We aren’t a gluten free family. No allergies in our house other than the boy being allergic to every single tree in the state we live in. Seriously. It’s a nightmare for a kid that loves to be outside.

But at least we aren’t plaqued by gluten allergies like so many other families we know. This recipe wasn’t meant to be gluten free, but I needed to use up some over-ripe bananas and almond meal..so you go.

Gluten Free Low Fat Banana Bread

3 cups almond meal

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

3 very ripe bananas

1/2 cup sweetner of choice

1/4 cup applesauce or coconut oil

1 tbs vanilla

Mash the bananas up (fun part for the kid to do if you are brave enough)

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another. Fold in the banana mixture into the almond meal.

Pour mixture into muffin cups or bread pan. Next time I will use muffin cups as the applesauce / oil replacement made the bread hard to get consistent texture throughout the bread pan. You live and learn, right?

We used a bread pan and cooked at 350 for 45 minutes.

I really don’t like chocolate covered strawberries. I realize I might be the only person in the free world who doesn’t…but something about biting into chocolate and getting a swishy strawberry juice all down my chin is not appealing or sexy at all for Valentines Day.

But these sweet little Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries are. Easy. Delicious. And your sweetheart will think you are brilliant. I’m working on a Key Lime Valentine Desert too..so check back soon.

You Need:

16-20 smallish strawberries.

8 oz pkg softened cream cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 sleeve of graham crackers

Mix all ingredients together (except graham crackers) and then pipe into cleaned out strawberry hulls. An apple corer or small paring knife is all you need to to make these cute little strawberry bowls.

Put your cheese mixture into a zip lock bag..trim off one corner and pipe the cheesecake into each strawberry. Dip the cheesecake end of the strawberry in graham crackers crumbs and easy peasey Japanesy you are done.

Sometimes the things that you think will be the simplest turn out to be a huge candy pain in the …..

Last year for Mother’s Day I bought my mom and grandmother cute candy bar bouquets at Kroger for nearly $20 a piece. They were super adorable and everyone loved them…especially the men. I heard a lot of, ‘Now that’s my kind of flower bouquet!”  So this year as I was racking my brain trying to think of something sweet to get the hubs for Valentine’s Day that wouldn’t be a waste of money and/or end up in the junk drawer in his office I remembered the awesome candy bar treats.

Instead of shelling out another $20 I decided that surely I could make one on my own for much cheaper and besides, this would be a really fun project for me and the boy to work on together. It amazes me at how I misjudge myself and the child I have raised for the last 4 years sometimes.

The original bouquets were nothing but full sized candy bars taped onto a stick and arranged in a cute glass vase with a big bow on top. Simple right? Maybe if you had the proper crafting supplies and a full hour to painstakingly tape candy bars to tiny sticks without having to worry about a 4 year old and a 5 month old grabbing your pointy sticks and sticking them in an eye.

Long story short…I used miniature candy bars, scotch tape and some wooden skewers I had in the kitchen. I didn’t have the right size glass vase so I used a waffle cone shaped ice cream cup that I got at the dollar store last summer. I thought this project would be a no-brainer and to someone who doesn’t suffer from mommy brain it probably would be. But it took me an hour and a half with time out to feed the girl and countless attempts to get the boy to help me. He was over it after the second stick went in.

My first mistake was using the mini-candy bars. There were just too many and it took too long. 6-8 full size candy bars would have been much faster. My second mistake was that I didn’t have any florist foam to put in the bottom of the vase. I did managed to find some styrofoam so I stuffed that down in the bottom, but then I taped all the candy to the pointy ends of the sticks and the flat ends wouldn’t penetrate the foam. So I had to START ALL OVER.

It was brutal and it didn’t look pretty when I finished. Then I remembered by stash of tissue paper and tried to save it as best I could.

Not too bad but nothing to eww and ahh over either….but here’s what it looked like before I doctored it up with tissue paper. Next to this the above picture is a thing a beauty.

Yeah, that’s appealing. And romantic. Not.

Crafts are my kryptonite and I don’t know why. I’m very visual and creative. My goal for 2011 is do more DIY decorating and gifting and I have several projects that I want to work on soon. None of the other ones contain food or need to convey my love for my soul mate so I should be ok.

Tools Needed for Project:

2 Bags of mini-candy bars – or 6-8 full size bars (better)

Wooden skewers

Scotch tape

Ribbon

Pretty glass/vase

If I do this again I will buy a small glass vase at the dollar store and fill it with Hershey Kisses as a base then just use full size candy bars and a small mini balloon.

One of the ‘go to’ real mom recipes has got to be the good old rice crispy treat. The rice crispy is loved by everyone and it probably the easiest and most versatile treats that have ever been invented. You don’t even really need a recipe…just mix up rice crispy cereal with marshmallows melted in butter. It couldn’t get more real mom than that.

Since the actual making of the treats is so easy I usually have a little more time to funk them up. I’ve made Christmas wreaths, Valentines hearts, footballs, Spongebobs and Patrick’s and tons of other fun shapes. All you need is box of cookie cutters and the options are endless. And if you think your kids love rice crispies in the old school square shape..watch their sweet faces when you give them one shaped like a Bubble Guppy or on a stick like a fancy lolly. And don’t forget the sprinkles!!!!

Here are a few options of what you can do for the upcoming Valentine’s Day. Make the standard bars with a few red sprinkles, form them in a heart shaped pan, cut them with a cookie cutter..dip them in chocolate and put them on a stick. I can’t stress enough how viable and easy it is to bend these things to your will.

Just for fun…this old commercial shows that moms have been using the rice crispy trick for years! It makes me miss the days when homes were built with the kitchen detached with doors. Now we all have open floor plans and the kids are always sitting at the island doing homework while we cook..so we can’t really hide out in there anymore. Oh well..at least we still have the bathroom.

Original Rice Crispy Recipe

• 3 tablespoons   butter or margarine
• 1 package (10 oz., about 40)   regular marshmallows
• – OR -
• 4 cups   miniature marshmallows
• 6 cups rice crispy cereal

Directions:

Melt butter and marshmallows in small saucepan and mix in cereal. While still warm pour into pan. Then bend and shape into whatever form strikes your fancy.

I am not naturally frugal. But since having two kids and leaving my corporate job to stay home and work as a blogger, I try. I don’t really go out of my way to coupon like some awesome moms do, but I do check the coupon sheets and books at BJ’s before I do the family shopping once a month. And this month I lucked up and came across a coupon for 3 free pounds of bananas at my favorite super store!

Score!

Until a few days went by and no one was eating them but me. And I try to only eat fruit once a day while I’m on my ‘post baby slim down program’. Banana’s are like ice cream to me. You know how some people can’t stop eating cookies if they are in the house? Well I’m like with bananas. Banana’s are natural perfection….delicious….nutritious…portable…filling…I love them. But I don’t think the human body is designed to eat 4-5 a day. And I can. Easy.

So I decided to bake them into a form that my hubs and kid would eat. Mini banana breads.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used my Betty Crocker recipe app on my iPhone..and today was no exception. While I rarely follow  the recipes to the T…I always use them as a guideline and then I TWEAK. I leave out oil in place of applesauce or water..I always try to lower the sugar if I think I can get away with it.

Here’s what I ended up with today:

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

2 eggs

4 ripe mashed bananas

2 1/2 cups all purpose flower

1 tsp baking soda

1 single serving container of cinnamon applesauce

1 tbsp cinnamon and 1/2 tbsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

Just  mix it all together and pour it in the mini-bread pans. That easy.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

These are great for gifts…but they won’t last a full 24 hours in my house. I’m hoping there is still one left for me to enjoy with some natural peanut butter and a cup of coffee tomorrow for breakfast. But I’m not holding my breath.