Banana Bread & Thoughts

I love banana bread! My favorite pie at Thanksgiving is Banana Cream. And Banana's on ice cream with caramel is O so yummy! And a trip to Disney land is not complete without a chocolate covered banana. But to me Banana bread with chocolate chips is just a waste of good ripe bananas. Why bother putting in the banana when that lovely flavor is just masked by chocolate. Don't get me wrong, chocolate definitely has a place in my heart, a very big place that I can't seem to over come. But Chocolate Chip Banana bread, just doesn't fit into that place. I don't even think I had ever even heard of such a thing until I made Justin banana bread for the first time after we were married and he wanted to know where the chocolate chips were. So now every time I make Banana bread, I make a 'boring" loaf and a chocolate "infested" loaf. And since everyone around here opts to eat the chocolate version, I get the "boring" loaf all to myself!

And by the way, don't get me started on nuts. Nuts do not belong in Banana bread. Especially not walnuts, can't stand them. If I find them, I spit them out- really I do!

Anyway, maybe you guessed already, but I made banana bread this weekend, and have been savoring every bit of my "boring loaf". I actually made 4 loaves- 1 plain, 2 plain with chocolate chips, and 1 gluten free with chocolate chips. One of the loaves went away with Justin to work, but the other three stayed here and tempted all of us for the past three days. And I think I might just get the last piece for breakfast tomorrow.

I have used the same recipe for Banana bread for as long as I can remember, I believe the original recipe came out of the Betty Crocker red and white cookbook at my moms house. But for some reason, I tried a new recipe. Something I found on Pinterest. Let's just say I only used it for 2 of the recipes (the bread fell in the middle, and it took too long to cook through so it got darker than I like), for the final loaf I used my tried and true recipe - and it turned out beautiful as usual! Again for the GF, all I did was substitute out the flour for a GF blend, Jules Flour blend to be exact.

Banana Bread

Makes one 9 inch loaf

Mix the following in order:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (original recipe calls for melted shortening)
2 eggs
2 cups flour (Substitute GF All Purpose Flour Blend)
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Fold in 1 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, if using.

Pour/Scoop batter into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Recipe

I have been eying this recipe for awhile, and finally decided to just go for it. It is very moist and quite good. Not quite as "pumpkiny" as I would have liked, but tasty all the same. I made the recipe as written, and then made half a batch Gluten Free.

Original Version

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1-1/2 cups canola oil
• 1-1/2 cups (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 2 loaves (16 slices each).

Original Recipe from Taste of Home

Gluten Free Version

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose Gluten Free flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.
• Pour into one greased 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Yield: 1 loaf (16 slices).

Gluten Free

For those of you unaware, Justin was diagnosed with Gluten Intolerance a few months back. Which means he basically can't eat anything! Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration , but gluten is in a lot of things, and in practically ever baked item. If it has wheat in it at all it's off limits.
Since his diagnosis, I have tried to make sure that I take his allergy into consideration. Replacing flour with cornstarch when thickening a gravy, breading his chicken with gluten free breadcrumbs, making a small pan of "lasagna" with gluten free pasta just for him. You may wonder way I don't just put us all on a gluten free diet, and that's because it's expensive! Gluten free mixes, breadcrumbs, flours, etc are very pricey. Plus I love bread - you might say I am a carbohydrate addict! :)
Anyway, I haven't really done much in the baking area when it comes to gluten free stuff. But I have started to try and build up my store of Gluten free flours in the hopes of one day baking something that might be somewhat edible. Again, for those who have never had to go gluten free, some of the items aren't the best tasting. (the first gluten free bread we tried was so bad- I don't think the birds would have eaten it)
Luckily, Justin has found a small bakery that specializes in GF items, but they are very expensive. And they try to cater to every allergy- so they stay away from dairy, soy, etc. Which pretty much limits what they can provide. I guess, what I am trying to say is I finally took the plunge and made my first baked gluten free item. (My first recipe was a Pumpkin Chocolate Bread- recipe to be posted next) I didn't go looking for a GF recipe for this item, I just decided to make the original recipe but swap out the flour with a All Purpose GF flour blend I purchased (Bob's Red Mill All Purpose GF Glour Blend). And I must say, it turned out well. From there I went a little crazy with the baking- in the past two weeks I made GF Soft pretzels, Strawberry Cake, and Banana Chocolate Chip Bread. These 3 recipes I made with a flour blend I purchased online- Jules GF Flour and am very impressed thus far. I will post all the recipes for those in case anyone wants them. Some of the recipes started out GF and some didn't. And some were much better than others - the verdict is still out on the strawberry bread/cake.

Hills Park

Today we went to Hills Park. I hadn't been to this park in ages, maybe not since Highschool. This is actually the park we went and hung out at after Prom, so it has been awhile. And sadly, I am not sure I will take the kids back. But they had fun while they were there, and it brought back some fun memories for Mom.

Location: Major Cross Streets - Rampart and Hillpointe Drive.

Amenities:

• Playground Equipment
• Bench Seating for parents next to the Playground equipment, semi-covered
• Tennis Courts x2
• Sand Volleyball court
• Covered Individual Picnic Tables w/ grills
• Larger covered group area that looks like it can be reserved
• 2 small game tables with 2 seats each- (for games like chess)
• Swing set - 2 kiddie swings, 2 big kid swings
• One hoop Basketball court
• Grassy areas, but nothing flat
• Bathroom with water fountain
  

Downfalls

• Playground equipment is not covered, only has one slide, and is not all connected. You have to get off one level and either run around the outside, or climb a ladder up to the top level.
  
• Dirt under the playground equipment
• Playground equipment geared towards older kids, have to be able to climb ladders as that is really the only way around.
  
• No parking for the park, surrounded by schools on both sides, not sure where you would park during the week

We Think Your "Cereal"sly Awesome!

So for valentines day, I took an idea I saw on Pinterest and tweaked it a little bit. And for those of you not on Pinterest, get on Pinterest. it is awesome!

For Little Man's preschool class we bought small boxes of cereal and cereal marshmallow bars and wrapped them up in some cute valentine day tissue paper (that I got on clearance at target). We attached a red spoon to the outside with ribbon and then placed them in personalized plastic bowls that I made. I am not sure how long the names will stay on the bowls as I just used a paint pen, but they turned out really cute.So at least for the presentation of the gift it was exactly what i was going for. to finish it off I added a homemade heart gift tag with our saying to the bow. Here is a shot of the final product-

My Life is Pretty Boring...

So I have really tried to come up with things to post on the blog, but have realized my life is pretty boring! I go to work, come home, hang out with my boys, plan for the next day, sleep and then do it all over again. It's pretty exciting, let me tell you! :) But I love it and wouldn't trade it for the world!