Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread (minus the nuts)

Made this tonight because I had some overripe bananas. Reminded me of making it at Susy Bryan's (ok, Houx) house when we were kids. That's where I first learned that old bananas had such a wonderful fate. Susy and Ms. Monique were always baking something wonderful!

Because I hate nuts, I have eliminated them from the batch pictured and replaced them with chocolate chips.

Oh, and yes, this is still sugar-free February. So sue me. :) The bananas told me to do it. It was their final wish.

Included the recipe so you can try it...

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread
3/4 cup butter softened
1- 8oz. cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups self rising flour
3-4 medium sized mashed bananas
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 tea. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time beating until just blended. Gradually add the flour to the mixture, beating at low speed until just blended. Stir in bananas, nuts and vanilla. Spoon batter into two greased and floured 8x4 loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes (if it starts getting too brown, put some aluminum foil over the top). Remove from pans and cool on wire rack.

We Survived the Great January Buying Cleanse (sort of)

Remember that I said in a previous post that Tiffaney and I were going to take our 2011 resolutions one month at a time?  We chose to go on a "buying cleanse" for the entire month of January.

Tiffaney wrote about our month-long adventure below.  I have a guest blogger!  Does that make me official or what??

As it turns out the theory of not buying anything new, that isn’t considered consumable,  had more “gray lines” than I anticipated. It’s strange how you can find way to rationalize that items are “consumable.” Overall I think you’ll see that Magen certainly out performed me in her attempt to curb consumption. But, I think we both realized we often make impulse purchasing decisions with little regard to whether we truly NEED the item. I can remember a few occasions of contemplating purchases to only remember we were on our “January Quest.”  Now I can’t remember most of what I wanted to purchase…guess that proves that you don’t always need what you want. 

January’s Tally

Magen’s Purchases:

• 2 - $3 disposible tablecloths (I think these are considered consumable)
• $70 of Clinique makeup (It was bonus week, therefore a bargain in any woman’s mind!)
• $2.58 for two itunes songs
• Magen edit – Okay okay, Tiffaney, it just occurred to me that I bought Sugarland concert tickets on Jan. 29, but its not till MARCH!  Oops, my bad.

Magen's Resisted Purchases:

• Wall Calendar $15 (turns out she got one free from Economics Arkansas later)
• Norah Jones Duets CD $14
• Bathroom rugs $40
• Living room rug $100
• Birthday gifts $75 (some were improvised, and some are coming, Talyn and Jake!)
• James Dobson’s “Strong Willed Child” book (that’s another post) $8
• Magen edit - Y’all there are countless other things that I thought about buying that I can’t even remember.

Tiffaney’s Purchases:

• $8 – Mascara – We counted this as consumable (one of those gray areas)
• 2 – Birthday gifts – I went as consumable as possible, but sometimes you just have to buy a gift.
• 2 pairs of pants – Now I rationalized this one by ordering them in January, but I will not get them until Febuary…tricky. (You can chalk this one up to forgotten RedStrike chapstick  in a pocket and sent to the dryer…turns neon yellow.)
• Hangers – I completely cheated on this one. I wanted, not needed hangers and may have tricked Magen into saying they were consumable/purpose driven items. What I did not disclose is that I ordered 100 of the slim line ones. I just had it with my closet and have been thinking about it for six months so technically not an impulse purchase, but still cheating. Sorry Magen!  Magen edit – I did not say they were consumable!  I said they were NOT consumable!  :) But I did buy those tickets, so we're even.

Tiffaney's Resisted Purchases:

• BE Lip Gloss set $25
• More lavender slim line hangers J
• A board game I saw that would be good for our upcoming game night
• New Glasses

Hopefully our sacrifices have taught us a little self-control, we’re certainly going to need it for February…

no sugar month!