Healthy banana raisin nut bread

I've recently switched almost all of our grains to whole grains and I was nervous about trying this recipe, but it turned out quite yummy. The best part is that it contains no sugar!

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas
1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup hot water
1 cup walnuts
3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix applesauce and honey. Add eggs and beat for 30 seconds. Add bananas, vanilla, and salt. Stir in flour. Mix baking soda and hot water in a separate bowl and add to mixture. Stir in walnuts and raisins. Bake for 60-70 minutes.

Lentil soup

I try to incorporate vegetables into my children's diet whenever possible, whether that is by grating them into meatloaf or making fun shapes to get them to eat them. The more the better. Kale is one vegetable that I love but they hate. A few days ago, I finally came up with a recipe with kale included that they would eat: a lentil/rice/kale soup.

1 tbs canola oil
‎1 onion
1 lb bag lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
28 oz can of small diced tomatoes
8 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
5 cups chopped fresh kale
sour cream

Saute onions then add everything except kale. Cook until lentils and rice are tender. Then add kale and cook for another 10 minutes. Top with sour cream

V-day project

 Pinterest has literally changed my life. I didn't even know I could be creative before I discovered this AMAZING website. So, naturally, when trying to decide what kind of valentines to do for Isaac's class, I turned there. One popular pin was a crayon heart valentine. It wasn't my favorite, but it looked to be the easiest and cost efficient. Honestly, before this year, I had never even seen someone make homemade valentines. Let's just say I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This did take some time (about 5 hours), but we had to make 25 of them. Anyway, this is how it's done:
We used both Crayola and Cra-Z-Art brands. The Cra-Z-Art crayons are much easier to peel. For 25 valentines, it took about 100 crayons. (It's even more convinient when you already have a bunch of broken and peeled pieces courtesy of your toddler.) Then, I took a pen and ran it up the side of the crayon to remove the paper more easily.

Peel and cut the crayons into little pieces and place them in a heart-shaped cupcake pan. (I got mine at Walmart for about $3.50)





Set the oven to 250 F and bake for 10-15 minutes.

They come out looking slightly disappointing, but look much better when you take them out, which you do in about 10 minutes after they have set to room temperature. This is what ours turned out like:

Pretty cool,eh



 Next, choose two colors of construction paper. We used blue and red. Choose one to go behind the other, which means that it must be slightly bigger. Find a cup that fits around the heart with some room. My husband's coffee cup is about 4" in diameter and worked perfectly. Trace around the cup and cut out the circles.

 

Do the same thing for the larger circles with another cup on the other color construction paper. I used my kids' applesauce bowl. It is about 4 1/2" in diameter.

Then, have your child write their "to and from" on the backs of the larger circles.

Meanwhile, write on the smaller circles what you want the valentine to say. Ours said "Happy Valentine's Day for "crayon" out loud"

Then glue the circles together and tape the crayon heart to the middle. (There might be a better way to secure them to the construction paper, if you find it, let me know). Then you have homemade valentines!

Note: I would totally give credit to whoever came up with this genius idea, but the link I found was only a picture, which is why I posted this step by step tutorial. Although it was very time consuming, Isaac and I had a lot of fun doing it together.

All About Me

As I hear, you're not a cool kid unless you have a blog, so here I am. Although mostly anybody who reads this will probably already know who I am, I am going to tell you anyway.

My name is Sarah. I'm a 23 year old stay at home mom to three little boys: Isaac, Owen, and Connor. I've been married 4 1/2 years to my high school sweetheart, Ryan, who is currently stationed in South Korea.

I also attend college online. I will have my bachelor of science in nutrition science in 76 weeks (but who's counting?). I am passionate about my Savior, my kids, my husband and our marriage, nutrition, breastfeeding, and being true to myself.

They say to pick one subject to blog about: parenting, food, politics, etc., but I've never been a rule follower. So, I'm going to walk on the wild side and not choose. I will blog about whatever I feel like, but it will probably consist of a lot of crazy stories about my kids and parenting, the struggles and joys of being an Army wife, and some recipes. This is going to be my place to express myself since I'm "artistically challenged" in just about every other area. I hope you enjoy it!