: Life is hard. God is good. We need each other.
Everybody thinks their banana bread recipe is the best. I’m not here to start any fights, but…
Let me give you my testimony. I’d been making banana bread since I was in elementary school. It was good, don’t get me wrong. (Mom, grandma’s recipe is fine…please don’t disown me). I’ve even made variations over the years and tried other recipes just to see, but always went back to my old standard. Until, that is, I tried this one several years ago.
Oh my!
Do you know about king cakes? Growing up Yankee, I had never heard of them. One of my college roommates was from Louisiana and introduced me to them. They’re a food and party game in one.
You see, traditional king cakes have a plastic baby hidden inside of them. Yup, you heard me right. A plastic baby. Tradition says that the person who finds the baby in their slice of cake brings the cake to the next party. Nowadays, it’s just a fun addition, and many homemade cakes don’t have them (some recipes say you can use a coin or a dried bean instead). If you want to read about the history of the plastic baby in the king cake you can find it here and here.
Call it a Danish, coffee cake, or pastry…this cream cheese filled delight will wow you. And it’s really easy to throw together. Double win.
This is one of my husband’s favorites, but I don’t make it a lot because it’s not especially healthy. And by ‘especially healthy’ I mean, not healthy at all. But it’s soooooo good. It is a regular on the menu for our Christmas brunch, and if he’s lucky, we’ll have a few other brunch opportunities throughout the year. And sometimes, like today, I’m just surprising him with it on a blustery day.
This oatmeal breakfast cake is dense and satisfying. Use quick-cooking oats and they’ll dissolve into the batter, use old-fashioned oats for more texture. We like it best with chocolate chips, but it’d be delish with your favorite fruit baked in, too!
I just got back from an impromptu trip to Nashville, TN (I live in Minnesota, remember). This is the fourth year that my eldest son has participated in a week long service oriented mission team. In past years, they’ve served in Louisiana, South Carolina and Indiana– and this year they are in Nashville.
The group’s focus is threefold. First, they serve at the host church, doing projects like putting in sidewalks and building sheds. Second, they visit various ministries in the area and not only learn about them, but serve with them. (Yesterday, they worked at a community garden and harvested over 1,200 pounds of potatoes!) And last, they have classes that help them dig in to how God has made them, and how they can step into service and leadership in their home church and community.
A week before the trip was scheduled to begin, the lady who has always done all of their meal planning and preparation had to have emergency surgery. Since my college roommate and dear friend is one of the leaders of the trip, we were chatting about it and I mentioned that I couldn’t come for the whole week, but could come down and feed them the first few days, and get meals prepped for the rest of the week. So that’s what I did.
Chunky. Nutty. Fruity.
If those are words you would like to see in a description of your snack, then this recipe is for you.
Sometimes, I get sneaky and hide the good stuff, like in my chocolate pancakes. But my preference is to stuff my treats chock full.
This quick bread has the taste of a decadent carrot cake, but is made with fruits and vegetables, nuts and healthy coconut oil.
I wrote recently about some bread recipes that I keep on hand to fix for dinner. One that I didn’t include on that list is this one for Freezer Texas Toast. That’s because it’s not really much of a recipe.
It is, however, an incredibly convenient staple to have on hand in my freezer.
It is also incredibly popular at my dinner table.