I'm going banana!

Do you remember when I posted about The One race almost a month ago? 

As it was to be expected, I had lots of muscle pain in the days following the race. 

Anticipating this, I bought my self a lots of bananas as I've read that it benefit muscles especially when they hurt from exercise. 

What I didn't know is that hubby had exactly the same thought and the day after the race he came home with even more bananas for me. 

 That meant that I had more bananas that I ever thought possible! 

And I also have a secret to share with all of you: I hate bananas! 

I don't really care for the taste, I can't stand the soggy texture and I really don't like the smell either. 

 Don't give me wrong, I know they are healthy (even tho among all the fruits they are the ones with more sugar in it) and I do occasionally even crave them, they come in handy as you don't need a knife to peel them, but there were way too many bananas around me now and I couldn't possibly eat them all. 

But I wasn't going to waste them, so I had to come up with a way to use them up and that's when I found a couple of recipe that helped me achieve this goal and I thought to share those recipes on here for future references. 

My go-to recipe when I need to eat bananas but I don't feel like it, it's definitely the chocolate and banana muffins from Handle the Heat

 

Here is how the muffin baked by me look like

 

I love this recipe as she used whole wheat flour instead of white flour and applesauce instead of butter and 3 whole bananas for a dozen of muffins. 

The muffin are very well sized and only 100 calories each! Perfect for breakfast or for a snack that doesn't add to my waist line. 

 The other recipe I love is a drink that used peanut butter too, another thing that I don't really eat often unless I have an hormonal surge. 

I don't have a picture of the drinks I gorged down, but I found the recipe on the Chichita website: just click on the picture and make one for yourself!

  

 Very handy to use up those jars of peanut butter and have a breakfast on the go for those busy morning. 

Thanks to these 2 recipes, I was able to accomplish my mission to use up all the bananas before they turned bad and eat a healthy amount of them. 

Do you have any banana recipe to share with me?

Weight update #1

I know some of you were waiting for, so here you go. 

I lost 1.5 lb BUT I think most of it has to do with the fact that I was sick with a stomach bug and unable to eat for 2 days straight. That's not the way I intend to loose weight! Still, any loss is good, now I have to be strong and don't fall into the trap or rewarding myself with food so to regain it and some. 

Speaking of food, I thought I'd share some recipes that I found on Pinterest that I tried and love. I hope you will too.

   

Baked Parmesan tomatoes

   

Baked veggies 

 

Baked zucchini

 

I love several things about these recipes: 

• They are simple and quick to make
• The ingredient don't usually cost and arm and a leg 
• They required baking which it means that I can throw them in the oven and do what I need to get done in the mean while 
• I can cook them in big batches which means that when I have that craving and urge for a greasy snack, I will have them handy 
• They are tasty 
• They don't contain too many calories

Messing around in the kitchen

I know you were hoping to see my brand new cupcake kitchen curtains, but they are not all done yet! Soon tho!

In the meanwhile, I'm having ab last trying out new recipes from Pinterest.
I'm not very good at cooking, I must admit that I'm still learning and experimenting.
Sometimes, the experiments turn out all right, like these self frosted nutella cupcakes

Some other times, I ended up with a burned mess while trying to make brittle in the microwave

And sometimes, even tho I'm very skeptical of my abilities, I end up with something awesome, like this no kneading bread

Then, I start creating my own version of tried recipes like my stuffed pasta shells

or chicken quesadilla

Made you hungry yet??

Randomness Saturdays

♥ It's Saturday night and I have a terrible headache :(
Not sure if it was for being so upset this week, for the hot sun in my head during this morning soccer game or the cheeseburger I hate. Or all the above.

♥ Enjoyed a nice trip to the thrift store to find a black shirt for Michelle to go with this for her Halloween costume.

From urmysunshine on artfire.

Guess what she will be dressed?

♥ Not much going on around, slow week business-speaking and a roller coaster in the personal area....c'est la vie, I guess.

♥ I found this interesting article on yahoo: Slow cooker dessert recipes. They sound really yummy and I was wondering if I should try some gluten-free version of some. I thought I'd share the link, maybe some of you might like try them on and let me know how delicious they are :)

♥ Enjoying the movie "Snow White and the seven dwarfs" with my children: I like that every time I ask Gabriel to clean up his room or pick up his clothes, he tunes: "eho, eho, I work I must go!" Too funny.

♥ I leave you with my favorite song. I know I posted it before, but I'm listening to it a lot lately and hubby is teaching me to play it on the key board: I'm your of Jason Mraz

Featuring sweetcrabhoney18

This is the first time my blog host a giveaway for another seller, and obviously I'm really excited about it!!

Chimica, sweetcrabhoney18's owner, sweetly decide to share with me and my readers one of the recipes included in the "Tiny Dipples" cookbook that it the prize of her giveaway.

Here it goes:

-Oh my goodness Gumbo-

2lbs cooked medium to large shrimp 2 to 4lbs uncooked chicken boneless skinless 2 to 4lbs cooked Italian sausage 2 Tbsp minced garlic 3Tbsp salt 2Tbsp black pepper 1 chopped onion 1 12oz can of diced carrots ¼ cup chopped celery 1 can tomato puree 2 cans diced or stewed tomatoes 1/3 cup hot sauce( Mexican hot sauce is best) 1Tbsp cayenne 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes water 1 cup chicken broth

In large soup pan place water and broth. Heat over medium high heat. Cut chicken and sausage into bite size pieces. Set aside. Add veggies to pan and allow to cook for 7 minutes. Add chicken and sausage. Stir to combine. Add rest of items except shrimp lower heat to medium low after gumbo comes to a slow boil. Stir gumbo often. After gumbo has cooked for 1 hour add shrimp and cook for up to 1 hour more. Serve warm over rice. For a hotter gumbo add more hot sauce. 1 small can of jalapeños can be used in place of hot sauce.

Sound yummy, doesn't it? So, don't wait any further and go enter this sweet giveaway!!

Now I leave you with more info about this amazing woman:

My name is Chimica. I'm a new mom and a long term writer. I love cooking. I decide late in 2008 while I was still pregnant that I really should write down my most loved recipes. My main thought was that I didn't want to forget those great tasting meals when I get older. Soon I'll be releasing a poetry book and a fantasy and I'm even considering writing an actual romance novel. I'm also a crafter with an on line store.

I work very hard with everything I do; from being a mother to being a business owner to being a writer. And what makes me work so much harder and makes people understand me even more is that I'm a 20 years old proud African American woman.

New Giveaway: Tiny Dipples

Finally after several days of troubles with my computer I'm back to blog again! I miss it so much, I felt really lonely!

This time I'm presenting to my readers a new etsy seller, whom graciously agreed to give away a prize on my beloved blog. The prize in question is a cook book, written by the sweet sweetcrabhoney18's owner, Chimica R. Robinson.
The book is title is "Tiny Dipples" and you'll find yummy recipes like Spicy Turkey Wraps, Crab Dip, Macaroni Salad and much more!



Prizes Details:
One lucky winner will receive a cook book, written by Chimica R. Robinson

How to enter:
1) You must go through sweetcrabhoney18 etsy shop and comment back here on your favorite item with your name and contact information.
2) You must go through and comment back here on your favorite item with your name and contact information.
3) Become a follower of my blog and earn ONE extra entry. Leave another comment telling me you did!
4) Subscirbe to my blog and you'll earn ONE extra entry. Leave a separate comment about it!
5) Blog about this giveaway and receive ONE extra entry! Just come back here and leave a separate comment with your blog link.
6) Twitt about this giveaway and earn ONE extra entry. Be sure to put @piccoladonna before your twitt, so I will know you did it :)
7) Earn TEN (10) extra entries by purchasing something from my etsy shop. Just come back here and tell us what you purchased along with your contact info to claim your extra entries!

Leave a separate comment if you do more than one of the above things to increase your chance of winning!!!

This giveaway will last for 2 weeks.
Winner will be announced on April 16th, at which time I will contact the winner to get shipping information for shipping. If the winner does not contact me within three days, I will appoint another winner through a random number drawing.

Sounds fabulous doesn't it!?! What are you waiting for....enter now...good luck!