low fat banana nut bread!!!! YUM!

I had 3 bananas that I needed to do something with besides throw away.  Kiddos won't eat brown bananas....  I searched the Internet and found a recipe.  I tweaked it a little and this is what I made up

3 or 4 ripe bananas
1 1/2 cup of unbleached flour (or you can use 3/4 cup wheat 3/4 cup white or all white)
1/2 cup sugar (half of what the real recipe called for)
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce (real recipe called for 2 tablespoons and then 2 tablespoons of butter since I want LOW fat I used NO BUTTER)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Mash up bananas then add all the ingredients.  This literally took me 10 min.    I filled up my loaf pan half way as well as 5 muffin cups with this mix, ran out of mix for the 6th.  Bake at 350 for 55 min.  I took the Muffin pan out after 30 min!!!! 

I have not tried this yet it is still baking BUT it smells AMAZING!  I will post a pic and let you know how the kids and I like it a little later!!!  ;0)
.........

OK I tried one of the ones out of the muffin pan.  It was very good!!!  Remember this is a LOW FAT recipe!!  It was not as sweet as the original recipe!  If you want you could add a little more sugar or sweetened applesauce but by doing that you are adding more calories.

I think it tastes good as is!  ;0)

Barnes & Noble Summer reading program

I thought this was really neat last year so I thought I would share for this summer!!! My older boys participated in it last year. They only need to read 8 books (we always read way more) and then take the form to any Barnes & Noble and you get to pick out a free book! Here is the link to the form to print out.

http://img1.imagesbn.com/pimages/kids/summerreading/2012/bnsummertearpad.pdf

Some Pinterest recipes!

I went to the store today and bought ingredients for 3 recipes I found on Pinterest! I cannot wait to try them out! 1 is the Funfetti puppy chow type mix, 2 is the Buffalo Chicken Taquitos and 3 is the Trashed Bean dip!!!!! I cannot wait until Sat! I probably only spent $20 for all 3 items. The middle monkeys are out of school so it's time to get my crafting on and get my office back in shape. Most people freak out when their kids get out of school, for me it's a sigh of relief kind of. This means my 8 and 12 yr. old can play with their little sister and brother and I can get maybe 20 min of crafting or organizing time. ;0) We'll see how it goes because today they were not use to being together with nothing to do (mind you it was only for 2 hours because Cruz was at a friend's house most of the day). They were already plotting against their 2 yr. old brother. They are going to have to get use to being together again... lol I now have a JR High student!!! ;0(

Kristiana took this picture! LOL

Homemade laundry items

Recently at a mom's church group I go to I learned how to make homemade Laundry soap. I made it tonight for the first time by myself. It is so easy! It cost me $9 for all 3 ingredients. 1 box of Borax = $4, 1 box of washing soda = $4 and 1 bar of Fels Napta Soap = $1 (this I will have to buy every 2 months). The 2 boxes will last me 8 - 10 months!!! So it looks like it will cost me $1.00 a month to do my laundry!!! I found all the ingredients in the Laundry soap aisle at Wal-Mart. 1/2 cup of Borax 1/2 cup of Washing Soap 1/2 bar of Fels Napta Soap 1 large bucket (enough to hold 2 1/2 gallons of water or 5 if you double this recipe) You shave the bar of Soap into slivers, a cheese grater or potato peeler works. Heat a 1/2 gallon of water in a pot over the stove. Add the shredded soap to the water and dissolve. Then add the Borax and Washing Soda, mix well. In a LARGE Bucket pour in 2 gallons of room temperature water. Then add the mixture you made over the stove and ix it all together. This makes 2 1/2 gallons of laundry soap and will last me a month. I ALSO found a homemade stain remover!!! I had all the ingredients here at my house!!! Dawn dish washing soap, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. I've used it on Blood, Kool-Aide, grass stains and dirt and that was just this past week. I have tried all the store bought brands and NOTHING has worked as WELL as this! 1 tsp. of Dawn dish soap 3 - 4 Tbsp. of hydrogen peroxide 2 Tbsp. of baking soda

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Kristiana's last day of Preschool

I can't believe she is already done with her first year of preschool! She had so much fun and she will defiantly miss her friends and teacher this summer. Next year she will have a different teacher which is good to get them use to having different teachers but sad because we love Mrs. Wilson. here she is with a few friends on the last day.

Pages

I added 3 pages to this blog. Jewelery & Fashion is my Premier Design business. Avon is my Avon business. JER Foundation is my family's non profit to bring awareness to the disease that took my brother away from us. I'm a busy busy bee!!!!

Oh yea I forgot!!!!

I am now a Premier Designs Jeweler!!!! I received my kit in the mail yesterday and I am so excited to be a part of such a great company. I hope I’m saying the same thing in a few years! My training show is March 24th at my house! If I book 6 shows before May 8th I will receive $200 in FREE Jewelry and if I book 9 I will receive an extra $100! I am totally willing to share the wealth with anyone who books a show with me before May 8th!! I can't wait to become your Jeweler! They have a GREAT Hostess plan if interested in hearing more please email me! Sunflwz2@Yahoo

.com

Kristiana's birthday

I always have so much fun with my daughter's birthday. Seems like little girl's b days and just more fun to plan! She took Butterfly Snacks to school! I found this in my Family Fun Magazine. Her Birthday dress she wore I bought at the Apple Butter Festival in Kimmswick. It actually can turn into a shirt as she grows older! We made wuggle pets at her party she had so many of her friends there. She asked me to make her a unicorn cake. I did just about the best I could. The hair could've been better. But all in all I think it turned out ok. lol My baby girl is 4 now and I think it's just about time to work on a sister for her. LOL YEA RIGHT!

My Kristiana

She is so sweet and such a girly girl! After her bath today she wanted to put on her robe Uncle Pepe and Aunt Michelle got her for Christmas. So I dried her off wrapped her up in it and she got up on her bed to watch Shrek. After about 30 min she comes walking up to me in the kitchen and says, "Mommy! Feel my feet!" I replied, "Why are they cold?" "No mom just feel them!" Again I say, "They’re just cold you don't have socks on them, let’s go get socks on". "No mom really feel them, bend over and feel my feet." So I did and I replied, "What’s wrong they feel fine?" "I think they are going to fall off they are tingling and I don't know why! They feel WEIRD!" I just started laughing! She has never had her feet or any other body part fall asleep before. I told her "Nana, your foot fell asleep it's ok!" She didn't ask why or anything else she just said "Oh, OK!" Then about 20 min later she says, "Mom! My foot woke up!!! It's not tired anymore!" I love listening to her stories and trying to figure out the world! ;0)

A Blessed Life

So I decided I want to take my kiddos to Disney World next year. My husband is not too fond of it but I know when he sees their face at Disney World and Universal Studios he will have as just as much fun as them. ;0) I know it's going to be a pricy trip but I'm going to try to save us a little money. I'm just not sure if I should book it through a travel agent or try to get all the items on my own by using Priceline or any other company. We will be driving; I couldn't imagine flying with crazy monkey #4 - Antonio!! OMG the people on that flight would probably want to do really mean and bad things to us. ;0) Allen is really into Harry Potter and Nana the princess theme so I really think this would be a great trip to take at their age. Now down to figuring out all the details. Kristiana turns 4 next Tues March 6th. I can't believe she is 4. I know, I know I say this every year and so does all the other parents in this world. I feel really blessed to have the kids that I do. They are good fun loving kids. Even my crazy Tonio whose nick name is ToniNO! These last couple weeks I have really realized how lucky and blessed I am to have found the love of my life. I mean I knew it all along that Tony and I are true soul mates and we have an amazing family but just recently it has really hit me how lucky we are to have found each other. It's a hard world out there to "date" in. Some of the girls seem to be blowing off good guys and are now the ones "playing the fields". At least that’s what I see with our guy friends. And some guys just seem to have lost the "open the door, treat a lady like a lady" attitude. I took a picture frame and took a piece of cute scrap book paper and I wrote on it "I love you because....." then put it in the frame. Every few days we write a cute reason of why we love each other. Yes another project I found from pinterest. I really like it because it really shows him all the reasons I love him and I love waking up and seeing what he thinks of me at that exact moment.