Breakfast time! Chocolate and peanut butter banana bread

Our mornings used to be crazy... Up at 6, get showered, get dressed, eat breakfast, make lunches, get our plan for the day, get out of the house by 7:15 to get to school on time.

Since we have moved, our mornings are way easier.  I get up at 6:30, get lunches made, have some quiet time before the boys start moving between 7-7:30.  Then they get up and eat at the table and shower and even have time to watch a cartoon before we leave for school at 8:30 in order to be there for first recess.

So I have been making better breakfasts.  If I'm up at 6:30 it allows me to get something done that morning for breakfast that's hot and yummy.  We do pancakes, baked oatmeal and even toad in a hole.   But one of my favorites has always been banana bread.  And I love mine with peanut butter.  So I took the recipe that I like and added a few special ingredients to make it my own.  

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

1/2 stick of butter

2 eggs

1 tbsp peanut butter

1/2 c sugar

3/4 tsp molasses

2 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ginger

1 c chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350.

Mash up the bananas until there are very few chunks.  Mix it with the butter, peanut butter, sugar and molasses and mix until creamy and fluffy.  

Add the eggs  one at a time until they are well blended.

Mix the dry ingredients together and mix in until just mixed.

Mix the chocolate chips in by hand.

Put in a well greased loaf pan and add some sprinkles, because really, who doesn't like sprinkles first thing in the morning? 

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when you put it through the middle. 

Serve and enjoy!!

Fight the winter blues with color in your dinner!

It has been a long hard winter.

Cold.

Snowy.

Lots of snow days and it's too cold to go to school days. 

I am over it.  

I have the winter blues! 

But my dinner is pretty, with lots of orange today.  Of course you could always add some red too, if that's your thing.

I made smothered chicken.  And it was pretty.  And tasty! 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium sized onion, chopped

1 orange pepper, sliced

1/2 tsp garlic powder 

1/2 tsp thyme

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste

2 boneless skinless chicken breast

1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions:

In a oven safe pan (I love my cast iron for this) sauté the onions, peppers and mushrooms over medium high heat until they start to soften about 5-6 minutes.  Add garlic powder, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook another minute or two.

Remove them to a plate and add chicken to the pan.  I also salt and pepper this to make sure the chicken is flavorful as well.

Cook until the center is no longer pink.

Add the veggies back to the pan, too with cheese and then put the whole thing under the broiler for 1-2 minutes or until the cheese is melted.  Don't walk away!!!! (Ask me how I know!) 

Serve and enjoy! 

I'm back!

So much has changed in our lives over the last year or so... New jobfor the Husband, new house for us, new school for the boys, new kitchen for me.  

I've been making so many new recipes that I just love.  Pinterest has become my BFF.  So I thought I'd share some of them again, as well as finding a place in the cyber world to put them again.  

I am looking forward to sharing some of these exciting things with you, but as all ways it will be 

Mostly about the food!!! 

 

For now, here's a picture from our new house.  It's off the front porch facing the cold wintery world that we have had a front row seat for since we moved.