g*rated: 2012-01-22

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Coconut Lime Banana Bread

This was the BEST banana bread I've ever had, hands down! I got the recipe from my favorite recipe blog Our Best Bites and only made two minor changes (I used key lime pie yogurt in place of the sour cream cuz that's what I had on hand and I chopped up my coconut). The bread itself is a moist, delicious banana bread with just a hint of coconut. But it's the coconut crust and lime glaze that put it over the top into AMAZING! Seriously, try this bread. It will make you happy. :)

Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze
adapted by Our Best Bites from Cooking Light

2 C flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar
1/4 C (4 Tbs) real butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 C mashed ripe bananas (about 4 large bananas)
1/4 C sour cream or plain yogurt
3 Tbs apple juice or milk*
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 C coconut
Topping: 2 Tbs additional coconut
Glaze: 1/2 C powdered sugar whisked with 1 1/2 Tbs fresh lime juice

*as in: don’t go buy apple juice just for this recipe. If you don’t already have some, just use milk!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until blended. Add eggs and beat to combine. Add banana, sour cream or yogurt, apple juice (or milk), and vanilla. Beat until blended.

Add flour mixture and beat at a low speed until just combined. Stir in 1/2 C coconut.
Pour batter into a 9×5″ loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle additional 2 Tbs coconut on top.

Bake in the oven for about 60-70 mintues or until a knife or skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Note: Check bread after about 40 minutes. If the top has browned and the coconut pieces are looking toasty, cover top of bread lightly with a piece of foil. Continue baking until done.

When done, remove pan from oven. Let cool on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes and then carefully remove from pan. Whisk powdered sugar and lime juice together for the glaze and then drizzle over top. Cool for another 15 minutes before slicing.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Frugal Friday: Valentine's Plate

I saw these white square plates at Dollar Tree and picked up a couple. I love using plates for decorating and I liked that these ones were square (and of course I couldn't pass up something for just a buck!).

For this plate I used my favorite Cricut Cartridge: Create a Critter. This cartridge has so many cute animals and fun little images and accessories that I've used on lots of projects.

I just cut everything out on vinyl and applied it to the plate. (You could also cut it out on cardstock and mod podge it to a plate.)

Here are the sizes I cut:

branch - 4/12 inches
small bird - 2 inches
large bird - 2 1/2 inches (flipped image)
heart - 2 inches

It was a super quick and easy project, my favorite kind! I was excited to use some turquoise vinyl on this. Turquoise is my favorite color and now that I have a little on this plate I think I'm going to incorporate some more turquoise into my Valentine's decor.

Linked to:

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sausage Rolls

I always have the fixings for this recipe in my freezer, ready to go at a moments notice.

Sausage Rolls are the easiest Hors d' Oeuvres to make,

that look like they were lots of work.

So Yummy garnished with Jalapeno jelly or Heinz 57 sauce or good ole Ketchup.

Depending on altitude, heat oven at 375 deg -400 deg.

Lay each Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry (covered) side by side on counter to thaw approx. 40 min. at room temperature.

Unfold on very lightly floured counter

Cut each sheet in half

Remove skin from bratwurst

Evenly divide bratwurst on 4 sheets of pastry.


Roll up and cut 6 each from each sheet of pastry, then slice the tops to allow bratwurst to cook, then brush with egg yolk or spray with oil to give golden brown look.


Place one inch apart on lightly greased baking sheet or lined with parchment paper.

Cook approx. 15-20 min or until bratwurst is cooked through....and enjoy.

-Buff-

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

WIWW: "Dressed" Up

I absolutely LOVE participating in What I Wore Wednesdays. I have never really been into fashion or shoes or clothes, but suddenly find I can't get enough! Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet. ;)

I love checking out what others wore on the link up parties and getting some new ideas. Today's outfit was inspired by an outfit I saw a couple weeks ago but for the life of me can't remember who it was! Anyway, she wore a dress over some jeans and I LOVED it! I love dresses but can never find any that are long enough on me; it never occurred to me to wear them over pants before. So when I found some dresses on clearance at Target I knew it was my chance to try it out!

Dress & Cardigan: Target
Belt: H&M
Jeans: Aeropostale
Boots: Discount Shoe Factory

Linked to:

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Mini Cupcakes- Product review

This year Santa brought Sydney a Bella Cucina Cupcake Maker.

We made one of the recipes that came with the maker and it was terrible. The outsides were burned and the middle wasn't even cooked at all. We decided to clean it up and try it again another day. I was a little disappointed and thinking "what the heck did I buy?". We pulled it back out the next day and decided to just do a cake mix out of a box and try that.

I put some red hot candies in the middle of some of them and pushed then into the batter. This turned out really good and gave them good flavor and the candy became chewy. (sorry this is kind of a blurry picture)

It only took 3-5 min for these to cook and they turned out super light and fluffy!

We tried this red and white striped frosting and a few of them turned out ok. Sometimes you couldn't really see the white frosting. It was kind of hard to squeeze out and was hard to control where it went on the cupcake. I don't think that I will ever use it again.

We used some Valentine's sprinkles to dip the cupcakes in. Sydney loved doing this. She had a lot of fun coming up with different designs.

Sydney had a blast doing this and she can't wait to make different flavors. I would definitely recommend buying one of these for the kids or even just for yourself. They make the perfect size cupcakes for any kind of party. I do recommend sticking with cake mixes and not trying their recipes that they provide.

Do you have any treat makers that you have? like it? I would love to try some of the other ones in the future.

* We were not compensated for this product review.

-chelz

Monday, January 23, 2012

M&M Cookies

I was in the mood for some cookies the other day and these fit the bill perfectly. Cute and festive, but without a lot of effort. Recipe adapted from Veggie by Season.

Ingredients:

1 c. unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. light brown sugar

2 eggs at room temp.

2 tsp vanilla

3 1/2 c. flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda
1 c. pink M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugars for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down sides.
Add in vanilla, turn mixer on medium, add eggs one at a time.
Add in salt, baking powder and soda.
Slowly add in flour. Fold in most of the M&M's.
Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place on a greased cookie sheet. Using the palm of your hand or the bottom of a glass cup, flatten the balls slightly.

Press extra M&M's into the dough so they are on top and visable. (This is my kids favorite part!)

Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden and puffy.

*Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Serve with plenty of milk.

My two year old twins could probably live off these! Every time I turn around they are begging for more. :)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sunday Best Link Party

Welcome to another addition of Sunday Best. We love seeing everyone's Sunday outfits and we are getting some great ideas for what to wear. :)

Here are some of our favorites from last week!

Katie from for Lauren and Lauren

I love the idea of wearing a sweater over a dress! So cute and now I will have to dig around in my sweaters to try this look!

Bethany from The Ivy Twines

I just love this look! I may be developing a thing for Bethany's clothes and her closet may start turning up with some things missing! Follow the link back to her blog to get a closer look at her boots- darling!

Lisa from Organized Chaos