SK week 37 | Marbled Banana Bread

I love banana bread, and I love having a variety of recipes to go to when I have bananas getting brown on my counter. This was a new one that will definitely be in the regular rotation now!

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
3 large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 1/4 cup flour (I used GF)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan. Melt butter in large glass bowl.

Add peeled bananas directly to melted butter.

Mash them and mix into butter.

Add brown sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt.

Whisk all of that together.

Add one cup of the flour.

Stir until just combined.

Pour half of batter into a second bowl. As evenly as you can. :)

To one bowl, add the 1/4 cup flour and the cinnamon. To the second bowl, add the cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Stir those up!

Alternate spoonfuls of each batter into the greased pan.

Then swirl with a butter knife. But not too much. Bake at 350 for 55 to 65 minutes (55 was good for mine).

Let it rest in the pan before cooling completely on a cooling rack.

Then slice in and enjoy!

Verdict: Winner! I love both regular and chocolate banana bread, but sometime the chocolate one can be too rich. This was a perfect solution! Everyone loved it. :)

SK week 36 | Thick Chewy Granola Bars

I made a granola bar recipe way back in the beginning of #AYearOfSmittenKitchen, but this one looked good too. I'm glad I made it--they're very different but they're both awesome! And it's a perfect back-to-school snack to have on hand. :)

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
1 2/3 cups oats (I used GF)
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar (I used closer to 1/2)
1/3 cup oat flour (or just throw 1/3 cup oats in a food processor)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 to 3 cups dried fruits and nuts (I skipped nuts, but I did about a cup of unsweetened coconut and a cup of dried cranberries)
1/3 cup peanut butter or other nut butter (I used sunbutter because I had it on hand)
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional--I skipped it because mine is running low) :)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup honey or maple syrup (I used maple syrup)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon water

Preheat your oven to 350 and line an 8x8 pan with parchment and spray with cooking spray.
Get all of your dry ingredients into a bowl (oats, sugar, oat flour, salt, cinnamon, and whatever you're adding for nuts/fruits)

Give it a good toss.

Mix the remaining wet ingredients well.

Mix into the dry ingredients.

Press into a lined and greased 8x8 pan. (It helped to wet my hands a little before I pressed it all in)

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. I took it out at 30 because the edges were nice and brown and I didn't want to overbake them. The middle bars ended up being a little soft, but I liked them.

Verdict: These are great! It was a perfect breakfast and the kids will have them after school. I might try some nuts next time, but they're good with just the coconut and cranberries. :)

SK week 35 | Grilled Bacon BLTs

This week's Smitten Kitchen recipe was actually a post from Deb on Bon Appetit. I love BLTs, but Dan isn't a tomato fan, so we waited until he had his fantasy football draft scheduled to make these. :) I had never heard of grilling bacon before, but I was intrigued enough to give it a shot!

(Here's the Bon Appetit post)

You'll need:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons Sriracha
1 pound thick-cut bacon
8 slices bread
2 tomatoes, sliced
salt and pepper
1/2 head iceberg lettuce (I prefer bibb, pictured)

Go start your grill. While it's preheating, mix together your mayo and Sriracha.

Once the grill is preheated, turn down the heat to about medium (I didn't know what that meant in regards to the knobs on my grill, so I had to play with it a little bit).

Flip them once they have some good grill marks. I flipped them a couple more times as they cooked.

Mmmm. Bacon.

Assemble your sandwiches however you like and enjoy with some potato chips. ;) (Don't worry, I ate a whole sandwich, but I didn't think to take a picture until I was half done).

Verdict: It was delicious! A couple things though. 1) The bacon didn't taste different to me. I can understand the pull of not getting grease all over your stovetop, but I generally cook bacon in the oven. So I guess if I REALLY didn't want to turn my oven on, cooking bacon on the grill would be a preferred method. 2) This was really just a basic (albeit delicious) BLT, except for that spicy mayo, which completely made the sandwich for me. It was by far my favorite part, and now I want to find other things to put Sriracha mayo on!

If you need an easy weeknight dinner, this is a great one. Happy last-weekend-of-summer-vacation!

***UPDATE!!!

This is Dan giving a report to the very kind assistant fire chief. It turns out, cooking bacon on your grill can result in quite a bit of grease in the grill pan. Two days after the grilled bacon BLTs, we grilled burgers. When the grill was heating up, Dan said he could tell that some of the bacon grease was still burning off. So he got our burgers cooked and then closed the grill so that it could continue burning and we could turn it off. While we were eating one of the kids noticed that it was pretty smoky. So Dan went back out and opened it up. Flames were shooting out of the grill and the entire pan underneath was engulfed in flames. It seemed like it would eventually burn itself out, but since it was a grease fire and since it was on our wooden deck and fairly close to our house, we decided to call 911. The first to arrive was a police officer, who came into the house and asked for baking soda. He headed to the deck with Dan and by the time I got out there with the baking soda, the fire was out. It had, indeed, eventually burned itself out. So Dan chatted with him for a couple minutes, and I ran to our bedroom to peek out the window at the front yard, where there were now three fire chief trucks with firefighters getting gear on and heading to the backyard. They eventually got the memo that their services were no longer needed. Apparently an actual fire engine eventually showed up as well. We had quite the party on our street! Everyone we talked to was so kind and reassured us that we did the right thing in calling. They'd much rather have a false alarm than have to fight an actual house fire that had spread. Anyway, it was quite an adventure. :)
LESSON LEARNED: I will no longer cook bacon on the grill! It's obviously not worth the hassle, and I would definitely recommend that you cook your bacon on the stove or in the oven like a normal person. ;)

SK week 34 | Guacamole

I love guacamole, and I actually have a decent recipe. But of course, I wanted to try Smitten Kitchen's version. :) And it didn't disappoint!

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
2 tablespoons minced white onion
1 1/2 tablespoons minced jalapeno
2 tablespoons minced cilantro leaves
juice of half a lime
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste
2 ripe avocados

Add your onion, jalapeno, and cilantro to a bowl.

Add the lime juice and salt.

Halve the avocados, remove the pits, and score them like this.

Add them to the bowl.

Mix it up! You can mash some of the avocados if you want that consistency. I just kept stirring it, and some got a little more smashed up, but I like the chunks.

Yum!

Verdict: I picked a night when my avocado-hating husband would be gone, and I made this for Jackson and myself. We loved it! It was perfect and simple and delicious. Will definitely make again!

Oh, give me a break

Fourteen years ago I was pregnant with Jackson and realized that I didn't want to go back to teaching after he was born. I would have loved to have just stayed home, but we couldn't quite afford that, so I nannied for a while, sold cookies at farmers markets, and worked at our church for a year and a half.

Then Leah came along and Dan got a perfectly-timed promotion at work, including a raise that allowed me to stay home full time. It was an amazing blessing, and I know we're incredibly lucky to have been able to swing that. I loved my time at home, and eventually Leah and I sent Jack off to kindergarten and started a new version of our routine.

Then Will joined our brood, and Leah and I spent a year at home with this new baby before then sending HER to kindergarten. And for the last five years, it's just been Will and me passing our days with playdates, BSF, snuggles, and eventually homeschooling last year.

But in two weeks, it's the first day of school. For all. Of. Them. Eek! It's THE weirdest feeling to even think about having no one here during the day. I've spent the last decade at home full time with at least one of them.

People have asked, "What are you going to do when all three kids are in school?" And I haven't had a great answer, except to say, "A whole lot of nothing!" A few years ago, as I saw this year approaching, I joked that I would like to take a year off just to take naps. :) And while I can't quite swing a whole year, I am intentionally taking a break from as much as I can for at least two months.

It's a sabbatical of sorts. And while I'm sure I'll take a few naps, I'm hoping to embrace rest in some more specific ways, so I'll be intentionally taking a break from several things:

• BSF. This is the first fall in seven years that I'm not starting a new study with this group. I began attending with three-year-old Leah, brought Will from the time he was in my belly, and I was a children's leader for three years in there. I have loved it, but knowing that I'll eventually be working at some point this year, I couldn't commit to the whole study. (And also, the Maple Grove group has been getting larger and larger and there are consistently waiting lists. So it's someone else's turn now). :)
• Tuesday Night Dinner. This one is so hard, and it's something that I love SO much. We're about to celebrate three years with these beautiful people. But the truth is, cooking for and hosting 10ish extra people every week is a lot of work. ;) And knowing that it's temporary makes it easier to press pause for a bit. 
• Volunteering. Although I am anxious to be able to help out in my kids' classrooms after this couple of months, since I haven't really had a chance to do that consistently with smaller kids at home. I'm also stepping back from some areas of serving at church, especially coming off a year and a half senior pastor search team process that has thoroughly kicked my butt. 
• Social Media. This one just makes sense in the theme of taking a break. I love social media for a lot of things--I love keeping up with people, and I love following accounts that teach me things and make me think and make me laugh. But I'm also getting really tired of the noise. There's so much garbage right along with the good stuff, so I've got to let it all go for a while. (One thing I won't be taking a break from is my #AYearOfSmittenKitchen, but I won't be posting them on IG every week--if you care enough, you'll have to come here). :) I'll peace out sometime after the first day of school because I love seeing everyone's first day pics (and posting my own!)

I think resting is really important, especially in a culture and climate that is so focused on working and doing and going going going. Eventually I'll have to work and do and go again, but for now I'm looking forward to this couple of months and excited to unplug and lay low for a while. :) 

SK week 33 | Frozen Watermelon Mojitos

I love a good mojito in the summer, so when Deb posted this recipe a couple of weeks ago, I knew I had to give it a try. And it's a winner! Perfect for a hot day. :)

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
4 cups cubed watermelon
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1-2 tablespoons sugar
3-4 ounces white rum
several leaves of mint
sparkling water (optional, and not pictured)

Spread your cubed watermelon on a baking sheet and stick in the freezer. This recipe is brilliant for a couple of reasons, and this is the first--instead of diluting the drink with ice, she freezes the watermelon to act as the ice!

Mix the sugar into the lime juice. This is brilliant step #2--instead of using lime juice and simple syrup, she mixes the sugar right into the lime juice.

Add the frozen watermelon, sweetened lime juice, and rum to your blender.

Blend blend blend until thick and smooth. Add the mint leaves and blend until they're chopped up.

Pour into a glass, add a few splashes of sparkling water, and garnish with lime and mint. I hadn't planned on using the sparkling water, but the consistency needed a little thinning to be drinkable (I didn't feel like eating it with a spoon). Or you can just add more white rum like Dan did. ;)

Verdict: So good! And easy to whip up. I froze extra watermelon to make more sometime soon. :) Obviously only Dan and I had them, but we both really enjoyed them!

SK week 32 | Easiest Fridge Dill Pickles

I've never made pickles, but I do enjoy eating them, so I thought it was high time I tried my hand at it. But I also don't like the process of canning, so this seemed like a good compromise. :) Plus, cucumbers are awesome right now!

(Disclaimer--we're on vacation this week, so I doubled up on recipes a few weeks ago and saved this one to post today) :)

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
8 to 10 pickling cucumbers (I thought mine were on the smaller size, but I ended up only using 7--any more would have been really forcing them to fit in the jar)
3 teaspoons coarse salt
1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1/2 cup white vinegar

Slice up your cucumbers. I borrowed a mandolin for this job, and I didn't lose any fingers in the process!

Stick them into a quart-size jar. But more stuff is going in, so don't pack them TOO tightly.

Sprinkle in the salt.

Add the dill. (I think I overdid the dill--I might do less next time).

And pour in the vinegar.

Give it a good shake! Now stick it in the fridge and shake it every once in a while. Leave them for at least a couple of hours. I didn't try them until the next day.

Enjoy!

Verdict: They were fine. Nothing life-changing. They were easy enough and tasted good. Leah is my fellow pickle fan and she really liked them too. :)

So go get some farmers market cucumbers and give it a try!

SK week 31 | Zucchini bread

I don't personally have a vegetable garden (although I'd love to), but I know that oftentimes at this point in the summer, zucchini kind of starts taking over. It's a definite staple at the farmers market these days, and I wanted to try this recipe. I like zucchini all by itself, but the rest of my family prefers it hidden in a sweet quick bread. ;)

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil, vegetable oil, or melted butter (I did a half cup each of vegetable oil and melted butter)
1 1/3 to 1 3/4 cups granulated or turbinado sugar (I did 1 1/2 cups turbinado)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated, packed zucchini (NOT wrung out) (I grated all three of the zucchini pictured, and it was more than 2 cups, but I don't think two would have been quite enough)
3 cups flour (I used GF)
nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips (optional--I skipped all of these)

Whisk together the eggs, oil, butter, and sugar.

Sprinkle in the cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and whisk in.

Add in your shredded zucchini.

And stir to combine.

Add in your flour.

Mix until it's just incorporated. (Stir in any of the additional mix-ins if you want).

Spread into a loaf pan or muffin tin. The recipe makes either two small loaves or 24 muffins. I ended up making a little bigger loaf and 6 muffins.

I usually prefer a slice of something like this, but I think the muffins actually stayed together a little better. Gluten-free flour tends to make things a little crumbly. So do whatever you want. I'm not sure I'd get a full 24 muffins though, unless I made them much smaller.

Verdict: Really good! As expected, the zucchini flavor is masked by all the sugar and cinnamon, but it's a really good bread. Everyone here has been devouring it for breakfast all week. So go pick some of your zucchini and give it a go. :)