Free Fruit!

 

Yesterday Dean had the pleasure of driving all the way down to my mothers house and back! and she loaded him up with some lovely fruit. Well the bananas are on their way out and half the Apricots are soft and bruised. Actually to look at this photo some of you (you know the whole 3 of you that read my blog) may say WHAT! but i say hellllooo baking day!

With kids going back to school in about a month and banana prices going up i would be stupid not to put these beauties to work. So banana bread it is for today. There are about 30 bananas there and so that calls for alot of bread. I have a whole bunch of apple sauce that i bottled from last season that needed to be used. I remember seeing a recipe i have somewhere that called for apple sauce so there you go. But when i read the review on the bread again i noticed that people were say to substitue this and that and wow! so i just took a bit from each advice and this is what i did. Its not the fluffiest banana bread recipe i have but its definantly moist, going into school lunch boxes, and my kids will eat it. Or do what i found out Charna was doing with my muffins last year SELL them! (she didnt actually know she was selling them she said to me one day that she swapped someone $2 for my muffin i had to explain to her that that is selling!)

Banana bread the way i made it with Apple sauce

Blend 5 bananas together

add

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

mix and leave to sit for 15mins

then add

2 eggs

1/2 cup of applesauce

mix well

add

1tsp vanilla

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking soda

1tsp baking powder

1tsp cinnamon or chocolate chips

I had a block of lindt dark chocolate with pear pieces inside no one in this house was going to eat it like it was so into the bread it went. 2 loaves with cinnamon and 2 with choc for today!

Mix  till only just combined then bake in 2 loaf pans for 30-45 mins. Im going to wrap them and freeze them for school. 1 loaf =1 week. It wont last the whole week but if i haven't had the chance to bake that week or if its Monday and im not organized, thats when i whip them out. And at least they have had some sort of homemadeness for the week. : )

I also made some fried banana scones for a treat today. So in total ive used 13 bananas. I will also make muffins and a cake for the freezer for school. It just makes life alot easier on those mornings you cant be bothered. . Ill also freeze a few of them for a later date. Waste not want not!. With the apricots i made jam and the kids ate some. I actually have a recipe for a cake that i want to try using fresh apricots not dried.

Teacher Gifts

 So in the nick of time we got the teacher gifts out, as the last day of school was today. I always have done these since Jackson was in kinda and i got the tradition from my mother. She used to give lovely smelling soaps in fabric bags. Jackson gave his teacher coasters as well, as she had him for 2 years and its his last year in primary school. One of my favorite stores (spotlight) was having a sale on these gorgeous tins 3 in 1 so i divided them all out and made peanut caramel corn (who wouldn't like that) to go inside. I lined the tins with baking paper to make them be extra cute and i decided the theme this year for my "food treat" gifts was going to be red and white hence the string. I also used little metal decals to help secure the strings they add an extra layer of cuteness. I hope they like it!!

Hanging Jewelery Holder

I made this for my mother. (note to self tell mum to stop reading my blog for a week) I was really stuck for what to do for her. I saw one of these in a catalog the other day, and remembered that i have scrap plastic stuff from my bags left over. So this is what i did. I couldn't tell you measurements and things because i made it up, and i am quite proud of myself. To let you know what it is....its a hanging jewelery holder, im going to make another one for charna it was real fun.

Home Made Puzzle

I found these pre made puzzle pieces made from wood, and so i went through the kids books to see if there were any that were damaged so i could use them. Instead i found coloring in books with glossy covers that weren't being used anymore. Soooo i took the cover off measured everything up and again Mod Podged my way to another hand made Christmas present, These will be for tyty

Decorated Coasters

So Jackson told me that his school teacher loves the colour Aqua. So this set of coasters are for her. I made them using pre bought plain coasters, but you could make your own. Then I mod podged (yes its great stuff) the fabric to them. They have about 3 coats to make them nice and shiny. I hope she likes them.

Crayon roll

So pencil rolls have been all the craze lately and so i found this pattern, its for a crayon roll, not much difference just shorter and longer, but i thought it was really cute. Instead of ric rac or whatever it is i put in some lacey stuff. I think it worked well, it was for a pressie so i hope that the little girl who is using it, is loving it!

some of the things that are keeping me busy

this is crab apple cheese, i know i know it sounds wiered but its really nice just like a slice-able jam

passion fruit curd this was really yummy too!

my finished product....lemon curd, boy this was fun to make the colour was beautiful.

Ok so if your kids are anything like mine they get a silly amount of chocolate every year. So i we actually do have a rule in our house and it goes something like this, EAT AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE! Even with this rule we always have sooo much chocolate left over. So for the longest time now i have been baking with the left overs. Yesterday i went to chicken feed and bought more eggs! like we needed them, but they were so cheap, ( i also do this every year). So last night i made a batch of choc chip cookies for school next week or whenever, and today the rest will go into some lovely banana cakes, with the left over from camp that have now gone brown bananas. You know!, with the chocolate baked into delishesness like this it doesnt really matter what type of chocolate it is, cheap choc, a brand you never eat it doesn't matter you wont know the difference.