Tea and bananas......

What have I been up to lately? I'm kind of scattered it seems... can't settle down and stick to making one thing! So I've been cooking and crafting, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

I watch a lot of You Tube... the other night I saw the cutest little tea bag holder. I'm always searching for new ways to gift tea to friends. This one was different and so cute!  Here's a tiny peek!

Do you want to see more? Here is my finished "prototype". I would do a few things differently. The gal whose video I watched made it taller, so it would hold a small candy bar. But I found that it was too thick and wouldn't close. So I made mine not as tall, but now it's still too tall for the tea bags, as they slip down to the bottom of each pocket! I'll fix that next time.

I used some pretty pink vintage papers from Couture Creations - Vintage Rose Garden. Love those papers, but you can't see them very much in this little folder. I'd better make a gift bag to match, right? And this being a prototype, each little pocket I made was not exactly the same size as the other, so the bottoms don't line up too well. How that happens, I don't know.... when I cut the paper exactly the same size for each, and fold on the exact same score lines! A mystery to me......

I made a "belly band" to hold it closed. That top flap pops up if you don't put the belly band on it (or you can use a magnet but I couldn't find mine). Decorated it with lace and sweet little hearts, a wooden spiral "button" and a tea tag I made. I typed out the saying on some nice cream cardstock and then used my Sizzix to cut the little framelet...... inked the edges with light brown ink.

It stands up on end, all by itself. I like that... for storage reasons.

The inside pockets are where all the pretty paper is!

This will make darling gifts and I can use up some of my paper scraps and 6x6 paper pads. Here is the video link to the gal who made this: Positively Papercraft.  This is what her little folder looked like:

Now I'm sure you're asking what bananas have to do with tea??????? {smiles}

Well..... yesterday, I needed something sweet. Hubby and I are trying  failing to cut out alot of sweets and bread in our diets... due to the holiday weight gain (why does that have to happen every year?) But I can't seem to go a day without something sweet!  Does that happen to you? I"m so hooked on sweets, so I tried to make a "healthy" dessert. I found a gluten free banana bar recipe I had saved, which would have been fine if I hadn't added the cream cheese frosting............ 

It did turn out DELICIOUS! It's healthy in the fact that it has some buckwheat flour added, and applesauce, bananas (fruit right?), raisins and almonds. So healthy right???? Please say I'm right!

I only added 3/4 cup of brown sugar rather than the 1-1/2 cups called for in the recipe. Does that count as "healthy"? Yes I know... I could have added honey or stevia instead, but the consistency isn't the same with honey, and the stevia makes it taste a little bit bitter to me.

Here's my version of a recipe that was not gluten free...... I had to adjust it. I don't know where I got the recipe. The maker is a Susan Stuff from Mercersburg, PA. I think it was in a cookbook my husband got at a thrift store so I tore it out to use!

Gluten Free Frosted Banana Bars

Heat oven to 350°. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

3 tbs. soft butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1-1/2 cup ripe mashed bananas

1/2 cup unsweet applesauce

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1-3/4 cup gluten free flour mix

1/4 cup buckwheat flour (or any other kind of GF flour)

OR

Use 2 cups of a GF flour baking mix, I like Bisquick

   or King Arthur, or Krustez

1 tsp. baking soda and a dash of salt

Optional:

1 cup raisins

3/4 cup sliced almonds

I added both... add anything extra you want, like dried cranberries, or walnuts or pecans, or dried apricots, etc.

Beat butter and sugar until crumbly, about 1 minute. Add eggs 1 at a time and beat after each addition. Beat in the bananas, applesauce and vanilla. Now add the flour on top with the salt and baking soda and mix those together a little bit on top of the egg mix... then stir it all together until well blended. This calls for using just one bowl, rather than two! I like one bowl desserts! Don't overmix.

Add mix to a well greased (I use butter or coconut oil) 9x13 baking dish, The batter will be stiff but not like cookie dough.. should be like a cake mix but a little stiffer. Spread it to about 1" thickness or a little more. 

Bake 20-25 minutes. Mine was done in 20 minutes but I live at a higher elevation. Check with toothpick to see when it's done. I'd rather undercook it a little bit so that it will remain moist and heavy, like carrot cake. If you overcook it, then it's more like a cake and a little dry.  Let cool for about 1/2 hour and then frost.

FROSTING:

Blend 1 8 oz. block of cream cheese, 1/4 cup soft butter and about 2-1/2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla in a bowl. I added a little bit of milk as it was too stiff, but just 1 tbs. to start with, and then maybe a little more.

MORE COOKING.............

Oh!  And I also made some freezer applesauce from a big box of Pink Lady apples I got from my sister. A big truck had rolled over by her town and spilled all the boxes of apples!  They were signaling people to stop and telling them they could have as many as they wanted for free, so she got 2 big boxes. 

Although we live 70 miles apart, we just happened to have lunch the following day at our "in between town", so she brought them to me. Hurray.. I LOVE free stuff! I had to make chucky style as can't find my big stainless strainer that I always used to use to make applesauce. Really though, I love the chunky almost better. NO sugar added either.....

So that's what I've been doing (and eating)!!! 

Until next time...............

~Marilyn~