I get excited about food sometimes. Tonight was one of those times. Elijah and I watched Paula Deen and got inspired to try a new recipe. I think she called it something about a Banana Quesadilla. But since it has no cheese, and obviously queso means cheese, I think that's a misnomer. So I'm renaming the confection Banana Ramma Ding Dong... AKA, Total Banana Amazingness In Your Mouth Dot Com. You can call it whatever you want. But no matter what you call it, definitely eat it. You won't be sorry.
1 banana (a little over-ripe is better)
a hand-full of dark chocolate chips
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/4 tesp. cinnamon
dash of salt
2 tortillas
soft butter (real butter, not margarine)
a skillet or griddle
Preheat the pan to med-high. Butter one side of each tortilla liberally. Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Slice the banana into circles.
Put one tortilla, butter side down, into the pan. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture on top, reserving about 1 Tbsp. for later. Layer on half the chocolate chips. Then layer the bananas. Then more chocolate chips. Then the other tortilla. Then sprinkle the rest of the brown sugar mixture on top.
When it's brown, flip it over carefully with a big spatula. Let the other side brown and remove from the pan. Cool for a minute before cutting into wedges.
If you want extra yumminess you can put another Tbsp. of butter and Tbsp. of brown sugar with cinnamon in the pan, stirring constantly, letting it turn to caramel to use for topping. That's what I did and it was sooooooo delish! I also used a left-over Godiva dark chocolate bar chopped up in stead of chocolate chips.
You could also put a scoop of vanilla ice cream or drizzle some honey on top if you need extra calories. :)
It took maybe 5 minutes to throw together and I enjoyed it so much I licked the plate clean. No really, I did. This recipe will definitely be a repeat in our house! Try it!
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Monday, May 2, 2011
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Homemade Laundry Detergent
I've started making my own laundry detergent since I've been using cloth diapers for Ezekiel. I had read that its better for the wear and tear on the diapers. Plus its much cheaper! And as it turns out, its really easy to make. You can buy everything you need at Rural King. And if they don't have a Rural King where you live, try Wal-Mart. Only I'm not sure if Wal-Mart has Fels-Naptha soap.
1 bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap
1 Cup Borax laundry powder
1 Cup Arm & Hammer powder laundry soda
1 Cup OxyClean powder
1/4 ounce scented oil (optional)
Clean 5 gallon bucket with lid
Several empty bottles for storage (plastic milk cartons or old laundry soap bottles work great)
A funnel
Heat a soup pot full of water to almost boiling. Meanwhile grate the bar of soap. Remove pot from heat, add grated soap, whisk until completely dissolved. Whisk in 1 cup each of dry ingredients. (The OxyClean may be omitted, but detergent will have better results if you use it.)
Pour mixture into clean 5 gallon bucket. Fill bucket the rest of the way up (stop about 2 inches from the top) with hot water; stirring well. Whisk in scented oil if desired.(FYI, tea tree oil and grapefruit oil have disinfectant qualities and smell great. However, this step is not necessary becuase the bar-soap already has a fresh scent.)
Let the bucket sit overnight (or until you get back to it). The next day the mixture will have turned into goo. Give it a really vigorious stir. Then funnel into storage containers.
Use 1 cup per load
*Shake very well before each use.
----------------------------------------------
Aproximate Cost:
76 oz. Borax (12 batches) = $5
55 oz. Arm & Hammer (9 batches) = $3
56 oz. OxyClean (9 batches) = $9
9 bars Fels-Naptha (9 batches) = $1.29 each; $11.61 for all
total spent: $28.61 (or $3.18 per batch) for 45 gallons of detergent
(80 loads per 5 gallon batch)
----------------------------------------------
Compare to Tide 100 oz. (60 loads)= $11.99
1 bar of Fels-Naptha laundry soap
1 Cup Borax laundry powder
1 Cup Arm & Hammer powder laundry soda
1 Cup OxyClean powder
1/4 ounce scented oil (optional)
Clean 5 gallon bucket with lid
Several empty bottles for storage (plastic milk cartons or old laundry soap bottles work great)
A funnel
Heat a soup pot full of water to almost boiling. Meanwhile grate the bar of soap. Remove pot from heat, add grated soap, whisk until completely dissolved. Whisk in 1 cup each of dry ingredients. (The OxyClean may be omitted, but detergent will have better results if you use it.)
Pour mixture into clean 5 gallon bucket. Fill bucket the rest of the way up (stop about 2 inches from the top) with hot water; stirring well. Whisk in scented oil if desired.(FYI, tea tree oil and grapefruit oil have disinfectant qualities and smell great. However, this step is not necessary becuase the bar-soap already has a fresh scent.)
Let the bucket sit overnight (or until you get back to it). The next day the mixture will have turned into goo. Give it a really vigorious stir. Then funnel into storage containers.
Use 1 cup per load
*Shake very well before each use.
----------------------------------------------
Aproximate Cost:
76 oz. Borax (12 batches) = $5
55 oz. Arm & Hammer (9 batches) = $3
56 oz. OxyClean (9 batches) = $9
9 bars Fels-Naptha (9 batches) = $1.29 each; $11.61 for all
total spent: $28.61 (or $3.18 per batch) for 45 gallons of detergent
(80 loads per 5 gallon batch)
----------------------------------------------
Compare to Tide 100 oz. (60 loads)= $11.99
Friday, July 24, 2009
This is the life.
Man, what a busy day we had today, Elijah and I. And it was great. I so enjoy my little sweetie! This is the best part of my life, spending days like today with him.
So here's how it all went down.
On days when I have to work I wake him up around 7 a.m., and I guess his body has just adjusted to that schedule so that on weekends he wakes up then too. Not so great for a momma who would like to sleep in. But today we got things started on a good note by him sleeping in until 8:30... woohoo!
We spent a while in his room hanging out, singing, and reading books. I love that he's able to ask me for what he wants now. It's so much better than him grunting, gesturing unsuccessfully, getting frustrated, then fussing when I can't understand him. I'm a pretty big fan of verbal communication. :) So when my boy says "Mommy mommy mommy, unna (I wanna) reading books" I tend to drop what I'm doing, plop him on my lap, and go to it. I love when we have time like that. And I thrill at the eagerness I see in him to learn. It is tremendously rewarding to watch progress happening - almost before my eyes.
Afterward the two of us made his breakfast: plumbs, little sausages, and crescent roll-ups (for the recipe click here). He "helped" by sitting on the counter next to me and holding things. He absolutely loves to "help" me cook, clean, hang laundry, or do whatever I'm doing. Such a sweet little helper!
Then we hung a load of laundry out on the line since it was finally a warm sunny day. We used that opportunity to work on obedience... Elijah NOT throwing the clothespins, and not putting rocks in his mouth, and not leaving the yard, and not getting the gas cans out of the shed, and saying "yes momma" when I call his name. These lessons tend to take longer to learn than I would have anticipated, but he's getting it slowly but surely. I don't have to spank him as much as I used to and I can see a difference in his behavior/attitude when I remind him about the right things to do. Discipline - it's not really fun for anyone involved, is it?
Nap time was supposed to have been at 11:00. But did Elijah sleep one wink? No, sir. He did not. In stead he used that hour to converse with his Curious George regarding cement mixers, dump trucks "dumping it out", bulldozers, and reminding himself aloud that he is in fact "almost two". (I heard all this via the monitor.)
Speaking of being almost two... after "nap" time we headed to the mall for his birthday portraits. I was pleasantly surprised that in stead of taking an hour and a half like usual, it only took us 25 minutes to get in and out of there. And the one we chose is pretty cute too.
With all the extra time we decided to meet up with some friends for a picnic lunch at the park. We hadn't been able to see Courtney and her gorgeous (now 7-week-old) Briley since their hospital stay. So it was great to visit and hold that little guy! Gives me baby fever, I tell ya. :) Elijah did surprisingly well with Briley, loving on him, trying to kiss him and touch him gently. There were a few times when he was too rough, but I think that's hard to learn for a two-year-old. He'll get there. We took a few pictures and if I can convince Courtney to e-mail them to me I'll post one or two. (wink, wink Courtney) After the picnic - which Elijah thought was an "awesome" idea - we walked in the park for a while, enjoying the amazing breeze.
And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one afternoon, we decided to head to my grandma's house afterward for a short visit. Zoe, my 4-year-old cousin (yes MY cousin) was there to play too. They rode the tricycle, colored pictures, and splashed in the rain buckets.
Then it was off to my mom's house to play for another hour or so. And by the time we drove home from there Elijah was in the back seat dozing off. He reminded me several times "sleepy. happy. yawning." Which I think means he wants to go to bed. Ha ha.
I have often watched him in the rear view mirror of my car as we drive, enjoying the way he observes the world around him. I don't know what it is about watching him that way that makes me so sentimental. I always find myself considering how I've seen him from that perspective go from his infant seat, so tiny that his head slumped over to the side in it, to his "big boy" car seat. And as the months have passed I've watched those little legs get longer and stretch out so much that they now hang over the edge. You know how when you look through the mirror things in it seem to be blurry, like two images on top of each other? (like in the photo above)
I think it gives the appearance that the image itself might not be real. Like it's a hazy memory. And I imagine that the face I see in the mirror now is fading into the face I will see in its place a year, two years, 10 years from now. I can almost see the passage of time. Thinking of my tiny boy, just "almost two", growing up before my very eyes just makes a momma's heart ache a little.
How is it possible that these almost two years have gone so very quickly?
So here's how it all went down.
On days when I have to work I wake him up around 7 a.m., and I guess his body has just adjusted to that schedule so that on weekends he wakes up then too. Not so great for a momma who would like to sleep in. But today we got things started on a good note by him sleeping in until 8:30... woohoo!
We spent a while in his room hanging out, singing, and reading books. I love that he's able to ask me for what he wants now. It's so much better than him grunting, gesturing unsuccessfully, getting frustrated, then fussing when I can't understand him. I'm a pretty big fan of verbal communication. :) So when my boy says "Mommy mommy mommy, unna (I wanna) reading books" I tend to drop what I'm doing, plop him on my lap, and go to it. I love when we have time like that. And I thrill at the eagerness I see in him to learn. It is tremendously rewarding to watch progress happening - almost before my eyes.
Afterward the two of us made his breakfast: plumbs, little sausages, and crescent roll-ups (for the recipe click here). He "helped" by sitting on the counter next to me and holding things. He absolutely loves to "help" me cook, clean, hang laundry, or do whatever I'm doing. Such a sweet little helper!
Then we hung a load of laundry out on the line since it was finally a warm sunny day. We used that opportunity to work on obedience... Elijah NOT throwing the clothespins, and not putting rocks in his mouth, and not leaving the yard, and not getting the gas cans out of the shed, and saying "yes momma" when I call his name. These lessons tend to take longer to learn than I would have anticipated, but he's getting it slowly but surely. I don't have to spank him as much as I used to and I can see a difference in his behavior/attitude when I remind him about the right things to do. Discipline - it's not really fun for anyone involved, is it?
Nap time was supposed to have been at 11:00. But did Elijah sleep one wink? No, sir. He did not. In stead he used that hour to converse with his Curious George regarding cement mixers, dump trucks "dumping it out", bulldozers, and reminding himself aloud that he is in fact "almost two". (I heard all this via the monitor.)
Speaking of being almost two... after "nap" time we headed to the mall for his birthday portraits. I was pleasantly surprised that in stead of taking an hour and a half like usual, it only took us 25 minutes to get in and out of there. And the one we chose is pretty cute too.
With all the extra time we decided to meet up with some friends for a picnic lunch at the park. We hadn't been able to see Courtney and her gorgeous (now 7-week-old) Briley since their hospital stay. So it was great to visit and hold that little guy! Gives me baby fever, I tell ya. :) Elijah did surprisingly well with Briley, loving on him, trying to kiss him and touch him gently. There were a few times when he was too rough, but I think that's hard to learn for a two-year-old. He'll get there. We took a few pictures and if I can convince Courtney to e-mail them to me I'll post one or two. (wink, wink Courtney) After the picnic - which Elijah thought was an "awesome" idea - we walked in the park for a while, enjoying the amazing breeze.
And as if that wasn't enough excitement for one afternoon, we decided to head to my grandma's house afterward for a short visit. Zoe, my 4-year-old cousin (yes MY cousin) was there to play too. They rode the tricycle, colored pictures, and splashed in the rain buckets.
Then it was off to my mom's house to play for another hour or so. And by the time we drove home from there Elijah was in the back seat dozing off. He reminded me several times "sleepy. happy. yawning." Which I think means he wants to go to bed. Ha ha.
I have often watched him in the rear view mirror of my car as we drive, enjoying the way he observes the world around him. I don't know what it is about watching him that way that makes me so sentimental. I always find myself considering how I've seen him from that perspective go from his infant seat, so tiny that his head slumped over to the side in it, to his "big boy" car seat. And as the months have passed I've watched those little legs get longer and stretch out so much that they now hang over the edge. You know how when you look through the mirror things in it seem to be blurry, like two images on top of each other? (like in the photo above)
I think it gives the appearance that the image itself might not be real. Like it's a hazy memory. And I imagine that the face I see in the mirror now is fading into the face I will see in its place a year, two years, 10 years from now. I can almost see the passage of time. Thinking of my tiny boy, just "almost two", growing up before my very eyes just makes a momma's heart ache a little.
How is it possible that these almost two years have gone so very quickly?
Thursday, December 11, 2008
An ooey-gooey day.
'Tis the season to get in that kitchen and bake massive ridiculous piles of ooey-gooey, sugary, chocolatey, peanutbuttery, pepperminty sweetness... otherwise known as Christmas cookies. And yesterday, as part of my checklist of things to do with Elijah this holiday season, that's just what I did! I am getting to be a regular Martha Stewart these days, if I do say so myself. An afternoon of - A double batch of Toll House Cookies (one white chocolate/caramel chip, the other dark chocolate pecan)
- A double batch of Peanut Butter Cookies
- A double batch of Turtle Pretzels
- A regular batch of this new kind of Chocolate Chip Cookies
- A regular batch of Peppermint Meltaways
Elijah and I had such a good time together working. While I mixed, scooped, and baked, he helped played in the tupperware cabinet. What a good helper... maybe he'll appreciate the tradition more next year. Speaking of family traditions...
Back on Christmas Kickoff Day I made a list of things I'd like to do this year. So I thought it would be a good idea (as we are approaching the half-way mark) to see how we're doing with our goals.
Crank up the long awaited Holiday tunes!Set up, light, and deck the Christmas treePut out all the decorationsHang stockingsBake home-made cookiesMake a crock-pot of hot apple ciderLight the cinnamon, pine, and cookie scented candlesPut lights up around the houseHang wreaths on the doorsSwap out my regular Fiestaware for Christmas dishesSet the dining room table with pretty red and green linensSpend plenty of time with the Grandparents and GreatgrandparentsCook a delicious meal with our familyDance the CHRISTMAS KICKOUT DANCE- Go caroling
- See Handel's Messiah (ok, maybe Elijah can't do that. but I can)
- Go sledding -- no snow yet!
- Make home-made ornaments
- Make caramel corn
- Attend a cookie exchange
- Count down with an Advent calendar
- Celebrate St. Nicholas Day
- Read the Christmas story as a family
Well it looks like we're making some progress, but there is still so much holiday fun to be had!
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