Frozen Chocolate Bananas

It's nearly here!!!   

SUMMER!!!

And with it...   "MOM,  THERE'S  NOTHING  TO  EAT... "

Really?  Nothing???  Wow... that's really strange how there's fruit and veggies in the fridge along with three dinners of left-overs, Mac and Cheese in the pantry that 3 out of 4 of you know how to make, snacks in the snack box... Huh.  Yup.  Nothing.  So strange.

So here's a little something to make out of "nothing"!  Plus, it is FROZEN and therefore doubles as a popsicle.  

SUMMER!!!

So let's get this one going, and make enough to last a few days.  But before you start, you should know that it is easy... Easier than easy!!!  In fact, have your kids read this and let them make it!!!

Here's what you'll need for a dozen:

6 ripe small to medium bananas - barely green at the stem are best

(but not overly ripe... save those for banana bread or green smoothies) 

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup refined coconut oil - (without the coconut taste)

SPRINKLES!  :O)

12 popsicle sticks or short kabob sticks

parchment paper

baking sheet

microwavable bowl 

Optional:  1-2 kids to make this for you... 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut the bananas in half and insert a popsicle stick or short kabob stick into each half at the base where cut.

Place them on the baking sheet and freeze for at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate with the coconut oil in a 

microwavable bowl in the microwave.  

Check mixture and stir every 30 seconds until chocolate is 

melted without any lumps, usually 2-4 minutes 

(but don't forget to check and stir every 30 seconds!).

Stir until smooth.

Roll each banana half in the chocolate and then place on 

the parchment paper at least an inch apart.

Quickly sprinkle with your topping of choice (if using).

 Freeze until the chocolate sets – 30 minutes.

YUM!!!  

Serve or freeze in an airtight container for up to a week.

These ended up being our family home evening treat on Sunday.

It's what we had on hand without running to the store... 

Not the chocolate cake requested, but we made something out of nothing!!!

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Lemon - GARLIC - Grilled Pork

HECK YES THIS IS AWESOME!!!  

I'm sharing something I've never written down, so listen up...

I honestly cannot tell you who's recipe this is.  (Greg's or Tasha's)  However, I do know when and where I had it for the first time:  after church, the Schroeder's house. 

I can confirm that notes were passed back and forth to verify ingredients during church (but AFTER the sacrament was passed...)  :O)  to convey dinner plans.  Which was pretty much the Sunday scenario for three years in a row AT LEAST every other Sunday.  I don't know what year it was, but I don't think there was a Miss Bret Annalese yet, so around 8 years ago. ??? Yeah.  Pretty sure... 

(Note to Schroeder's: Those Sundays evenings filled with dinner, kids, and everything-in-between are thought of often and missed!)  :O)  xoxox  Bret Sr., Jo and Davis Parade

"Give a Mouse a Cookie" storyline for Lemon - GARLIC - Grilled Pork:

This is one of those recipes where you make it ALL the time - and then have to take a break - and then you forget how easy and WONDERFUL it is...  AND THEN...  pork shoulder or pork loin goes on sale...  and thinking of things to use up the 20 or so pounds of pork you've bought you REMEMBER  THIS  RECIPE...  and then you make it...  and wonder why it every left your dinner rotation!  

This exact storyline happened a few weeks ago in my kitchen.  

As I went through the process of making this recipe for my family, I actually measured and I wrote down amounts of ingredients that I normally just eyeball.  I had gone looking through my hand-written-on-the-back-of-a-Schroeder-Twin Falls-utility bill-envelope for this recipe and realized I'd never written anything down.  THIS IS THE FIRST OFFICIAL SHARING.  :O)  love y'all!!! 

AND YES... it is that easy.  My brain can remember this recipe without too much effort!  (Plus it helps to make it a lot.)

So thank you Schroeder's... please fight over credit for this one and let me know who's it was first.  :O)

What You'll Need:    

1/2 hour to 4 hours to marinate

4 lbs.  Pork Shoulder or Pork Loin

2 REAL lemons - not bottle lemon juice (don't try to cheat)

1 bundle of garlic - pressed or minced

2 teaspoons garlic salt

3 Tablespoons oregano

1/4 cup and 2 Tablespoons olive oil

foil - 6 square pieces 

1-2   loaves natural yeast bread or French Bread from a store bakery

Sanitarily (WOOOOO... yes.  That is a word.  Didn't make it up!)

Okay, sanitarily ;0) cut up your pork shoulder or loin and trim off any large pieces of fat.  Cut your meat into nearly bite-size pieces.  Note: Pork loin is defiantly easier to cut into cubes, but usually needs a bit more time to marinate and is not as tender.

Half your lemons and juice completely.  Add lemon juice of both lemons to pork and stir.

Add remaining ingredients to your bowl of meat.  Stir until combine well.  Let sit and marinate in the fridge for a minimum of a 1/2 hour for pork shoulder, and a minimum of an hour for pork loin.

When you're ready to get dinner on the grill, pre-heat your grill on med-high for 10 minutes.

Here's your project for the 10 minute pre-heat wait:
Take 2 of your square foil pieces and fold both layers together rolling the sides up to form a bowl.  Repeat using 2 square foil pieces at a time until you have 3 foil "bowls".

When your grill and foil bowls are ready, haul everything out to your grill and put your EMPTY foil bowls on the grill.  Place the foil bowls close together on the grill, and divide the meat evenly between the 3 bowls.  Make sure all the meat is touching the foil and NOT stacked.  

Shut your grill lid and leave the meat alone for 7-8 minutes.  

Stir meat around, basically gently pushing the meat around so that you do not puncture your foil bowls.  :0/

Note: You want the marinate for your French or Natural Yeast bread you've waiting to eat with your meat!!!  You do not want a hole in a foil bowl and loose all that amazingness... Plus, you need it for stove re-heating if there are any left-overs.  Can't guarantee leftovers...

After GENTLY stirring... pushing meat around... Shut your grill lid again and leave the meat alone for 7-8 minutes.  

Meat is done when you can cut it in half with a fork and a pieces are slightly brown around the edges.

Remove foil bowls from the grill as best you can without losing any marinade it has cooked in and stack them together into a serving platter or large bowl.  (Using grill tongs to pinch the edges together, and then lifting one at a time off the grill works best for me.)

VERY  IMPORTANT  LAST  STEP:   Let your meat rest in the foil for 10 minutes.

I serve this lemon GARLIC pork with bread - the cooked marinate is amazing... dip into it with some French or Natural Yeast bread... HEAVEN!!!  

Serve this dinner with green salad, and a seasonal fruit... or just have a green smoothie and call it good for both fruit and veggie!  Love this for a summer dinner, it's as easy soup and everyone is grateful I'm NOT serving soup on a 95 degree day of sun and humidity!  :0)

UPDATES:

If... (sarcastic laughing cued here...) you end up with leftovers, DO NOT REFRIGERATE IN THE FOIL.  Keep until left-over night in the fridge without the foil.  

EASY RE-HEAT:  

Stove top with a pan on low, lid on.   OR   Crock-Pot on LOW 2-3 hours.  

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STRAWBERRY!!! ( and plain ) Apple Rings

A snack.  A happy apple snack.  ...AND  A  VERY  HAPPY  STRAWBERRY  APPLE  SNACK!!!  

On my list of school snacks and poolside-summer-snack-agenda are these HEALTHY and "healthy" apple slices.  The strawberry dried apple rings get the "air quotes" and lower case "healthy" label as they are sprinkled quite generously with Jell-O.  YUP!!!  Jello-O.  Not a typo.  And they are so AWESOME, you will dust off your dehydrator, go out and get a dehydrator, or wish you had one and hunt down someone you know to borrow one from.  

My dehydrator made its way down from the dusty cupboard above the fridge and found a permeant home these last few months on a pantry shelf.  Its previous home was too tall and too inconvenient for weekly use.  Now it gets hauled off of its new pantry spot when apples at HEB or Kroger dip below $1.00 per pound.   

Here is a happy little apple ring that was scarfed in the HOV line on a rainy afternoon:  

:0)  And the kids love them too!!!  A few weeks ago I ran out of my regular fruit leather snacks for my Sunbeam class at church... Realized my lack of fruit leathers too little and too late to run to Costco, and made these before going to bed the night before.  They are a confirmed hit with 3 year olds!!!  (Even the plain ol' just apple ones... and especially liked by the kiddos that don't love having sticky fingers after a fruit leather...)

So here's what you'll need to get this snack underway:

10-15 minutes   :O)

dehydrator

apple corer

cutting board

slicer 

1 apple per dehydrator tray                          

Strawberry Jello-O (or any Jell-O you may fancy)       

Wash and core your apples.

One at a time, slice the entire apple top to bottom with a "multi-purpose" slicer.  

NOTE:  Slicing them with this amazing kitchen tool keeps all your slices one uniform thickness.  All of the apples finish drying at the same time... BONUS!  No babysitting thick, floppy, half-dried apple slices.  

I have 4 dehydrator trays, (NOTE  TO  BRET  SR: I secretly wish for more...) and am able to dry one apple per tray.  EASY MATH!!!  Which works out nicely since, as all of my kids know, I ONLY do math that is easy math...

The top 2 trays I keep "plain" and the bottom 2 trays I sprinkle a 1/4 package of Jell-O per tray.  Keep your Jello-O apples on the bottom to eliminate any accidental Jell-O sprinkling on your plain apples.

My Easy-Peasy NESCO Dehydrator tells me 135 degrees will dehydrate my fruit.  GREAT!  I know that it typically takes 10-12 hours to complete... So starting a batch in the late afternoon or evening has me turning it off when I wake up.  By the time I'm done cooking up some dreaded oatmeal, the apple slices have had time to cool off before I start packing them up into lunches.

If you're keeping them in the pantry, you can stack them into a clean glass jar and keep them dry AND CUTE at the same time... or just grab a huge gallon zip-lock, shove them all in and call it good!  They won't last long, so you decide how much effort you're willing to invest in their storage.

Apples that become HAPPY APPLE  RINGS:

Granny Smith dry with minimal browning, 

Fugi, Pink Lady, Honey Crisp...  

Try what's on sale and see which apples you like best!

 

I actually bought this slicer years ago at TJMAXX just to do this!!!  :O)  

I'm sure I could use it (and should use it...) for many more things, 

but I'd love it just the same for taking care of this one task with my apples!!!  

(And for being dishwasher safe...)

I've used store brands and have been just as happy.  

I have tried all flavors of Jell-O and strawberry is the BEST for my 

food snobs (critiques) at home... 

you may love orange!  Or lime!  Or wild berry!  

Try them out... Comment with your fav!

You may even get your prep time reduced (or let's be honest... doubled)  :0)

with little hands managing apple slice placement.

Slices will over-lap a little depending on the width of your apples.  

No worries!!!  They will just get a little stuck together... 

lots of fun to rip apart while snacking.

Follow the instructions on your dehydrator for the adequate 

amount of time needed for fruit.

Someday... maybe four more trays...  ??? :0)

(HINTING  DIRECTED  AT  BRET  SR...)

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Candy Bar Brownies

It's amazing to me how making food that you love can bring up old memories... Some of my favorite memories from childhood have a lot to do with the blackberries that we'd spend hours picking (getting new scratch scars by...) and then having them jammed or made into a cobbler.  Going to the Northwest anywhere near the time blackberries come on will nearly bring me to tears with the love of the smell of ripe blackberries.  Hands down.  Favorite.  

Later in life, while living in Idaho for 10 years, Bret Sr. and I had a series of favorite races that we'd make sure to participate in.  It would be something we'd plan on year after year (pending my being pregnant).  Then, along with the races, FOOD became part of the planning.  There were always items that would be expected to be either brought or cooked while at Bear Lake for the Bear Lake Classic Race each May.  With fingers crossed, my Bret Sr. would hope and confirm with Tami that there would be marshmallow covered brownies.  Salad and Greg's pasta the night before to carbo-load.  Raspberry milkshakes and cheeseburgers would be talked about in the months leading up to the race.  To round off our plans, we'd make sure to bring enough bacon to feed Jerry Man on Sunday and all have a big breakfast of pancakes before going home.

When we moved from Twin Falls to Pocatello 5 years ago... we not only left our home and first business... we left many friends and memories made while we were there.  It was a painful departure for all of us, and the ripples of leaving are still felt in our home and hearts.  

Pocatello was a new adventure and made us all create new friendships... and with them new memories.

One of my favorites to tell:

After living in Pocatello for more than 6 months, I first met Melissa at a combined ward Cub Scout meeting.  While awards were being presented to the Cub Scouts, a 3 year old Bret Annalese was running through the building with a little boy her age.  Corralling the two towards the back of the gym, I ended up standing next to the boy's mother.  Busy saying "hello!" and "what's your name?", I did not notice her little boy coming to my side.  However, I did notice when he grabbed my arm and LICKED  IT.  Shocked, I grabbed his arm and licked him right back.... :O)  He and I were instant friends.

And so were Melissa and I.  I had honestly been praying for months for Heavenly Father to put someone like her in my life.  (Over the years that have followed, I have been grateful to Him for her friendship and the friendships that were made between her children and mine.)  The following weeks and months morphed into race training together...  BIG PLANS!  The Bear Lake Classic and a sprint triathlon that first summer we knew each other.  

The new friendship brought with it new recipes.  :O)  Melissa brought Candy Bar Brownies to the first race we did together... and has brought them to EVERY race since.  These are a real motivation to finish fast and, since we've raced, not feel too guilty about the calories that make them so wonderful.  :O)

So calories... OH what a recipe of guilty calories this one is...  I haven't even logged this one into my Calorie Count Food Log because I  DON'T  want to know what the calorie content is!  

Seriously... These have been renamed into "Candy Bar Brownies" for a reason.  The original name didn't sound calorie heavy enough.  So take (or leave) the following advise when trying this one out:

MAKE  THESE  ONLY  IF  YOU   PLAN  TO  SHARE  1/2  OF  THEM  AWAY ...

You will wake up the morning after making these lovely things and wonder to yourself... 

"Does this count as a breakfast food since there's oatmeal in it?"  

Sorry.  The answer is no.  These are not on the "alternative, i.e.: SNEAKY" oatmeal-for-breakfast list.  Though, to throw in a confession on this particular post, that doesn't mean that I don't eat these for breakfast if they are found in my house.  :O)  AND... I'm pretty sure Melissa does too.  

1  1/2 cups flour

1  1/2 cups old fashioned oats

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1  1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup PLUS 2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1  (14 ounce) bag unwrapped caramels (NO Caramel PELLETS)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 

1 cup milk chocolate chips and

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a large bowl to make a crumble mixture.  

Sprinkle a little more than half of the crumble mixture into the bottom of a 9X13 baking pan. 

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

WHILE  THE  FIRST  LAYER  IS  BAKING:

Unwrap caramels and melt in a medium saucepan with whipping cream.  

Stir mixture constantly with a heat-tolerant scraper.  This mixture will easily scorch on the bottom if not watched.

Remove baking pan with the first layer.

Pour melted caramel and whipping cream on top.

Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over caramel.

Sprinkle remaining crumble mixture over chocolate chips.  Press gently… careful not to touch the caramel or edge of the baking pan.  

Bake for 15 minutes.  The edges will be bubbling caramel and be just barely golden brown.  DON’T OVER BAKE… easy to do… But remember the bottom layer has already been baking and it will continue to bake a little as you let it cool down.

Plan ahead.  These need a few hours to cool before you cut and plate them.

Makes at least 2 dozen, and at least 3 total if you cut them smaller.

Candy Bar Brownies - Optional Recipe Substitutes

Instead of: Try:

1 cup milk chocolate chips and 2 cups milk chocolate chips

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

OR

1 cup milk chocolate chips and 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melted Butter                                                      1 cup PLUS 2 Tablespoons unrefined 

                                                                           coconut oil, melted

Heavy Whipping Cream                                   1/3 cup butter, melted

                                       3/4 cup milk, whole (preferred) or 2%
                                                                                 (This makes 1 cup of Heavy Whipping 
                                                                                 Cream Substitute.)

The last few years I have noticed a bag of "caramels" 

in the grocery store baking isle that actually look like air-soft gun pellets.  

Please don't feel like this is an easy answer to skipping the task of

 unwrapping REAL caramels...  Don't give into the temptation!  

NO EASY BUTTON HERE!  

Just bribe a child or handsome husband with an extra 

Candy Bar Brownie and have them to do it for you.  ;0)

This crumble mixture 

has been tweaked inside out...  

find your favorite!  

If you love coconut, jump right 

into this with unrefined coconut oil.  

Very "Almond Joy".

If you're not a fan... Stick to butter.

(LOVE MY PUN!)  :0)

I've even tried 1/2 and 1/2 

and love the simple HINT of coconut.

Remember... 

Barely golden brown...

The bottom layer has already 

been baking long before 

you've added to it...

Let cool a few hours before cutting.  

But too long with turn these 

into an arm workout...  

There.  You've been warned.

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