We have 3 year till 2012 …

We all know what will happen on that year and onwards. Mr Billing’s plan of humans eating Bananas will work - we must not let it happen! Or we will be going by his commands every second of our lives. In our 3 years, we must warn people of the dangers in a Bananas and the harm it provides you. Looks like a innocent little creature – look closer, what do you see? TESCO, Every Little Helps! No help to us thank-you very much; only to the Bananas!

We must warn the little toddlers, as they are young and will eat Bananas as a habit! DON’T LET YOUR CHILD EVEN SEE A BANANA! There are many dangers in a Bananas that we humans can’t see with our eye sight and heart. But of course, Mr Billing can. Protect yourself, and keep away from the selfish and disgusting Bananas. With their slimy juice inside. I’m sure you don’t want to live in a world of hatred – like hell, well that will be “Mission Accomplished” if you don’t stop.

I was in Tesco’s yesterday, when i saw a adorable toddler HUGGING a Banana! The toddler’s parents, unfortunately, have put their little sunshine in danger now. The toddler’s favourite object is now a Banana, and they will love it even when they get to Mr Billing’s age! So, keep those Bananas away from the young ones as they will learn to love them and protect. 

Have you ever wondered why Banana’s in Tesco don’t get sold much? That’s because many people have either taken our advice and stopped. Or, just dislike it. However, there is no way you can say “No” to a Banana after you tried it, it is like a drug. A harmful drug – the most dangerous out of mankind!

Protect yourself, and keep the Earth safe and sound.

For the last twenty years – at least! – I have eaten a minimum of one banana every day. I freaking love the things. I thus also love anything that tastes like banana – from muffins straight through to medicine. Naturally, as a banana aficionado, I’m always on the lookout for the best banana bread recipes.

When my friend Colleen, thus, had a Banana Bread Bakeoff Bonanza with some friends, I was intrigued. I was even more so when her loaf was crowned the winner, and she shared the award-winning recipe!

Colleen’s Bonanza Banana Bread

• 1C mashed bananas (this amounts to about 4-5 average sized fruit)
• 1C white sugar
• 3/8C oil
• 1/2C light sour cream (she vows that it must be light – not sure why, but despite my aversion to low-fat/calorie anything, I obeyed!)
• 2 eggs
• 1t vanilla
• 1.5C all purpose flour
• 1t baking powder
• 1t baking soda
• 1/2t salt
• 1/2C walnuts/pecans/chocolate chips

Set your oven to 325F and generously grease a loaf pan. Combine everything from bananas through vanilla in a delicious bowl of wet-ingredient goodness, and combine your dry goods separately. Mix ‘em all together – the whole process takes no more than five minutes, I swear.

Add the nuts or chocolate chips last – I personally find that chocolate ruins a perfectly heavenly banana bread, so I opt for nuts every time. (I would’ve chosen pecans, but I only had walnuts in the house.)

Bake for 45-60 minutes (my oven required 55). The top will crack lightly when it’s done. Eat or freeze – and beware doing the former entirely before the latter can happen!

I decided to let you peek into my mornings around here and see what we like to rummage up for our breakfast-which is the most important part of the day!

So here my husband had the daunting task of juicing lots of oranges.  Actually it goes really fast and is actually quite fun to do!  On mornings that we have big glasses of O.J. we can easily go through a bag of oranges but I can usually get a bag for around $1.50 or so.   Sometimes I buy oranges by the case and get 100 oranges for around $15.00.  We can usually go through a case in a week if we are drinking O.J. everyday.  Oranges are so good for you can read my post about them here.

After the oranges are juiced we divide it up into cups…..2 little ones for my sweeties

and two big ones for my husband and myself.

We never just drink O.J. plain though…….I like to add some of my favorite super foods.

First, our O.J. always gets a good heaping spoonful of this:

These are chia seeds….they are little black seeds that are a great source of omega 3’s, fiber, protein, plus lots and lots more….these little things are warrior food!  They offer no taste but kind of look funny suspended in the glass!  We love it!

I also sneak a little ingredient into the juice without anyone knowing:

This is organic kelp and it is a great source of iodine.  Iodine is needed for a healthy thyroid function.  I only put a pinch in everyone’s juice and they have never even known!

Once the chia seeds and kelp have been added we add ice and slurp it down super fast.

Occasionally, I use my juice to make a super smoothie.

I will pour my juice in the blender and add bananas, chia seeds, kelp and then some of this

Based on its research, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has stated that bee pollen is the most nutritious food we can eat. It contains every nutrient required to sustain and support life in a pure, raw and unaltered form.  I try to take at least a tablespoon everyday!

I add some ice and blend it up!

Voila!  My super delicious breakfast of champions!  It is so yummy!  I hope you enjoyed the peek into my families mornings…..ENJOY!!!

Visit my website:  www.ColorWheelmeals.com

I was born on Tuesday 15^th June 1954 on the same day as the actor James Belushi and also on that day the Union of European Football, or EUFA, was founded with its headquarters in Switzerland.  I’ve never particularly liked James Belushi but I have always been rather fond of football.

This seems almost unreal but it was only in 1954 that war time rationing was officially ended.  It began in January 1940 when bacon, butter and sugar were rationed and this was followed soon after by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, milk and canned fruit.  As the Second-World-War progressed, most kinds of food came to be rationed along with clothing and petrol.  My parents were issued with a ration card for me but never had to use it because it all stopped three weeks after I was born. 

The last food item to be released from the shackles of rationing was bananas which for me is quite a significant fact.  Dad loved bananas and I could never quite understand why but I suppose he was only twenty-two in 1954 and hadn’t had the pleasure for fifteen years and in fact it is quite possible I suppose that he had never had a banana before in his life.   He liked all sorts of strange banana combinations, weirdest of all being banana sandwiches on brown bread with sugar, but he was also very fond of chopped bananas with custard.  Personally I’ve never been that keen on bananas but this rationing fact explains a lot about my dad’s unusual dietary preferences.  Once a week we all had to have bananas for a pudding until one day when I was about fifteen I could take it no longer and I refused to eat them.  It was the only time I can remember him getting really upset with me but I stood my ground and after he had severely chastised me I think he ate them up for me.

Another interesting fact is that it was only in 1954 that Germany and Finland finally made peace and declared the end of the war.  I find that amazing, the Second-World-War was still going on during my lifetime!  OK there were no hostilities or gun-fire but I still find that a chilling fact.

Also in 1954 the United States began serious nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean on the island of Bikini Atoll and they carried out the detonation of a massive bomb codenamed Castle Bravo, which was the first test of a practical hydrogen bomb and the largest nuclear explosion ever set off by the United States.  In fact, a bit like a ten year old with a box of fireworks, they really had little idea what they were doing and when it was detonated it proved much more powerful than predicted, and created widespread radioactive contamination which has prevented people from ever returning to the island.

This event was important for two reasons, firstly it signified the state of tension in the world called the cold war that was around for the next thirty years or so but secondly and much more importantly it inspired the introduction of the bikini swimsuit and I’ve always been grateful for that.  According to the official version a French engineer called Louis Réard and the fashion designer Jacques Heim invented the swimsuit that was a little more than a provocative brassiere front with a tiny g-string back.  It was allegedly named after Bikini Atoll, the site of nuclear weapon tests on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause on the beach or at the lido would be like a nuclear explosion.  Plenty of fallout and very hot!

Nuclear testing was a big thing in the 1950s as the US and the USSR prepared enthusiastically for wiping each other of the face of the earth.  The fact that a major explosion even on the side of the world might have serious consequences for both sides and everyone else in between just didn’t seem to occur to them.  Years later I visited the US and although I didn’t know this at the time travelled along a road in Nevada that was only a hundred kilometres or so southwest of the Nevada Test Site that is a United States Department of Energy reservation which was established in January 1951 for the testing of nuclear weapons.  The location is infamous for receiving the highest amount of concentrated nuclear detonated weapons in North America.

The Nevada Test Site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices during the Cold War and began here with a one kiloton bomb on January 27, 1951.  From then until 1992, there were nine hundred and twenty eight announced nuclear tests at the site, which is far more than at any other test site in the World, and seismic data has indicated there may have been many unannounced underground tests as well.  During the 1950s the familiar deadly mushroom cloud from these tests could be seen for almost a hundred miles in either direction, including the city of Las Vegas, where the tests instantly became tourist attractions as Americans headed for the City to witness the spectacle that could be seen from the downtown hotels.  Even more recklessly many others would thoughtlessly drive the family to the boundary of the test site for a day out and a picnic to view the free entertainment.  In doing so they unsuspectingly acquired an instant suntan and their own personal lethal dose of radioactive iodine 131, which the American National Cancer Institute, in a report released in 1997, estimated was responsible for thousands of cases of thyroid cancer in subsequent years.

Continuing the nuclear theme, the world’s first atomic power station was opened near Moscow in Russia and knowing now how careless the Russians were with anything nuclear this was probably something that world needed to worry about.  Just look what happened at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine in 1986 when a reactor accident at a nuclear power plant resulted in the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and the only incident ever to record level seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale (and on a scale of zero to seven, believe me, that’s pretty serious!) resulting in a severe nuclear meltdown and sending a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area to the extent that it remains uninhabitable today and for many more years to come as well. 

Mind you, we British could also arrange a nasty little nuclear disaster and on 10^th  October 1957 the graphite core of a nuclear reactor at Windscale in Cumberland caught fire, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area. The event, known as the Windscale fire, was considered the world’s worst reactor accident until Three Mile Island in 1979 before both incidents were dwarfed by the Chernobyl disaster.

 Here are the results of the Cold War: USA 1 (Bikini Atoll) – USSR 1 (Chernobyl) two own goals by the way!

Thinking about news coverage, which is what has stimulated these thoughts in the first place, it is significant that the very first television news first bulletin was shown in 1954 on BBC TV, which is obvious of course because there was no ITV until 1955, and presented by Richard Baker, who was also by coincidence born on 15^th June.  He was required to give off screen narration while still pictures were put in front of the camera, this was because, and I really find this hard to believe, television producers were concerned that a newsreader with facial movements would distract the viewer from the story. On screen newsreaders were only introduced a year later, in 1955, and Kenneth Kendall was the first to appear on screen.

Why do we only give Thanks on thanksgiving day , that is not the only day that we should recognise what we have or how blessed we are , there is so much we all have that many don’t have out there and believe me when I say this , there is so much poverty and hunger in America Yes IN AMERICA  makes me sad ,

On thanksgiving day this Year I decided to buy $10 worth of Bananas and went to the mission where there was a line of people waiting to get in and eat, Hundreds of people waiting in line , people that have no place to go to after the dinner , people who would go back to the place they call home under the I10 bridge , when we are watching football games , they are watching people and traffic go by , I often wonder if they play a game of which car is going to pass next or will it be a white man or woman driving or black man or women or any other ethnicity …I would !!

I am going to make it a practice to go out there at least once a week and spread some food probably fruits , I think it will be good for the soul and for my KARMA and more than anything else would put a smile on few people’s face

On a lighter note , I am going to work for few hours today , do not want to deal with traffic of Bayou classic , I worked 4 hours yesterday did not even make the lease payment but watched 8 episodes of House and went worked out , I think that is a productive day ….

This little mix is comprised of a flock of tunes that are about as predictable as the gluttonous nap proceeding thanksgiving dinner. This season’s abbreviated sunlight, only motivates me to make the most of every day. The sunrise and I are slowly becoming friends, and these songs smooth over the awkward bouts in our relationship.

TRACK LISTING

The Saddest Summer – The Drums
Everything is New – Jack Penate
Sunlight – tUne-yArDs
Fangela – Here We Go Magic
Ambling Alp – Yeasayer
Who Do You Love – Museum of Bellas Artes
Get Up – Washed Out
Spring (Air France Remix) – Saint Etienne
US Placers – Lupe Fiasco feat Kanye West, Pharrell
Everybody But Me – Lykke Li
Secrets – Headlights
Don’t Be a Jerk, Jonny – The Drums
Suprise Hotel – Fool’s Gold
Green Knight – Memory Tapes

DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/01uh1i

Hands-down, the best banana bread recipe I’ve ever used.  Granted, it’s hard to mess up banana bread.  But this recipe always turns out perfectly – moist but not dense, a sweet crisp crust that is never tough, and the coconut is my favorite element.

I think the key to good banana bread is using extremely ripe bananas.  I say leave them until there is almost no yellow left on the peel.  Then they are ready.

Everything for this recipe comes together really quickly.

The mixing of ingredients is a little different for this recipe.  Most quick breads, including most banana bread recipes I’ve seen, use a creaming method where the liquids and sugars are creamed together, the eggs and vanilla are added, the flour is just mixed in, and the nuts are folded in as the last step.  The MSBH recipe skips around, adding the eggs and vanilla after the flour, in the same step as the nuts and coconut.  Wacky!  But the results speak for themselves.

The recipe yields two loaves.

I’ve found that an hour is a good starting point for the baking time on this recipe, but you have to rely on a toothpick test to finally know when they’re done.  I’ve put a couple pictures here of the toothpick to show how to tell when it’s done, since I’ve been asked before.  Here is the toothpick after being stuck into the loaf after 65 minutes of baking.  The loaves have a deep golden crust, but clearly the wet batter on the toothpick show they have more baking to do:

And here is a new toothpick after another 12 minutes of baking.  There is still some stuff on the toothpick, but it’s crumbs, not wet batter.  This indicates the bread is done.

The bread cools on a cooling rack and that’s all she wrote.  It freezes really well, tastes great as toast, and keeps well unwrapped (just cover the cut end with plastic wrap).  I love this recipe!

“liberty city is real o.O”

Jamie says:  I hope everyone is having a very happy Thanksgiving holiday.  I enjoyed watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and doing some Turkey Day baking.  I woke up early, so I started working on Thanksgiving breakfast.  I set the table with our Christmas Spode to kick off the Christmas season.  My contribution to breakfast was a fresh fruit salad made with an array of fruits- bananas, grapes, kiwi, oranges, watermelon, raspberries, and pomegranate seeds.  It was beautiful, delicious, and healthy.  Mom and Dad soon joined me in the kitchen- scrambling eggs, heating up the bacon, pouring tea, coffee, and juice, and bringing Mom’s tasty pumpkin bread to the table.  I also toasted up some English muffins.  I spread my Mom’s homemade cranberries on one half and made an open-faced egg sandwich with the other half.  We sat down to breakfast just in time to watch the ribbon cutting of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade- perfect timing!  We had a beautiful holiday together.  Happy Left-over Day!

Nutrition note:  There are no “bad” foods, just foods that should be enjoyed occasionally.  Everything can be enjoyed in moderation and part of a balanced diet.

Suddenly, bananas. Hundreds of them

As you know, dear readers, many of the most exciting children’s games began as a warnings against hanging out with ugly people, and foreigners. We need only look back to the nuclear age to discover one of your personal childhood favorites: “Ring Around the Rosey.”

“Wait,” you say, “doesn’t that have its origins in plague-stricken England.” Well, first of all, this is my blog and I wait for no one. If you can’t keep up, well, you’re an illiterate boob. Secondly, you are clearly Irish or something.

There'll be no "Ring Around the Rosey" for you mister...until you clean up your mess.

 With all the newly evacuated, so-called, “Brownfields” in Japan and places in the U.S. of A., like the New Mexican desert and Pittsburg, and the surplus of bland 1950’s children, entrepreneurs saw a way to make money by combining the two. They turned these toxic waste sites areas of low vegetation and non-potable water into Magical Learning-grounds!™

Teacher: “Look children, a three eyed fish!”

Ignorant Child: “Why does it have its intestines outside its body?”

Teacher: “How the hell do you know what ‘intestines’ means?!…I mean, here child, drink some water…”

"Ashes, ashes, we all play in a nuclear blast site!"

 Over the years, the lyrics to “Ring Around the Rosie” have changed, but children have always held hands while running around a glowing mudclod. Especially the dim ones.

This brings me to “Backgammon” (there’s no good segue to this), a game young children hate. Just as much as they hate dental visits, broccoli, and cleaning up after their alcoholic parents. There’s good news though; we can solve this problem with “information” (the Backgammon problem, not the alcoholic parents problem – sorry kids!).

Before the advent of nuclear war, people had trouble coming up with stuff to do. But after several thousand years of trial and error, they decided to stick with error.

The curious countenance, the bloodshot eyes, and the yellow mustard-stache. Notice the signs of genius? No, me neither.

Enter Hans Gammon, the inventor of “Triangles, Circles, Numbers, and Racoons.” It was wisely retitled after his death, against his wishes. Here’s how you play:

1.) Find an empty table. No empty table? Try the floor. No floor? Where are you? Outside? You heathen.

2.) Just add water! Just kidding – add 30 checkers, four die, a doubling die (you know…for kids), and a board covered with triangles and a bar in the middle.

3.) Oh! I almost forgot, you also need a caged rabies infected raccoon. If you don’t have a raccoon, a beaver with bad breath will work.

D.) Now, place all your checkers on the table, or “flatwood” as the Brits call it. Roll to see who goes first…then that person rolls the dice to determine the number of moves.

0.) I know what you’re thinking now, seems pretty intuitive. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong! Oh, dear Lord, you don’t know how wrong you are! Roll two sixes? Move 24 times. Roll a five and a six? Time to get the doubling die!

10.)Doubling die: using an unnecessarily obscure mathematical process (multiplication) a player “ups the odds” or, as I say, “increase the risk.” Player one rolls a five and six, and the first of the two players to grab the doubling die gets to roll it. The other player will use the rolled number to determine how many times he has to stick his hands in the raccoon cage.

Zucchini.) The first player to get all of his checkers off the board, and doesn’t have rabies, wins.

Final Analysis: I realize, however belatedly, that this was probably not very convincing. Also, using a beaver with bad breath is not actually an option in tournament play.

Go! Bananas! Go go bananas!

Good morning! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! And in one month it will be Christmas Day! How about that?

I slept awesome last night and made a decision this morning that today will not be stressful. Immediately after work, I’ll be heading back to the Mpls for the holiday AND to see…. My friend EMILY! Emily is my high school friend that now lives in Bellingham. I had so much fun visiting her this fall and can’t wait to see her again tonight. She’s in MN only until Friday, so I’m going to have to make the most of my time with her tonight. I’m not planning on staying out late (hello, 8 a.m. 5K run!), but we’ll still have a good time.

Breakfast today was bananas.

Bananas and oatmeal. I topped my oats with 1/2 fresh banana and a small handful of chopped banana chips, another new treat from TJs. A sprinkle of brown suga and a scoop of PB made this breakfast complete.

And some iced coffee with a scoop of Amazing Grass and a small drizzle of agave nectar.  

Remember how traumatic it was this summer when our boss announced she was leaving? It was reallllly sad news for us all. Well, we’re still without a boss (our new Marketing Director starts in two weeks), but today we’re having a team lunch with Heather! I can’t wait to see her, I miss her so much!

I’ll try to give you guys an update tonight, but if not then sometime tomorrow! Have a great “FRIDAY!”

On the Thanksgiving day, I want to make a banana bread.  This banana bread recipe is a little different than the normal banana bread.   I added the sour cream into the ingredients, and the taste is  really wonderful.

Ingredients
ripe bananas – 4, mashed
all-purpose flour – 4 1/2 cups
baking soda – 3 tsp
white sugar – 1/4 cups
eggs – 3
sour cream – 1(16 ounce) container
butter – 3/4 cup
vanilla extract – 2 tsp
ground cinnamon – 3 tsp
white sugar – 3 cups
salt – 1/2 tsp
walnuts – 1 cup, chopped

Method

1. First, preheat the oven to 150 degree C.  Lightly grease four 7×3 inch loaf pans. Stir together 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup white sugar, and dust the pan lightly with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.
2. Mix together the butter and 3 cups sugar, then add in the vanilla, cinnamon, eggs, sour cream, mashed bananas, flour, baking soda, salt and the nuts.  Divide them into the prepared pans.
3. Bake the mixture for 60 minutes.  It is done when the toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Makes 4.

This morning was a yummy egg and toast breakfast.  Today’s toast topping: crunchy PB and honey…

And a banana for my mid-morning snack!  Work today was fan-tab-ulous!  It was the last day of work for a certain someone in our company (who’s leaving FOREVER!) and that may or may not have made my day 10 times better.  Muah, ha, ha… Yes, i’m a horrible person for thinking this, but really, you all have NO idea…

ANYWAY, when I got home, i’m was starving, so i got to work on lunch.  I had some crimini mushrooms that I didn’t use in Sunday’s egg scramble, so I cut them all up and sauteed them with green onions and cilantro.  I then topped it with some Romano cheese.  Dee-lish!

I actually didn’t end up using the spinach, so scratch THAT.

As another side, I had a container of Voskos Greek Yogurt, with some grape nuts in it.  Oh yeah, AND I randomly scrambled 4 egg whites.

That pretty much held me over for the afternoon, which was spent doing some serious studying.  We had a take home test that was due today in class, so I finished reviewing some of my answers, and started on a different take home test for my Saturday classes.  I also needed to catch up on some past readings, so much studying was accomplished!  Yay for actually following through on plans….

Right before I left home (around 3), I packed dinner and snacked on a bag of PB filled Pretzels…

Snack for class was a cliff bar (White Chocolate Macadamia Nut)

And dinner was a bowl of leftover turkey chili (with romano cheese of course) and some kashi crackers!!

Class tonight was a lot of fun.  We learned about elbow extensors (TRICEPS!), as well as movement assessment and Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD), which is actually quite serious!!

At the request of a classmate, I’ve been asked to talk about a recent purchase.  About 2 1/2 weeks ago, I purchased a BodyBugg, as an experiment.  The BodyBugg is a tiny sensor: “It utilizes a patented process for interpreting calorie burn called “sensor fusion” developed by BodyMedia, Inc.”  If you’ve ever watched the Biggest Loser, that’s what the contestants are wearing around their arms.  When they’re talking about getting their “burn”, they’re referring to the number of calories they need to burn in a day to meet a certain daily requirement to maintain constant weight loss. If you’re one of those people that really wants to know exactly how many calories you burn in a day, this thing is prettly darn accurate.  It takes out all the guessing.  There is a program that allows you to see your “burn” and also allows you to log in daily food intake, so you can accurately track your calories and lose, gain or maintain weight.

I decided to try it and see if the little machine was all it’s supposed to be.  So far, things seem to be going fairly well.  I want to make clear that i’m not endorsing this product, since i’m not sure yet how I feel about it, but I will give you all weekly updates, to let you know how the process is going.

When I first weighed myself (2 1/2 weeks ago) I was at about 153. Then it was 150.6.  This past Monday it was 151.  I will give weekly Monday updates, but if you have any other questions concerning the BodyBugg, feel free to email me!

Also, i’m going a Thanksgiving challenge, at the request of my NPTI teacher NATE!  Since Turkey Day is on the 26th, he decided it would be fun to do something with the number 26.  So, he suggested doing SOMETHING where you do 26 sets.  I’m currently debating between 26 sets of 10 push-ups (that’s 260 push-ups in all!) or turkey holding squats (260 of them)!  So, turkey squats would be me holding a turkey (in a SS baking pan or some sort) and performing 260 squats holding the turkey!  Obviously the squats sound much more entertaining, but i’m trying to think how I can video it without making you watch me do all 260…

I’ll debate that while I run a 6 miler tomorrow with my sister and Jess!  We’re doing a bit of tapering, and since I haven’t run for a few days, this will be a good run to keep my legs in check.

Okey doke, it’s almost Thanksgiving and my 4-year anniversary…wow, I can’t believe it’s already been 4 years.  How time FLIES when you’re in love…

This image pretty much sums up highschool parties in Hawaii. One minute your cruising with friends on Halloween, next thing you know mokes are bouncing around the room and girls are scrapping.

Thanks for posting Ryan – www.alohafixed.com

I think it was Diego from Sao Paulo who first introduced us to barbecued chicken hearts. Since the weather is fabulous at the moment, just right for a bbq, I thought I would share them with you too.
Chicken Hearts on the barbecue are really nice. They taste like little morsels of steak. Sure if you think about it being a chicken heart, it can make you feel a bit funny but you get over that pretty quick once you have tasted them.
To prepare chicken hearts for your next barbecue, marinade them for a few hours with oil, garlic, salt and pepper. That is all the prep done and then just cook ‘em up when you’ve got the barbecue going. The internet offers other marinade recipes you can try once you have found the chicken heart love, like sherry, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger and garlic or the intriguing adobo sauce and lemon or lime.
Brazilians have other cool ideas for barbecuing too. Another recipe I really liked for the end of the barbecue was green bananas (normal bananas not plaintains), thrown on the barbecue until they went soft and they were split open and sugar and cinnamon sprinkled in on the hot banana. Lucy loved this, especially with some cream or ice cream.

- Fiona

As a kid in Hawaii I had a few fighting chickens… come to think of it so did all my friends. It was all the rage once the POG phase ended. I had one chicken that would attack little dogs that came into our yard. This video brings back some memories…

There are no candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows at our table! We try to stay traditional, with a tasteful twist. You’ll go absolutely bananas over these sweet potatoes that are easy to make and have a unique flavor that you will love!

Honey Banana Sweet Potatoes

5 medium sweet potatoes

4 bananas

2 sticks butter

1/4 cup honey

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Prick the sweet potatoes with a fork and roast for 30 minutes.

Add the bananas in their peels to the pan and continue roasting for another 10-15 minutes until both are very soft.

Set aside to cool.

Scoop out the insides of the sweet potatoes, peel the bananas, and add them to a bowl with 1 stick of butter, and the honey, and mix until smooth and fluffy.  Sprinkle with a little coarse salt.
Spoon into a greased, oven proof dish.

In a seperate bowl, mix the remaining stick of butter, brown sugar, flour and pecans. Rub with your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potatoes, and bake another 20 minutes until golden.

Enjoy!

note: The banana peels will turn black when cooked. This will not effect the taste.

photo: Glasshouse Images

4:53 pm: I just worked for over two hours on my upcoming “Best of 2009: Music” post.  I’m only 4 albums in out of the 23 I currently have selected.  Then there’s the “Best of 2009: Film” I have to do.  No, I don’t like to bite off more than I can chew.

5:00 pm: Cocktail time! Just kidding, I don’t have any booze.  Maybe later?

5:08 pm: I hate seeing commercials for local places you enjoy, because local commercials are comprised of crappy stock photography and bad acting.

5:22 pm: What is this I don’t even- some Syfy movie had two girls build a scarecrow, give it a corn penis, then it came to life and started going bonkers.  I wish I had thought of this.

5:44 pm: Ack, I just realized I’m yet to watch last night’s Dexter!  Be back soon.

6:30 pm: Back.  OH SHI!  That was bananas and coconuts!  Showtime’s Dexter is such an amazing program.  Michael C. Hall and James Remar play off one another brilliantly.

6:49 pm: I just ate some very meaty chili that would have benefited from additional spice.

6:57 pm: NBC’s Heroes is my obligated Monday night viewing, but there’s a 3 hour WWE RAW that begs for attention.  I like professional wrestling, big whoop, wanna fight about it?

7:10 pm: I’m going to watch The Powerpuff Girls until 8pm.  Craig McCracken is the man, for real.  And it really bothers me when people think the show is about girls and being girlish as that is full-on wrong.

7:32 pm: “The Mane Event” is totally classic.  Click HERE to watch.

7:38 pm: I just tinkled in the potty like a big boy!

7:59 pm: I want a deaf lover, like Dr. Emma Coolidge on Heroes.  I find that particular differently-capable trait so endearing and attractive.  Preferably I’d take Hayley Atwell’s ‘Lucy / 415′ ala AMC’s The Prisoner ♥ I think I’m totally normal for diggin’ deafness.

8:04 pm: Elisabeth Röhm!  Haven’t seen her since Angel and Law & Order.  Good for her getting back in the game.

8:13 pm: MR. MUGGLES! It’s about time my homeboy made an appearance.

8:41 pm: It’s gosh damn nice to see Sylar again, I tell you what.

8:55 pm: Okay, this is the last post because this video is the highest note one can exit on-

Hey everyone! My Monday is going by (too) fast! Let me begin by saying I got tons of e-mails and a few comments regarding the SATC Tour, it was super fun and if you are a fan I recommend it! I am a little but of a fan (sarcasm).

This is actually a picture of me on Christmas a few years ago when my mom and dad bought me the complete SATC series! Like I said, mildly obsessed

Today during “lunch”, I pumped!!! That’s right, I went to Body Pump. This time I went up in all my weight! YAY!!! This class has made me seriously strong. The more I do it the more I love it!!! I was lifting weight that I could barely pick up when I first took the class with Tina (you can read about my first time trying BP here). Oh Body Pump how I love thee!!!

Before I pumped, I had a small morning snack of 1/2 of a green superfood bar and the other half of my banana from this morning.

After pumping, I headed back to work and worked while eating lunch. Since we have very little food, I haven’t grocery shopped in over a week (but plan on going tonight), I had to pull out old faithful! Pacific sent me so much soup last month I still have a whole bunch of it! Today, I pulled this guy from the cabinet!

I enjoyed about half of the container (2 cups) of the spicy black bean soup with some crackers, laughing cow and the last of the baby carrots in our fridge (we are running dangerously low on produce).

This soup was good! I liked that it had a spicy kick to it. It was not my favorite black bean soup, (I like Amy’s better because it is a little chunky, which is how I like my soups) but I liked it a lot. So far, I have not been disappointed with ANY Pacific product I have received! GO PACIFIC!!!

In other news:

As you all know, in Honor of Thanksgiving being right around the corner, I will be posting something I am thankful for in every post. PLEASE feel free to join in in the comments section! So for this post:

I AM THANKFUL FOR: My fantastic (and gorgeous) Bridesmaids/best girl friends!!!!!

Here I am with all but one (Kara, who lives in TX) and my mom at the Running of the Brides! This is the day I bought my wedding dress!!!! All 7 of these ladies got there butts out of bed at 4am and headed to the ROB to wait for hours in the freezing cold (it was Febuary in BOSTON..bbrrrrrrrrrr!!!) with me to run, fight, and claw our way to the perfect dress!!!!

I have 8 Bridesmaids in total you can learn more about all of them and how I met them on our Wedding website.

These ladies are seriously the best BM’s and a girl could ask for!!!

My MOH, May actually made all of these hoodies for us for that day!!!! Mine had a veil!

I choose these girls because they are the best friends a girl could ask for and I can’t imagine standing at the alter on my Wedding Day without them beside me. They are all funny, incredibly smart, supportive and  caring; not to mention gorgeous…am I wrong?! . I know that I can always count on them when I need them and I would truly do anything for these ladies. I am so blessed to have such a great group of girl friends!!! I LOVE YOU GIRLS ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!!

Me and my MOH and bestie May!

Jill and I 4th of July 2008.

Kristie and I on my 25th Birthday!

Me and Lauren Spring 2007

Me and Melissa Fall 2009

Myself, Ibelis and Crystal, Summer 2009.

May, Kristie, Yours Truely, Kara Summer 2006.

Jill, Kristie, Me, Melissa at My “Year Til’” Party July 2009 (one year until our wedding!!!)

I learned a new technique to cook garlic! Simply take a whole garlic clove, wrap it in aluminum foil, and cook it in an oven or toaster oven for a while! (until they’re soft and can easily come out of their shell) I cooked mine for about 25 minutes in a toaster oven at about 250 degrees, popped them out of their shells, mashed them in extra virgin olive oil, added a pinch of garlic salt and made a spread for my rye crackers, so good!

Something else I created recently is a mix of bananas, lime juice and chia seeds (all to taste) blended and chilled in the freezer until just the top and edges are hard, or take out of freezer a few minutes before eating. Chia seeds are inexpensive here, when you can find them.

I found out that although Mexicans love avocados and use them in all kinds of dishes, they never use them for desserts. I always get faces of surprise when I tell them of my ABC pudding (4 bananas, 1 avocado, 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder) but they seem to really like it. The problem is… we just ran out of cocoa powder! So I’ve got to do some research and find out where I can find some. But speaking of avocados, Robin can’t get over the size of the big ones. He says the flavor is not as intense as the small ones, but they are generally cheaper. We usually end up making guacamole with a big one, a bunch of lime juice and a decent amount of green tomato salsa.

The fruits and veggies and not cheap around here though, especially in Tulum. I can’t wait to go to the open markets of Merida and Chiapas. Until then, I think I’ll be eating a lot of grapefruit. They are so inexpensive. I used to hate them, but now I take the time to take off all the bitter flesh and eat just the little droplets of citrus inside.

I had to make waffles for this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, so I invited the family over for brunch. The waffles were pretty good (not anywhere near as good as the waffles I had from Bouchon) and the brown sugar bananas were delicious (although my brother said they were too banana-y; how can bananas be too banana-y?)

Waffles from Bouchon

Thank you to Lauren of Fried Pickles and Ice Cream for selecting Raised Waffles with Warm Brown Sugar Bananas for this week. If you would like the recipe, visit her blog or buy the book.

(For those who are interested: Today I am in Lautoka, Fiji.)