Banana Bread Muffins

Like most moms, bananas are a staple in our household.
Sometimes, we eat up fast and some weeks we don't eat them fast enough before they get too ripe.
So, banana bread muffins have become one of our favorite things to make.
My girls love them and love helping me make them!

This is my momma's recipe
We make it so much that I am writing this from memory!

Ingredients-
4 Smashed bananas
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of cinnamon

Combine flour (I use gluten free oat flour), baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon (I dont measure the cinnamon, and I put a lot!).
In another bowl, cream together sugar and eggs, then add oil and bananas. Then add the flour mixture to it.
You can also add chopped walnuts or any nut but Jacquelyn is HIGHLY allergic to walnuts, cashews and pistachios so we are NUT free here in our house!
You can make banana bread or muffins.
We usually do muffins because they cook faster and easy to grab!
Bake 350 (muffins about 15 mins, bread about 45)

Cinco De Mayo-Sittee's Tacos Meat

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!
We had a fun day celebrating. We went to church, family came over, planted flowers, kids played outside all day, had a lemonade stand and we grilled fajitas and I made tacos! Really beginning to feel like summer! The weather was amazing and it really was a great day!

Growing up taco night was kind of a treat.  My mom always somehow made it a fun night that we always looked forward to. I must brag, I was super lucky and had a great momma that really made little things special and fun. I really hope I am able to do that with my girls. Its so easy to get caught up in the everyday schedule, and as a mom now, I see how you really have to make yourself slow down and put effort and thought into making even the little things special and fun.

My mom made tacos the way her momma and my sittee made tacos and this is how...

Sittee's Tacos (we pronounce it ta-cus) Meat

Start by sauteeing onion and bellpepper (I used yellow) in olive oil.
Add ground meat (today, I used 2 lbs of ground organic grass fed beef)
Brown
Season with salt, garlic powder, red pepper, paprika and chili powder
Keep stiring and breaking up meat
Add 1 chopped potato

This is what it looks like right after adding the potato
Then season again
Add water just so it comes up to the meat, cover and let cook on medium so water cooks out but potatoes get cooked. You will let it cook a good while! Probably 45 mins-an hour.
When potatoes get soft, smush them with your spoon
Once potatoes get smushed, it is done.
Taste and re-season if you need.
Enjoy!

First Feature Friday

So, if ya'll want I would love to do something I'm gonna call Feature Friday.
I would love to feature you and your favorite family recipe.

So today, we have our first Feature Friday and it comes from my hot sister, Becca!

Becca is the youngest of the three of us, also known as "Scarlett" in my family. Not only is she HOT but she is also pretty smart and a CPA, super passionate, and has one of the biggest hearts of anyone I know!
My sisters and I all love to cook. It's funny becauase we all have our own specialties and our own style but we all cook very similar of course because we learned the same way. Didn't ya'lls mom do "cooking school" during the summers too?

So this is Becca's recipe and I copied it straight from the email she sent me..so you can see her ADD a lil bit in the way she wrote the recipe! haaha!

Lebanese Chicken Thighs

Ingredients-

chicken thighs

onion

celery

cherry tomatoes (whole)

carrots

bellpepper

put all in pyrex and season with salt, cayenne, garlic powder, cinnamon, lemon pepper, and think i put some herb de provence, oh paprika, oh and put fair amount of lemon juice and lil bit of olive oil first.. then top with fresh topped parsley...add lil water to bottom of pyrex.. cover with foil and bake....

 

She baked it on 350 prob for a good 1 1/2 - 2 hrs

She served over rice

 

Remember when I told you that we could write a cookbook of just chicken and rice a million different ways....I wasn't lying!

Lebanese Tuna Salad

This is another great fast and healthy staples to make big batches of to eat on. It is a totally different way to make tuna salad but I have to say, that whenever I have served it to people for the first time, they love it! It is also great for the summer because it is so light and refreshing.

I used 3 big cans of white albacore tuna
Chopped one bunch of italian parsley (leafs only, yes you have to de-stem it)
Chopped one bunch of green onions
Sesaon with Tony's, once around the bowl of olice oil, 4 times of lemon juice and 1/2 way of lime juice.
Mix well and chill.

Great stuffed in half of an avocado or tomato, lettuce wrap style or just by itself!

Chicken Spaghetti Casserole

Do you ever have one of those days where you think you have food in the icebox and then you open it in the  morning and nothing's there...that happened to me this morning. We have had a crazy busy past couple of weeks and I just wanted to have a lazy day at home with the girls and not have to get dressed! So going to the store or out to lunch was not on my objective for the day.
So I had to make something with what I had....
And that was Chicken Spaghetti Casserole
Growing up my mom made several different "spaghetti's" and each of us had our favorites. Becca's favorite was spaghetti with meatballs, Jen's was spaghetti with meat sauce and my favorite was chicken spaghetti casserole.

Start by sauteeing vegetables in olive oil. You have to at least include onion, celery, and bellpepper but I aslo add whatever other vegetables I have on hand and want to add to it. They will get lost in the sauce and get eaten! Today I added carrots, but you could easily do squash and zuchhini too.

While they are cooking season with salt, red pepper, garlic powder, basil and oregano. Add a couple of pressed garlic. When they are tender add your tomatos- or what you are going to use to make your sauce.  I use different tomato products all the time. Depending on where I'm shopping I buy different things. Today I used these two

 

The big can was whole tomatoes I just crushed with my hand when pouring in and the small one was cherry tomatoes I also crushed by hand when pouring in. I also added 1 1/2 small cans of water.

Let it come together and come to a light boil and just cook for a while. Re-season as well!

After a good thirty mins or so and the sauce has come together.

Then add chopped chicken breasts. Again, re-season and let it cook for a good while, until chicken is fully cooked and almost falling apart.

Then I added a little milk, prob 1/4 cup just to make it a little creamy.

*this is when my mom normally adds about 1/2 of a small velvetta link. it makes the sauce very creamy and cheesy. i really dont like velvetta, yes I LOVE the way it makes it taste but the milk makes it creamy enough for my liking that I dont miss the velvetta. dont know if Jerry would agree though!***

 

Then you can turn it down and add fresh basil.

I would just like to point out, this basil was from my patio! For the first time ever, I have not killed my basil plant and its actually growing. I LOVE FRESH BASIL. It seriously makes EVERYTHING better!!! I put it on everything, literally everything.

So then basically the sauce is done.

Taste it and make sure you dont need to add any seasoning.

While the sauce is cooking, boil whatever pasta you want to use.

I really like this pasta. I didn't have enough of it to use today, so I used a fussili pasta I had.

 

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the sauce.

Fully mix it up, then pour it all in a casserole dish and top with grated parmesean cheese.

Cover with foil and bake on 350 for about 45 mins.

 

What do you want to see? Anybody there?

So I know a few of you have told me ya'll are reading, but is anybody out there reading this blog? Anybody liking it?
Please feel free to leave comments, tell me what you like or don't like, what you would like to see. Any recipe requests?
Anything you want me to try?
A recipe that your family and kids love that you want to share? Would love to feature you on here...

Do you feel like you ever get in a rut of what you cook? I feel like I do all the time and go in cycles of what I cook. A lot of it depends on what the girls are into at the time, the season, the weather, what vegetables are in season, etc....
Right now I feel like we are majorly on a rice rut....I feel like everything I feed them is something with Rice but its the carb that they eat the best so its def my go to. And whatever I make to go with the rice, Jerry and I can easily eat it without the rice...so it works easily!
But I would love to hear what works for you and your family and get new ideas from you too!

It's a Bust

So the whole purpose of starting the blog is to give you some healthy, fast and yummy meals. However, I am not a chef (clearly) and most of the time I make up things as I go.
So a lot of times, things don't turn out that great, so I promise to share my big busts as well!

A few years ago I discovered parnsip puree at a high end steak house. It was served over an asian style fish and i fell inlove. It was so creamy but had a spicer falvor than just potato. So, immediately I had to try and recreate it at home and I did and they were delish! I love it paired with pork tenderloin.  Well that was a few years back and I can not remember exactly how I made them. So this week when I made them, clearly it was not  how I originally made them...

So I also, added carrots to the mix this time thinking it would add some sweetness to the parsnips and balance the stronger flavor of the parsnips. And the girls LOVE carrots so I thought that it would ensure them liking them and add more vegetables (FAIL).  I steamed them for about 30 mins until they were soft and then let most of the water cook out. Then i pureed them with a hand held pulser (is that what you call it?)

 

I added a tablespoon of butter and about a cup of chicken stock to make them creamy. Seasoned with salt and red pepper ( I also put too much red pepper and it was a lil too spicy).

They were not terrible but nobody really LIKED them. I really didnt even like them.

I dont want to give up on the parsnip puree but I remember us all really liking them, I just need to remember how I did them and probably not add the carrots next time!