New Born Banana Bread

A few weeks back while I was in Toronto for the birth of my nephew (a.k.a.: The cutest little munchkin on the planet!)  there were some bananas on the counter that clearly no one was going to get to in time so I decided to make a Banana Bread.  I didn't have my regular recipe handy so I made it a little different and actually thought it was so much better!  It's a super simple recipe so I wanted to share with you!  My sister and fam are chocoholics so I did put chocolate chips in theirs but when I make it for Jon and I, I'll skip the chocolate chips and either make it plain or with frozen blueberries.  So yummy for breakfast with the blue berries in it!

Ingredients:

1) 3 ripe or over ripe bananas, smashed
2) 1/3 cup melted butter
3) 1 cup sugar (use 3/4 cup only if using chocolate chips too)
4) 1 egg, beaten
5) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6) 1 teaspoon baking soda
7) Pinch of salt
8) 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
9) Optional : Blueberries or chocolate chips - 1 cup of either.


Directions:
It's your choice on if to use a mixer or not.  At home I do throw it in my Kitchenaid but in TO I did it by hand and they turn out pretty much the same.  Preheat the oven to 350°F.   Mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.  Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix.  Fold in blueberries or chocolate chips gently.  Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Yummo!  Enjoy!

It's Official!

It's official.  I am all set up on Up, Down & Natural!  This is the blog I plan on using out in the world for marketing.  The other thing you'll notice is that Up, Down & Natural is on TypePad which will allow me some more flexible formatting and marketing options that aren't necessarily available on blogger.  However because of this change at the moment it's a bit drab as I'm still playing with layouts and figuring out how to use TypePad.  But it's there!   

This blog, The Monahan's will still be in existence and I'll be blogging about family things that don't necessarily need to be broadcast to the whole world ie: Holiday Travel Plans, Baby News, Baby Pics etc.  (No... this isn't my way of saying we have baby news or pics.  This is just anticipatory!)  But in preparation for "going live" with the other site I did want to protect this one a little bit.  

I hope you'll also follow me on the other site and "Like" my facebook page. 

Thanks all for your support!  

Love

~A

Christmas Cheer For A Greener Year

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is sending out Christmas cards.  In the busyness of every day life, and amidst the technology crazy world of blackberries, iPhones and constantly accessible email it's pretty rare to actually receive something in the mail from a loved one.  This is perhaps why I love sending Christmas Cards.  It's almost like bringing back the lost art of writing letters.  I love that little rush of happiness when I see an envelope in the mail that can't be anything but a Christmas card! 

What I don't love about sending out Christmas cards is only one thing...  It's SO much wastage of paper!  Every New Year I can't help but feeling guilty about what to do with the pile of Christmas Cards I receive, and wondering what has happen to the ones I sent out.  I prefer picture cards, which can't always be recycled very easily... or so I thought!  In the past year I've gotten much more committed to really thinking about my actions and how they're affecting me, my overall health and the environment.  So this year, when I started my search for Christmas cards I was so pleased with what I found!!

There are so many options for recycled cards, and they're just as festive (and around the same price) as the store bought or special order cards I've gotten in the past.  Paper Culture is the company that I've decided to go with this year, and I have to say I think our cards are pretty darn cute.  I love the philosophy of this company.  Not only do they use recycled paper for their cards and envelopes, I was also able to choose from loads of templates and different picture cards.  In addition, for the cost of postage they will mail all your cards to your recipients for you.  Of course, for an additional charge, you can have the cards shipped to you and then mail them out yourself.  However, Paper Culture strongly urges against this as it's more costly to you, and it increases the carbon footprint of your cards as they are then being shipped twice.  Once to you, and then once to your recipient.

The icing on the cake for me is that Paper Culture has joined forces with the Arbour Day Foundation, and for every order placed will plant a tree in the US National Forest.  Now, I do wish they had a Canadian site, and a Canadian National Forest, but this is a step in the right direction I feel.

Paper Culture is by no means the only company that offers a great selection on recycled and environmentally friendly card choices.  Here's a list of other great resources and companies that I came across through my research!

My Good Greetings

Gallery Collection

Pear Tree Greetings

Sierra Club

Green Field Paper   - This company also has recycled gift wrap for all those presents under the tree!

Mostly all of these also do cards for every occasion from birthday parties, to wedding invitations, engagement and baby announcements... you name it!!  I wish I had known about these when I was getting married!!

Enjoy your holiday preparations!

Reflections

After two tiring, but strangely blissful weeks in Toronto with my sister and her family for the birth of their son, I am finally back home with Jon in Nova Scotia.  Although it was only two weeks there, and the time certainly did fly by it's also a little strange to be baby-free all of a sudden.  I have to say I kind of miss being woken up at 7am by my two and half year old niece Nalini.  And, while I wasn't the one who had to get out of bed when newborn baby Nilesh cried, I did still find myself waking up last night about every 4 hours expecting to hear him cry. 

My time with my sister in Toronto has gotten me thinking, even more so than normally, about what type of mother I want to be.  And even more so than that... what parts of my current "parenting plan" are going to have to be changed, modified, or altogether abandoned.  Something a mother of twins said to me has always stuck with me.  While laughing about all the silly parenting advice she got when she was pregnant she told me, "I did all my best parenting before I had kids..."  It really makes me wonder how many of these ideals and dreams I want for my children and my parenting style are actually going to come to fruition.  I hope more beliefs will be kept than tossed, but have also been around enough mothers and new families to know that it doesn't always work out that way.  I'm very anxious to see how it's all going to pan out in reality for us.

This is a video that has been floating around for a little while now, and I just thought I would share since it seems to fit in with my thoughts lately.  I absolutely love it.    

Super Sonic & Silent

Super Sonic...

And Silent... 

 

And Super Cute!