Bible Lesson #7: It's Bananas - B-A-N-A-N-A-S... Banana Bread of Champions

Howdy y'all! I feel like I've been slacking since I haven't posted in a while, but here I am with a few new goodies just in time for the holidays (this makes a great neighborly holiday gift, wrapped up all fancy). Now, if you are like me, carbs and breads are the sunshine to my soul. A personal favorite growing up, and still today, is Banana Bread. It's moist, delicious, and always disappears really quickly at my house. After many mediocre attempts at making a perfect banana bread, I have discovered The One! So please enjoy, from one carb lover to another this holiday season.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups flour
Optional (add walnuts - my dad's fave - too bad I'm allergic)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

No need for a fancy mixer. Mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in suger, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered/Pam'd 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on rack about 15 minutes, remove from pan and cool completely or it will be slightly doughy. Serve alone or with butter (My personal favorite to spread on it).

*Whenever I have brown bananas I'm not ready to use, I mash them up and freeze them until I'm ready to make some bread. They defrost super quickly in a bowl of warm water. 

Bible Lesson #6: Rolos, melt straight into my heart...

Welcome to the mind of a vivacious, hungry, collage-aged girl. Boys - chocolate is the cure for everything. Caramel, too? Why, yes please!

These are the only ingredients! (Minus an egg, I got a little crazy in this pic)

This is my go-to east-peasy cookie recipe that everyone loves - if they only knew how easy they were to make!

Rolo Cookies

Ingredients:
1 pkg Rolo's
1 Box Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 Eggs
1/3 cup oil

This is the consistency of the mix.



Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Yields about 3 dozen.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Nom nom nom nom nom... gooey goodness in my belly...

Bible Lesson #5: The Three C's - Cranberries, Cream Cheese, & Crackers

As before mentioned, being in my quasi-college/adult stage allows for a lot of raised eyebrows and skepticism among the next generation adults of my family when I ask these four little words going into a family party - "What can I bring/make?" Sometimes, it is nice to not have to worry about appeasing the masses (or my family) with some food item that those raised eyebrows are ready to pounce on. However, I've been feeling quite saucy and daring lately and decided to just bring a dish without being asked. Courageous or stupidity? That's still out for debate. However, this time consequently ended in a successful venture, or experiment would probably be a more appropriate word... phew.

Cranberry Salsa Dip:

Ingredients:
1   12 oz package fresh cranberries
1/4 C green onion, chopped
1/4 C cilantro, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper
1 1/4 C sugar
1/4 t cumin
2 T lemon juice
dash salt
2   8 oz packages cream cheese

Directions:

1. Put your cranberries in a food processor.
(blender doesn't work well, use the processor or
chop yourself)
2. Chop up your green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno
pepper into small pieces.
3. Add all ingredients (but the cream cheese and
the wheat thins) into a bowl. Mix them all together,
cover and store in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
The sugar needs some time to soak in to the
cranberries and break up their bitter taste.
4. When you are ready to serve, place your cream
cheese bricks on a plate.
5. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you
can.
6. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream
cheese.
7. Spread it all around.
8. Serve immediately with Wheat Thins, Ritz
Crackers or Tortilla Chips.