Category Archives: Anna

Banana Pudding

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I’ve made this recipe four times in the last 5 days.  Yes, seriously.  Take it as evidence that this banana pudding is amazingly good — and that it’s super quick and easy to prepare — and that I’ve been making dinner and desserts for too many people this week!  I need a nap!  🙂

On Saturday, we celebrated my Mother-in-Laws’ birthday and she requested banana pudding and French Silk Pie.  I made a double-batch of both for her birthday celebration with the family.  On Sunday, I made it again as we hosted dinner for a friend and her family.  On Wednesday, I made it again, as we hosted Mike’s boss for dinner. Apparently, I’m on a banana pudding kick.

My mom first made this recipe for me when I was in high school and it became one of her staple dessert recipes since I enjoyed it so much.  I didn’t make it myself for the first time until a few years ago when my mom gave me a binder for Christmas of some of her most loved recipes.  Now, I know the recipe by heart, which makes it even easier!

This pudding receives 5 wooden spoons from my family.  We all love it.  Mike, Bo, and Clara refuse to eat bananas on theirs (so it’s really vanilla pudding…. details…) but both Anna and I like the bananas on ours.

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Banana Pudding
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Prep time: 
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Serves: 8-10
 
Ingredients
  • 1 pint heavy whipping cream
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1½ cups water
  • 1 small box Jell-O instant vanilla pudding
  • 1 box vanilla wafers
  • 2-3 bananas
Instructions
  1. In a mixing bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, water, and instant pudding mix -- mixing well to avoid lumps (I usually end up blending this with the hand mixer). Fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture until combined and uniform in color. Layer the dessert by placing a layer of vanilla wafers, a layer of bananas, and topping with the pudding mixture. Repeat until all of the pudding is layered. Allow to chill for 2-3 hours before serving.

 

Snow Day Ice Cream

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If you’re in one of the many states currently experiencing a winter storm, let me introduce you to a beautiful little secret – snow ice cream.  My kiddos aren’t huge fans of hot chocolate – I think in part because it’s hot.  Bo will drink it but it truly isn’t something that the kids are excited about.  (And yes, I find this very strange — personally, I love hot chocolate.  Maybe when they are a bit older!)

The trio was dismissed from school early today and Mike’s work closed early as well due to our winter storm.  I had everyone home for the afternoon and we made the most of it by playing out in the snow.  We “helped” Mike shovel the driveway (he mostly used the snow blower) and then built a snowman and a snow fort in the yard.

After we stripped off our wet snow pants and boots, I threw together this snow ice cream – literally in minutes.  This recipe is extremely easy and provides instant gratification.  The trio all sat on the barstools at the counter and slurped this up in no time.  It’s delicious!  If you like vanilla ice cream, I promise this will be a recipe you will enjoy!

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Snow Day Ice Cream
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Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 3 Tbsp good quality vanilla extract
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • snow
Instructions
  1. In a medium bowl, combine the white sugar with the vanilla. Add the milk and heavy cream and stir until well combined. Using an ice cream scoop or measuring scoop, scoop packed snow into individual bowls (I filled a large bowl with snow and brought it inside). Pour cream mixture over the top of each scoop until it looks coated and absorbed. Serve immediately.

Vegan Banana Bread with Coconut Oil and Flax

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The picture doesn’t begin to do this banana bread justice.  It’s delicious!  Moist, yummy, and highly munchable.  My kids love it.  So much so that Clara and Anna got in trouble on Friday afternoon for ripping chunks of the warm loaf off and eating them in the kitchen while I was folding laundry.  Needless to say, even though the picture isn’t great, our loaf of banana bread didn’t look this nice for long…

I originally developed this recipe when I was out of eggs and wanted to make banana bread by replacing the eggs with flax.  I loved how it turned out so much that I’ve made it this way numerous times.  I think it yields a more flavorful loaf — with loads of extra fiber!

We ate this bread for dessert on Friday and breakfast on Saturday.   Gotta love recipes that double as a dessert and a breakfast! This banana bread receives 4 Wooden Spoons from our family.  Mike won’t touch anything that has banana involved.

5.0 from 1 reviews
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Vegan Banana Bread with Coconut Oil and Flax
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Prep time: 
Cook time: 
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Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 2 Tbsp flax seed mixed with 6 Tbsp water
  • 2 medium sized very ripe bananas, mashed
  • ½ cup sugar (I am sure you could replace with agave or honey, but I haven't tried it)
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • 3 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1.5 C flour (white/wheat/or a mixture)
  • ½ tsp salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a measuring cup, combine flax and water and stir. In a medium bowl, mash the bananas with the sugar, applesauce, and vanilla. Add the flax mixture and then add the baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix until just combined. Bake for 55 minutes. Moist and delicious! This recipe makes 1 loaf.

 

Banana Cinnamon Donuts

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I’ve been pining for donut pans for awhile.  I blame Pinterest.  Of course.  For Christmas, my MIL and Mike both bought me donut pans — one normal size and one mini and I’m enjoying trying my hand at baking donuts.

My trio loves anything with the word donut in it — so even if a few of the ingredients are questionable to them (such as bananas — Anna is the only one who will actually eat a banana) they will still eat it baked into a donut form.

Over the weekend, I had some bananas that were extra ripe, so I threw together these yummy banana cinnamon donuts.  I won’t say they are healthy — they aren’t.  But they still have to be better than the fried and processed ones.  They received Four Wooden Spoons from my family.  Mike wouldn’t even try them.  It’s the banana thing…  Honestly, the banana flavor isn’t super strong and if he didn’t know he wouldn’t even know it was in there.

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Banana Cinnamon Donuts
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Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • 3 small ripe bananas
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ½ cup vanilla Greek yogurt
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 heaping tsp cinnamon
  • 2½ cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 cup cinnamon chips (optional)
  • ¼ cup melted butter (topping)
  • ½ cup sugar and 2 Tbsp. cinnamon mixed (topping)
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 325F. In a stand mixer, add the banana, sugar, and Greek yogurt. Add melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda and mix until flour is incorporated. Fold in the cinnamon chips if desired. Spray donut pans with PAM baking. Scoop the batter into a Ziplock bag and snip the corner of one side of the bag to pipe into donut pans. Pipe batter ¾ full. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove on to cooling racks. While donuts are still warm dip into melted butter and roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture. Enjoy!

 

Sticky Buns

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For years, these sticky buns have been our Christmas morning breakfast. My mom started making them on Christmas morning when I was in high school and it became a tradition.  The best part about these rolls is there is relatively little prep work so they are quick and easy to throw to together before bed on Christmas Eve after an exhausting evening playing Santa.

On Christmas morning, just heat up the oven and bake for 30 minutes.  By the time we finished our stockings and Santa gifts, the rolls were ready to enjoy for an effortless Christmas breakfast that still tastes special.  I bet they’d be a great New Year’s Day breakfast too…

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Sticky Buns
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Serves: 8
 
Ingredients
  • 22 Rhodes dinner rolls, frozen
  • 6 Tbsp. butter
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 small package Cook-n-Serve Butterscotch pudding mix
  • ½ cup chopped or halved pecans (optional)
Instructions
  1. Spray a bundt pan with PAM. If using pecans, distribute the nuts around the bottom of the pan and top with the frozen rolls. Sprinkle the pudding mix over the top. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the brown sugar and cinnamon and cook until well combined. Pour the butter mixture over the top of the rolls. Leave rolls to rise overnight (or for at least 7 hours).
  2. In the morning, preheat the oven to 350. Bake for 30 minutes. Flip bundt onto a serving dish and serve.

We only did half of the pan with nuts, as the trio isn’t a big fan of them.  Anna and Clara each had two rolls but Bo didn’t have any this year.  I think he was too excited about his new gifts!We had a lovely holiday!  I hope your family did too!

Aunt Sally’s M&M Cookies

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For me, it just isn’t Christmas without lots of baking and goodies.  Growing up, my mom and Aunt Sally would both bake like crazy during the Holiday season and on Christmas Eve there would always be a table filled with all types of treats.  I’ve always loved baking and I love sampling everything even more.  One of my goals it to carry on the tradition of making holiday goodies with my trio — we’ve got lots of recipes on our list this year!

Aunt Sally passed away when I was in high school, but her memory lives on.  This year, I knew that I needed to make a batch of her M & M cookies — they were always one of my favorite Christmas treats — so I asked my mom about the recipe and she swore it was on the M&M package.  Of course, the package I had didn’t have a recipe — so I Googled it and tried a batch, but they just weren’t right.  Finally, I wised up and messaged my cousin Kelly and low and behold, she had the recipe.   They are perfect.  They taste just like they did when I was little. I couldn’t be happier.

We made these yesterday afternoon and we all had a cookie (or four) after dinner.  Delish!

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Aunt Sally's M & M Cookies
Author: 
Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup shortening
  • 1 cup brown sugar firmly packed
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2¼ cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1½ cups M&M's
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a stand mixer, cream shortnening, sugars, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly. Add dry ingredients gradually to creamed mixture, mixing well. Fold in ½ cup M&Ms, reserve remaining M&Ms for decorating. Drop by teaspoon (or melon baller) onto baking sheet. Decorate tops of cookies with remaining M&Ms - I do about 3 per cookie on top. Bake 10 to 12 mins or until golden brown. Makes 6 dozen 2½ in cookies.

Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts

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This side dish is so easy to make I’m not even sure it warrants a recipe.  I don’t remember ever having brussel sprouts when I was little — it doesn’t seem like something my Grandpa would eat — but I discovered them last year and roasting them is actually very delicious.

I made these as a side dish for tortellini on Monday evening.  By the time Mike walked in, the trio was already sitting at the table, and loudly lamenting that they dislike brussel sprouts.  Mike, who barely touches a vegetable himself, told them they were good and tried one.  And actually ate it.  This, my friends, is legendary.  Sure, he doesn’t love them — but he ate one and commented, “They aren’t bitter like I remember them being as a kid.”  Baby steps.

Anna ate one.  Clara ate half a breadstick as her entire meal — and then ended up in the front room having a snack after her siblings were in bed because her belly hurt from not eating — and Bo — well, we won’t even talk about Bo.  Let’s just say he didn’t eat it.

Personally, I think these are delicious.  They are quick and easy to throw together for a side dish for anything from chicken to pasta.  And as the lone vegetable eater in the house, I’ll make them for myself since they require very little prep work.  If you like vegetables (unlike the rest of my family) then you’ll like these.  Promise.

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Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts
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Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 10-12 brussel sprouts, cut into fourths
  • olive oil
  • black pepper
  • salt
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with foil. Place cut brussel sprouts on the sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Season with pepper and salt to taste. Roast for 15-18 minutes.
  2. *** Also great sprinkled with a bit of Parmesan cheese ***

 

Cake Batter Cookies

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Last Thursday, both Bo and Anna were home from school sick.  Anna was coughing and had a fever on Wednesday and Thursday, and Bo was coughing too.  Clara trotted off to school all by herself like a big girl, while the sickies attempted to entertain themselves while I worked.

By mid-day, Bo and Anna were both a bit stir-crazy, so after lunch we decided to make some Christmas goodies to surprise Clara with as an after-school snack when she arrived home.  However, since they were both sick, I didn’t really want them touching and sneezing on the ingredients, which they weren’t thrilled about – they like to be right in the middle of my baking creations.  Bo and Anna sat at the bar and I gave them each spoons of cookie dough while I pulled these cookies together.  The recipe they are based on was from Pinterest (where else?) and comes from Sally’s Baking Addiction.  I also halved this crockpot hot chocolate recipe so it would fit in my small crockpot to accompany the cookies – it was VERY sweet hot chocolate!

As soon as Clara was in the car, Bo and Anna were both excitedly telling her about the special treat we had at home — and everyone enjoyed sampling the cookies and hot chocolate.  After our snack, we wrote our letters to Santa — luckily, the trio has been pretty good this year so I think they’ll get several items off their lists.

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Cake Batter Cookies
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Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 25
 
Ingredients
  • 1 box white cake mix
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 large eggs
  • ⅓ cup canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup sprinkles (or more -- original recipe called for a full cup, but that seemed like a lot)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, baking powder, eggs, oil, and vanilla by hand. Mix well until a soft dough forms. Fold in the sprinkles.
  3. Using a melon baller, drop balls of dough onto baking sheets. Bake for 9 minutes -- the cookies will not brown. Allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. Makes approximately 25 cookies.

 

 

All-Bran Muffins

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These aren’t the prettiest muffins ever, but considering the amount of fiber they pack, they are surprisingly tasty.  I made these on Tuesday morning.  I’ve been hitting the gym with a friend or two around 5 am on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, so by the time I showered on Tuesday, I was starving and wanted to make a warm breakfast that I thought the kids and I would both enjoy.  A quick flip through the cookbook and I settled on these — they pulled together very quickly and by the time I’d dried my hair, found the kiddos clothes for the day, and allowed them to open their Advent calendars, we were ready for breakfast.

The kids enjoyed these with butter served with milk.  I enjoyed mine with a cup of steaming hot coffee to kick-start my day in the right direction.  Next time, I think I’ll consider subbing the white flour for wheat and try subbing the sugar for honey.  Subbing the oil for applesauce also seems like a no-brainer. I’ll update this post with the results.

These muffins received 3 1/2 wooden spoons from the trio and me!

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All-Bran Muffins
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Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
Ingredients
  • 1½ cup All Bran Cereal
  • 1¼ cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1¼ cup flour
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, mix cereal and milk. Add egg, oil, salt, and sugar and mix well. Add the baking powder and the flour, stirring only until combined. Using an ice cream scoop, fill 12 muffin tins sprayed with baking PAM. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

 

Pumpkin Roll

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Last Wednesday, Mike and I spent the afternoon baking for Thanksgiving.  Mike made chocolate pecan bars and I made pumpkin pies, pumpkin roll, and pecan pie.  I first made this pumpkin roll in September of 2001 using a recipe from AllRecipes.com.  That feels like the dark ages — I was in college, it was pre-Mike, and very pre-Pinterest.

Luckily, AllRecipes.com saves all of my past recipes so I was easily able to find the recipe and thought it would be relatively painless to pull together as I’ve made it several times and never had any issue.  However, since I’m all about keeping it real, here’s a picture of what my first attempt at this pumpkin roll came out looking like last week.

Yeah, there was no way I was serving that at our Thanksgiving dinner.  Mike ran to the store to obtain the ingredients I needed to try again (cream cheese) and the photo above is of the finished product that turned out much more appealing.  I think the issue with the first roll is that the cake was not fully cooked.  I baked it the 15 minutes noted on the original recipe but for the second I baked for 18 minutes.  I also let the successful cake cool longer than the original recipe states – I let it cool almost an hour instead of the 20 minutes recommended.

This pumpkin roll is always a hit and went over well at our Thanksgiving gathering.  It’s the filling that makes it so delicious.  Anna thought so anyway…


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Pumpkin Roll
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Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1 - 8 oz cream cheese, softened
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a 9x13 inch jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with parchment and spray with Baking PAM.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, eggs, and lemon juice. Add the sugar, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and flour, stirring well to combine. Spread the mixture evenly on the to the prepared pan and bake for 15 to 18 minutes.
  3. Lay a damp linen towel on the counter and sprinkle it with confectioner's sugar. Turn the cake onto the towel and roll the towel up with the cake in it. Place the rolled cake-in-towel on a cooling rack and cool for at least 40 minutes.
  4. To prepare the filling, blend the cream cheese (soften in the microwave for 10 seconds if needed), butter, and vanilla. Once combined, add the powdered sugar and blend well.
  5. When the cake has cooled, unroll it and spread the filling. Immediately re-roll and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate and cut into slices to serve.