Bananas

Sometimes (albeit very rarely because of Thing 2's penchant for bananas) we have enough overripe bananas to make banana bread. That makes Thing 1 incredibly excited because while he does not like bananas, he very much enjoys banana bread. And guess what? It's cheap.

It's been crazy hot out, which has helped the speed at which the bananas ripen, so this week we had three overripe bananas plus four frozen overripe bananas. (Sometimes when bananas are at that almost black stage I throw them in the freezer to use later in smoothies or bread) Banana bread is easy to make and a great way to use up something you might otherwise throw away. This is a recipe that my mom gave m,e with some slight modifications.

Banana Luncheon Bread
1 C All purpose flour
1 C Whole wheat flour (you can use two cups of all purpose flour, but then omit one T milk later)
1 t baking power
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 c shortening or butter
3 medium overripe bananas (the blacker the better, but don't let them turn to liquid!)
2 eggs
3 T milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together shortening (or butter) and sugar. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer for this step, but you should mix the rest of the ingredients by hand. Over mixing will make the bread dry.

I don't have a photo of what the sugar mixture looks like creamed because Captain Hook was attacking his younger brother
with the dough hook. It should gain in volume (the sugar mixture not C. Hook) and look, well, creamy. Add the eggs
one at a time and mix well.



Mash the bananas. We use this little egg fellow that my mother-in-law bought me for making egg salad.
Isn't he cute?

Mix the rest of your dry ingredients together. Add your mashed bananas to your dry ingredients and mix.
Combine the rest of the banana mixture, sugar mixture and milk, but do not over mix.

Grease your pans. Do you remember that Simpsons episode where the janitor goes in the venting system and he says,
"Grease me up, woman!" I think about that EVERY time I grease a pan.

Fill your pans. The recipe makes one loaf, but we had lots of bananas. If you're making more than one loaf,
just be careful not to over mix. I feel like I've said that a thousand times.

 Bake for 60-65 minutes. After about 20 minutes, put a sheet of tinfoil over the top of your loaf pan so the top doesn't get too dark. Unless you dig that.

Allow bread to cool for 5 minutes and then turn out. Yum, yum.

You could add nuts or chocolate chips, too, if that floats your boat. My kids are purists (read: picky) so we leave those out.

Pat the Husband

Have you seen this book by Kate Nelligan? It's a hilarious spoof on Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunard, which I'm sure many of you have read over and over and over and over to your babies. It's got the same kind of touch and feel pages and old timey colored pictures. I bought it for my mom as part of her Christmas gift!

My favorite section of the book is when Judy and Paul have the EXACT same flu, only Paul is pretty sure that he's dying. Mmmm hmmm. That sounds familiar.

Do I need to mention that my husband and I have the EXACT same head cold right now? And mummy's going about her business, getting up at 6:00 a.m. to work out, feeding kids, playing with kids, taking them to the park, baking, washing, laundry, etc. while daddy sleeps in and sits on the massage chair?

Freckle Check

Part way through the summer of cheap. While we don't skimp on sunscreen, summer still has a way of breaking through and blessing us with freckles.

Nothing. Just the pure untouched face of a baby.

Just a smattering. I think his eyes are turning green and I tell him that pretty much every day. His reasoning,
"It's because I kiss you so much, Mama."

He has the other two beat hands down.

This is my duckface.

Puddin' Pops

Yum. I love pudding AND I love Popsicles. One day the big squids and I decided to combine the best of those flavorful worlds and make homemade pudding pops. The boys were aflurry with excitement.

We used two versions of pudding to make our pops: Cook and Serve and Instant. Both turned out fine.

The vanilla Cook and Serve style was from my husband's grandma's cupboard when she moved out of her house.
Kind of gross that it has a shelf life like that, but it was cheap and yummy!
Cook according to the package directions, but add an additional 1/3 C milk to thin the pudding a bit.
That makes it go farther and helps it freeze more firmly.

Getting ready. We had more chocolate than vanilla, by popular vote.

I don't remember what pudding tastes like. Do I like it?

Oh, that's right.

It's delightful!

Hard at work.

At first they were worried about cross contaminating chocolate to vanilla.

My manfriend thought he could make it go faster with a turkey baster before I informed him that:
A. I didn't want it to go faster. Hello, it's rainy outside and we're bored!
2. That's kind of gross.

A lot of bites made it to his mouth instead of his Popsicle tray.

Getting there.

Phew.

One big box of pudding and one little box of pudding filled up two Popsicle trays. Minus whatever went into our mouths.

The next day, the kids were ready for puddin' pops right away.

Doesn't he look wistful? After this picture he asked, "Mom...couldn't we have another?"

Super fun and super cheap. And super time consuming! The popsicle trays were $1.29 at Woodmans. I don't know how much pudding costs...about a buck I'm guessing. These had been in my cupboard for awhile. Add in the cost of milk...not bad at all.

Father's Day on a Dime

There are quite a few celebrations in the summer...Father's Day, niece's birthday, mom's birthday, big baby's first birthday (squee!)...but, since we're ankle deep in the summer of cheap, we've got to make those celebrations special without breaking the bank. Since I'm pretty sure my manfriend is unaware that I have a blog, I think I'm safe posting some cheap Father's Day stuff tonight.

Here's how we did it for Father's Day.

Homemade carrot cake with cream cheese icing, homemade Father's Day card,
and homemade garbage bag for Dad's car.

The cake is supposed to be a ruler, like, "you rule." Cute and appropriate since he's a carpenter.

This is the car garbage bag. It has a removable PUL liner and
an adjustable webbing handle that can loop over the gear shift,
center console, or the back of a captain's chair. Right now, it's stuffed with ocean scenes
that the boys made.

Here's where we're at:

Fabric: $1.15
Snaps: $3.50
Webbing: .69
Carrots: $1.39
Powdered Sugar: $2.39
Black gel icing: $1.50
Grand Total: $10.62
Boy, I was hoping to stay under $10.00, but I'd say that's pretty good. We are going to grill out for dinner tomorrow, but it's nothing fancy and we'd have to eat anyway...so...Happy Father's Day to all you cheap smacks out there!

Here's our next project. And I don't mean the helmet ;)

Every Gal Needs a Hero

And lucky me, I've got two!

Thing 1 has been after me for awhile to make him a superhero cape. Actually, he wanted an entire costume. Red cape with lightning bolt, red mask, red jumpsuit, and red boots (again with bolts). I thought that might be a bit over the top when added to his red hair, but I was happy to oblige with the cape and mask. Thing 2 decided that his cape should be green, but no mask. When I asked him what he wanted on the back of his cape, he said, "A dot."
Me: "Um...like a polka dot? Or a period?"
Him: "I don't know. A circle."
Me: "Well, what superhero would you be?"
Him: "Circle Guy."
Me: "What would your super powers be?"
Him: "I can run circles around you."

I like it. Sass and smart all in one.



Who are you again? Circle Guy?

 I like how they turned out, especially since the fabric was a dollar a yard (woot!). In hindsight, I'd make them less vampire-y by making the collar smaller. Aside from that the boys think that they're boss. They were even defending the city on our way to the store this afternoon.



Don't worry! Lightning Guy and Circle Guy are on their way...
...to the grocery.

 


They're reversible, too, should they ever want to moonlight as the Silver Surfer or something.

 

Summer (of Cheap)

We're living on a shoestring budget over here. (What does that even mean? Like, you can only afford to buy a shoestring or maybe can't buy a shoestring? Your purse is being held together by a shoestring? No idea, but I'm pretty sure that's what we've got.) So, I'm planning a summer of cheap.

First step is dressing the squids for cheap. I've made Big Baby some cheap fat quarter clothes and plenty of summer dresses, but I haven't made too much for the boys. Well, I made them some super hero capes, but really those aren't too practical for days at the park. So today, I altered the pattern I used the pattern I made for Thing 1's gay baby pants to make some long shorts for the boys. I used a yard of a Hawaiian print that I picked up off a dollar table somewhere, so they were only .50 a pair of shorts! Score! Thing 1's fit better than Thing 2's, but he'll grow. I also wish that I would have put the pockets in like I did in the pants, but alas.

Welcome to summer.

I swear, this is them with tans.