Banana Muffins!

Been on the hunt for a great Banana Muffin recipe for a while now. Most attempts have resulted in me wasting time and ingredients as my kids haven't liked them. Recently I was at a friends house and my kids actually ate her Banana Muffins! So I asked for her recipe, tweaked it slightly to be dairy free for Bear and voila! A Muffin my kids will actually eat! Yeah!!

So Thank you to Christina for sharing her recipe with me!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins!

½ cup hard margarine (or butter), softened (I substituted 1/4 cup of Apple Sauce)

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

1 ½ cups mashed banana (about 3 medium)

(Dairy Free) Chocolate Chips

1. Cream margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in medium bowl.

3. Add flour mixture to margarine mixture in 3 additions, alternating with banana in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture,  Beat on low until batter is smooth. 

4. Fill muffin ¾ full/ Bake in 350 oven for 15-17 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.  Cook in pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool.  Makes 2 dozen muffins.

Enjoy!

Something New for our household!

We've had a lot of trouble with our middle son and his sleeping and behaviour problems. Our doctor had put him on Melatonin 2 years ago to get him to sleep and for 2 years I’ve been trying to get more answers because weaning him off it wasn't helping him sleep and I didn’t want this to be a long term solution for my son. My new family doctor didn’t have any answers for me but after discussing his melatonin use with a pharmacist she decided she wasn’t comfortable with him continuing using it and advised me to try visiting the Naturopathic Doctor.

Almost two weeks ago we finally we're able to go. He sat with me for a good 45 minutes asking questions and discussing my son and his history. Then he told me he suspects that he has a Dairy Intolerance. We discussed things some more and came up with a plan for Bear.

So now I am embarking on a whole new life. I have counted myself lucky for having three healthy, happy children. When I listed to other parents talk about their childrens allergies and the things they needed to do I counted my blessings! Now here I am trying to adjust our eating habits! Bear is a big cheese eater! This is going to be hard!

I’ve been scouring the internet now for recipes and more information. In the meantime, we’ve been about 12 days relatively dairy free (he did have some at a party, which majorly blew up in my face! Bad idea!). His behaviour has been remarkably better! The Sleep is finally getting there! Last night I was able to get him to bed by 7:30pm!!! If you knew him, you’d know what a miracle that is!!! 7:30pm!! A sweet joy!

Now here we are on our new journey! A dairy free journey for Bear!

Cricut & Front Entrance!

Mama got a new toy! I've been saving up my money and finally got enough over Christmas to get myself something special ;) Spoiled myself with a Cricut Expressions 2!! 

Tonight I got it out and did a project for my front entrance with some vinyl I purchased! I opened the craft room and created the design I wanted to use.

Lined everything up and got cutting

 Object cut!

I applied the transfer tape and took it over to the area I wanted it and applied it where I wanted it!

I also made this up for the front door! lol We've been getting a lot of religious knocks on the door lately so Im hoping this will politely tell them not to knock ;) Jaime wants to me to add "Unless you're selling cookies" lol

And just for the update on the front entrance, I also worked on getting our calendar in order, as well as using my label maker to make my weekly list work better! Looks much cleaner and I like it more!

Much nicer & more functional! Its coming along!! (yes bottom still needs another coat of paint, I know!)

Front Entrance pt 2.

So a small update for the Front Entrance Way! I bought a Calendar and a white board/cork board to keep track of the kids week! I still need to do another coat of white paint and do some touch ups but its hugely improved and Im thrilled with how its working to keep the kids organized!