This made for some good snacking. This is #2 in my Peanut Butter Sandwich 365 project (of which I have no real ambitions for actually making it to 365 versions of PB sandwiches).
Vanilla wafers, crunchy peanut butter, Nutella and banana. Oh yeah!
Mixed Berry Smoothie
My oldest daughter has been on a smoothie kick lately. If “lately” can be considered the last few years. She loves smoothies and often makes them for herself. (Now, if I could just convince her to wash the blender.) Mixed berry is her most recent favorite.
Frozen Fruit Cups
These fruit cups are part of our Christmas breakfast. They’re great because you can make them ahead of time and the recipe makes a lot.
Gather up your ingredients:
Ingredients
- 1 can (12 oz) frozen pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
- orange juice (2 juice cans full)
- water (1 juice can full)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 medium firm bananas, sliced
- 16 oz frozen, sliced, sweetened strawberries
- 1 can (15 oz) mandarin oranges
- 1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple
- clear plastic cups
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.
- Ladle into the cups and freeze. I place all the cups on a cookie sheet to keep them upright in the freezer.
- To serve, set them out of the freezer for 40-50 minutes or defrost them a bit in the microwave. Feel free to substitute ingredients as you like.
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http://eatathomecooks.com/2008/12/frozen-fruit-cups.html
Banana Bread
These bananas were begging to be transformed into Banana Bread. They were on the verge of yuckiness. Okay, they were already at the yucky stage and were heading toward the trash, when I finally got myself up off the couch and decided to deal with the suckers. I know I could have put them in the fridge or freezer days ago to keep them from continuing their slide toward totally decomposing, but black bananas in my freezer tend never to emerge again. Better to leave them on the counter where they taunt me until I finally give in.
I like this recipe for banana bread because it is quick, easy and the ingredients are basic and I usually have them on hand. Because I had six yucky, overripe bananas I doubled the recipe. I’ll give the ingredient list for a single recipe.
First, mash the bananas. For some reason, I always use a pastry blender to do this job. You can use a fork or your hands even, but I think that’s kind of gross.
Keep mushing until they are baby food smooshed. One recipe calls for 3 bananas.
Cream 1 cup of sugar with 1/2 cup shortening (I used butter, but you can use margarine or even Crisco, if you’re into that). Beat in 2 eggs and then add the mashed bananas. Add in 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp of soda and 1/2 tsp of salt. I know that you’re supposed to stir together the dry ingredients first, but I never do. I just dump the flour into the mixer bowl with the wet ingredients, then add the soda and salt, mixing it into the flour with the measuring spoon. I’m lazy that way.
The recipe calls for nuts, but that would cause my kids to have a spell so I leave them out. I do sometimes add a cup of chocolate chips, which causes my kids to jump up and down in delight. I’ve also added blueberries, but the flavor of the berries didn’t really come through, so I save my
berries for muffins instead.
One recipe makes 2 loaves. I doubled the recipe and made 3 plump loaves instead of 4 regular loaves. Besides, I only have 3 matching bread pans.
This recipe packs up beautifully for snacking or breakfasting away from home. It also freezes well.
Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening (butter, margarine, crisco)
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
nuts or chocolate chips, optional
Cream the sugar and shortening with a mixer. Add the eggs and bananas and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Pour into loaf pans that have been greased. Bake 50 minutes -1 hour at 350 degrees. Take the loaves out of the pan while they still hot. Makes 2 loaves.
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