11 years ago today my wonderful husband asked me to be his girlfriend. Yes, we still count our dating anniversary because we feel it is a HUGE accomplishment.  I can’t believe it’s been eleven years. I also can’t believe I am old enough to be married and have responsibilities, but that’s another post.  I think we have one of the most interesting stories around. People always ask if we know everything about each other since we have been together for so long, but honestly we continue to learn new things about each other every day.

Wow, that’s been a long time! Since it is our anniversary, but not our marriage anniversary, we aren’t really doing a big celebration. I did however, what to do something small so I decided to make his favorite banana bread.

I never liked banana bread until I made it one day to surprise Jace. From then on I really like it. But the weird thing is we don’t like it with nuts. Nope, only the bread with maybe some chocolate chips in it. As crazy as that sounds it’s really good. The great thing that I love about making breads is you can make two and wrap one up and give it to a friend or family member. So not only will your spouse love you but so will everyone else. Score all the way around! Also you can make this into killer muffins.

Anniversary Banana Bread
adapted from Fresh From The Oven

2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
1/2 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
lemon zest of one lemon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
10 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter

Various possible toppings:
chopped nuts
chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your loaf pan or muffin tin.

Mash the bananas with a fork. Combine mashed bananas and the sour cream in a bowl and stir together. Add in the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla extract.

Next, in a mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt on low speed (unless you want a mess) until it mixes together. Add in the butter and half of the banana mixture and mix together. When everything comes together increase the speed of the mixer to medium and mix for about 2 minutes. Add the remaining banana and beat well.

Pour the batter into your greased pan and bake for 40-45 minutes in a loaf pan or 20-30 minutes in muffin tins. It is ready when a toothpick comes out clean.

After an amazing weekend in the mountains, it’s time to get back to reality and cooking my own food. It was very nice not having to cook and getting served very tasty food all weekend. I think the thing I liked the best was I could eat and know I was going to burn all the calories I ate when we did all our activities. Now I have to count calories again. Boo!

Here’s this weeks plan.

Tonight: King Ranch casserole (I made it last week but we didn’t get to eat it)

Tuesday: fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy and some kind of veggie

Wednesday: five spice stir fry

Thursday: take out before practice

Friday: date night

Saturday: beans and cornbread

Happy eating!

This recipe I got from my lovely mom. Ever since I was little I can remember loving her bread pudding. It’s so sweet and creamy and I know you’ll fall in love with it too. Any time I have leftover bread on the counter or in the freezer that I want to get rid of I make mom’s bread pudding. It is great warm or cold in the fridge and the great thing is it’s pretty hard to mess this recipe up.

You will need 10 to 12 slices of bread, 5 eggs, 4 tablespoons butter ,1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 cups milk.

In a large bowl, tear the bread into small chunks.

Pour in the sugar

and the cinnamon. Stir together.

Pour in the eggs and mix together.

In the 8×10 pan you are going to cook the pudding in melt the butter in the oven.

Yum… butter. Roll the butter around in the pan to grease the bottom.

Pour the remaining butter into the bread mixture and stir. Careful not to burn yourself!

Pour just enough milk to the mixture to make it look almost like a cake batter. You probably won’t use the full 2 cups.

This is what it should end up looking like.

Pour the batter into the greased pan.

Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour.

…and serve!

Mom’s bread pudding

10 to 12 slices of bread

5 eggs whipped

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, tear the bread into small chunks. Pour in the sugar and the cinnamon. Stir everything together. Add the eggs and mix.

In the 8×10 pan that you are going to cook it in melt the butter in the oven. Roll the butter around to grease the pan. Pour the leftover butter into the bread mixture and stir well.

Pour just enough milk to the mixture to make it look almost like a cake batter. You probably won’t use the full 2 cups.

Pour the batter into the greased pan.

Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar over the top and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

It’s a very busy week around here. We are trying to get ready to go out of town with our Church youth group. We are going to Lone Tree Bible Ranch and I am so excited. We have always enjoyed going and every once in a while if the wind is blowing right I think I can smell the mixture of mountain air, trees and hot chocolate. Surely, I’m not the only person who can, right?  I love the everything about being there, from the smells to the relaxing atmosphere, I am always up for going. Oh, and a plus: the food is amazing!

Here is this weeks plan.

Monday: Jace’s work dinner

Tuesday: pasta in cream sauce (not sure exactly how we are going to do it yet)

Wednesday: king ranch casserole

Thursday: take out while we are trying to pack

Friday: Lone Tree!!!!!!

Happy eating!

Well, we are back on schuedule. The house is back together and we are ready to cook again. I have a little more time on my hands now so I will be cooking quite a bit more. That means more recipes for you guys. Here’s this weeks plan.

Tonight: skirt steak with baked beans and corn

Tuesday: Roasted nutmeg chicken with mashed potatoes

Wednesday: baked potato dinner at the church.

Thursday: take out before praise and worship practice

Friday: date night

I’m excited about the roasted chicken because there are tons of things I can do with the leftovers. Everything from enchiladas to soups. Also we are putting together the meal at the church on Wednesday night so if you are reading this in the Midland area come out and eat to support the youth group.

Happy eating!