Friday Favorites!

It's Friday again, and I said I was starting a tradition (so I guess that means I have to do it more than the one time). This has been a busy week, working extra babysitting, and its not over yet so I don't have too many clever anecdotes to post about. But I am excited to share my true love, books! I have been geeking out to literature since I learned how to read! I once spent an entire summer reading books in my tree house! No time for friends, swimming, well social interaction of any kind when you have an entire series of Babysitters Club books to read! You know you loved them! My dream was to have my own babysitters club...but not enough friends (but I always had those books). Now I am trying to instill this love of books in my daughter we have a weekly visit to the library and we read all day long! Here are a few of our favorites!

My favorite books for babies:

1. Fifteen Animals by Sandra Boynton (Although your little on will be calling everyone Bob for a long time)

2. Moo, Baa, Lalala by Sandra Boynton (Her books are hilarious, and this was the first book my girl could recite with me)

3. I Hear Two Birds by Kathy Panton (Beautiful collages, a great counting book. So pretty I want to rip out some of the picture to hang on my wall!)

4. Pig Takes a Bath written by Michael Dahl, illustrated by Oriol Vidal (Great bath time book, and that pig is so silly he always makes my girl laugh)

5. Peekaboo Sleepy Baby by Joanna Bicknell (A cute lift the flap book where babies get to look at other babies! We know they all love that. We read it every night before bed.)

6. Baby Einstein First Alphabet (Great photographs and pictures, my girl loves to point to all of them and I tell her what it is! I can see her cute little brain learning as we do this!!!)

7. Princess Baby by Karen Katz (I may love this one more than my daughter, but it has cute pictures and every adorable pet name that a parent may call their little one)!

8. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle (A Classic that it full of awesome animal pictures and rhythmic repition)

9. Peek a Moo by Marie Torres Cimarusti Illustrated by Stephanie Peterson (It was adorable to see my daughter get so excited to see what was behind those flaps)!

10. Balls by John E. Barrett, and Illustrated by Mary Beth Nelson (What can I say her two favorite things are Elmo and balls).

Snack of the day!

I've decided to motivate me to make my family healthy snacks I will be posting a "snack of the day" to twitter! I will have the recipes here waiting for you! Today I tried something new for snack because a friend was coming over for coffee, and I was babysitting. I wanted to make a sweet snack that goes with coffee, kids will like, and has no eggs or peanuts (the girl I babysit for is allergic). So I found the most fun looking snack ever: Sprinkle Scones!!



Pretty little guys aren't they! Here's the recipe!

Sprinkle Scones

1 cup Flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
4 T. sugar
1 t. vanilla
3 T. melted butter
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and grease a 9x9 baking dish.*

2. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl.

3. Add vanilla, melted butter, and milk to the dry ingredients, lightly stir, and fold in sprinkles!

4. Pour in baking dish and bake for 16-20 minutes, or until brown around the edges.

5. Let cool and then cut into triangles for a sconier appearance! Yes sconier you read that correctly!

*The dough for these was quite wet so I opted to just pour it into a dish and bake rather than roll it out. This may not make it a scone then I am unfortunate not an expert on baking terminology!

I think they would be best with a schmear of vanilla frosting, but I didn't have time for that, so mine had a quick glaze. I just mixed powdered sugar with a drizzle of mile and a drop of vanilla, and poured on top!

I ♥ Carbs

If you ever see me at the grocery store please don't judge my cart (although I know I 'll be checking yours out I'm very nosy). At first glance it won't look so bad plenty of fruits and vegetables, not too many processed foods, and an adorable baby sitting in the seat. Then you see some bread, bagels, bread form the bakery, pasta, flour! I have a problem! Well at least I can admit it, that's the first step right? Honestly I am not ready to eat less bread, but I am trying to make more of it from scratch, baby steps. So far I have nearly perfected my pizza dough since I have decided every Friday there will be a pizza party in my house! I have gotten lots of practice, but I will save that recipe for Friday! Today I made something a little healthier....well not totally healthy, but it has a fruit and a vegetable so in my book its a super food!



I may have gotten a touch pad just to look at recipes. It makes me feel cool ;)

Zucchini Banana Bread
(adapted from www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com)

2 eggs

1/4 cup honey

3 ripe bananas

1/4 sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat pastry or white whole wheat flour (like King Arthur)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 heaping cup zucchini (1 small), shredded

1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F; lightly grease a standard sized loaf pan.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs, banana, honey, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

3. In a separate bowl whisk the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then stir in the zucchini and raisins.

5. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from center.

Come on a fruit, a vegetable, whole wheat flour, and no oil or butter! I'm on fire with healthiness!!



I also made a batch of muffins where I substituted pumpkin for banana!



I like to have my carbs with caffeine! But that problem's for another day!

Friday Favorites

I'm starting a tradition! On Fridays I want to take a minute to share a few things that I have been really digging lately. I try to stay on top of what the kids are into, but unfortunately I often catch on to things late. I'm not going to be coy I've got great taste ;) so I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves this stuff!

My faves:

1. Pintrest
I am absolutely addicted I could spend hours looking at everyone's pins! Check me out on Pintrest my user name is lindsyank.



2. Incorporating vegan ideas into my cooking.
I don't think I could ever completely give up meat and animals products, but I love to keep my family healthy so I try to experiment with one vegan recipe each week. Check out these cool chicks and their awesome vegan recipes: Mama pea from Peas and Thank you, and Brooke from Cheeky Kitchen!

Girl loves her mama's cooking!

3. Urban farming
Well Suburban farming in my case. I love the idea of using the small spaces to grow and produce your own food. I've just read Barnheart by Jenna Woginrich, and Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter. So look forward to hearing about my attempts in homesteading, and trying to convince my husband it would be awesome to get chickens!

4. Copycat recipes
I am trying to bake all the sweets that my family eats! I am slowly purging my kitchen of anything artificial. I was doing really well too, until those adorable girl scouts came a knocking. They should know that I can eat an entire box of thin mints in one sitting! Anyway...Starbucks makes a mean petite vanilla mean scone that I can't get enough of and the always entertaining Pioneer Woman created a copycat recipe here!

5. Easy sewing projects
Back in my day I was quite a whiz on the sewing machine. I went to the state fair for the skirt I made when I was about ten. Be impressed. Unfortunately I have not done much sewing since then, and since I have an adorable baby girl now I was thinking we needed some matching skirts! ( I know my coolness astounds you) Of course Pintrest is making me think this is going to be easy! So I am off to Jo Ann's this week. (yes we are on a first name basis). We will see how this goes!

So there you have it my very first Friday faves post. What it's Saturday you say. I never said I was good with time. But I did it, and now I realize hat it is mostly a list of projects. hmm well here's to hoping I don't end up with a bunch of half finished projects!

I'm back!

Soo its been a while. I may have took a couple years off from this blog. To do what you ask? Nothing much, finish graduate school buy a house, and have a baby! I've been a little busy. Last month I decided to be good and give up Facebook for lent. Why you ask! It has sucked up the precious free time I have! What I have found that the things I look forward to most when I get a few moments to myself are cooking, crafting, reading blogs, and Pintresting! My dream is to one day become a writer (perhaps it is the allure of having a career where you don't have to get dressed in the morning! Although being a mom I guess I have that already!) My goal is to post three times a week and try to have interesting anecdotes and adventures to write about! I thought about starting a new blog, but then I remembered this one and checked it out. It's adorable (says the author with a healthy self esteem.) I'm trying to take more pictures and with my handy iPhone I always have with me it is becoming easier! I will let you get a peek into my life with some pictures. I am slowly learning be a better photographer, and maybe one day I will buy myself a big girl camera, but bear with me for now! Goodbye until next time! Oh yea maybe I should try and get some readers, too!!