Bountiful Baskets Organic Bananas Bread

It’s that time again, time to order Bountiful Baskets. I still haven’t used up most things from the last basket. I still have almost all of my plumbs from the plumby paradise pack. I plan on making:

Asian Plum Sauce

Plumb Tart

Plumb freezer jam (to use in jam thumbprints for Christmas cookies)

This week I’m going to make lettuce wraps and crab rangoons for dinner one night to serve with my homemade plumb sauce. Yum! That's about as far as I've gotten with meal planning so far. Check back tomorrow for the rest of the weeks meals plus ideas for the beautiful hatch chilies that the grocery stores are brimming with. Tonight I served an ultra intensive, gourmet meal...Tuna sandwiches on toasted buns.

For now, my organic bananas from the basket two weeks ago turned brown super fast, before we could eat them. (Which is a surprise considering how fast my monkeys go thru bananas!) So, I froze them for later.

Today I made ‘Bountiful Banana Bread.’

6-8 brown bananas (thawed if they were frozen)

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp nutmeg

½ cup butter

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

Topping:

1 cup oatmeal

2 tbsp flour

¼ cup butter (softened)

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix the bananas, vanilla, butter, sugar and eggs. Add in the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Mix until just combined. Don’t over mix once you add the flour in otherwise the final product is tough not tender. Pour into greased loaf pan, muffin pan or mini loaf pans until ¾ full.

Mix (hand are best) the topping ingredients until combined. Sprinkle on top of the uncooked batter, pressing in only slightly to help it stick.

Bake in 350 degree oven.

Regular loaf pan – 45-50 min’s

Muffins – 25-30 min’s

Mini loaf pans 30-35 min’s

Till tooth pick inserted in the center* comes out clean.

*Last week was our best friends birthday. That particular day she happened to be working a double shift and her husband was in night school so we were babysitting her kids for the evening. Well, Brad was babysitting I was out for the night. Her oldest, my beautiful niece Alana, wanted to make a birthday cake for her mom to eat when she got home. Alana mixed up everything on her own and got it into the oven. The details from there are a bit sketchy. I’m not sure if a timer was set, for how long or if it was just ignored. Alana claims Brad said he checked the cake, Brad claims he told Alana to check it. Regardless, after blowing out the candles and cutting into the cake at 9 at night after a double shift, it was soup in the middle! Alana was so disappointed. It turned into a laughable forever memory as they picked out the cooked edges of the cake but I’m not sure Alana will bake a cake with Brad again.

What can I say, the man is married to Betty Crocker, he doesn’t have to be Betty. J

Craigslist = Starbucks

Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA this week. I’ve been fighting a very illusive stomach bug. No, not pregnant, just can’t seem to get on top of this virus. Needless to say, the menus around here have been broth for me and catch what you can for everyone else. Nothing blog worthy.

In between dying on the couch and random cleaning spurts, I’ve been shopping. Craigslist shopping to be exact. I mentioned before that we bought the girls a bunk bed and Anthony a loft bed, well, I also bought a sectional sofa. It was on a complete whim. I wasn’t really in the market for a sectional but have always wanted one. Our current furniture is old-school Craigslist, AKA- yard sale, and well loved. However, I was browsing the furniture section late Sunday night and found a sectional.

It was chocolate brown, only a few years old, had a queen hide-away-bed and a recliner on one end. No rips, no stains, pet, smoke and kid free home. $200 and it was mine! The guy lived a stones throw away from my house too. It was the meca of the sectional couch search.

Until the next morning.

See, we picked this sectional up at 8:30 at night. So by the time we got home, moved our current couches out of the way and unceremoniously dumped the sectional into the living room, we just went to bed.

In the light of the dawning day, this is what greeted me:

A PINK sectional. Mauve to be exact, but pink none the less. Because of the colors in my house and the way the light filtered in, the color shifted from the chocolate in the top weave to the underlying color of mauve. Bleh! I’m all for outdated values but I draw the line at outdated colors!

I moved forward, rearranging with the help of an unsuspecting friend who stopped by for morning coffee. (Aren’t I a good friend!) Only, once I tried to arrange it in my house, it didn’t fit right. I did my measurements before I bought it and although it did fit, technically, it didn’t fit actually. If I centered it in the bay window, we were too close to the TV, if I moved it back farther, it was oddly off center to the window and looked awkward.

We tried every different arrangement we could think of and finally decided on moving it back the appropriate distance from the TV and off center in the window. Dedicating myself to live with it for a day or so I moved onto my next project for the day. By day’s end, I swear it got more and more pink. Plus, after a long day, we collapsed into it only to discover that it was not nearly as comfortable as we thought it was when we first sat on it.

Life’s too short to not love a Craigslist couch!

So, before my monkeys could slime it up, I reposted it the next morning. Remembering that the guy we purchased it from mentioned that we were the 5^th caller in 15 min.’s since he posted it and that he had several more before he took the posting down, I decided to bump the price up a bit. I figured if it didn’t go for my asking price I could be talked down a bit or at the end of the week I could repost it for $200. With in 20 min’s I had a taker, after 3 hours, I had over 18 offers all willing to pay $350!

$350!

My final taker paid me $375 to deliver it to her. Her house, conveniently, was on the way to my in-law’s house where I had to return the trailer. So, I got paid to drive the trailer back plus, made $175!

I stashed the money away and have been trying to find the right sectional ever since. Guess what I found? The bunk beds we just bought for the girls:

 (we paid $200) listed by someone else for $800! I sent the seller an email asking them if they’d let me know what the final sale price was. Two days later he emailed me saying he sold it for $750! Yea, sorry girls, your bunk bed are going back on Craigslist. Momma needs a $550 profit. I promise to buy you another one really quickly!

I think I found a way to finance my Starbucks habit! J

She’ll run the house

I swear, this child never ceases to amaze me.

I never want one of my kids to be sick, but today, after puking in her car seat in the parking lot of the gym, Makenna is actually calm, subdued and cuddly. I kind of like it.

This past week, she has shown her IT prowess in full force.

Friday afternoon after nap, she was taking her turn on my Ipad for a bit. Next thing I know I hear Brad’s voice.

Me: “Brad?”

Brad: “Yes?”

Me: “Where are you?”

Brad: “Here!”

Me: “Yea, that helps”

Makenna: “Ipad momma, I call Daddy!”

She then hands me my Ipad on which she had opened up my Skype, found Brad’s contact (that does not have his picture so it’s not like she figured it out from that) then called him.

Later that night, Brad, Anthony and I were watching Star Trek (dorks, I know – we love it) on the living room TV and next thing I know, I hear Strawberry Shortcake on the game TV. I didn’t recall any of us getting up to put it on.

Me: “Anthony did you put on Netflix for the girls?”

Anthony: “No, I’ve been sitting here the whole time.”

So I walked over to the futon where the girls were perched with their blankets happily watching Strawberry Shortcake on Netflix for the Wii.

Me: “Hailey, did you turn this on?”

Hailey: “Nope, Kenna did.”

Kenna, holding the Wii-mote and nun chuck: “Bear-berry!”

She somehow turned on the TV and Wii, switched the input to the correct channel, maneuvered the Wii remote to the Netflix channel and selected Strawberry Shortcake. I’m not entirely sure I can do that! Guess next time I should just ask my 2 year old.

Then, on Saturday, before we took the kids to my sister-in-law’s, Brad let me sleep in while he picked up our Bountiful Baskets. In an attempt to keep Makenna busy and not poking me every 5 min’s, I told her she could play with my Ipad. Not an uncommon occurrence, she plays with it almost every day. I have learned to lock down the apps so she can’t delete them (I got tired of losing my facebook and such) and make it so she can’t purchase any apps either. However, when I did get my booty out of bed, I went to reclaim my Ipad only to discover that she was typing an email to Brad. She knew it too, I asked her what she was doing and she said: “Dad!”

Oy! This girl is going to rule this roost. Thank goodness we don’t have one of those fully automated houses (yet) or she’d, set the thermostat, auto cook some hotdogs, lock us all out and have a cartoon marathon!

Spicy Garlic Cashew Chicken

This is one of the meals from last week that I never got around to posting.

This is one of my favorite marinades/dressings for grilled chicken. You can control the heat by the amount of jalapeño’s you put in. *When the grocery stores are brimming with New Mexico Hatch Chilies and there is a guy out front of the store fresh roasting them, I usually substitute the hatch’s for the jalapenos. Taste as you mix to assess the heat level. It does decrease in heat when you cook it but you want the mix to be tolerable fresh as well because it’s good as a finishing drizzle over the top of the grilled chicken.

Recipe adapted from EliseA over at Simple Recipes : Spicy Garlic Cashew Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken – bone in, bone out, breasts, thighs, wings – doesn’t matter, what ever you prefer

¼ cup Olive Oil

2 tbsp Soy Sauce

2 tbsp Brown Sugar

½ bunch Cilantro

1-2 Jalapeno’s (*see note above)

1 Lime - juiced

1 cup Cashews

With gloves on or with oiled hands, cut the tops off of the jalapenos and remove the seeds. (I typically use only one jalapeño but I leave most of the seeds in it. That heat is good for the kids once grilled but has enough of a kick when raw for Brad and I to enjoy.)

In your food processer, blender or bowl for your immersion blender, add all the ingredients and pulse until a smooth paste forms. If the mixture is not coming together you can add in more lime juice or up to 2 tbsp of water.

Reserve 1/3 of the mixture for drizzling over the finished chicken.

Coat the chicken with the remaining mixture. Let stand for at least 2 hours but overnight is best.

Cook on the grill until done or in the oven, covered, for 30 min’s at 400 until done.

Serve with rice, black beans and corn on the cob. Yum!

Sorry I didn't take more pictures for this one, I was making it in kind of a rush and the pictures I did take are very poor quality so I'm just skipping them. You'll have to use your imagination...or better yet, make this and you'll know exactly how it looks. :)

Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole

In the crock pot. (Phew! Long title!)

This is another noshtalgic food for me. My mom use to make a version of this when I was a kid. The only thing I’ve changed, I think, is adding in more veggies.

Ingredients:

3 Chicken breasts

2 cans Cream-of soup (what ever kind you like)

1 10pkg tortillas

1 lrg can Green Enchilada Sauce

3 small cans Green Chiles

1 can olives

1 pkg cream cheese

2 cups cheddar-jack cheese

1 onion

2 stalks celery

1 red pepper

2-3 carrots

2 cups corn (not pictured because I forgot)

1 bunch cilantro

*Cook the chicken in the oven at 350 for 20-30 min's until almost done. Dice.

Cut the tortillas into wedges.

Mix together the cream-of soups, cream cheese, enchilada sauce and diced veggies.

Add a cup of the soup mix in the bottom of the crock pot. Layer the tortillas next, then the chicken, some of the cheese and some of the cilantro. Top with more of the soup mix then continue the layers until the crock pot is 3/4 full. Top with remaining (or extra) cheese.

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6 hours.

To shorten the cooking time, sauté the veggies until tender and cook the chicken until completely done. Then you can cook it in the crock pot for only 2 hours on high just to meld everything together.

*I don't care for raw chicken cooked in my meals, so I always at least par-cook it first. If you are not opposed to it, then you can dump the raw, diced chicken in the crock pot. Increase the cooking time to 6 hrs on high or 8 hrs on low.

You really can't over cook this; it just gets better with time and crunchy cheese!

Weekly Meal Plan 8/15/11

Monday – Green Chili Chicken Crock Pot Casserole

Tuesday – Dirty Rice and Beans

Wednesday – Large Salad

Thursday – Ham, Broccoli and Cheese Quiche

Friday – Dinner on-the-go at my parent’s house

Saturday – Same as Friday

Sunday – Hamburger Sliders on whole wheat buns

Grocery List:

1 pack tortillas
2 cans pop-n-fresh biscuits

3 cans green chili
1 can olives
1 lg can green enchiladas sauce
2 cans cream-of soup (what ever kind you like)
1 lg can red kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can white beans

2 bgs shredded cheddar-jack cheese
1 box feta cheese
1 small brick sharp cheddar cheese

2 lbs ground beef
1 bg frozen chicken breasts
1 ham steak

1 bg brown rice

1 bg frozen corn

Red peppers
Lettuce
Carrots
2 sweet onions
Garlic
Zucchini
Corn on the cob
Celery
Tomatoes
Broccoli
Cauliflower

1 dozen eggs

In the pantry
Flour
Sugar
Yeast
Seasonings

Projects, projects, projects!

My life has been over run with projects. I love and loath it all at once. I long for quiet days of nothing but 'regular' chores to do but after a week of that I start longing for a project to break up the monotony.

This week, I've deconstructed three rooms, put up a bunk bed, a loft bed and am, installing hard wood flooring and built a lego lamp.

We found a great solid wood bunk bed on Craigslist that we put in the girls room. It is T shaped, has a desk, built in dresser and several shelves. Hailey took the top bunk and Kenna wanted the cubbyhole bed. I still need to design a new light fixture (the old one is a head injury waiting to happen) and a shelf for Haileys night-night water. I also want to put some fun curtains up giving them a bit of privacy and adding a bit of whimsy to the bed. All of this of course doesn't include their disastrous walk in closet that somehow volcanoed into a gigantic toy mountain. That's a project for a time when I have more patience because right now I'd just purge it all!

Once Anthony saw the girls bunk bed he wanted a loft bed again. He had one several years ago but decided he outgrew it once he started second grade. It was relatively low to the ground for a loft bed, had a tent and a slide so I guess I understand outgrowing it. The new one we found for him (again a fantastic Craigslist find) is a full size metal bed frame, a bit over 6 ft tall, and has a gigantic wood desk underneath. Brad also hooked up a projector under the bed and a screen in his closet so he can now watch his movies and play his games in his room. (On a side note, when did he get big enough for that? We had to come up with all sorts of parents-suck rules to keep him - and us - in check.) The bed was a major pain to put up. It came disassembled with out instructions and had no identifying markers on it for us to figure out the maker. My step-dad and I put together 1/3 of the bed three different times. We would get to a point only to figure out that we had something backwards or on the wrong side and had to disassemble and start again. It took us an entire day to get it done, but, I love project puzzles like that and it was an enjoyable day.

His light is in the way as well so we built a Lego lamp to install on an off set chain. I have to say, it was fun and a relaxing way to spend the day. We watched a few movies and combed thru his huge Lego collection to find the pieces we needed. I'll post pictures as soon as its up.

Lastly, Brad and I signed up to be the installers for my parents new hardwood floors. Actually I think they're laminate but that’s beside the point. Its the click and lock type so thankfully no glue or nails but still tons of time crawling around on the floor. We started one room this weekend but due to a newly discovered leak in the closet, we had to stop 1/3 of the way thru. I have to say, laying the flooring is the easy part. Figuring out the staggered pattern was the most time consuming! Hopefully this upcoming weekend we'll be able to finish the first room and the second. My poor parents house is so displaced right now, we need to get the rooms done so we can move things back into their proper place.

Upcoming this week I have a new (to-me) dresser to refinish and turn into a crafting/sewing storage hutch, two sewing projects plus all the things I mentioned above that are not yet complete. My favorite seasons are coming up quickly so I know this is just the beginning of my crafting blitz. I can't wait!

Stuffed peppers and tomatoes

This is one of my favorite meals! The girls don't care for the peppers so I stuff tomatoes for them instead. Anthony has an alternate meal on nights I make this. This is one of few meals I taylor to each individual. Brad likes more meat in his, I prefer more veggies, so watch the instructions below to see exactly which ingredients you may need depending on which variation you prefer.

Ingredients

1-2 peppers per person (I prefer red or yellow but green work the same)
1-2 tomatoes per person/kiddo
1 lb ground beef
1 sweet onion
2 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery
1 zucchini
Handful of baby carrots
Feta cheese
Colby jack cheese
2 string cheeses or boring 'ol mozzarella cheese
Croutons
BBQ sauce

Depending on the shape of the peppers, either cut the top off (if they're short and squat) or lay them on their side and cut a wedge into the face up side. Place the peppers in a baking dish that fits and preheat oven to 375.

Dice the onion, celery, carrot and garlic, sauté until soft then add the ground beef. Cook until done. Remove from pan.

Sauté the zucchini and the tops of two of the peppers with out the stem. Remove from the pan.

Sauté a diced tomato with 1/4 onion add 2 tbsp BBQ sauce. Combine with 1/2 cup of the meat, 2 tbsp crushed croutons and stuff two peppers. Top with cheddar jack cheese.

Combine 1/4 cup meat, the zucchini mix (withhold 2 tbsp) and stuff 2 peppers. Top with feta cheese.

Combine 1/4 cup meat, 2 tbsp cheddar jack cheese, 2 tbsp zucchini mix and stuff the tomatoes. Top with strings from the string cheese.

Bake for 20-30 min.'s until the peppers become slightly soft and the cheese is brown and bubbly.









Yum!

You’re only as old as you feel

…I feel OLD!

I’m not going to put a number to how old I feel because I’m sure there are readers out there who are that age and would be highly offended that I referred to their number as old. None the less, I have been feeling so old lately.

We took Anthony school shopping this weekend the same as we have done every weekend before the start of school for 6 years now. This year, however, was different. First, he didn’t even glance at the character themed back packs or lunch boxes, not even a sideways glance, he went right to the solid color, big kid ones. Second, his school list required college ruled paper, not wide-ruled paper. Logically I get that this is just a transition requiring the kids to write in cursive using smaller letters, but I will admit I pouted out my lower lip just a tad as we passed the kindergarten tri-lined paper and had to put something labeled “college” into the cart. Lastly, and this one actually had me, a non-sentimental person, choked up a bit. His school list did not include crayons. No crayons! Markers, highlighters, colored pens, but no crayons. Apparently, 5^th graders are too big to color with crayons in school. I had to throw a box into the cart anyways; I just couldn’t fathom back-to-school shopping without crayons.

A 5^th grader! I’m the mom of a 5^th grader! He still kisses me several times a day and randomly tells me he loves me, but, he wouldn’t hold my hand while we were shopping, he just gave me the eye roll when I reached for his hand. He plugs his ears and closes his eyes at any kissy-face scenes on TV. You know what that means? It’s the pre-curser to being interested in the kissy-faced scenes. When did he get so big? Do I really have to take him to 5th grade on Thursday? Can't I just take him back to kindergarden?

Said 5^th grader is also the pre-curser to my other ‘I feel old’ moment that happened last week. To set this up, I have to mention that while we were on our vacation I found these cool suckers for the kids as a treat. They had LED lights in them and flashed fun colors. I bought them because I thought they’d be fun entertainment for driving at night. I was right, except for one fact, the colors I bought were 2 blue and 1 red. Can you picture it yet? Brad was driving 80 mph down the highway in Texas at 8pm at night with flashing red and blue lights in the back of our car. Yea, not so smart on my part, but the kids thought it was hilarious. Anthony in particular became fixated with the idea of being pulled over for speeding. He has asked every driver for the last two weeks if they’ve ever been pulled over for speeding. Proudly, most of us have been able to say that we have not been pulled over for speeding in many years.

Untill last Friday that is.

I had just dropped Anthony off at my parents’ house for him to spend the night and was rushing home to finish preparations for a birthday party I was hosting. I saw the cop; he was coming at me in the opposite lane, just past the stop sign. I knew I was speeding, I immediately slowed down hoping that he wouldn’t notice given he was driving not parked. In my rearview mirror I watched him pull over and wait for traffic to pass. I went thru the stop sign and just as I passed the intersection, he pulled out, flipped on his lights, and came after me. I knew I was busted! This is not about my stupidity in speeding on a street notorious for speed traps; this is about the cop himself. He parked behind me and sauntered up to my window. He was 19! I swear! Well, ok, maybe not 19, but he was not an older man with distinguished grey hair and an out of date handle bar mustache. He was a young kid! To make matters worse? He called me Ma’am! “License and registration please, Ma’am.” Not that I’m one for ever trying to wink my way out of a ticket but if I had been so inclined this was absolutly not the sinario for that to work. Here I was, a 30 something mom with two kids in the back seat, my hair in a greasy sweat-streaked ponytail, a ratted tank top and gym shorts looking at a young, virile, 20-something cop. I might as well have had a walker sitting in the passenger seat. Knowing I had no chance of charming this ‘kid’ I took the bolder rout that can only come with age and just asked him flat out if there was any way he could just give me a warning. After making me sweat it out for 5 min’s, he did come back with a written warning, thankfully. I would have been more grateful had he not used the “ma’am” again. It just made me cringe, blush in what were probably patchy red splotches (as opposed to the flushed, sexy blush of youth) and thank him with my head hung low.

I promptly called Anthony and asked him if he knew what a “jinks” was. Did he know what it meant to jinks someone? I reminded him of his obsessive questioning lately about being pulled over. Before I could even explain, he busted out laughing. “You got pulled over for speeding didn’t you! Ha, Ha, Ha!”

Ok, maybe for that I will drop him off at 5th grade. 5th grade boot camp!

Weekly Meal Plan 8/8/11

I'm feeling in kind of a rut for our food latley, maybe its just because of vacation, so I'm trying to reach out a bit in this weeks meal plan. We've also decided to cut out our Friday night eating out so I need to add something for Brad to cook on Friday nights.

Monday - Beef Fajitas (Fajita salad for me)

Tuesday - Stuffed Bell Peppers

Wednesday - Garlic Cashew Jalapeño Chicken

Thursday - (My mommies Birthday!) Spaghetti, Sausage and Meatballs. Lemon Meringue pie for dessert

Friday - Chili Cheese Hot Dogs (Home made chili)

Saturday - Fish Tacos with Black Beans and Corn

Sunday - Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad

Pork and Veggie Fried Rice

I haven’t exactly planed out this weeks meals so this was just a throw together of what I had on hand. I think it turned out delish! Despite the name, this only has 2 tbsp oil and is more veggie than anything else.

Ingreedients:

2 lb Pork

2 cups Brown Rice

Carrots

Celery

Green Onion

Peas

Snow Peas

Bell Peppers

Ginger

Lime

Water Chestnuts

Bamboo Shoots

Soy Sauce

Red Wine Vinegar

Oil

Stir Fry Seasoning

Red Pepper Flakes

Sugar or Agave Nectar

Paprika

Dice the pork up into chunks and marinate for at least 2 hours in:

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp diced ginger root

1 diced bell pepper

Dash red pepper flakes

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp paprika

Salt and pepper

In an oven safe dish, add the rice, 4 cups water and 1 tbsp butter. Bake the brown rice in the oven at 350 degrees, covered, for one hour. Cool.

In a large wok or electric skillet sauté the pork in 2 tbsp oil until browned and almost done.

While the pork is cooking dice up the veggies. (I decided to add in cabbage - not listed above)

Remove the pork from the pan and add the veggies. Cook until crisp-tender.

While the veggies are cooking, dice the pork up into small bites. Add the pork and the rice back to the pan, stir to combine. Add in ½ cup stir fry sauce, a fresh splash of lime and soy sauce. Serve with crunchy chow mien noodles.