Banana bread, you smell good!

Few things in this world smell better to me than these: the scent of lavendar lotion on my newborn baby,
Dear Hubby in his Old Spice, the sweet smell in the air just after a rain on a warm day and bread baking in the oven. This banana bread in particular does not disappoint in smell yumminess! It also happens to be tasty and easy to make.

 The first thing I always do is pull out bananas from the freezer. I will always use frozen bananas because once they have thawed a little, they are so easy to incorporate into the mix. I have tried over ripe non frozen before and it just seemed like more work to mash them down.  

Freezing bananas are easy, just toss over ripe ones in the freezer as is. No need to package them. The will stay for at least a month in the freezer just as they are. When you want to make some bread just grab 3 from your stash. A tip though: defrost on a plate not the counter. As they thaw out the peels turn black and I have actually stained my counter top. Whoopsie! Once the bananas have thawed, I break off the bottom end and squeeze the banana out into a bowl.

The original recipe I used came from here . I have made this so many times now that I have adapted it to our tastes. One of the things I added was cinnamon. In my opinion most any bread other than bread for lunch/dinner should have some cinnamon in it. I also use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour. I also have included some oatmeal once, but Dear Hubby didn't care for it that way.

Ingredients:
3 frozen bananas thawed 
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
healthy dash of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread coconut oil (or lard) into the baking pans set aside. Empty bananas into bowl and mix with the melted butter. Batter will be lumpy. Add in sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix some more. Sprinkle in the baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix in to the batter. Add the flour last and mix just until evenly blended. Pour mixture into two 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

Enjoy!

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DIY Easter Banner for our Sense of the Resurrection studies

We will be starting our lessons in a Sense of the Resurrection this week and I wanted to share with you how I made our Easter Banner to go with our lessons.

 

I went to Joann's with a couple of coupons and got the chevron material and the heat n bond. I had already gotten the felt and ribbon at Walmart.

  I needed a pattern so that my triangles would be straight. I found one on Pinterest of course here

Using the pattern I made, I cut out all of my triangles. I cut out 6 white felt. I then cut out 12 triangles from the chevron material- from those I will make 6 double sided for added durability. I want to be able to use this banner every Easter. 

Once all the triangles were cut is was time to start putting it all together. I did these steps in several different time settings. It is just how my week was going, so I took advantage of small chunks of time. If I added it all up, I would say it would be under 2 hours to complete. Since I wanted to double side the yellow chevron pattern I started with those first. From reading the instructions (on the heat bond package) I cut strips and placed them on the inside of one chevron pattern and ironed it (no steam) in place. I did this to all three sides of the triangle.

Once the paper strips had cooled, I peeled the paper part off and matched up another chevron triangle on top with the outside of the material facing up. I then ironed it fusing both pieces together. (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this step) When I had fused all of my chevron triangles together I then had 6 chevron and 6 white felt that I needed to piece together. Along the top of each triangle I iron on a strip of heat n' bond and one by one ironed the matching (gross grain) ribbon to each triangle. 

 Once I was all finished with adhering all 12 to the ribbon I decided that to help it be the most durable I went ahead and ironed on another strip of ribbon to the other side. Putting the ribbon on the both sides also makes it double sided.

Then, because I didn't get the extra hold heat n' bond I did a simple straight stitch on my sewing machine. I don't want it to fall apart next year. So going forward I will remember to get the extra hold stuff (lesson learned).

And that's it! We will actually be adding to the banner in the coming weeks leading up to Easter. Starting tomorrow, we will begin our Easter lessons in our homeschool and I will share what we complete as we go along! Do you have any special Easter lessons planned? Please share. 

linking up at:Faith filled food for moms 

Welcome Spring!

I have been wanting to make one of these for a while. I was going to try to do one for Christmas but never got to it. So a few months later I see some gorgeous turquoise burlap and resolve to do one for spring. I have a very small budget for decorating. So I am always on the lookout for great deals. I will shop thrift stores, dollar stores, and clearance sales to make our home more lovely. Case in point the wire wreath was brand new still in the package at the thrift store for  65 cents! The pretty yellow flowers (my favorite color of flower) was from the Dollar Tree... you guessed it only 1 dollar! These flowers are great because they are made with alligator clips. So I will be able to remove them and change up the wreath later as the seasons change. I will confess one of the hang ups to making this wreath earlier is burlap is not cheap. And you need quite a bit of it to fill in around the wire. I remembered to look and Walmart for the burlap and found the pretty color for a price I was willing to pay ($3.47). I will say that next time I make one of these I will go ahead and use 2 rolls of burlap just to make sure it is nice and full. But I am pleased with it! 

What you need: wire floral wreath, burlap at least 2 rolls, pipe cleaners to help secure, decorations to add. The first thing I did was loop the burlap in and out of the spokes like so...

Then I went back around going over and under the the two outside circles of the frame...

Then it took some "foofing" and "fluffing" to make it start to shape like you want to, to cover all the wire. This is where more burlap is better. I then used small pieces of pipe cleaner (you can use wire) to help secure the burlap. As a final securing measure I used my glue gun to glue the burlap together in just a couple of places that were being stubborn.

the process of fluffing and foofing the burlap

using pipe cleaner to close some gaps and also to secure the burlap

I then just clipped the flowers in place and there you have it! A pretty and frugal way to welcome Spring!

sharing on: Thrifty Thursdays