Banana Oatmeal Bread

I don't know what it is about Fall but something in me clicks and I have a desire to bake bread. I woke this morning and I thought, "I'm going to make some homemade bread." Maybe it was because it's the first day of October but I'm pretty sure it was the 3 rotting over ripe bananas sitting on my counter. I didn't want to make plain old banana bread so I first searched my new favorite blog. The entry she had for today was very tempting, but alas those bananas were begging to be thrown away used! So googled banana oatmeal bread and this is the recipe I found. It was on cooks.com but it is now officially mine!

1/2 C softened butter (I used real butter)

3/4 C light brown sugar, firmly packed (I used dark, it's what I had)

2 lg. eggs

1/4 C milk

2 to 3 med. very ripe bananas, mashed

1 1/2 C flour (I used half white, half wheat)

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/3 C old fashioned oatmeal, uncooked

1 tsp. ground cinnamon*

*The recipe didn't call for cinnamon but I had my mind on these, so I just threw some in!

Heat oven to 375. Grease and flour bread pan. In a large bowl, with electric mixer at med. speed, beat sugar and butter until creamy. Add remaining ingredients, beat until batter is smooth. Pour into bread pan. Sprinkle some oatmeal flakes and brown sugar over top. Bake 40-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Cool at least 15 minutes before removing from pan.

My photography skillz are lacking to say the least. I tried to get a picture of the bread in the pan because it looked soooo good but my pictures didn't do it justice. This is a recipe that I'll definitely use again. It made enough to make 1 very large loaf so I put part of the batter in a smaller loaf pan and made 1 small and 1 medium loaf. Caleb and I ate the small loaf for breakfast, while it was still warm and it was yummy! I split the medium loaf and put part of it in the freezer for later.

Let me know if you try this!

Love Y'all!

Pumpkin Bread!!!!

This recipe is one of my favorites! It comes directly from The Lady and Sons cookbook. Whenever Fall comes, I fall in love again with anything pumpkin and this Pumpkin Bread is the best I've ever had! I love to make mini-loaves and send some to my kids' teachers just as a way to bless them. When I taught a few years ago, I had a parent that would send me homemade goodies and it always made my day. Especially when some of the goodies were still warm!!! Now that will bless your heart and your tummy! This recipe will make 2 regular loaves, lots of mini-loaves or you can half the recipe.

Pumpkin Bread
3 C sugar
1 C vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 C canned pumpkin
2/3 C water
3 1/2 C all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 to 1/4 C chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour pan(s). Mix sugar and oil with mixer. Add eggs and blend. Add pumpkin and blend. Add water and blend. Combine remaining ingredients and add slowly. Fill pan(s) and bake for 1 hour or until golden brown. **Cook mini- loaves about 30-45 minutes.

I love to eat a slice or two for breakfast as well. Toast them in the toaster oven for a few minutes, spread a little or a lot of butter and enjoy with a cup of your favorite coffee. You'll be so glad you did!

Head over to Linda's for some more great Fall recipes!
Enjoy!

Fall weather means Fall foods...YUM!

Linda over at 2nd Cup of Coffee is hosting a neat carnival, where everyone can share their favorite fall recipes. I think this will be a weekly thing but I'm not sure.
When we returned home from Gatlinburg last week, the weather was a little bit cooler and I couldn't think of anything else other than my mom's vegetable soup! Call it a pregnancy craving or whatever but I just had to make it. I've made it in the past but it never tasted quite like hers. So I did what any daughter would do, I called her from the grocery store and had her tell me exactly what she uses and bought the exact ingredients she told me to!
So here's the ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 16oz. package frozen soup vegetables
1 28oz diced tomatoes (make sure it's just the tomatoes, nothng extra)
1 8oz tomato sauce (if you like it real "tomatoey" which I do!)
salt and pepper
water

In a large pot:
Brown your meat and drain off the grease. Then add the vegetables, diced tomatoes with all the juice and the sauce. I use the sauce can to add the water and I added about half a can. You can always add more water later. Add salt and pepper to taste, put the lid on your pot and let it cook. I let mine cook on medium to low for a couple of hours. But you could cook it at a higher temp.

options:
use can veggies
add extra potatoes, which I did, it makes it so much heartier!
I also added some extra okra, just because we have a ton of it in the freezer!

This is a very simple recipe but soooo delicious. I think in the past I've tried to 'season' it up too much but when we had it the other night Steven said it was the best I'd ever made! That's good enough me!

Enjoy!



On a different note, I just found out about a giveaway. Go here to read more about it.