Somewhat Healthy Banana Bread

Since i am always looking for recipes that use up old bananas here is a bread recipe I whipped up this evening by combining 3 other recipes. I thought it turned out pretty tasty.

2 1/4 Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup low fat sour cream or you could use plain yogurt
2 tbsp canola oil
4 egg whites
4 large ripe bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Heat oven to 350. Spray bundt pan with non stick spray. You could also use 2 loaf pans. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend 2 minutes on low speed. Beat 3 more minutes on high and pour into bundt pan. Bake approx 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. if you use 2 loaf pans bake for about 50 minutes.

I really wanted to find a recipe which uses no sugar but a lot of them are replaced with applesauce or all Splenda. I do not like regular Splenda but the brown sugar is great for baking because it is a mix of real brown sugar and Splenda together so you only use half but it doesn't taste so artificial. Also, all the Banana Bread recipes I have tasted that use applesauce only taste really bland. If anyone has a good one please let me know.

Bird Nerd

These pics are not that great but I have been getting a lot more birds at my feeder lately (i know I am a dork!) because my aunt said to add some black oiled sunflower seeds to the bird mix. It helped a lot and now I am sort of becoming a bird nerd, researching feeds and the like. Anyhow I know the big bird above is called a Mourning Dove and the small is called a Purple Finch(even though it's red). I sort of enjoy opening my windows and hearing them chirp.

Thanks for the comments

Now for the biggest question of the day, who's the sneaky devil that would rather lose an arm?

Thankful Thursday is retired and it is now called...

Tasty Thursday!
Since so many people have been requesting different recipes lately I thought I would make it the new Thursday "blogmitment" and include a recipe in the weekly post. Here is the first. It is a combination of about 3 recipes I obtained. I baked it for my family this past Wednesday night (Thanks Aunt Sue for the Goulash!) and everyone loved it! It's got a ton of sugar so that's probably why.

Apple Torte with Crumb Topping

Crumb Topping
1/4 c flour
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Crust
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c butter or margarine, softened
4 tsp water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour

Filling
1/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 8 oz block fat free crm cheese
1 large egg
4 c diced peeled gala apples (1 1/2 lbs)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450

To prepare the crust beat the first 4 ingredients with a mixer at med speed until mixed. Add the flour to the sugar mixture and beat at med-low speed until well blended. Press the crust into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan that is well coated with cooking spray.

To prepare filling, beat 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, cream cheese, and egg at low speed until smooth. Pour cream cheese mix into crust. Combine apple, 1/2 c sugar, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon in a bowl. Spread apple mixture evenly over cream cheese.

To prepare crumb topping, combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter with 2 knives until it resembles coarse meal. Cover apples with crumb topping.

Bake 450 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 400. Do not remove torte from oven. Bake an additional 25 minutes or until lightly browned and just set.

***I will still include thank you's from time to time.

My daughter speaks Vietnamese!

Video of Hannah saying Shoe

Okay, so Hannah has been saying alot of new words lately and shoe is one of her favorite, & mine too. She sounds like she is saying Schooo. I have her repeat it like 10 times just for giggles. Sorry the orientation is sideways.

Pool Day

I had a really great time this week even though my poor teething baby has been cranky. I can actually see her 2 year molars popping through in the back! She so ahead of her time. This week we were very busy just getting everything straightened out post-Easter holiday and gearing up for our LONG, HOT, summer. We had beautiful weather today in the 70's and decided to take Hannah and her friend Lexi to the pool. Hannah is what you would call "slow to warm up". She definitely gets that from her Dad, which I am happy about since I sort of just jump in head first without thinking things through sometimes. When we first got to the pool she would lift her legs up when I dipped them in. After about 20 minutes she wanted to climb in and out herself - she didn't want any help. Well, I was in my pants and was totally terrified she would drown in the 1 1/2 ft deep water. Luckily, in June, Hannah will be starting her swim school and hopefully I can go from completely paranoid to just plain cautious when she is around water. I have always loved swimming and the beach and so does Ry so I hope she takes to it like we both did since it will make for some nice summer days. Here are some pics of the girls playing around.