Strawberry Banana Muffins

I haven't done a Pinterest recipe in a while because honestly, I haven't cooked in a while. Lame house wife I know. But I did manage to whip these bad boys up a few weeks ago for Saturday morning breakfast. Let me just tell you, they are wonderful! I made them twice in one week! Granted I made the second batch without strawberries and with a whole lot more chocolate chips. (They're still healthier than a donut, right?)

Her recipe:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large bananas, mashed
1/2 cup diced strawberries, plus 1 strawberry very thinly sliced
**Chocolate chips for a wonderful surprise!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line or spray a muffin tin. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the butter browns and begins to smell nutty. Pour into a bowl and set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

I tested out the chocolate chips on the bottom 4 muffins, just in case it wasn't good. What was I thinking, chocolate chips are ALWAYS good! This is why my second batch was mainly chocolate chips with some banana in there too.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and yogurt. Whisk in the mashed bananas. Pour the butter in a very slow stream to temper the eggs and be sure they don’t curdle.

Pour the dry ingredients over the wet and incorporate with a spatula.

Fold in the strawberries until just combined.

Using an ice cream scoop, portion the batter evenly into 12 muffin tins and place a sliced strawberry on top. (I did not slice a strawberry on top)

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins

 And BAM! Yummy deliciousness for a great breakfast or lunch or after dinner snack. I 'm a little obsessed to say the least. And this is a great way to use up those mushy bananas!

House Love

Ever since we officially signed our second contract for a house my mind has been in design overdrive. This house will be a bit smaller than the first one we tried to buy, so decorating will be a little more challenging, but I'm so up for it! Here are some ideas I've been swooning over. ( Thanks Pinterest for helping me design my dream home right from the comfort of my parents' couch.)

We will have a half bath in our master bedroom and we have decided to make Steven a little pub/man inspired bathroom.

Things it will for sure include: navy paint, funky light, wire baskets, bronze accessories.

 After much discussion we have decided to paint our kitchen a light, happy yellow ( I think). I am absolutely in love with the mix of industrial/warehouse and eclectic chic...I don't even know if that's a thing, but I am obsessed! Do you see that cart? And those pendant lights? Heaven!

If someone could tell me where to get one of those bad boys for my TV stand, I would love you forever. I am a sucker for almost anything mid century modern! Also, I have been oogling over that doorknob curtain holder for probably a year now. I have not figured out how to make them, so I will most likely break down and buy them. Thanks urbanoutfitters for being awesome!

 

I am so excited to have a guest bedroom in our house. I am dreaming about the perfect combination of the two pictures above. Maybe with a few other colors besides yellow. I just love the clean, 

breezy-ness of them both! 

Oh, the great outdoors... I am going to need all the help I can get with this! Contrary to popular belief I am not good at everything. I suck at plants and landscaping. If it's not yelling at me to feed and water it, it tends to get forgotten (oops). I am going to try so much harder though! ( Luckily fall is right around the corner and I can put off planting until the spring. I don't want to embarrass myself right from the beginning!)

This definently isn't all of my ideas, I didn't want to overload you! I am counting down the days until I can give you a sneak peak of our new little home.

Happy Wednesday friends!

Floral Filing

So I had been seeing these amazing filing cabinet transformations around Pinterest lately and have been dying to create one of my own. Now that I have a classroom to prepare my parents have been on the look out for cheap office furniture and since I'm basically starting from the ground up in my classroom they snagged this beauty for me at a church sale!

Oh, the ideas were flowing, my mind was racing! Of, course I had to pick out my classroom colors first and then design around those. (I'll save that story for another day. Just picture me sitting on the bed with paint swatches all around me discussing with my husband which pink he thought looked best... he's such a trooper!)

But after I finalized my thoughts, off to the craft store I went! Primer? Check! Spray paint? Check! just the right paper? Check! (little did I know these cabinet fronts were a wonky shape so I had to get crafty with my paper)

First I used what was left of my primer from my lamp. I knew I should've gotten another can because I ran out. But ideally you'll only be able to see a little bit of left side of it in my classroom, so I just primered the important parts. Let dry..... now the fun part! I settled for watermelon because I wanted it to be a darker, more sophisticated, hot pink. Right? Luckily, I bought two cans of this and had just enough to cover all the areas that would be showing. ( a.k.a. not the back)

Let me tell you. Spray painting large surfaces is not for weak hands! After I let my fingers and thumb rest for a good while and I had control over those muscles again It was back to work. Since my paper wasn't big enough to cover the surface in one piece ( and I couldn't figure out how to get the hardware off the front.) I decided the best way would be to cut it into 3 inch, 2 inch, and 1.5 inch strips and Mod Podge it around everything. Thank the Lord for Mod Podge! The first one took the longest because after I had all my notches figured out and cut I could then make the templates for the other drawers.

At this point it was about 1:00 in the afternoon and I was stinking hot! I decided to move my operation inside. After I did that, got everything set up and the wind wasn't threatening to take my dainty little templates away, it was smooth sailing.

Ta Da!! I apologize for the picture quality, there's only so much I can do with hallway lights. I'm glad we moved it inside though, because it is raining like crazy now! But I still think it's beautiful! I get too excited everytime I look at it.

Gosh, I am chomping at the bit to get her into my classroom and jazz things up a little! I hope you have a lovely day filled with floral productivity!

Little Lasagna Love

(pinterest picture)(source)

Ok, I made these little lovelies a couple of weeks back for my family and I have been dying to share them with you! They are so much fun and pretty easy to make. The best part? You don't feel like you have to take a heaping spoonful out and the leftovers are super easy to save and reheat! No messy scooping and plopping. (I bet you didn't know normal lasagna was that messy, huh?)

Note: My pictures are not nearly as pretty as hers, but you'll get the point!

Ingredients
12 oz raw ground turkey
¼ tsp salt, divided ( I used garlic salt)
¼ tsp pepper
1 cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped mushrooms
14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes, or tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp dried oregano, divided ( I used Italian seasoning instead of oregano and basil)
½ tsp dried basil
1 ½ cups part skim ricotta cheese
24 small square won ton wrappers (the kind near the tofu in the refrigerated section of the produce dept)
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

I must confess that I did not follow the measurements exactly. I used more turkey, tomato sauce, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. I also just seasoned to my hearts content. I omitted the onion and mushrooms because I despise mushrooms, but I'm sure if you like them then they would taste wonderful!

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the turkey, onions, mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Crumble the meat and saute the mixture for about 10 minutes, or until the turkey is cooked through. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 30 seconds.

Add the crushed tomatoes and 2 tsp of oregano. Bring the pan to a gentle boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, a pinch of salt and pepper, the remaining teaspoon of oregano, and the basil. Stir to mix well. Set aside.

Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. (I just used Crisco to coat the insides of my pan. If you do this make sure to put some around the edge of the opening so your won ton doesn't stick to it. If you're using a spray just make sure and spray the top as well)

Place 1 won ton wrapper into each of the 12 cups, pressing firmly in the bottom of the cup and up the sides.

Using half of the ricotta mixture, divide it among the 12 muffin cups. Next, using half of the turkey tomato sauce, spoon it evenly over each of the ricotta filled cups. Sprinkle with 2 tsp of mozzarella.

Gently press another won ton wrapper on top of the mozzarella layer.

Repeat the process by distributing the remaining ricotta, then the remaining tomato sauce, and finally the rest of the shredded mozzarella.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.



Let the cups cool, remove them from the pan, and serve!





Mine definitely did not turn out as pretty as hers, but they were super delicious! I was a little nervous about the won tons and the ricotta cheese but they tasted exactly like little lasagnas! And they packed up nicely to be put in the refrigerator for lunch. Just wonderful!

Pinteresting Life

Since moving in with my parents and realizing we were going to be here longer than we thought, I decided I would cook on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This way I still have some of the same responsibilities I had when it was just us and I don't get out of the habit of cooking, haha. I plan during the week what I'll cook for dinner and go shopping on Friday for the next week.  This has seemed to work well so far! I've also decided that I'm going to put my (almost) 24/7 pinteresting to work. Every week I want to cook something delicious I've pinned since most of the time I only dream of incorporating my pins into everyday life. I am really excited about this! My first challenge was the Crockpot Italian Chicken from the-girl-who-ate-everything. Here's what her's looked like:

Delicious, right??

I thought so. So I gave it a go! Here's mine ( a much smaller portion) and the recipe. I used different noodles, but I think it turned out wonderfully!

• chicken breasts (Her's called for 4, but I put in like 7. I wanted there to be chicken in every bite!)
• 1 packet dry Zesty Italian dressing
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened (I did not soften mine because I forgot, oops. But It didn't take very long for it to break down on the stove.)
• 1-2 cans cream of chicken soup (depending how cream cheesy you want it. Of course I wanted mine super creamy, so two it was!)

 

Place the chicken in a crockpot and sprinkle Italian dressing over it.

 

Combine cream cheese and cream of chicken soup in a small pot over low heat and pour over chicken.

 

Cook on low in the crockpot for at least 4 hours. (I would cook on low if you plan on leaving it in there all day. I only had about 4 hours and after the first two and my chicken not cooking as fast as I wanted, I cranked it up to high. And yes, that is the crock pot we use in this house, isn't it great?!)

 

Once chicken is done you can leave the chicken breasts whole, cube it, or even shred it. (I ended up cutting mine into small cubes, that way I could just pour it over the noodles instead of having whole breasts to serve)

 

Once you have cut up the chicken, throw it back in the crockpot and stir into the sauce.

 

If you feel the sauce is too thick you can thin it to your preferred consistency with a little milk. (I thought it was just right! But I do love my sauces thick and creamy!)

 

Serve over pasta or rice.

 

I also added a good dose of pepper and some garlic salt. I thought it needed a liitle something else. I would definitely be up to experimenting with more packages of that italian seasoning.

 



Pumpkins & spices & leaves.. oh my!

One of my absolute favorite seasons is finally upon us! I am just beyond tickled to welcome fall into my life with open arms. Fall means cooler weather, changing leaves, Oktoberfest, the fair, bon fires, marshmallows, snuggling, sweaters, boots, pumpkins, evening walks... I could go on forever! Fall, in my opinion, is one season that explodes with life, especially in Oklahoma and especially after the summer we just had! Even if this cold front is a teaser and we're not completely on the down hill yet, It's still a reminder of what's coming. I just can't wait!! I was even giddy looking up these pictures!

The cooler air just does something for my soul. The past few days I feel lighter, happier, and way more eager to get things done. I feel like I can actually breath when I go outside, I just want to hug it! This I know is ridiculous, since you can not, in fact, hug weather. But oh boy, if I could... it would be in on serious embrace.

Another reason I am excited about this particular fall is the fact that I get to spend it cuddling and exploring with my wonderful husband! This is the first fall we'll spend together in our little house with our giant backyard. Oh the fun to be had!!

Since Oklahoma doesn't exactly loook like fall yet (and might not with the extreme lack of rain) I decided to use my resources. I've made a collection of some absolutely wonderful fall shots from my current obsession Pinterest! I hope you do enjoy them and I hope they lighten your soul as much as they did mine.

Happy almost fall!

Love-Lea