Banana-Nut Baked Oatmeal

I was searching for a recipe for baked oatmeal the other day and couldn't find one with just the right ingredients so I made up my own. I had overripe bananas and pecans on hand so I made Banana-Nut Baked Oatmeal.
Here is my very rough recipe (as in, I didn't measure much so I'm guessing here but hey, it's oatmeal!)

The night before:
Soak 3 cups of old fashioned oats in 3 cups of liquid (you could use milk or water, I used a mixture of rice milk and water because that stuff is expensive!) Refrigerate.

In the morning combine,
3 mashed, overripe bananas
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup plain yogurt (flavored varieties would work as well but we make ours so, plain it is!)
1/4 cup ground flax seed, optional
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder OR 1 tsp baking soda (I went the soda route but most baked oatmeal recipes call for powder)
1/4-1/2 cup honey (I probably used 1/4 cup, with the sweetness from the ripe bananas it was just right for us.)
oat mixture
pecans or other nuts, optional

Mix it up really well and pour it into a 9x13. Sprinkle nuts on top if you didn't mix them in. (I mixed mine but I wish I had put them on top, I had to 'dig' through Adrian's oatmeal before I gave it to him to make sure there were no nuts.) I used a glass dish so I baked it at 325 for about 35 minutes. If you use a different pan you could bump the temp up to 350 and I would guess that it would only take around 20 minutes.

 Adrian and I loved it! I think Adrian ate half the pan...which is only slightly more than what I ate. ;)

Quick and Easy Sweater Restyle

Photo courtesy of my dear husband...he really knows how to bring out my photogenic side. ha.

Quick and easy restyles are sometimes, okay, usually my favorite kind. I have had this sweater for so blasted long I can't even remember where it's from or why in the world I chose brown. I've never really loved it which leads me to believe I found it on the clearance rack; before I started thrift shopping I would shop clearance racks. I had so many clothes that I didn't really like but hey! I found them at a great price! This particular sweater has way-too-long and really tight sleeves. I can't figure it out because I have some pretty scrawny arms, how would a normal person fit into those sleeves??

My only option was to chop off the sleeves. I was pondering turning it into a vest but for now, it remains a sweater. I ruched the sleeves so it didn't look quite like I just chopped the sleeves off...oh wait, I just did.

I wanted to finish the edge rather than leave it raw but 1. it would have been very awkward and difficult considering it was so narrow and 2. if I had successfully finished them off, the edge would probably be all stretched out. So, I chose to leave it raw since it won't fray anyways.

what were you thinking?

On ShinyStat I can see what search keywords and phrases were entered into search engines to lead to my blog. Here are a few of the stranger entries this year:

can i swallow a garlic clove like a pill to louse wait
i'm not giving up important things!
blue ring toilet bowl
horrible heidi
grandpa slippers
not giving up on etsy
taking a tuck in slip to shorten hem in bridal dress

Hmm...it makes me wonder!

BTW, Adrian was having fun climbing into Kendall's DOLL crib late one evening. I thought it was pretty funny when he snuggled up in it, laying on his back, it's amazing that he fit. It wasn't so funny when he tried to get out. To him anyways...

Just Something I Made

Last week, before heading north, I was worrying about what in the world I would wear if we went swimming. This is when you laugh. Remember? It rained all weekend and temperatures hovered in the 50's. Anyways, the tankini that I had used last year was too big considering well, uh, Adrian is nearly two now so um, anyways, it was too big.

I have had this bikini for years that still fits but, that was it. I also had a tankini that I though might work but nope, way too big, I don't know how it ever fit. And considering the way it was constructed, I couldn't just resize it to make it work. So, I combined the two!

I chopped off the bottom of the tankini and brought the side seams in a little bit, then I sewed it to the bikini top. I pulled the straps around to the back and pinned them together, cutting off the excess fabric. I sewed the new 'band' to the back of the tankini. Now it looks like this:

I did add a few more rows of stitching to make sure it would lay right, it looks a little bumpy in this picture but when I'm wearing it, the band lays flat. I messed up on the back so I'm not showing a picture...when I pinned the straps together I didn't pay attention to whether they were in the middle so it's uneven and one part is thicker than the other (picture the way a swimsuit strap tapers). I was trying to figure out a way to fix it since I already cut the fabric but in the end I decided that I really didn't care enough to redo it. My whole idea was that I didn't want to spend money on a new swimsuit this year. Goal accomplished!

St. John's

I had intentions of scheduling posts for the days I was out of town but as you can see, that never happened!
We were in the Keweenaw for our annual St. John's services but judging by my blog traffic on Sunday, most of you were too!

We had a pretty relaxing weekend...while we weren't at church anyways. During church I was just trying to keep my patience, he is at such a busy age! On Saturday night we were able to keep him quiet with a few Dum Dum suckers but I don't really like to use candy as a means of keeping him content during the sermon! The problem is, after the first night he would look in my purse for more treats and wasn't happy with the cars that usually occupy him.

This was the first rainy St. John's that I can remember. We didn't stay for lunch on Sunday because we figured we would have to wait in line for too long and we couldn't take Adrian outside to play while we waited. We tried out an Italian place called La Bottega (used to be Jacob's Ladder). The prices were awesome, everything was $7.00 and you could get a half portion for $3.50. The waitress told us everyone was made from scratch. They even had a few gluten free options. I ordered a half portion of spaghetti and meatballs for myself and a half portion of seared chicken breast with risotto for Adrian. Big mistake! It didn't even cross my mind that Adrian would want the spaghetti even though I know he loves it. He sat so well while we waited for our food but as soon as it came out, he wanted the spaghetti and he wouldn't touch the food I had ordered for him (which was better than my spaghetti by the way). We ended up getting everything boxed up right away and took it to my grandma and grandpa's house to eat which is where the rest of my family ended up for the afternoon. Adrian fell asleep on the way and slept in the car for nearly 3 hours so that was a nice little surprise! I suppose the rain on the roof helped him sleep.

After all the struggling in church all weekend, Adrian took a late nap on Monday night after playing at the camp all afternoon. He slept right through Monday night church! And went down just fine that night, which was pretty late.
He had so much fun playing with his cousins all weekend and keeps talking about [Auntie] 'Minna' and 'Kennal.' For all the excitement he's had in the past month I hope he's ready to get back to normal life! At least until the next time we head north which, I'm sure, won't be very long.

Life in the Slow Lane

We weren't in a big hurry on our drive back up north so we stopped at a sit down restaurant at the bridge for a late lunch. It was a smallish family-owned place and I can't remember the name...We both ordered burgers topped with fried onions (think caramelized not deep-fried). I have never been to another restaurant that offered fried onions as a topping choice! Yum, that's probably my favorite way to top a burger!

Adrian was so excited the entire time, I'm not really sure why. He usually gets antsy waiting for our food.

Maybe he thought it was really cool to drink from a straw? Either way, I wasn't complaining, it was pretty cute!

He would take a drink and then hold the water in his mouth, I thought he was going to spit it out and let it dribble down his chin. He's been known to do that.

He was honestly just pumped the entire time. I was too slow with the camera every time and never really got a shot of his really excited grin.

He's a pretty cool kid!

ETA: I completely forgot to mention the amazing coconut cream pie we had for dessert! I have never had coconut cream pie but I spied it when we walked in and couldn't get it out of my head. I love coconut! Jeff and I shared this monstrously huge piece and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. Next time I make a pie it's going to be coconut cream! Yum!

He is Loved

Adrian spied this little electric motorcycle in Grandma and Grandpa L's garage and climbed right on. Grandma and Great Aunt Julie pushed him around on the driveway. Spoiled much? He loved every minute!

A Little Red, A Lot of Fun

The guys had a blast at Jeff's mom and dad's house while everyone was in town. They were doing things I had never heard of and that, quite honestly, sounded like the most red-neck activities I had ever heard. Beside going carp-shooting, they went mattress surfing behing a four-wheeler.




Deciding on a game plan?

Jordan K. and cousin Michael jump on.





A couple of the girls gave it a try too!

 Jeff's cousins are from Houston so they don't have this kind of acreage to cruise around in. It sounded like they all had a really good time and were wondering why their parent's chose to leave this area! ;)

Today's Technology...with a little of Yesterday's

One day downstate, the scene at my Mom and Dad's:

Even Dan was in on it. That is a CD player in case you forgot what one looked like. ;) Dan loves Harry Potter and often refers to it as "HP."

Katie's Softball Game

Let's rewind a few weeks back to when Adrian and I first made it downstate...
It was hot, hot, hot and back home was cold, cold, cold. I think there may have been snowflakes in the air. We picked a good time to head south (not like we actually picked the time). Katie (Jeff's sister) had a softball game and she was pretty happy that we came to watch.

They played one of the best teams this game but a couple of  the players were gone so Katie was really hoping they would win. If I remember correctly, they did!

Adrian had a chance to practice his pitching.





Well, Hello there!

I'm back!
I took an unexpected trip downstate to visit my family; Jeff and I were visiting some friends one evening a couple weeks ago as he helped them put up their pool and I ended up getting a ride downstate the next morning. Yikes! I don't usually do too well with such spontaneous decisions but this time I decided 'what the heck?' I might as well exercise the freedom I have as a stay-at-home mom! I had planned to be down for a week, from Sunday to the following Monday but on my last day I got a call from my father-in-law to say that Jeff's grandpa had passed away. He had been battling complications from diabetes for the last several years so it was news we had all been preparing ourselves for. It is still a little strange to think about since we have been warned several times that this might be 'it,' and yet, he always pulled through. His health had been the worst this year by far. He was able to make it to Dave and Jenna's wedding much to everyones surprise. A couple weeks after the wedding (while I was downstate) hospice had been called in, that was a Tuesday. He passed away Saturday night. I don't think any of us expected it to be that soon since it would have seemed so expected...does that make sense?

Jeff was a on a road trip for work in South Dakota and because of the weather he didn't end up getting home until very early Monday morning. I can imagine the most frustrating part was that he was stuck in Chicago--3 hours from our parents' homes--for many hours before he made it back to our home with a 7 hour trip ahead of him. He left right away even though I didn't want him to since he would be driving alone. When I called him in the morning he was an hour from our home. He made it that far before pulling off  the road to sleep.
We spent most of the following week with his family including his aunt and uncle who came in from Texas for the funeral. At one point, I was telling my mom what we had been up to and my little sister Jeanie commented, 'It sounds like you guys are having fun...isn't it supposed to be sad?" I guess it was like any other time the cousins get together, lots of good times and laughs with a few serious moments thrown in. It was so nice to see everyone especially considering we don't get to see the Texans ;) very often.

More updates and pictures soon...