Roasted Banana Pudding

Yesterday while waiting in line at the grocery store, I started flipping through the Cooking Light magazine, I noticed lots of great ideas but the main one that stuck out to me was the Roasted Banana Pudding. I have never attempted to make this Southern treat before, however, lately I have seen so many posts on Pinterest in regards to what happens to a banana when you bake it. Supposedly they get super gooey and delicious.

There were a few catches though:
I needed it to be ready in a short amount of time
I didn't feel like spending an hour and a half making homemade banana pudding to go with it.
At a whopping 295 Calories for 2/3 of a cup, I decided to whack a few calories


I modified a few things and it still turned out awesome.

3 ripe unpeeled bananas
2 cups 2% milk
8-10 whole graham crackers
1 package instant vanilla pudding
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs cinnamon
whipped Cream of choice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

1. Place unpeeled bananas on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove bananas and with a sharp knife cut down the center of each banana exposing about half of the flesh. Sprinkle each banana with 1 Tbs of brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon. Bake an additional 5 minutes on 450 degrees.

2. Let bananas cool and in the mean time, follow the package directions for making the instant pudding and crumble all of the graham crackers (Note: don't turn the crackers into sprinkles, you still want the texture)

3. Once the bananas have cooled, cut them in to 1/4-1/2" slices. Start with a layer of graham crackers, then add a layer of pudding. Do this until all of the pudding and crackers are gone. Top with the roasted bananas and chill until ready. Top with whipped cream of choice and voila!

Afternoon Tea With The Ladies

The "Fam" recently came into town and the ladies went the Lady Bedford's Tea Parlor in Pinehurst, NC. It was such a quaint little treat. I had creamy early grey tea with a fresh salad and tea sandwiches. To top it off, I ordered a chocolate creme brulee with fresh fruit. It was such a great treat and I would definitely go back to relax and have a girls day out.

Hillsong United - Desert Song

Jesus Culture- Your Love Never Fails

Haris Teeter Meal Deal 1-12-12

This week alone, I have had three people email me about how I get such great grocery deals. A while back I posted a basic guide to couponing, however, to help out of my friends and family, I have decided to post a few specials each week with coupon match ups! Hopefully this will  help those of you who are just starting out.

This weeks highlight is great because it feeds a family for $5.00

Pretty often Harris Teeter will advertise on their flyer and online here that there is a Meal Deal which consists of 4-5 items that must be purchased the the same transaction for an awesome price!

BUY ALL 4 FOR $6.99:

• one (1) 24 oz. Perdue Simply Smart Fully Cooked Chicken;
• one (1) 10-16 oz. Birds Eye Steamfresh Vegetables;
• one (1) 10.5-12 oz. Alexia Frozen Rolls; and
• one (1) 2 ltr Coca-Cola Product

*Must purchase all 4 items in a single transaction with your VIC card to receive this great deal.  Limit one transaction per household. Offer good January 11, 2012 - January 17, 2012.


Here are the coupon match ups for the following items:

• Perdue Simply Smart Chicken- Click here for a $1.00 Printable coupon, if you get the newspaper, it was also in RP 1/08
• Birds Eye Steamfresh Vegetables-   $.50 Newspaper SS 1/08
• Alexia Frozen Rolls: Click here for a $1.00 Printable Coupon

Remember, HT will double coupons up to .98 on any given day so the $1.00 coupons will not double but the .50 one will if you have it. This will make your meal deal either $4.99 or $3.99 if you have the birdseye coupon.

For the new couponers, you probably will only be able to use the two printables listed. This is why I stress getting the Sunday paper with the coupon inserts and holding on to them for when things do go on sale.

Note: Red Plum, Smart Source and P & G Brand Saver are the main 3 varieties of coupon inserts that you will find in the paper. I abbreviate them with the following RP, SS and PG usually followed by the date of when the coupon was in the paper

Good luck and email me with any questions:

Brittneysterner48@yahoo.com

Mason Growing up 4-6 Months Old

Mason has grown up so much the past two months. He is starting to look less like a little baby and more like a little boy. He is full of giggles and he smiles ALL day long! He is so even tempered and just likes to hang out with mom and dad.

Mason LOVES bath time

Snuggling with his musical seahorse and his sleep sack

Daddy like to give me a hawk!

Side View

Looking all grown up

Eating big boy food now

Stuffed Mushroom and Parmesan Baked Fish

The bulk of my recipes these days come from non other than Pinterest! When I scroll through the food section, my mouth waters and all I want to do is go to the store and buy things to cook! This week, I decided to make Parmesan crusted fish with french onion stuffed mushrooms from The Pioneer Women. She has some amazing recipes!

First Start by Sauteing the  chopped onion with butter, 1/4 cup of white wine, garlic, a pinch of salt and a dash of black pepper

Once the onions are almost caramelized, I put the mushrooms in the pan with 3 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 cup of water on medium high heat for 5 minutes

Take the mushrooms and place on a foil lined pan and stuff with the onion blend

Top with cheese of choice. I used a blend of parmesan, asiago and mozzarella. Bake on 350 for 10 minutes.

In the mean time, take cute baby pictures........and then turn broiler on for 2 minutes to toast the tops!

quikly feed the baby........

Voila!!!!! Yummy dinner is served

Back In Action

Andrew was working in California for 6 weeks starting November 6th. Now that he is back, the holidays are over and so is the Fall semester of school so I have a little free time to start blogging again!!!!

While daddy was gone, we made him cute messages :)

Christmas 2011

~Our Christmas Tree~

We enjoyed  an early Christmas with Andrew's parents and it was a beautiful day at 70 degrees here in the South. Mason was sans clothing and we played outside all day until dinner was ready!

As most of you know, at the Sterner household, we try to be kind to the Earth and recycle so this year, I vowed to not buy any wrapping paper because it always just gets thrown away. Most of you also know that I am addicted to shopping at Harris Teeter and I always ask for paper bags. Soooo, with that being said, I wrapped ALL of my presents in but up Harris Teeter and Trader Joe Bags. Take a look!

Mom Inspired TOMS and Robeez= mOMeez

If you know my family, you know that we are all very creative in our own ways. Everyone plays an instrument or two, Christopher is a remarkable painter, mom is a true crafster at heart and I love to sew, scrapbook, create and spend hours in a craft store.
Recently I was searching the internet because I wanted to buy Mason some shoes for the Winter to keep his feet warm. I looked at Robeez which are very popular baby shoes because they mimic bare feet and are very durable. On the other hand I wanted a pair of TOMS because they are more like my style, very down to earth and fun colors.
Due to the fact that Mason is growing like a weed, I can't justify spending $30+ dollars on a pair of shoes that he may not get to wear the whole Winter.

Have No Fear

With a little research I found the perfect pattern to make Mason some pretty sweet kicks and that is just what I did. I Googled "DIY Baby Shoes" and this tutorial popped up. So, down to my basement I went to see what fabric I had laying around. I actually had just enough leather left over from another project to get started. You can use any fabric you want for the tops of the shoes so I just used blue and khaki for the first pair. After some trial and error and sewing one shoe inside out, I made my prototype.

If fit Mason and was super cute. The next pair that I made, I added a little flare to and embroidered on the tops and used elastic on the heel and hid it instead of a string. Here are a few pictures of what I made. Once I make a few more pairs and iron out all of the details, I will try and post a tutorial of how I made them.

These are the Robeez

These are the TOMS

INTRODUCING......... mOMeez

"Fashionable footwear created by a loving mom for her sweet baby boy"

Still lots of tweaking to do but I think they are pretty cute.