Beyond Bananas

Swapping Out Ingredients

2013-04-05T10:23:48Z

I am a huge fan of swap-outs when it comes to cooking, baking, and snacking. In fact, there are not many recipes that I do NOT make a single swap. (Well, unless it is a new recipe that I am making for a large group of people on limited them. If this is the case, I don’t want to experiment and make something nasty.)

If you recall, I received a bunch of yummy products from Sunsweet a couple of months ago. One of the products that peeked my interested was the Amazin’s. Chopped prunes. Ready to enter any recipe. Deserts, entrees… the possibilities are endless.

I definitely tend to indulge in my sweet tooth more so than savory dishes – so I wanted to bake something.. something I love. Oatmeal cookies? Uhh. only my favorite. Oatmeal Prune cookies? Sure! Why not?!

But why prunes instead of raisins or other dried fruits? Believe it or not – prunes are the way to go. To find out why … you’ll just have to check out my post over on Spry to see why prunes are such a better dried fruit to use!

And as for these delicious cookies… well, I suggest you make them ASAP!

You can find the cookie recipe – as well as tons of creative recipe using many Sunsweet Products right on the Sunsweet site!

And don’t forget – you can STILL enter to win $1000 dollars in the Amazing Prune Sweepstakes! Hurry before time runs out!

What is your favorite ingredient swap?

Thank you to Sunsweet for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

I’m Back.. I Think!

2013-04-03T10:35:33Z

(Insert awkward greeting after a near 2 month hiatus). Actually.. let’s just jump straight to the point. I’ve been gone. I’ve been busy.. but if you ask with what, I probably couldn’t give you an answer. When it comes down to it, I just didn’t feel like blogging.

See, I have a little bit of an obsessive personality. I tend to find something I like and then put way too much of my time and effort into it – thus taking away from more important aspects of my life.

But, I think I am ready to jump back in and blog on a more regular basis. I’ve done a lot of (well, I don’t want to call it soul searching.. so let’s just go with reflecting). If you are still reading – or still have me in your reader (which by the way, I don’t what I am going to do when google reader shuts down in a few mere months) – thanks for sticking around.. and maybe I will post something worthwhile.

Can I catch up on life? Umm.. Not really. I just checked out my camera roll. It is filled with unpostable teacher pictures. But I can tell you I’ve been living life with my family.. enjoying time with my husband

my pooch..

and all others who are important.

Also – a special congrats to Kaitlin – who just got engaged! , Chelsey – who is pregnant with TWINS!, and a special prayer for Ashley who just had her beautiful baby, Hunter – who has had a rough go at it in his first few days of life. (See, I’ve kept up.. kind of).

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Catch up up on other important news!

What do you plan to do when google reader is nonexistent?!

Annie, Amazing Prunes, and $1000

2013-02-15T22:40:32Z

Happy Friday! Although, I honestly have NO idea what day it even is with all of these random days off! . For the first time in a week, I actually got dressed in real people clothes and did my make up and hair.

Yep – I bummed around in PJs and gym clothes for a week straight. Can ya blame me though?

Valentine’s Day was low key in our household because Justin was working late. I only got myself ready because I had a bunch of errands to run and decided to do something with myself. We are, however, celebrating Valentine’s Day this weekend with a trip into the city to see Annie!

I noticed it was playing in Time Square when we were in the city for the Knicks game last month – and immediately came home and ordered tickets. Justin has just loved hearing me belt out all of the Annie songs all day, every day. Can ya tell I’m excited?!

Anyways – that isn’t the purpose of this post. I’m actually here to talk about Sunsweet Prunes and some of their great products. Yep. Prunes. Amazing Prunes. And also – give you a chance to win $1,000! You didn’t misread that, either..

Did you know that prunes are extremely beneficial to bone health and can help to prevent or decrease osteoporosis in women? Prunes actually have a ton of health benefits, but I was had no idea they could be so important to bone health. I was primarily familiar with the the benefits related to stomach issues – which we know I have been very familiar with in the past. But in addition to helping with bone health, they are also great source of antioxidants which can help fight the aging process. Feeling younger, longer. I’ll take it!

To learn more about all of the great bone benefits of prunes and about the great Sunsweet products I received, head on over and check out my post at Spry.

You can also check out the posts written by other fabulous bloggers!

Shocked to know that prunes can be beneficial to bone health? Me, too! Take your Bone Health IQ Quiz and you’ll have a chance to win $1,000. Just head here to enter the Amazing Prune Sweepstakes!

Thank you to Sunsweet for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

All I wanted was ONE Snow Day!

2013-02-13T21:33:51Z

A little under a week ago, I was prepping to sleep with my PJs inside out and with a spoon under my pillow (you know.. so we would have a snow day last Friday.. doesn’t everyone do that?!). I didn’t even get one pant leg inside out before receiving the alert that my school (along with just about every other school in CT) would be closed on Friday.

Yep – Blizzard Nemo came.. and dumped record amounts of snow across CT. Between Friday and early Saturday morning, some cities and towns got almost 4 feet of snow! Now – we’ve had lots of snow in CT before- but never this much.. at once! I enjoyed my little three day weekend – and had a tiny hope that maybe we would have Monday off. It would have been nice, but not necessary.

Well friends, here I am on Wednesday night… and I have YET to go back to school. We just heard that schools in the city I teach will be closed tomorrow and Friday, too. With President’s Day on Monday – I won’t be back to work til Tuesday. That is INSANE.

This is the second time this year where crazy storms have closed my school (and many others) for a FULL week! What is going on with this weather?!

The problems with Blizzard Nemo was the snow clearing. There was SO much snow – too much for many of the plows to even handle. There weren’t a large number of payloaders available – and even using one takes a LONG time. Believe it or not, 20% of the city that I work in has STILL not been plowed.

I’m grateful that Justin and I got plowed out the day after the storm. While my parents were stuck a little bit longer, we all had power and plenty of food – so we feel blessed.

At least my parents had the fabulous entertainment of watching Kaiser and Brady attempt to trudge through the snow.

Okay – Kaiser tries. Brady just eats snow off of the bushes.

And as for Colby? He preferred to be inside because he’s sink WAY to far down into the snow. Fortunately, we’ve had a big melt down where I live so it isn’t as bad. This dog refused to poop when there was a lot of snow!

And one more shameless puppy picture of Colby after he got his hair cut or the first time since October:

So – now I am looking for things to do til Tuesday. I’ve done a decent amount of cleaning – but can always do some more!

And Tuesday – will probably be a pretty scary day. We will find out how the remaining school calendar will be affected… maybe no spring break? Maybe added on in June?! Time will tell my friends…