Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

These last few days have been busy.

 I visited the dentist, taught myself to knit, my mom and I took my car in to get checked, we tried a bowl of Mexican gumbo at Qdoba Mexican Grill which was delicious (It's like a burrito bowl + tortilla soup), I bought Oddball a cute lion costume which he thinks is a new chew toy, took Oddball, Marley, & Dusty to get some shots, did a little shopping, had some extended family come over who were visiting from out of town, went out to dinner with the whole family, and then I had another physical therapy session which has been helping my lupus.

  I had a few golden, spotted bananas left on the counter and I was wondering what to make with them. I found a lot of new recipes like banana oat cookies that are dairy, gluten, and oil free, but the recipe only said 2 bananas, but didn't tell the measurements. Normally that would be okay since the bananas we usually get are average size, but the leftover bananas we had  were really big so I didn't want to mess up a recipe by adding too little or too much banana and having a ruined creation. So I went with a newer banana bread recipe that I found on foodgawker that measured the mashed bananas.

Honey Walnut Banana Bread

Last Wednesday I went to my first physical therapy appointment which mainly consisted of  trying to pin point where the problem was (without knowing the MRI results), discovering that my right leg which is where i'm having pain in is weaker than my left, and learning new stretches that help strengthen my core without straining my back or leg. I also learned that if you have back problems, that you shouldn't lean forward which  can aggravate the problem area, but to bend down. I never realized how much I lean forward until someone told me not to.

 Charlie and Gus Gus visited the vet on Friday to get fixed. I was a ball of nerves while they were gone since this was the first time they would be with other people besides us. It seems like just yesterday they were 2 tiny balls of orange that could fit in my palm and needed to be fed every few hours. Charlie got her belly shaved and she was the only cat that I recall in all of our years of owning cats to be aggressive and testy after getting fixed. I finally took pity Gus Gus since he was at the receiving end of her wrath and I took Charlie into my bedroom for some quiet time where she turned into a purring, cuddle bug.

My Weekend & Cornbread Muffins

This past weekend was a busy...

• I finally set up my Keurig single cup coffee maker, which I has been sitting in its box for over a year and I have had 4 cups of coffee and 1 cup of tea. Tigger thinks it's a monster since it makes weird noises.
• Tigger played with some goldfish (the food snack, not the fish, of course) when I discovered that they don't appeal to me anymore. I've noticed that a lot of packaged foods that I use to like now just taste too much like the chemicals in them. We also got a big mouse toy/scratch post/ cat nip holder thing for Tigger and he LOVES it. 
• I found a few new blogs that peak my interest; some involve food while others are of quotes and photography.
•  I'm really into vegan recipes right now (I don't know if I will try gluten-free baking, though). And I want to try to bake using grams since I have a lot of recipes bookmarked that are from other countries and cultures.
• Moonshine, our chicken died :( We were down to 2 chickens from our original 5 when Red started acting sick and we got her back to health and she started to lay eggs again, but then suddenly Moonshine just died. My dad said that Red was pecking her to get up, but when he noticed she wasn't moving and went to check he discovered that she had passed away and buried her.
• My mom and I went to World Market :) and I finally got a jar of Biscoff spread to try since I see a lot of recipes for it and people raving of how good it is.
• I changed my blog header. That is tiny fluff ball with ears is Cowboy when he was a tiny bunny in a itty-bitty saddle at the feed store at which we purchased him. 

• Also I decided that I would post a recipe that I made last week. I actually have a good amount of recipes that I want to test out in the next few weeks like Overnight Oatmeal, No Bake Energy Bites, a Baked Mushroom Risotto, Apple Bran Muffins (vegan), a Honey cake (french) and a few other things. I also will be having either a dinner or dessert recipe for next week since this weekend the family is coming out for dinner.

Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Bread

For the next two Sundays, I am in charge of bringing making breakfast for my mom's sunday school class. I wanted to do something other than pumpkin muffins and I came up with something made with blueberries. I actually found 2 recipes and made both for tomorrow.

The first, Lemon-Blueberry Yogurt Bread, is the one I decided to share with you today. The other recipe is for blueberry muffins, which came out good, but the batter could use a few changes to make them even better; so I might tweek it before sharing it with ya'll.

My dad, even enjoyed this, which I was certain he wouldn't because of the strong lemon flavor, but he ate his sample slice (he was my taste tester today) right up.