Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins & Blessings

I came across this recipe while Kimball was serving in Afghanistan for a year. It instantly became a favorite for my kids. I can't tell you how many times I made this little treat while Kimball was away. I still make them when I have bananas that are going bad and it brings back memories. It reminds me of all of the blessings & love that my family received while Kimball was gone. Many good people stepped up and took care of our family. I know my Savior was near and kept our family safe & healthy. Just like the poem about the footprints in the sand, I felt him carrying me often. Every Monday the Young Women of our ward came over to watch my children for 2 hours so that I could have a break. I shared this recipe with many of them because it became one of their favorites too.

Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 to 3)

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 c sour cream or vanilla/plain yogurt

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat mini muffin pans with cooking spray. In a medium bowl combine the dry ingredients. Stir together. In a mixing bowl combine the mashed bananas, egg, melted butter, sour cream/yogurt, vanilla, and milk. Mix together until well blended. Add the dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Fill each muffin cup with a tablespoon of batter. Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes or until the tops are slightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and repeat with the remaining batter. Makes 36 mini muffins.

Snowflakes are Like Children...Each One Unique

I remember as a little girl, making snowflakes with my Dad. I always thought he made the prettiest snowflakes with little hearts and other shapes. One Day Joe was bored and I suggested that he make snowflakes. He had so much fun, that we decided to have a family snowflake night for Family Night. It was fun to see everyone's creativity. Mom didn't make a snowflake because she was making milkshakes. If you like the Frosty's that are served at Wendy's, then try this:

Use Breyers ice cream Vanilla Fudge Twirl and add some milk. You can add some chocolate syrup for a little stronger chocolate taste & blend. Yum!

Sarah's Snowflake

Heather's Snowflake


Joe's Snowflake

Dad & Eli's Snowflake

When life gives you beets...

...make CHOCOLATE beet cake!

Next to our house is an empty lot. Our neighbor, who is our home builder, is hanging onto that lot in hopes that one of his children will want to live there someday. In the meantime, he uses the lot to grow a huge garden. It is wonderful! My children like to help him plant the seeds and we reap the benefits of all of his hard work. One night he dug up some beets. I despise beets, but I knew my husband liked them so I graciously accepted his offering. I fully intended to cook them, but since my husband and I had only purchased canned beets neither of us knew what to do with them and they ended up going bad in the meantime. Since that time, my neighbor is always giving us beets because he "knows how much we LOVE them!" Every time, I intend to cook them and every time, they go bad and I throw them away with guilt. Imagine my surprise (horror) when my doorbell rang and I found a pile of about 50 beets on my porch. My neighbor smiled and waved at me...because he knows that I LOVE beets. This time I decided I couldn't throw them away. I wanted to end the guilt. So I found this...

CHOCOLATE Beet Bundt Cake

1 cup butter softened, & divided

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

3 eggs

4 (1 0z) squares semisweet chocolate

2 cups pureed cooked beets ( 4-5 beets)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

2 Tbsp Cocoa

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup chocolate chips

confectioner's sugar

Cut off the top & bottom of the beet. Peel & chunk it. Put the beets in a pan and just barely cover with water. Boil until tender. Place in blender. Puree and add a little water as needed to thin it just so that it can blend smoothly. Use the water that you boiled the beets in. Puree.

In a mixing bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and the brown sugar. Add the eggs; mix well. Melt the chocolate with the remaining butter; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Blend the chocolate mixture, beets and vanilla into the creamed mixture. The mixture will appear slightly separated. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, & cocoa. Add to the creamed mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour into a greased & floured bundt pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then remove from pan. Cool completely and then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

***This cake is very moist. Those of us that are familiar with the taste of beets, can still taste a hint of beet flavor. All of my children enjoy eating it and don't taste the beets. It takes some time to prepare the beets. But if you are looking for a way to add veggies into your children's diet, this is one way to do it.

My son Joe...

... has been on my mind lately. He amazes me. Everyday he bravely leaves the comfort of our home and goes to school. In a world where everyone is trying to fit in and be like everyone else, Joe stands apart in many ways. Joe was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome 2 years ago. Over night everything changed for him. He is no longer in charge of his body. His brain is & it compels his body to do things that many of us would rather not do, especially in public.

One morning 2years ago he awoke with vocal tics. All of the facial tics (eye blinking, nose twitching) that seemed like nervous twitches finally made sense to us. I knew right away that he had TS. I am going to talk openly about TS in my blog. Joe wants it that way. It is a part of who he is. The more people that are aware of TS, the more misconceptions can be dispelled. We want Joe to be accepted in every way and that means accepting that he has TS. Like many fellow sufferers of TS, Joe is bright and does amazingly well during school despite the fact that his tics are battling for his attention the whole day. He is very social and has many friends that are accepting of his tics and to that I am grateful. However, the last several days have been hard for him. His tics are increasingly getting stronger and more noticeable. He can no longer quietly hide them. When he comes home from school they explode on the car ride home and drive him "crazy".

My only prior experience with TS was (1) watching a show about someone with TS who was in a courtroom trial for being fired from his job for uncontrolled swearing. (That tic affects about 6% of the TS population) (2) A cousin of ours has TS (3) A young man when I was in college shot himself to death in front of a nearby LDS temple and he had TS.

TS is a genetic disorder but the gene responsible for it is unknown. No blood test or brain scan can detect TS. They think that Dopamine is improperly metabolized and that is what causes the unexplained twitches, jerks, and other sounds and vocalizations. Although one can stop the tics for a few moments, it is like holding in a sneeze...eventually it will come out. The tic that you have today will not be the tic that you have tomorrow,...they are constantly changing. There is no cure for TS and there is no one medicine that is known to help everyone with TS because everyone is different. That is why we choose to not medicate, because it is all experimental and there are adverse side effects. TS is a neurological disorder that also can cause ADHD and OCD, both of which Joe has. If he does something with one hand, he HAS to do it with the other. Many sufferers of TS have what are called TS storms. They have to work harder to get control of their emotions and their tempers.

I know of very few disabilities that are joked about like TS. You can find many videos of so-called people with TS on you-tube. I ran across one the other day on accident and it was disturbing. I was also in church one Sunday and a man was making fun of an old high-school teacher who had TS. It was hurtful. I should have said something to him but what could I say that would make him not feel as lousy as I was feeling? It made me sad for my little Joe.

Having a son with TS has been a blessing for me. I am now aware that there are many children that struggle with various conditions that we might not be aware of. If I see a child that is misbehaving, I try not to think "what is wrong with the parents". I am trying to be less judgemental. I am trying to raise my children to be accepting of those with differences.

Cornbread

I never really enjoyed cornbread it was so dry and crumbly. Then I got this recipe from a friend. This one is so moist and yummy. The recipe called for shortening, but I prefer the ease of liquid oil. It also asked to be cooked at 350 degrees, but that took for ever, so I bumped up the temp. to 375 degrees. Sometimes I don't have sour cream & I improvise with plain 0r vanilla yogurt. It changes the taste slightly but I still like it. Only my "selective" daughter can taste the difference. She prefers the sour cream.

The Best CornBread

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup sour cream

3 Tbsp oil

2 eggs

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl & then add the wet ingredients. Mix well & pour into a greased & floured 8x8 pan. (sometimes I am lazy and just grease it) Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until the top is golden, & firm, with no jiggles.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

I have always loved using the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe because of the finely ground oatmeal and the chocolate chips. However, I love peanut butter and I wanted a cookie that was similar but that contained peanut butter. I found this one on the internet and now it is our new favorite. One day I was out of flour and I had already started making the cookies, so I used Bob's Red Mill 100% Whole Wheat Pastry flour instead and no one noticed a difference in taste. Pastry Flour is a really fine ground whole wheat flour. I actually double this recipe and freeze them in several gallon size ziploc bags and we take them out and put them in school lunches and they last for several weeks. Since we follow the feingold program I have to use chocolate chips with pure vanilla, no artificial vanillin because my son has reactions to foods that contain any chemicals. The chemicals in the food causes his Tourette tics to be worse and they also send him into what I call, "little rages". My favorite chocolate chips are pictured above.


Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

1 1/2 cups oatmeal

2 cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (or combination white &/0r Wheat)

1 tsp. Baking Powder (I use Rumford aluminum free)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt (I use redmond sea salt)

1 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp Vanilla (seems like alot)

3/4 C Peanut Butter

2 large eggs

6 oz Semi-sweet Chocolate chips

6 0z milk chocolate chips

8 oz grated chocolate (I omit this extra time-consuming step usually)

Pulse 1 cup of the oatmeal in a blender until fine. Stir remaining dry ingredients together. Beat the butter and the sugars until fluffy. Add the vanilla and the peanut butter and mix. Then add the eggs one at a time. Gradually add the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. You can chill if you want to , but I don't want to wait. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes depending on the size and desired crispness of your cookie.

EnJoy!

This One is for You

Sometimes it is easy for everything to be about the kids, especially since I have five. I want to dedicate this post to my better half and let him know how proud I am of him for earning his Black Belt. I love you , Sweetie!

Here is an action shot of the board breaking segment of the test.

Receiving his Black Belt from his instructor.
I love this picture. I hope I am as fit as several of these black belts in my old age. (I guess I better get exercising first.) The lady in the bottom corner continues to teach to this day. She is a fourth degree black belt.

Black Belt Test October 2008

Recently Sarah & Kimball tested for their Black Belts in Kyuki-do. They have been taking classes for about 3 1/2 years. We will be posting a movie shortly. However, these are some of my favorite pictures of Sarah from the test. For those of you that don't know Sarah very well, she is shy. However, when she puts on her karate uniform, her shyness leaves. Her studio knew that she would be doing self-defense moves one -on -one with another partner, so a fellow female classmate came to help Sarah with this part of the test. When the testing board called her up, they decided that she would be better suited to demonstrate with a black belt and they chose a testing board member's son. Sarah always hates it when the boys that she demonstrates with pretend that she is inflicting pain. So that is why we love the picture below. Is that a smile of pain or enjoyment from having a girl throwing you around on a mat? You be the judge.

Look what we did today!

My neighbor told me that her children that ate fresh food right from her garden when they were infants, were her least picky eaters. So I decided that I wanted to make Angelina's food from fresh, organic produce. This book has all of the instructions. Each batch only takes 30 minutes to make. It really is easy. This is a batch of squash that I made & it smells wonderful and tastes great, unlike the watered down tasteless version in the jars. I would even eat this food myself. This is Angelina's first experience with baby food and she loved it!

If you're like me...

you wonder what in the world is making your diaper bag so heavy.

Well now I know the truth. My 9 year old rock-loving son has been stashing his collection in my diaper bag.

Here Kitty, Kitty

I just had to post this cute picture of Angelina on her way to the church for our Halloween Carnival.

Happy Halloween!

This year for Halloween Sarah & Heather dressed up as characters from the Legend of Zelda game. Sarah was Link and Heather was Saria. Joe wanted to be Mario & Eli wanted to be Whyatt from the PBS program Super Why! Angelina was my sweet little kitty. Lately, I have mixed feelings about Halloween. Although I love to celebrate it, I dread the aftermath at our house after the candy is eaten. Ever since our son Joseph was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, our family has been following the Feingold diet. This diet prohibits eating anything artificial, i.e. artificial dyes, flavorings, & preservatives. 99.9% of all Halloween candy that is handed out fits into the forbidden category. However, this year was the first year that Eli was aware of Trick-or-Treating, so Kimball took the boys out to a small number of houses. Thankfully, the amount of candy they received was consumed in 2 days time. Now our house can get back to normal.