splenda but I did.

Here's the recipe:

Whole Grain Healthy Banana Bread

3/4 cup SPLENDA® Sugar Blend
3/4 cup flax seed meal
5 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup skim milk
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
2 teaspoons egg whites
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar blend, flax meal, bananas, milk, sour cream and egg whites until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Spoon into prepared loaf pan.
Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the crown of the loaf comes out clean.

Porcupine Balls

Isn't that the greatest name for a dinner? We made these tonight out of the Paula Deen's my first cookbook. Chris and the kids got a kick out of the name of course and so the kids started asking him what we were having for dinner the other nights of this week and he thought it was funny to start naming every other animal he could think of and add balls after it (Rhino balls). The kids found this to be hilarous! Here's the recipe:

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 1/4 c. uncooked rice

1 tsp. dried onion

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1 tsp. italian seasoning

1-14 oz. can of diced tomatores with juice

1-10 1/2 oz. can of beef broth

Turn oven to 350 degrees. Put the ground beef in a mixing bowl. Measure 1/2 c. of the rice and put it in with the meat. Add the dried onion, seasoned salt, and italian seasoning. Mix it all together. Roll it into 8-9 golfball size balls of meat. Put the rest of the rice in the bottom of the baking dish. Pouor in the tomatoes and the beef broth and stir with the spoon. Put the meat balls on top. Cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake for about 1 hour. The rice in the meatballs will have puffed up all around the meat, and your meatballs will look like little porcupines!

It was really good! We (okay I) am trying to make more homemade meals at home but it sure takes a lot of time. Oh well it's worth it.

Today we made salt dough ornaments! I love making things with Cameron. Here's the recipe for these:

1/2 c. salt

1 c. flour

1/2 c. water

Mix together and when it becomes dough knead until smooth. Use cookie cutters to make fun ornaments or gift tags. I think this year we are going to make gift tags out of them. Last year we made ornaments for everyone.

Bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours.

It was fun making these and in the next couple of days we will paint them!

Whining plus recipe?

ARRGH!!! It's been really hard to make sure that I get everything done that I need to. The pressure can be really hard until I finally snap. I'm trying really hard to control but there are so many things that I have to get done. I've taken on our preschool Sunday School program. We're starting a brand new series and everything is being redone. The room, the supplies (all wood cutouts) and felt hangings. I also have preschool to get ready for too! This wouldn't be so bad but Cameron wants to play WITH me all the time. YES, I LOVE to play with him and would love to have no other responsibilities but that just isn't our life. I also need to stimulate myself more than just knobbed cylinders and puzzles. Sorry for the rant but sometimes it helps me think and realize that I am truly blessed and have a great life and should take my lemons that I encounter and make lemonade out of them!

Here's my picture of my granola that I made! It was YUMMY!!!! The recipe was SO simple. I didn't realize making granola was so easy.

Almond Coconut Granola

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2/3 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup coconut

1/3 cup hulled green pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

6 tablespoons honey

1 cup mixed dried fruits such as raisins, cherries, and apricots

Preheat oven to 325°F.
In a large bowl stir together oats, almonds, coconut, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, and salt. In a small saucepan melt butter with honey over low heat, stirring. Pour butter mixture over oat mixture and stir until combined well.
In a large jelly-roll pan spread granola evenly and bake in middle of oven, stirring halfway through baking, until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Cool granola in pan on a rack and stir in dried fruits. Granola may be kept in an airtight container at cool room temperature 2 weeks.