Banana Bars

Ingredients	Amount
Butter	1/2 cup
Sugar	1 1/2 cup
Eggs	2
Vanilla	1 tsp
Sour cream	3/4 cup
Flour	2 cups & 2 Tbsp
Salt	1/2 tsp
Baking soda	1 tsp
Bananas, mashed	2 large
Frosting	Amount
Cream cheese	6 oz
Butter	1/2 stick
Vanilla	1 tsp
Cream	1 Tbsp
Powdered sugar	1 3/4 cups

Directions

To make the bars-Cream butter and sugar, add eggs and beat.  Add vanilla and sour cream.  Add flour, salt, baking soda alternate with adding bananas. Bake 15 x 11 pan for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. To make frosting-Add all ingredients together and beat until smooth. Frost the bars once they have cooled.

This is great recipe when you have old bananas, but don't want to make banana bread.  This comes from my mother-in-law and is super tasty.

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs and beat.  Add vanilla and sour cream.

In a separate dish, smash your bananas.

Alternating add flour, salt, and baking soda then bananas.

 

 Light grease a sheet cake pan with crisco or whatever you choose and pour your banana mixture in.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 or until lightly golden.

 In the mean time prepare your frosting.

 Combine all ingredients, milk, powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla and cream together with electric mixer.

 Remove your bars from the oven and allow to cool.  Once cool frost with your cream cheese frosting.

 Cut into squares and enjoy!

 

Dad Birthday Craft

Anna and I made this for my husband's Birthday.  A simple card, but he just loved it!!!

1.  Make a hand print with washable paint.

2.  Cut out construction paper to make the background.  I used yarn for the fishing string.

3.  Cut out the hand print and attach to the paper then make a cute face and lips for it.

4.  Write whatever you would like on the card : )

Manicotti

Ingredients	Amount
Roma manicotti noodles	12-14 shells
Cottage cheese	2 pounds
Mozzarella, shredded	1 cup
Parmesan cheese	1/2 cup
Eggs, slightly beaten	2
Parsley, chopped	1/3 cup
Salt	1/2 tsp
Spaghetti sauce (Ragu traditional)	4 cups

 

Directions

Boil manicotti noodles for 6 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400. Thoroughly mix cheeses, eggs, parsley and salt.  Fill parboiled noodles with cheese mixture using a tsp or small knife.  Heat sauce.  Pour half of sauce into bottom of baking dish.  Top with single layer of filled manicotti.  Add remaining sauce completely covering manicotti. Bake 25 minutes.  Before serving sprinkle generously with grated cheese if preferred.

This recipe is from my mom and was my favorite growing up.  Simple ingredients, but so good!

 Start by parboiling your noodles for 6 minutes, the should not be too soft.  Set aside.

Mix your cheese filling.  Then stuff your noodles with this mixture.

Place in a 9x13 pan and cover generously with sauce.  Bake in the oven. 

  Allow to set up before serving.  

Easy Hummus Appetizer

Ingredients	Amount
Hummus	1 container
Cucumber, peeled and chopped	1
Feta cheese, crumbled	to taste
Tomatoes, chopped	to taste

Directions

Prepare your cucumber and tomatoes, by washing and chopping. On a plate or platter, layer your hummus first, then cucumbers, then tomatoes and finish with feta cheese.

This is a super easy appetizer, that requires no cooking to take to a party.  People just love it! If you wanted to be fancy you could make your own hummus, but this is supposed to be quick and easy.

 

 Make with or without tomatoes....

Serve with crackers.

Real Life Birthday Cake

I thought I would do a post about REAL life.....I may love cooking, doing crafts and being a fun mom, but sometimes things aren't "Perfect".  I never want to give anyone the impression that our family is.  I think every family does things differently and in a way that is perfect for them.  So here is how life works at our house a lot of the time....I needed to make my husband a birthday cake without much time to prepare...so I grabbed a box of mix and a tub of frosting from my pantry and let my daughter decorate it!  She had so much fun helping and it tasted great...So although it looked far from perfect...It was Perfect for us!

 Real life...Anna won't look at the camera, Todd let the dog up to the counter, I'm in my PJ's and the house isn't picked up...But a great night!

Little Ninja Baby Shower

Last summer I was able to help throw a BOY couples baby shower for our friend's Thao and Donny.  I threw it with my friend Jennifer, who may love throwing parties ever more than me.  The theme requested by the parents was modern NINJA, here is what we came up with....

The hostesses with the beautiful mama to be.

Appetizers

We served various salads and a sandwich bar. 

Jennifer even made cute little labels for everything.

 Thao and Donny nicknames their baby boy "Bruce" so we tried to include that into the shower...Here are some fun water labels I had made on ETSY and paper straws for the drinks.

The boys getting into this baby shower thing, enjoying the food.

Fun lanterns and chevron banner

Enjoying the fun Mason jar drinks and straws!

Jennifer created this fun baby bingo game, complete with little ninja playing pieces.

I created this clothing line decoration making onesies and burp cloths to match.

 Prizes were pre-filled mason jars with cookies

Since it was a couples shower we had an activity for the ladies and one for the guys...The girls got creative and made baby "Bruce" an ABC book.

I purchased a mini scrapbook, with 26 pages (13 total, using the front and back of each page).  I also grabbed some stickers and colored pencils.  I put a letter sticker on each page so people would know what each page represented.  We then let everyone loose to draw, color, and create pages for the ABC book.  The only instruction was that each page had to only include things with the specific letter.

 We passed all the pages around and let everyone do a little on each page.

 One of the pages

 Some people were great at drawing, while others had to work a littler harder...but everyone really enjoyed it and in the end we created a super cute ABC book for the baby.

While we did this, the boys had a poker party in the basement....The buy in was one cloth diaper or $20 and there were fun prizes for the winners.  The couple kept the buy in of course and stocked up on cloth diapers.  You could also just use a pack of diapers as the buy in.

What a fun shower!

 The happy couple, expecting a little baby boy!

She all of Thao's cute ideas at her blog http://adorkableduo.com/

Pretty in Pink Baby Shower

I had so much fun preparing and crafting for my dear friend Julie's baby shower at my home. I threw it with another one of her girlfriends and everything came together flawlessly.  I just wanted a super girly fun theme.  We welcomed sweet baby Bella into the world last May.

Amazing cake pops for dessert made by my sister.  They are stuck in galvanized buckets with floral foam in the bottom to hold the sticks and some rocks to hold it steady.

 Fun paper straws to use in our Mason Jar drinks found on ETSY.  Mason jars filled with yummy alcoholic and non-alcoholic punch.  Mini water bottles wrapped with ribbon.

 Mommy-to-be enjoying our fun drinks!

 Hand made tissue paper poofs.

Brunch food spread.  Variety of quiches, cheese and crackers, mini turkey sandwiches.

 Yogurt parfait bar.

 Individual veggie cups with dip in the bottom.

Cupcake BABY letters.  I made them by purchasing wood letters at the craft store and cupcake liners. I then hot glued them to the wooden letters.

Clothing line...Created the tutu (click on the picture for tutorial).   Made the burp cloths, onesie with initial for her name, and headbands all to match.

Purchased the cute shoes and socks.  Flowers are made from dyed coffee filters.

For the games I ordered small clipboards online and then decorated them with scrapbook paper using Mod Podge and tied ric rack on the top.  Pens have artificial flowers on top, made by wrapping with floral tape.

Pre-made jars with cookie mix for the game prizes.

Spay painted baby food jars with metallic paint, tied a small ribbon and filled with fresh flowers.  We used this as our favors.

We had a flower clip and headband making station.

Making accessories for baby Bella.

The hosts and Mommy-to be!

What a fun day filled with love and laughter!