GF Banana Nut Bread

For Christmas as usual I sent homemade baked goodies to my family. I always send something a little different each year and this year's box of goodies had my seriously awesome GF Banana Nut Bread.

The recipe is the one that came with my bread machine,...a practically brand new machine that I lucked out and found at a yard sale a couple of years ago for only $10! It's been one of THE best investments.

The only differences I've made to the recipe have been to convert it to gluten free. GF bread can be very tricky and sensitive, often prone to falling/sinking in after baking and thoroughly frustrating you as you pull it out of the oven looking amazing only to watch it sink into something barely resembling decent bread.

But this recipe is extremely easy and practically fool proof! The loaves rise up really nicely...AND stay that way! This bread freezes really well too!

I've made it inside my bread machine letting the machine do all of the work, but most of the time I let the bread machine do all of the mixing and then I pour the batter into regular loaf pans so I have nicer looking loaves when they're done, without the hole for the mixing wand from the machine in the bottom of the loaf.

And I usually don't let the bread bake inside my machine because my daughter EJ hates nuts, so I usually separate the batter into smaller loaves to make some with nuts and some without.

This bread is a weekly staple in our home! IK and I especially eat it all the time! I love to have a slice or two for breakfast with a cup of hot tea, and IK loves it when I put a few slices in his lunch topped with crunchy peanut butter.

After treating my family to this yummyness for Christmas I promised to pass along the simple recipe, so here it is.

GF Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients

1 cup milk

1/4 cup oil

2 cups bananas, ripe and mashed (about 4-5)

4 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed (or regular brown sugar)

1 cup walnuts, chopped

3 cups all purpose flour (or for GF version: 1 1/2 cups white rice flour + 3/4 cup tapioca flour + 3/4 cup potato starch all premixed well together, and 2 tsp. xanthan gum)

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. salt

Since this recipe comes from my bread machine, all you have to do is simply dump in all of those ingredients into the bread machine in the order listed above. Here you can see the milk, oil, banana, and eggs just all dumped in together.

And then I keep dumping all the other ingredients on top. If you don't like nuts you can simply omit them. Or if you plan to make several smaller loaves you can mix all of this without the nuts, and then separate the batter after mixing and add the nuts to part of it.

Simply set your bread machine to the dough only setting and stop it after the dough is fully mixed together. If you don't have a bread machine you can just dump all of these ingredients into a large bowl and mix thoroughly...but wait to add the nuts at the end.

I picked up a pan that makes 4 small loaves at W*l-mart (shown below). I've also made this in 2 regular size loaves, and in really mini, bite size loaf pans where the pan makes 12 or 24 little tiny individual pieces. The only trick with larger or smaller loaf pans is to just be careful with your baking times as smaller pans will take less time to bake.

As I mentioned, EJ doesn't like nuts, but she also doesn't eat this bread as much as IK and I do, so after my bread machine is done mixing the batter, I spray the pan with cooking spray and pour the batter into 1 loaf spot all the way to the top of the spot, then I pour the rest of my batter into a bowl, add in the nuts and mix well, and then fill the other 3 loaf spots in the pan.

It may not look like you'll have enough batter left for the other 3 loaves at first, but remember when you add all the nuts it will increase the total volume of your batter quite a bit. Fill the 3 remaining sections of the pan as shown above.

You should make sure to preheat your oven to 350 degrees, but once your oven is ready there's no need to let this batter rise or rest at all, you can simply pour it straight into the pan and place the plan right into the oven.

For the 4 smaller loaves like I have here, bake at 350 for about 30-35 min. For 2 larger pans bake at 350 for 55-60 min., and for really small pans you still bake at 350 just watch and reduce those baking times. Every oven is different, so be careful and watch the times until you know what works for your oven.

Above is how my loaves looked right after I pulled them out of the oven. The one loaf on the bottom right is the one without nuts, but as you can see it still rose really high just like the rest of the loaves.

Let the loaves sit in the pan for at least a few minutes to cool slightly. Shown below are how my loaves looked about 5 min. later. They sunk just slightly, but not much.

Remove from pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Here my loaves have been sitting out for a while and are fully cooled, but you can see they still keep an awesome shape.

Once the bread is completely cool, slice up and store in a ziplock bag in the fridge. If you don't eat a lot of this bread you can store 1 loaf in the fridge and freeze the rest until ready to eat.

We go through this bread so fast that I almost never freeze any, but if it were just me eating it, then I would still make a full batch and freeze some just because I don't have time to bake as often and I prefer to bake in larger batches to save time later.

I use my electric meat slicer to cut up these loaves because it works so nicely and because as I mentioned we go through a LOT of this bread.

Above you can see how high and nice the banana bread looks without nuts, and below it's sliced up with nuts.

And there you have it, really easy to make & seriously delicious bread. Give it a try & let me know what you think!

Snow Kids

We don't usually get much snow around here, and when we do it typically only stays around for a couple of days and then melts away.

Yesterday it started to snow. IK and KW went out to shovel the driveway and sidewalk.

A few weeks ago when it snowed the kids had a great time playing and throwing snowballs.

TJ's dad was home that day and took the kids out for some fun. A common snow experience out here is to tie sleds to the back of your car and drive around towing people behind you.

The first time I had ever heard about this is sounded so totally crazy and dangerous I seriously couldn't believe people did this with their children?!

But it's really not as dangerous as you might think. Here are my girls all bundled up and TJ's little sis sitting in between them. The boys were tied to the back of their sled and towed behind the girls.

KW's still too little to sled like this, so he played with me in the front yard.

Yesterday when we woke up SD said to me, "Have you seen outside?" referring to all of the snow. I had been up to get a drink earlier and looked out the window and said yes, so my response was "One person's awesome is another person's awful."

While I really hate the snow, I'm glad my kids can have so much fun in it. Check it out!

Priceless Conversations with KW

The other day IK was teasing his little brother KW and said the following:

IK: "KW, you're going DOWN!"

At which KW promptly responded:

KW: "No, I'm going UP!"

IK was so surprised by such an unexpected response all he could was laugh. Gotta love the logic of a toddler! Even better that these conversations happen all the time. Yesterday was another such moment.

Since it's Christmas break we've gotten into the really bad habit of sleeping in really late each morning. KW woke up before me and went off to play. When I woke up he came in my room and said:

KW: "Guh-maw-ween Mom."

Me: "Good morning, KW. How are you?"

KW: "Good."

Me: "Did you sleep good?"

KW: "I sleep...faster."

In his childlike wisdom he paused slightly and realized he had woken up earlier than me, so hence he slept faster. Love it!

Extra Large All Purpose Reversible Tote Bag

For Christmas for my younger sis, Andra, I found some fabrics that just screamed her personality!

I had no clue what on earth to make with these fabrics, but these shades of blue mixed with brown hues and whimsical patterns I knew would simply be perfect for her.

But then I was so scared to cut these fabrics up until I could figure out what in the world to make with them??? They sat on my fabric shelf for a few MONTHS as I tried to decide what to make. Then finally, I settled on making her some sort of all purpose tote, but what pattern? What style? What size?

I searched endlessly for the right design, shape, etc. and came up with nothing that seemed quite right. Finally, I sketched out my own design based upon little pieces from several other totes I found and changed those ideas to match what I really had in mind.

I wanted something extra large, something she could use for practically anything: need an extra shopping bag, an overnight bag, a bag for wet clothes after swimming, a dirty laundry bag on weekend trips, etc.

And because I could never decide which one of these fabrics I liked better (or guess which one I thought she might like best either) I decided to make this bag totally reversible so she could figure out what she liked best, or alternate between them based on the mood she's in that day.

So finally, after an extremely long decision making process for the design of her bag, I began to measure & cut out the fabrics. The bag is fully lined with a lightweight fusible interfacing to give it more sturdiness, but yet the bag is still flexible enough that you could fold it up and store it in your luggage, or throw it inside another purse and pull it out to use when you need that extra bag.

Some people are rather intimidated by using fusible interfacing, but I've used several different varieties from lightweight, medium, and heavy weight and they all work wonderful. It's basically a thin lining that has tiny little beads of glue all over one side so that when you iron it to the back of your fabric the iron heats up the glue enough to adhere the lining permanently.

It makes it really nice for projects where you need it to be more sturdy than just the fabric alone, and with it stuck in place, sewing layers of fabric together later is also much easier without this middle lining shifting around.

I decided on one really large all purpose pocket on both sides of this bag, centered in the middle. With a bag this large most items would just be thrown in anywhere, but it's nice to have at least one pocket to throw in your wallet, keys, sunglasses, etc.

I looked in the mirror and kind of eye-balled the measurements on myself for how long I wanted the straps to be for this bag. My sister is only an inch shorter than me and with our friendly weight loss competition this fall we're pretty close in overall body stature, so I figured something that felt right on me would also work for her.

The straps also needed to be reversible, so I actually made a total of 4 straps and used the handy technique for hiding all the loose ends inside by folding the strap in half and ironing, then opening it up and folding each side in to the middle so all the loose ends are stored there. Then fold it in half once more and you end up with a really nice clean strap.

Hmmm...do I always look this serious when I sew? Bleh! And yes, chances are I'm wearing comfy pajama pants under that sewing table.

After making the main body of the bag I decided these fabrics and design really needed a little extra touch. A plain square shaped bag just didn't look right, so I decided to angle the corners of the bag to soften it up a little and I was really please with the results!

I really enjoyed making this bag! And I think I really kind of have a thing for making reversible stuff too. Well, here it is, my finished creation!

And reversed to the other side. Which color/side do you like best?

Just to give you a better idea of exactly how extra large this bag is:

Andra said she totally loved this bag, which was awesome to hear. So in return I promised not to tell her all about the little flaws and frustrations I have over this bag...if she hasn't noticed them, then I'm certainly not going to point them out!

I enjoyed making this bag so much, and had a bunch of new ideas on more features like additional pockets, maybe even using magnetic snaps or zippers, etc. so chances are I'll end up making this project again.

Crocheted Shawls

All my ideas for Christmas gifts this year originally began back in the end of August when I decided to pick up some crochet I hadn't touched all year.

Back in 2007 for Easter I had made some really cute crocheted shawls for my girls that they wore constantly! Wow, it's amazing to see how much they've changed since then!

This pattern is incredibly fast and easy, and I can usually finish a whole shawl in 1-2 days. It's nice enough to wear over a dress or casual enough to wear with a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, which is how my girls wore them most of the time.

Here's a picture of LA with her Easter dress. Don't you just love how upset she is in this photo? It makes me laugh every time I look at it!

Anyway, I dug through all my boxes of crochet yarn to see what colors I had and came up with a few I really liked. Because I loved this soft baby yellow color on LA so much I started crocheting the same shawl again in yellow using the pattern for a size 2T.

Here's an up close shot so you can get a better look at the pretty stitching on these shawls.

As I had time, in between schoolwork, exercising, taking care of my kids, etc. I picked up these shawls and slowly finished them a little at a time.

I finished the yellow one first, except for tucking in and sewing my ends, of course, because everyone hates that annoying part of crocheting. Then I thought it would be fun to make another shawl in the same pattern, but a different color.

So I dug around my stash some more and found a soft, pretty light blue. Then I looked at the yellow one and how small it turned out to be and thought maybe I should try a larger size pattern and bigger crochet needle just in case the yellow one ends up being too small.

The blue one looked great and was almost finished when I ran out of yarn...figures. So it sat in this almost completed state for months.

I almost added a really cute dark blue flower to this blue shawl, but ran out of time at the end before sending this off for Christmas.

Finally I chose a really interesting deep cranberry red/black yarn mix for the third shawl I made for my niece. This color doesn't show up really well in my photos and looks much better in person. It's a little more of a trendy, bigger girl color/style, so I decided again to play with a larger crochet hook but the same size as the blue shawl because the yarn was much thinner than the blue thread.

In the end I had 3 really pretty shawls in baby yellow, soft light blue, and a deep cranberry red & black. I love the pretty round ruffles at the bottoms of these shawls!

 

 

By the time Christmas rolled around and I packaged these up to mail to my sister, I was worried that the yellow one might be totally too small, and figured the blue one might fit my niece now and the red one would probably be too big and something she could grow into (based on how well it fit LA right now).

I thought it was really funny when I talked to my sis and found out that they thought these shawls were actually skirts instead! Ha! Which, I guess they could totally be used that way with some sort of lining underneath, I had just never thought of them like that.

So I don't think my niece has tried these on yet, but it sounds like another big gift hit! I L-O-V-E making handmade gifts for people!

Reversible Picnic Placemats Set

Alright, so Christmas gifts part 1: I made a set of reversible picnic placemats for my sis, Bonnie. The process all started with stumbling across several great placemat tutorials for ideas and then coming up with my own version. I've never been to Bonnie's house and wasn't sure exactly what color fabrics or styles she might like, but I decided to go with these awesome fabrics:

I wanted something that was stylish and trendy looking, but at the same time I was concerned about making sure I picked out fabrics that my sister would actually like, not really knowing what kinds of styles she's into these days.

After talking to my brother and finding out that one of Bonnie's favorite colors is teal, I was a little more relieved to know these colors might be a good choice.

So first up, measuring a plate and utensils to determine what size to make these placemats. I decided to make these approx. 10"x16" when finished.

Measuring and more measuring, followed by cutting and TONS of ironing. If you're going to learn how to sew, ironing becomes a really huge part of it!

Finally! All the pieces were cut and the fun part begins...the actual sewing! I couldn't decide which one of these fabrics I liked better for the front and back of the mats, so I decided to make half of them with each design.

Because these placemats are intended to be portable for picnics where my sister can just leave them in the trunk of her car and pull them out when she takes her daughter to play at the park, I wanted to include a pocket to hold disposable silverware.

Lining up each pocket on the bottom right corner, I sewed the pockets on and added separate sections for the knife, fork, and spoon.

I wanted these mats to be somewhat sturdy, but also flexible enough to roll up and store away, so I used felt for the inside lining cut slightly smaller than the outside fabrics.

After the pockets were sewn on, I placed the 2 fabrics together with right sides facing and the felt pinned to one side and sewed all the way around the mats leaving about a 3 inch opening.

After trimming the corners for easier folding, I turned the mats right side in and ironed flat,...yup, TONS of ironing. And yes, I do lots of sewing in my ugly candy pajama pants.

Next up, attaching a coordinating brown ribbon to the side with the opening. Fold the ribbon in half, pin and sew in place. I can't remember, but I think my ribbons were about 24 inches long. Be sure to snip the ends at an angle.

Then add disposable silverware in each pocket. I didn't have matching plasticware at the time I took these photos, but I did buy some and include before mailing these gifts. Here you can just get an idea of what it looks like when filled.

And here they are! Awesome picnic placemats for lots of fun picnics in style.

The fabrics I chose are 100% cotton and with the felt lining my sis can easily throw these in the wash when needed, iron, and store away again.

Aren't they just awesome looking???!!! See, I still can't decide which design I like better, even with them all rolled up. And remember how I said they were reversible? Yup, she can use these at home on her dining table too.

She can either replace the plasticware with real silverware, or she can flip them over and simply lay her silverware on top of them, and then tie the side ribbon into a cute bow at the end.

I always buy too much fabric, so I decided to make her a set of 8 placemats (because they have a family of 3, soon to be 4 people right now, and sometimes you bring a friend or two with you to the park, or have them over for dinner, so you need at least a table setting for 6 people, and then what if one of the mats tears or something, so you always need a couple of extras...hence, a set of 8).

And after how awesome these turned out, you can imagine my giddy glee when I realized I just barely had enough fabric leftover to make myself a whole set of 8 reversible picnic placemats too!!! Yeah!

I thought that maybe they wouldn't be able to use this gift until the weather warms up this spring, but Bonnie said they already enjoyed using them at the table and my niece really had fun using them along with her Scooby Doo doll she's really into these days.

I'm so thrilled that this gift was such a hit! And it's just the beginning of my really fun Christmas sewing!