Frozen Banana Pops

I recently participated in a postcard swap, swapping kid’s snack recipes with other moms, hosted by Jo from A Bit of This and A Bit of That, and thought I’d share the recipe with you.  As summer (and hallelujia.. warm weather!) is fast approaching, I decided on a favorite of mine- frozen bananas.  I hadn’t made frozen bananas (except mashed for baby) for almost three years, since my pre-pregnancy days when I made frozen chocolate bananas, so I hit the net looking for a more pregnant lady and child-friendly (i.e. caffeine free) recipe.  I found a great one on Culinary.net, called Frozen Honey Banana Pops.  

Here’s my version of the recipe:

Frozen Banana Pops

• 4 just-ripe bananas, peeled
• 8 craft sticks
• 1/2 cup honey, *peanut butter or corn syrup
• 1-1/3 cups finely chopped nuts, coconut, carob chips, dried fruit, graham cracker crumbs, etc.

Cut bananas in half cross-wise. Insert a craft stick into each cut end. Freeze for at least 30 minutes on a wax paper-lined tray.  Meanwhile, spread desired toppings onto separate plates. Spoon about 1 tablespoon honey* over each slightly frozen banana, rotating and smoothing honey with back of spoon to coat all sides. Roll banana in desired topping until coated on all sides, pressing with fingertips to help toppings adhere. Return pop to wax paper-lined tray and repeat with remaining bananas. Freeze pops 15 minutes or more to set toppings. Serve.     Yield: 8 pops

These are the combinations we tried:  

• honey and finely chopped carob chips
• honey and finely chopped cashews
• peanut butter and finely chopped carob chips
• peanut butter chips
• yogurt and finely chopped dried mango *yogurt wasn’t sticky enough to adhere to the banana well
• honey and coconut
• honey and finely chopped peanuts
• pureed strawberries *again, not sticky enough to adhere to the banana well

So far my favorite combination is peanut butter and carob chips.  Yu-uh-mmy!  If you give these a try, let me know what combinations you came up with.  

As you can see my determined little cook had a great time making these…      

                   
   and she enjoyed every last bit! 

Hope you enjoy these too!     tara

Chemical Free Living for You and Your Little Sprouts

I’ve been perusing a new-to-me blog for several days now, specifically checking out recipes (under the categories section), and realized it has such good information about chemical free living that I needed to stop being selfish and share it with you too.. 

It’s dkMommy Spot written by Diane.  On her blog Diane shares,

I am a work-at-home mom who is fascinated with herbs, natural remedies, and healthy cooking.  When my son was born, I started wondering “How will I raise him chemical-free?  What’s the healthiest way to feed him?  How will I care for his baby ills naturally?”  I started researching and devouring all the information I could find.  It occurred to me that if I had all these questions, there must be other mothers out there just like me, looking for answers.  That’s when I started blogging and sharing all I’ve learned.  It’s amazing how many of us there actually are, and I love having a way we can all meet….

So go check it out, even if you’re not a mommy.  You won’t regret it!  

… and Diane, cheers to you for such great info!

Happy day everyone,    tara

Thievery… and hope

Our computer was stolen two months ago, hence the lack of posts here recently, along with our camera, and- darn it still stings- LOTS of pictures of our daughter from december 07 through now.  It was actually partly our fault since we left the garage door open over night… oops!  We’ve done that before of course, but this time someone actually decided to come into our house while we were sleeping and take some things for themselves.  I am so very thankful that no one was harmed, but I have to admit that it ruffles my feathers a bit every time I think about the pictures we lost…  captured memories of our daughter that are priceless to us and pretty much worthless to anybody else.  I’ve had to pray about this because it stirs up anger and grief in no time flat.  What is it with pictures anyways that we are so attached to them?  I guess for me I fear the memories I’ve lost that were captured in those photos because without the help of those pictures, I can’t yet recall the memories.  Maybe I should start there and write down what I remember about that time period specifically.  I love how the Holy Spirit speaks to us.  Just when we think there’s no other way to deal with a bad situation than simply endure it, He gives you hope.  

I’m going to start here if you don’t mind…

I remember playing outside in the snow in December.. she made her first snow angels.  We both made them.  I had to practically throw her into the snow so that she’d sink in enough to make an imprint.  We also used her sled for the first time.  I pulled her up and down the sidewalk but she wasn’t as into it as she was into swinging.. yes in the snow.  She had to be freezing as the cold air blew in her face but she is in love with swinging so she loved it.  I recall her going down the slide to and flying off the end only to land on her bottom in the soft snow.  We had a great time!  Now that I think of it, I have a picture here at the bottom of this post that I uploaded for you all.  Ahh, that makes me feel a little better.  

Let’s see, we also went to a wedding in December, which she loved.  She danced on the stage and was really moving her shoulders and hips.  She wore her Christmas dress which my mom made.  We have a couple pictures of her in it too thanks to Gaga and Papa.  

This was our first Christmas together as a family where she really knew what was going on.  She remembered that day too that it was Jesus’ birthday that we were celebrating.  Having a birthday in November I had tried hard to drill into her head that it wasn’t still her birthday.  You can imagine how delighted I was when I asked her that morning who’s birthday it was and she said, “Jesus’!”  We invited Gaga and Papa over to open presents in the morning and had cinnamon rolls after that I believe, another thing that she really likes.  Maybe they have some pictures of this time??  And I think we may have some video too.  

I don’t remember much between Christmas and Easter- wait, I just looked at my calendar and I had my first quilting lesson in that time.  We spent some time with Nini (Matt’s grandma) and I took some pictures of Bean with Grandma Floor in a bonnet that she had gotten her at Sauder Village.  Bean also took some pictures with her dog Charlie, which she had just finally befriended, so that was cute.  I also took some close up pictures of my quilting progress and Grandma took some pictures of me quilting.  

I forgot my camera when we went to KS for bridal/baby showers but I think other than that we lost some nice Easter pictures from her Easter egg hunt outside.  Again, I have one or two that I emailed to my mom so I still have those and Gaga and Papa have a couple of her in her dress.  She looked cute hunting for easter eggs in her stocking cap and brown coat tugging a big round shallow basket.  (Makes me smile just remembering.)  She ambled from one egg to the next not having any competition to beat her to the next egg.  Then we brought them inside and opened them up one by one to look at all the goodies.  

What great memories.  Thanks for letting me share.

Have a great week!    tara