Pulled from Pinterest: Banana Oatmeal Bites

This is quickly becoming my go to snack.  I have made it several times in the past two weeks because 1. we always seem to have an overabundance of bananas in the house and 2. I need a good snack that I am not going to regret the next day.

The little guy loves this snack and Maddy is okay as long as it has chocolate chips.

You can find the original blogpost for this recipe here.

Ingredients:

2 large old bananas

1 cup of quick oats

**Optional: handful of chocolate chips, raisins, or walnuts, cinnamon, honestly – anything you would want to eat in an oatmeal cookie

Smash bananas and mix together ingredients.  Place on a greased cookie sheet (I line a tray with foil and then grease it because I don’t like scrubbing pans)

Bake for 15 minutes at 350 or until golden.

These are wonderful right out of the oven and a great treat for breakfast the next day.  They don’t last more than 24 hours in my house.

Happy Eating!

Faith and a Haircut

Hi!

Here’s a fun, true story that has happened in our world this week.

My mom was brushing Maddy’s hair a few days ago and asked her if Mommy took her for a haircut.  She said no.

A few days went by, and a few more people commented – her hair was still able to be pulled up easily and it looked even, yes there were some areas that looked like there had been some breakage, but it had been a while since her last haircut.

Finally, Maddy went to stay the night with Grandma.  Before bedtime Grandma asked her if she had cut her hair herself and this is what she said:  “Well, I wanted shorter hair so I decided to cut it.  So while Grammy was downstairs doing laundry with Caleb I took the scissors and cut my hair and threw it away in the kitchen trash.  I knew after I did it that it  was wrong and I should not have done it so I prayed to God, because He was the only one who saw me do it, and I know He forgave me so everything was okay and I didn’t need to worry about it.”

…needless to say my mother called me immediately and retold the story, and I made a mental note that we were going to Best Cuts as soon as she got home the next day…we’ll come back to this later…

More important to me was how she responded to my mom.  Maddy knew that it was wrong to cut her hair so she prayed and asked forgiveness.  I’m so glad that she understands the true nature of God’s forgiveness and freedom from guilt at an early age!  In the last few weeks we have been talking a great deal about forgiveness at church.  In fact, you can watch one of the most recent teachings about forgiveness here.

We love our church and we love how much our family is growing into a deeper relationship with Jesus.  We transitioned here as a family in January and it was a big decision to leave where we were very involved, but over the past months God has show us in so many ways that we are in the right place.  I have gone from seeing Jesus in black and white to high definition, and it appears that our little ones are being fed in the same way we are!  Hallelujah!

So back to the haircut.  I took Maddy to Best Cuts to “fix” the haircut.  The stylist took about five minutes to fix her style and informed me that for a self haircut it was extremely even.  In fact it was the best self haircut she had ever seen.

…we’re not sharing that tidbit with Maddy.  She now understands that she need a license to cut hair!

Pulled from Pinterest: Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Hi All-

Just wanted to do a quick post on a yummy and easy recipe I tried over the weekend for Baked Parmesan Tomatoes.

This is a great recipe for all of those tomatoes we get from our CSA.  I love tomatoes, but no one else in my household is a fan which means I need to find creative and super easy ways to eat them on my own.

You can find my Pinterest boards here, and you can find the original blog post for this recipe here.

Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

Ingredients:

2 beefsteak tomatoes, sliced into 1/2 inch horizontal slices

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon of oregano

Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450° F. Place tomatoes on a baking sheet. Top with Parmesan, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil and bake until the tomatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes.

So I had a few modifications to the original recipe.  I did not have any beefsteak tomatoes so I used roma.  They were not nearly as large.  In fact, they were a perfect bite size.

Another tip that I don’t think the initial recipe suggested, and maybe it was because I was using different tomatoes, was to lightly spray the foil with cooking spray.  I did not; which resulted in my tomatoes sticking and then having to pry them off of the cookie sheet.  They did not look very pretty….hence no photo.  But honestly there was no need for real presentation since I was the one eating them I didn’t care.  They may have looked pitiful, but they tasted wonderful!

If you try this recipe let me know what you think!  Do you have any quick go to tomato recipes?

Happy Eating!

Pulled from Pinterest: Soy Glazed Edamame

Hi All!

Recently I’ve been completely addicted to Pinterest. It can be a great source of inspiration and resource for finding all sorts of things.  You can see my boards here.

…but here’s my beef with Pinterest…I find all of these great ideas and then I don’t do anything with them!

So in an attempt to get rid of my “Pinterest laziness” I’m committing to try a new Pinterest recipe, project, useful tip, etc once a month (maybe more) and blog about it!

We love edamame!  Michael has been asking for some edamame recipes to add to our dinner so I turned to pinterest and found one for soy glazed edamame.  The original blogpost for this recipe can be found here.  I have a few tweaks that I’ve included below.

Soy Glazed Edamame:

Ingredients

• 2 cups edamame in their shell
• 1 teaspoon canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic, finely minced (about 1 clove)
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, skin removed, finely minced – can omit or use a pinch of dried
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

Cook the edamame according to package directions.  I purchase edamame from Sam’s Club.  It comes in a package of eight ready steam one cup serving packets that are ready from the microwave in four minutes.  I know that there are people who would argue to use fresh, but the frozen are so convenient!

In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, water, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and red pepper flakes.  I let Maddy help me mix this together.

Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Once heated, add the garlic and ginger. Let cook for one to two minutes, stirring to avoid garlic from burning.  I think of the ginger as optional since I’m not a huge ginger fan.  If you do not have fresh ginger you might want to use a pinch of dried.

Add in the soy sauce mixture and raise the heat to medium. Let cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce reduces to a glaze, about 5-7 minutes. Once you reach the desired glaze consistency, add in the cooked edamame and toss well.

Plate edamame; pour any glaze left in the saucepan into a small dipping bowl alongside the edamame. Serve immediately.  I have stored leftovers for the next day and they are still quite tasty!

If you have any variations on this recipe , another go to edamame recipe, or if you try it yourself, please leave a comment!  I’d love to hear from you!

Joy

I love these little guys!

No matter what is going on, they are pure joy…most of the time…

Of course they test me every day.  Are there any children who do not?

But more importantly, they are making me grow.  God is using them to shape me into the person that he wants me to be.  One messy face, handprint, and giggle at a time.