Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Recipes: We're Baking Banana Bread!

Something about fall just makes me want to bake. I love for the house to be full of the delicious aromas of pies and cookies and especially quick breads! Since P just started eating solid food, I've been wanting him to try bananas. I bought a huge bunch at the grocery store and so I thought we'd kill two birds with one stone.





 He was not a fan of the bananas. But the banana bread was delicious!






Banana Nut Bread

 
Makes 2 loaves - but as you can see, I increased the recipe for three loaves ;)
Adapted from here.

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cup oil (or softened butter, but it is moister and fluffier with the oil)
  • 2 cups GF flour (I used my standard blend, but brown instead of white rice flour)
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon xantham gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups ripe mashed bananas
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

    Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, mix together the oil and sugar. Add the eggs,bananas, and vanilla extract and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients with a whisk. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix until blended. Add the nuts and stir until they are incorporated. Divide mixture between two medium loaf pans and bake for 55-65 minutes or until a nice crust has formed and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans and slice and serve. Or slice almost immediately and begin to devour. Your choice :)


    Butter melting on banana bread... drool.

    Day Seven: My Favorite Movies


    This is a tough one! I love movies so much... the experience as much as the movies themselves. I love going to the theater, eating the popcorn, etc, but I love watching movies curled up on the couch at home just as much.



    My standard, stock, favorite movie answer is The Princess Bride, and it really is a great movie. It has everything: comedy, action, romance, you name it! But there are some other movies that I really love too. Below is a list of movies that if I turn on the TV and they're playing I have to watch:






    Elf




    Steel Magnolias


    Risky Business


    Braveheart


    I'm sure there are others, because like I said, I love movies!


    Tuesday, October 19, 2010

    Day Six: A Picture That Makes Me Happy

    I know, I know. I need to get some new material. But, I just can't help it... that little guy makes me smile every time. He has since the moment he was born.

    The most amazing thing I think about looking at this picture is what 6 months of distance and hormones have done to my memory of that day.

    Even though, I've never been more sleep-deprived, and I was in more pain than I ever imagined a person could be in and remain conscious, I look at this picture and think "wow, what an amazing time... I can't wait to do that again!"

    Seriously?? Someone please slap me because that is not happening for a good long while!


    Monday, October 18, 2010

    Day 4/5: My Parents and Siblings



    Since these two days seem to go hand in hand, I decided to put them together into one post. My family isn't simple to define, but they're great. My parents include my mom, dad, stepmom, and stepdad. It hasn't always been easy growing up with divorced parents, but I try to think of myself as being lucky enough to have more people who care about me. They've all been there for me in different ways and I'm eternally grateful for it.




    My siblings are simply the greatest. I can't thank my parents enough for giving me a great big brother and two wonderful little sisters. I can remember as kids, playing the most ridiculous games and always having the greatest time with them... no matter where we were. It's still like that today. My husband Brian can tell you that when my sister Amy and I get together, it's a surefire recipe for giggles and hilarity. Even though we don't see each other all the time (she's in Austin and I'm in Houston), she's my best friend.



    I love them all.



    Sunday, October 17, 2010

    Day 3: My First Love


    Yikes!!! Ok, so far I stink at this "30 Day Challenge" thing, so I'm going to play catch-up over the next few days to get on track.

    I'm not sure what I think of today's assignment. This could be borderline embarrassing, but since I was only in the second grade, I'm just going to go for it...

    My first love was really more of a crush I'd say, since it was pretty one sided. I had a bad bad crush on a boy in my second grade class. It lasted a really long time considering my age. So, funny story: At the time, I was pretty sure I had a great singing voice. I decided that a sure way to get this boy's attention would be to go around the playground during recess singing songs from the Little Mermaid. He would be so enchanted by my singing voice, I imagined, that he would come over and kiss me or ask me to be his girlfriend or something, lol. At one point, I was actually executing this plan and I went up to him and said "bet you didn't know I could sing like that, did you?" Yup. True story. Awesome.

    And no, that cute picture above is not us. If it was, it would probably something more like this:





    Day 2: The Story Behind My Blog Name

    When hubbs and I moved back to Houston from Chicago, I was really disappointed to find a dearth of gluten free resources and restaurants here. So, I of course, got online and started to see what I could find out there. Seeing as there wasn't much, we just experimented (aka went out to eat a lot, hehe) always asking restaurants if they had gluten free menus or they could accommodate gluten free diners. As a result, I started to discover all kinds of restaurants and stores that had gluten free products and menu items. I reviewed them on the website Yelp and created a list "Gluten Free in the 713," of all my finds. After a while, I thought it would be fun to share the reviews in a broader forum and share my recipes and impressions of great gluten free products as well. Thus, glutenfreeinthe713.blogspot.com was born!

    Thursday, October 14, 2010

    30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 1

    Hey Y'all! So I'm a little late getting going with this, but I thought it would be a fun change of pace to take part in this 30 Day Blog Challenge I learned about here. I'm already a couple of days behind, but there's plenty of time in class to catch up, lol!

    Day One: Introduction, Recent Picture, Fifteen Interesting Facts


    This is a recent picture of me and my little peanut Phillip at a friend's first birthday party for her little boy.


    My name's Laura, I'm 27 years old and a native of Houston, Texas. With the exception of a two year stint in Chicago, I've lived here my whole life and I love it! I met my wonderful husband of four years, Brian, in college at the University of Houston. I remember he said that when he first saw me in class he thought, "I've never heard such a big voice come out of such a little person." Our first date was at IHOP (I know... so romantic!) where he accidentally poured coffee instead of syrup onto his pancakes. I maintain to this day that he was just so mesmerized by my beauty that he lost his head :) We got married right after college and have been living happily ever after since! We have a sweet puppy named Miss Pitty Pat (she's 13 years old) and just had our first baby Phillip this year (he's six months old). I'm currently a third year law student at the University of Houston.


    Fifteen Random Facts About Me:

    1. My favorite food is whipped cream, although I'm not sure if that even qualifies as a food.

    2. I secretly wish I was a neat freak, but I'm far from it.

    3. I love to shop and get dressed up, but 90% of the time I'm wearing running shorts or a juicy tracksuit.

    4. I grew up in a family with four kids, so I can't wait to have more so Phillip can have siblings.

    5. I heart Family Guy.

    6. I hate raisins. Nothing makes me angrier than biting into a delicious piece of carrot cake with raisins in it or eating an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie only to find out that those chocolate chips are actually... raisins.

    7. I did ballet at least 20 hours a week in highschool and as a result, I got to leave early everyday!!!

    8. I was president of my sorority in college.


    9. My favorite color is pink, but I'm always afraid of going overboard with it.


    10. I'm a sucker for anything monogrammed.

    11. Champagne is my alcoholic drink of choice (no, I'm not high maintenance at all).

    12. I have a slight addiction to buying baby clothes. My family likes to give me a hard time that every time they see my son, he's wearing something new.

    13. My favorite book of all time is A Little Princess.

    14. My favorite part of my day is getting Phillip out of bed and seeing that sweet little smile.

    15. I wish I could own my own bakery... but then I'd have to get up super early everday... which I hate.