just this minute

just this minute Otto is sleeping in a pile of books in his bed (he doesn't join us in the "family bed" til around 1am most nights) with visions of Ralph S. Mouse riding a motorcycle probably dancing in his head. at bedtime tonight i told him that my favorite part of the day was when i was laying on the floor nursing Loretta while he was doing flashcards with Daddy on the couch next to us. he said, "i don't have to tell you my favorite part because it's the same thing." well he was probably just lying to be lazy since he did go on a field trip to the nature museum today but i don't care, that bedtime declaration freaking made my day.

just this minute Loretta is sleeping in her bassinet about four feet away from me. i'm drinking night coffee, eating some oatmeal banana bread (i wasn't kidding when i said we've been making it nonstop. never stopping!), and just feeling kind of mellow and peaceful. i wanted to share a few things that are making me smile tonight...

i won an instagram giveaway from bebehblog <-- ♥ --> a little "i heart gingers" pin came in the mail today and totally undid a frown i was making because i hit a parked truck in a parking lot on the way home from work this afternoon. i don't usually drive home through parking lots but a really neat sofa caught my eye in front of the St. Vinnie's and i pulled in to check it out. up close i realized it was a tiny loveseat and we are in the market for a full sized couch so i decided against and was zipping out of there to get to the babysitter's on time and so the fastest way to leave a parking lot is obviously to smash through all the other cars and then stick around passing your insurance information around. obviously.

funnily enough i'm not even obsessing over the damage to my bumper, how stupid it was of me to hit a parked truck (no should drive van into truck duh), or the cost of fixing my van (his truck was unscathed luckily!)... i'm just kind of whatever about the whole thing.

but i WAS frowning and then i got my little pin and it just kind of turned my afternoon around. thanks Suzanne! i hope Loretta turns out to be a ginger! what little hair she has sure is looking strawberry blondish ♥

then, with my frown turned upside down, we had a really great evening. bedtime was by the book. once Otto was asleep i cut myself a little piece of banana bread and put it on this nice plate i thrifted ($0.49) last weekend. brewed a little coffee. and now i'm about to snuggle up under this so-great-rainbow afghan that i also thrifted last weekend ($4.00) and delve into book three of the Fifty Shades series.

kind of a great evening. now to not vomit every time Ms. Steele talks about her inner goddess :) xo

our famous oatmeal banana bread recipe

about a month ago we got a big bag of organic oats from CostCo. since that day we have made nothing oatmealy at all except about eight loaves of this oatmeal banana bread. it's an experimental recipe i devised based on traditional banana bread. we've made loaf after loaf after loaf lately and i've fine-tuned the ratio of oats-to-flour and made a few other little tweaks and now i think it's just right.

i'm just acknowledging that my kitchen is a mess but that's about as good as it ever looks so whatever.

baking together with Otto is one of my absolutely favorite things to do on earth. it is real mommy-and-me bonding time for us. he loves to dump the ingredients in and stir and sample the ingredients as they go in (especially chocolate chips or dried fruits depending on what we're mixing in). he has embraced a nudist lifestyle of late but i am a stern mama and insist on at least underpants for all sous-chefs in my kitchen!

here's what you need to make our famous oatmeal banana bread:

- 1 cup dry oats
- 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/8 cup ground flax
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 6 Tbsp salted butter - melted
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 mashed ripe bananas
-(optional) 1/2 cup dried fruit, nuts, and/or chocolate chips
-(optional) 1/8 tsp vanilla extract, almond extract, or a little of each

here's what you do:

- grease a little bread pan
- preheat your oven to 350'
- get all of your ingredients ready because you're going to mix them all together at once
- ok, mix it all together
- pour batter into the bread pan and bake for just about 60 minutes

enjoy! this is such a yummy version of banana bread, super moist and the oats give it such a rich flavor and make it feel even more breakfasty. we've been eating it nonstop for a month and going strong. i pack it in Otto's lunches instead of a sandwich some days because he is a little finicky about sammies in his lunchbox but not even a little picky about this banana bread.

you might also like this egg free banana bread recipe from a couple of years ago. whenever i run out of eggs i use this method and have never had a problem. the taste is not affected at all!

A Delish Dish! Egg Free Banana Bread Recipe

This dish was an impromptu discovery the other day when I started peeling a banana for Ot & all 3 bananas on the bunch broke open at the top. The stars had aligned, I was required to use the other 2 bananas for banana bread, I had to! But then halfway through getting all the ingredients stirred together I realized I'd thrown out all our eggs in fear of the Dreaded Salmonella Eggs! Even though we always buy organic eggs, the whole recall thing just freaked me the [beep] out so I'd tossed ours "just in case"... Back to the dramatic banana bread story... (I know you're on the edge of your seat)... So, I thought back to my vegan days and decided to do a little subbing: applesauce for moisture/sweetness/binding and cornstarch for add'l thickening/binding. The result was eggless and sooooo good - extra moist and just 100% a success! Obvi from the pic, Otto couldn't wait to get his chubby little paws on it and he/we gobbled it up!

1. Preheat over to 350'
2. Get your ingredients together:
- 1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat) (but for a gluten-free bread use brown rice flour - you may need a smidge more flour)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 5 Tbsp butter - melted (salted butter)
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 ripe bananas mashed
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch mixed into 2 Tbsp cold water
3. Stir it all together and pour the gloppy batter into a greased bread pan
4. Bake for 50-60 minutes (until a fork stuck into the center comes out clean)
5. Then set oven to "Low Broil" and broil just a minute or so until the top is nice and browned. You can also brush a little extra butter on top before doing this step. Nom!

My prediction: Just like Van Gogh, you'll eat it all up! Unlike Van Gogh, you'll smile!

Serving suggestions: I lovvvve banana bread crumbled up over yogurt! Or heated and topped with a scoop of vanilla icecream!

-Lindsey