No Fail Banana Bread!

 NO FAIL BANANA BREAD!

Updated! See original post here

No fail banana bread recipe! Moist and yummy! 

2 cups flour 

2-3 bananas 

1 cup sugar ( I use cane sugar)

1tsp baking powder 

1tsp baking soda 

3/4 cup veg oil ( I use avocado oil)

2 eggs 

1/3 milk 

1tsp vanilla 

My no mess steps below! 

1. In a blender bowl, add 2 ripe bananas, 2 eggs, and oil. Blend 
2. Measure 1 cup sugar and add to the bowl of wet mixture and blend 
3. Measure 2 cups of flour and add 1tsp of baking powder and 1tsp baking soda.
4. Slowly blend in flour to the wet mixture and blend. 
5. Add 1/3 of milk and 1tsp of vanilla to bowl

Optional - Add other ingredients like crushed nuts or chocolate chips!

Sometimes I scoop out into muffins, the kids love that. 

I use a 9x13 pan. It’s more of a banana cake! 

Bake 350 for 30 min. Check with toothpick. My oven is usually exact with 30min with a 9x13. 

Muffins may take only 20 mins and if using a loaf pan the time will increase.

**upate if using a loaf pan adjust the time up to 50 mins, check with a toothpick  to see if ready.

Enjoy!! 

Mama T's Empanada Recipe

Our family favorite empanadas! (click to see the IG reel)

I buy these pre-made empanada dough shells at my local Walmart and at some smaller markets in the area. I keep them in the freezer and always have them on hand for these yummy beef empanadas! 

These can be made with left over chilli (yup) or left over ground beef from taco Tuesday! 

The recipe for the beef stuffing can really be anything you like. Mine is always different depending on what I have around. I actually use Ground Veal most the time. Some ingredients I do love in the mixture would be, cumin, paprika, adobe seasoning, cilantro diced potato and black beans. (Be sure to drain excess liquid) I like to make the filling the day before and refrigerate the mixture over night or at least a few hours so you can scoop in the shells cold. 

Once we have the filling ready and dough thawed , we can stuff them! 

Ingredients for my empanadas 

Beef or Veal Filling

Empanada dough 

Cheese (marble or mozzarella, monetary Jack is yum too, really any you like, experiment)

Boiled eggs (cut them up to bite size)

Olives (I usually use the small stuffed ones but I only had these sliced ones today) 

Eggwash 

Baking sheet and parchment paper 

Preheat oven 400F

Follow these steps! 

Scoop beef mixture

Add cheese

Add a piece of boiled egg 

Add some olives 

Brush edges with egg wash and use a fork to press down the edges. 

Brush the full empanadas with egg wash. 

Put them in the oven for 25min or until golden brown 

These are soo good! My family eats these all up! You can put anything in them really!

I also made some stuffed with hot salami and cheese! 

I usually make extra  and freeze some for easy lunches, just pop them in the microwave or toaster oven. 

Enjoy! 

Finally A Ski Day!

Ski resorts here in Ontario were closed during the lockdown. Lockdown was lifted in some cities just last week!

If you are looking to hit the slopes though, make sure you get your tickets in advance! They are running at a lower capacity and selling out tickets fast!

Last season we got a lot of practice! The kids were soo familiar with everything this year and enjoyed every minute!

We started on the magic carpet when we first arrived, then quickly moved on to the lift. 

Mr K was on his own, going up the lift and down the hills over and over on his own! Mr M wanted to go on his own too! He's still too young but he was eager to prove himself!

Mama didn't do so bad either, ha!

We Skied from 10-4! We stopped to grab lunch around 1pm. You could bring food and eat in your car too. They had some food trucks set up but the lines were long.  We just took a little break and drove out to get lunch, it was a nice little break for the kids too. 

It was the perfect weather on Saturday not too cold and barely any wind. It even snowed a bit and it was soo pretty!

We bought all our gear last year, everything still fit the kids which was great. 

The kids jackets and snowpants are from Mountain Warehouse.

My jacket is from Marshalls Canada of course ha! It’s Sketchers jacket. 

Our helmets and kids ski goggles and my ski pants are from Amazon (Click my here to see my Amazon Store) 

Even our ski neckwarmer/ face mask came in handy since you need to wear a mask while standing in any line ups.  

Have you been skiing or snowboarding this season??

Are Ski resorts open where you live?

Family vacation February 2020

 I just realized that I didn't blog our last vacation! The reason? Well we came back just weeks before the pandemic hit in Canada! So it must have slipped my mind!

This vacation was a family wedding vacation! I am soo happy we had all that time with family now looking back. Who would have thought the year ahead would have been this!

Last February we went to Cuba! Pullman Cayo Coco

We were up at 3:30 AM to get to our 6am Flight!

The kids love this part of vacations (moms not so much ha!) waking up and getting in the car when it's dark to travel to the airport!

We got a valet car service, where we went and picked up a driver. He then got in our car and drove us to the front doors of the airport. We got out and he left to park our car! (on the way back home we texted the car service and they met us right outside) Best service especially with kids!

I've learned over the years to travel with backpacks! Check in the big luggage and go on the plane as handsfree as you can! We each had a backpack. In each of our backpacks I put, 1 outfit, 1 bathing suit, snacks of course, phones/ipads. and my makeup ha! Because if for some reason a luggage was delayed, We would all have a little bit to get by!

Once at the destination, it's all fun! No rules! ha! All inclusive vacations are pretty straight forward. 

Eat, Drink,Beach,Eat,Drink,Pool,Eat, Drink, Dance, Eat,Drink, Sleep. Ha!

So lets's just tell the rest of the story in beautiful pictures! One day we will all get to travel and see the world again! As long as we are all healthy and safe, that is always priority!

The kids went swimming with the Dolphins! 

The kids had a blast on the beach 


The mommy’s too

Ohh how we miss the ocean 

My beautiful cousin got married! This was just last year!!!!

Missing this view! 


Fun music nights! 

The sunshine and breeze! 

And coconut drinks by the beach! 

We had a few trips planned for this year that have been cancelled! Disney and Hawaii! Not sure when we will travel again but we can’t wait to travel again when it’s safe! 

Are you planning your next trip!? 

Tostones!

 Here is one of my 2nd favorite breakfasts,  my first is Baleadas!

Check out my REEL right here!

What you need!

Green Plantains!

Oil to fry them up

Salt

Bacon, eggs, avocado, refried to fill your sandwich!

First up. Cut the plantains about 1inch thick. Fry them until lightly golden.

Take them out and squash them! Then fry them again until golden brown. 

I used 2 tostones and filled mine up for a yummy breakfast sandwich! The kids just ate them alone! Perfect salty snack!

Follow me over on my IG to never miss a recipe! @aka_mama_t

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TikTok Recipe for the win!

 Ok we all have learned so much this past year... FROM TIKTOK... Ha! I know you have learned some hacks that you now use on a daily basis! I know I did! HA!

This recipe is my new favorite! SOOOO GOOD!

Everyone is doing this recipe with pasta and I will do that next time. This is my low carb version (nothing against pasta, I LOVE pasta too) 

Spaghetti Squash Feta tomato recipe!

What you need:

Spaghetti squash

Feta cheese

Cherry tomatoes

Garlic

Italian seasonings (I used a blend I have)

Olive oil

1. Preheat oven at 400F

2. Cut the squash in half, drizzle with olive oil. Lay Cut half down and cook for about 40 mins. 

3. In a separate oven dish, add cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, italian seasoning, garlic and olive oil (i know I don't have measurements here, I did a one serving for myself so only had 8 cherry tomatoes a small chunk of feta, 2 small garlic cloves.drizzled olive oil, baked for about 20 mins watch it sizzle! So depending on your serving, add more or less! I don't think you can go wrong here!

4. Use a fork to pull the strands from the spaghetti squash

5. Mix the cooked feta, tomato into a yummy creamy sauce

6. ADD the spaghetti squash and enjoy!!! SOOOOOO GOOD!

ENJOY!!!!

Check out my REEL HERE!

Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram for more cooking fun!  @aka_mama_t 

More links here linktr.ee/MamaT

Virtual School Update

 Here we are almost 6 months in!

We decided on Virtual learning in September and it has been a great choice for our family. Our school board created a separate school just for Virtual school that is not associated to our physical school they went to last year. Which works out great because our teachers and schedules created are focused on virtual school only. Learning is a bit different, different for each class. We have a SK and a Gr 4. They both adapted to this style of learning right away. They enjoy it and we are happy with their growth and milestones! 

The whole family is home, The husband included and working from home. I have blogged about our tips and tricks (Here and Here )  a few times and share many milestones on Instagram too!

I know many families and situations are different. I can only speak to our own based on our own family dynamic and the age of our kids too. 

Here's a bit of background. 

Years ago I was a fulltime working mama (IT at a Bank) with a long commute to work. My kids were in daycare from 7:30am to 6. Our evenings were short and stressful. Our kids had separation anxiety and we struggled to make it work. This is the reality for soo many, and I remember it all too well. 

Especially one snowstorm in 2017. When driving home from work took 6 hours. My 1 year old was in daycare and sick with a fever, the daycare could not give him meds. I left work at 3pm that day in the snowstorm. I got to my 1 year old's daycare at 6pm (during this time my older son was in the after school program at his school and my 1 year old  was at a home daycare 10mins away). My 5 year old still at school waiting to be picked up also. 

When I picked up Baby M, I drove straight to the pharmacy, ran in with him to buy Tylenol and gave him a dose right there in the store aisle. My 5 year old at school with 1 teacher waiting for us. I was 10mins away but the streets to the school were backed up with traffic and my husband who was also driving home in the storm was trying to get to him also. I was stuck on a street with traffic with no way out. Finally my husband got to my 5year old at 8pm! Baby M and I arrived home at 9pm that night! 

That's when we decided that our family needs a change! The process of making the changes took a few years but we knew we had to make changes. We decided a few years ago to make a BIG move. We sold our home that we just built and customized and moved North. Where I could work part-time from home and not have the kids in daycare.

Fast forward just 1 year and we are hit with a pandemic! All 4 of us home! 

I think about when things will get back to normal and oh my,  I am going to miss this time soooo much! I'm soo grateful to be spending so much time with my kids and honestly feel like I could homeschool them for years to come if they wanted to.

Truth be told, they love virtual school too and cringe when I say next year they will be back in school Ha!

I love that we have been able to really get to know our children. Their strengths and areas they needed a little extra help in. I love that they can learn at their own pace without classroom distractions. I have seen my shy kids really grow and become more social with us and online. They also play online games, create videos and video call friends daily. Some might not agree that these are needed skills, but guess what, these are all life skills that build confidence and emotional intelligence and what better way to learn them than with mom and dad helping them navigate the how to! Things we had to learn and trial and error ourselves, we are teaching our kids without the outside noise. They are getting more confident and both boys are learning to embrace their strengths and differences. I have been in many different scenarios over the years, I have learned that adapting and making the best out of every situation is what will make the outcome that much better. Although we all can’t wait for lockdown to be over so we can go out and about! I am still so grateful for every moment! 

Thanks for reading friends! XO

Mama T

Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t 

More links here linktr.ee/MamaT

Valentine's Day Pizza!

 We love our Pizza weekends! So this weekend I decided to make some dessert pizza for the family!

I made up my own recipes ha! You can totally play around with ingredients too!

Here is what we did!

Strawberry Heart Pizza! YUM!

Step 1, heat up your CiaoBella Pizza Oven to 600-700F

Step 2 Prep your MimiFoods Caputo 00 dough balls (the best pizza dough you'll ever taste)

Step 3 I shaped the dough as a heart. 

Step 4 Whip together some vanilla pudding and set aside.        Slice strawberries and add some sugar and leave aside.

Step 5 Cook the pizza dough alone for this one (2-3 mins in the pizza oven)

Step 6 Let the cooked pizza cool before spreading the pudding.

Step 7 Spread the pudding mix and add strawberries! 

Step 8 drizzle with chocolate and strawberry sauce! Serve with some hot chocolate! So delicious! (Refrigerate and enjoy this one cold too)

Next UP Caramel Apple Cinnamon Pizza!!! 

Step 1, heat up your CiaoBella Pizza to 600-700F

Step 2 Prep your MimiFoods Caputo 00 dough balls 

Step 3 Prep apples! Thinly slice Granny Smith apples and let them sit in a coriander with some lemon juice and sugar for about 15min. Heat some butter in a pot and add the apples. Add some cinnamon and gently cook the apples. 

Step 4 Sprinkle dough with brown sugar and place cooked apples in any design you like! I covered the whole pizza!

Step 5 Cook pizza in your Ciao Bella Pizza Oven for about 2-3 mins

Step 6 Drizzle with Caramel syrup and enjoy!!! Soooo Good!

Here are some pictures of the other pizzas we made. Spicy pizza is my husbands favorite, Cheese and plain pizza for the kids! I'm really enjoying the Charcoal pizza from MimiFoods. 

Yess there was left overs for days!!! 

Click on Mama T cooks label below and see more recipes from me! 

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