Banana Bread

Here's my recipe for Banana Bread. This is an old family recipe, and it's super good. Even better if you use REAL butter and REAL buttermilk. It's definitely not health food, though! You can make it a little healthier by substituting applesauce for part of the butter, and whole wheat flour for part of the all-purpose flour, but it's not as good that way. Still good, but not GREAT. Better yet, splurge once in a while and make it the old fashioned way... mmmmm....


Banana Bread

1 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Bananas, mashed
1/2 Cup Chopped Nuts, optional

Mix all ingredients just until incorporated and turn out into a well greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until done. (Or use a muffin tin and bake 18-20 minutes.)

More Bento Fun!

This weekend's bentos (16-20). PBJ's, carrots, strawberries, dried fruit.

My order from IchibankanUSA came in today, YAY! Super cute stuff! See the little penguin? He's a mayonaise container, and his beak is the handle of a little spoon thingie to spread it with! How cute is that?!?

I was so excited about the new 'toys' that I made a bento (#21) for Bill to take to work. Bean & rice casserole, carrot sticks, strawberry, and a boiled egg shaped like a fish. (The rest of the eggs I molded came out great, but the fish was a little mangled!) The yellow thing has Caesar dressing for the carrots.

Sewing, Bentos, a Dog, and a really big tree

Some old jeans I picked up for $1.50 at a thrift store. They had holes in the knees so I sewed on some heart shaped patches (cut from an old dress that was mine when I was little.

The weather was so beautiful, we picnicked Saturday AND Sunday this week. So here are Bentos 4-8...

and bentos 9-12.

TEN AND TWO!!! TEN AND TWO!!! And keep your eyes on the ROAD!!!

A Gi-freakin'-normous live oak tree at Hampton Plantation. A plaque near the trunk says that George Washington saved the tree in 1791.

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Muffin Tin Monday, Bentos and Sushi

Today is Muffin Tin Monday, and the theme is orange. We've got carrots with orange tinted Caesar dressing, fruit salad topped with tangerines, foccacia, chick peas, and goldfish crackers. The kids are loving eating out of the muffin tins, but it's hard not to fill them with more food than they can eat! (The tin above is bigger than a regular muffin tin. It makes 4" muffins.)

Bento #1! I am so excited about Bento. This one contains grapes & blueberries, chickpeas, homemade (!) smoked salmon sushi, an onigiri stuffed with more smoked salmon, and a jello jiggler topped with a shamrock-shaped kiwi slice. I made them for all four of us to eat on Saturday when we went to Charleston. I wasn't sure how the kids would like the sushi or onigiri, but they loved it (once Benjamin got past the fact that it contains seaweed EEEWWWW!!!) They ate everything I packed, plus some trail mix that isn't in the picture.

In other news, today is Robin's birthday. He's old enough to drive! Bill asked if I was going to take him to get his license today, but I said, "No, he's too blind to see where he's going, and besides his paws don't reach the brake.