Nellie & Phoeb's

Design, Food, Kids, Laughter, Love...

Mom's Banana Nut Bread

Mom's Banana Bread Recipe


We put the Christmas tree up and decorated the mantle yesterday, and started on the ornaments in the evening. Our tree is 11' tall and 6' wide, it's ginormous, it takes us 2 days to put it up and decorate it. We LOVE it!!! I would have totally put it up in October if my garage wouldn't have been so messy that I couldn't get to it! Garage has been cleaned, the tree has come out.

We are hosting Thanksgiving next weekend and wanted to get the house decorated before, so it will feel more festive. Plus, we had zero plans this weekend (outside of watching the OK State vs. Baylor game), and knew we would have the time to get it done. 

This was the longest day ever (don't you love those days?)! We decorated, we made wheat bread in the bread maker, grilled burgers, and finished the evening with warm banana bread, straight out of the oven. My house smelled phenomenal all day! This a was the perfect kick off to the holiday season.
 
 
I had 7 browned bananas that were begging to be used in a batch of homemade banana bread. I dug through my Mom's recipe box and found this recipe. It was simple and fantastic, so I'm documenting it and sharing it! (I added vanilla and switched out pecans for walnuts.)
 
 
Mom's Banana Bread Recipe
Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients:
6 bananas
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar using a stand or hand mixer. Mix in eggs, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl mash bananas, then add to mixing bowl. Add vanilla. Slowly add in flour, mixing as you go. Stir in pecans.
Grease 2 loaf pans with baking spray.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
 
 
Cheers!

Deer Head Pillow Cover Tutorial

Christmas Pillow Cover Tutorial

Santa or Deer Head Silhouette

I'm giving away my Christmas Pillow Cover Tutorial for FREE! 
Merry Christmas!!!

Includes step by step instruction and photos to make an 16"x 16", flannel, zippered pillow cover with a felt applique. Includes deer head and Santa silhouette. 

Download the PDF here.
I would love to see or hear about your projects!


Merry Christmas!

Styled Bar Cart on a Budget of $100

Styled Bar Cart on a Budget

All the shiny, shimmery, and reflective surfaces of a bar cart just make me happy. It's often less about functionality, and more about style. I mean how often are you really using a bar cart!? While I'm sure they get used occasionally, and probably more often in kid-less homes, they sure are sparkly!

I have a small empty wall in my breakfast nook area, connected to my great room, and thought it was the perfect spot for a bar cart, something not made of wood, I've got too much wood in my house right now, I need some more surface variation! I did some online shopping and found exactly what I wanted, but it wasn't going to be in the budget anytime soon. 

A couple weeks later, I was browsing through Tuesday Morning (currently my favorite store), and ran across this gold, mirrored tray table, for $49, SOLD! I shopped around for a few accessories to top it, I got a glass apothecary jar to hold paper straws for about $15, a small black and white ceramic bowl for lemons or corks, for less than $4, a white ceramic candle holder to hold bar tools, for about $7, and some fun printed cocktail recipe napkins in the clearance section for less than $2. I spent about $77 and had enough stuff make my little tray table look like a styled bar cart!

I raided our sparse liquor cabinet, and pulled out a few random, possibly empty bottles, that had a variation in color and shape. Found a set of glasses in my parents old bar cabinet, a set of glass coasters, bar tools, and a couple cocktail recipe books I had been gifted years ago. All of these old items were hidden in my pantry and cabinets, and now placed together with a few new items to tie them together, look brand new! 
Use what you've already got!




Cheers!

5 Minute Mason Jar Iced Tea

5 Minutes to the Perfect Microwaved Iced Tea
This was how my Mom made iced tea, and it always tasted perfect. In between Pepsi's she would always have a glass of unsweetened iced tea. She had HUGE sweet tooth, I'm surprised she wasn't a sweet tea drinker! For some reason, when I was young, her glass always tasted better than my glass. I have lots of food and drink associations with memories of my Mom. I did a Beth Moore Bible study last year and she talked about how important sitting down and eating together is, and how often it is seen in the Bible. I mean, the Last Supper was pretty important, and it obliviously involved food and drinks!

I am pregnant with my 4th baby and had no problem steering clear of caffeine with the first 3 pregnancies, but I just can't do it this round. I have to have 1 cup of coffee or a couple cups of iced tea to have the energy to do anything! So, I've been making tea A LOT. I've tried boiling the water and adding the tea bags, and the Iced Tea Maker gadget, but this is the fastest, easiest, and most fool proof method!

 I recently read an article about the safety of using the microwave to cook, and how some foods are actually healthier when microwaved versus traditional cooking methods, because they retain more nutrients, so that was my cue to use my microwave more, because health is my number one priority, well... maybe its convenience.

 Fill quart Mason jar half way up with filtered water.
 Add 2 tea bags.
 Microwave for 2.5 minutes, and let it sit in the microwave for an additional 2-3 minutes to steep.
  Drain tea bags and remove them. Add sugar and stir until dissolved.
 Fill the jar with additional filtered water, stir, and pour over ice.

5 Minute Mason Jar Iced Tea 
Serves: 2

Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 tea bags (I prefer Lipton)
ice
sugar

Supplies:
Microwave
1 quart mason jar
teaspoon

Instructions:
Fill mason jar 1/2 full of water. Add 2 tea bags, leaving strings hanging over the mouth of the cup. Microwave for 2  minutes and 30 seconds. Let sit in microwave for 2-3 minutes. Using a spoon, press tea bags against the side of the jar to drain them, and remove the bags. Add sugar to the hot tea and stir until it dissolves (optional). Fill the jar up with cold water. Pour over a full glass of ice. Enjoy!

Cheers!

Organic Banana Popsicles

Organic Banana Popsicles

 Amara baby food has introduced a new form of organic baby food to the Tulsa market! Reasor's has picked up their line of dried baby food, and it is unlike any other baby food out there. The unusual way it is prepared, helps it to maintain more vitamins and minerals than the standard from of cooking and canning, and the texture and flavor are nearly identical to a fresh made version. You simply open a pouch, and add breast milk, formula or water, stir, and BAM you have baby food. These will slip into a diaper bag taking up virtually no room.

I popped some into a popsicle mold and made an instant healthy snack for my little ones, find more info here: Moms of Tulsa
.
*These would be fabulous added to recipes, like my Mommy Milkshake!

I plan on posting some more recipes using these handy, healthy little packets, so keep an eye out. And, now that we are expecting a new baby, I foresee a lot of these in my future!!!


 Cheers!

Baby Number 4 Gender Reveal Party

Oh My Goodness, we are having another baby!!! Will it be more tutu's or our first ties!?

I made this super easy, cute invite on the Rhonna Designs app on my phone!

I had no intention of throwing a gender reveal party, but I wanted to make it a fun surprise for my 3 girls. I knew I was going to be busy with an event the Thursday evening that we got the sealed and secret gender note card, so we were going to have to do it on Friday... Since it was Friday, I thought Troy's mom was due for a trip to town, so she could participate too. Well, if she's coming then I'm sure Aunt Jen will want to come too... then my family, well I might as well invite a few neighbors, and a couple friends... and a party was born!

I asked my Photographer friend Kimberly Meisinger in Bixby, to snap some photos of us popping the ginormous balloon filled with pink or blue confetti, and she got some other great pictures too! I totally threw this together at the last minute, but I think it turned out pretty cute.


Dollar Tree colored plastic ware, baby shoes and pacifier decorations.

 Totally got lucky with these pink and blue sugar cookies from Sprout's! They just happened to have these 2 colors on hand, lucky for me! 

We dressed up some pre-made mini-cupcakes from Sprout's, with pink and blue candy covered almonds (Jen and I individually dug out of the rainbow bulk almond bin). 

 We also dug pink and blue taffy out of the bulk taffy bin, it was cute, so it was worth the extra work!

Disposable chalk bunting from Michael's that I had purchased for another holiday and had some leftovers. 

Pulled out the chalkboard for gender guesses! 

 How cute is this!? Blue feet and pink feet. I also did blue lemonade and strawberry soda, for additional blue and pink beverage options.

The hor d'eurve menu:
Balsamic Bruschetta and Toasted Baguette
Spinach Artichoke Dip and Tortilla Chips
Cheese Stuffed Tortellini with Pesto
Salsa and Pico de Gallo

The Popping of the Balloon! 



 It's a GIRL!!!!


I had fully expected my husband to cry when he saw those tiny bits of pink fly through the air, he held up well, but my 6 year old did not, she was in tears! She really wanted a baby brother. I'm not sure boys are in our cards, I'm starting to think there aren't any boys in there!



 So thankful for all of our family and friends that came to celebrate with us!


He does look a little puffy eyed, but he was a good sport.
He does love his girls!!! 

The Beller Family

The Squyres Family

 Party of 5.5

Cheers!