days 223 and 224 and we are safely home

the peanut butter and banana smoothie

days 223 and 224 coming at you tonight from home ... we are safely home after a three day adventure to a beautiful spot just north of auckland.  it was glorious, the peeps were great (most of the time), the company of a dear friend is always the best, and the weather even came to play!

day 223 saw me making cupcakes with a box of vanilla cupcake mix and lemonade.  the recipe is pinned to my recipe must do's board and comes from cookies and cups. shelly used a fruity soda can and a funfetti cupcake mix but i went with vanilla and lemon. so i am guessing you could use any flavour cupcake mix and any flavour of soda! as i was away on holiday, i wanted a lazy easy icing so i purchased betty crockers vanilla icing to add to the top of these little beauties.

what i used

look how frothy the mix goes as soon as you add the soda!

fill the cases to 2/3's full

baked and ready to ice

iced and ready to eat!

outcome: who knew you didn't need eggs and butter to make beautiful cupcakes.  they were so delicious and just as beautiful and moist today as they were yesterday ... so perfect if you have a party and want to make cupcakes a day ahead of time.  my usual cupcake recipe is normally only good for the day they are made so i am stoked these remain just as yummy the day after.  i am making these for a gift on sunday, that's how good they are!

my thanks to shelly at cookies and cups for this outstanding cooking secret ... ignore the cake mix packets just add soda for the best, moist baking ever!

day 224 and i was very tired when i got home this afternoon.  after eating lots and lots of unhealthy food for the last 3 days i wanted something nice and simple to eat to fill me up.  i found this yummy looking smoothie that also looked nice and nutritious as well.  this recipe is from the chiquita banana's website and is pinned to my weight watchers recipes happy days board on pinterest.  cool website and if your peeps love banana's as much as mine do, this site is definitely worth a look for all sorts of neat recipes.

what you need for the peanut butter smoothie

blend all the ingredients together and serve .. easy!

the finished smoothie ... so yummy and totally filling :)

outcome:  i have never had peanut butter and banana's together before and it was surprisingly good.  not a combo i would have naturally put together but it was actually really nice and boy was it filling.  this is definitely something i will add to the after school snack list as it's pretty darn nutritious, yummy, totally kid friendly, and nice and easy to make ...  plus for a growing tween boy, it's much more likely to FILL him up than a lot of other snacks!

my thanks to chiquita banana's for this recipe that i will use again and again with the peeps for after school (whilst  filling my glass!) ... love recipes that are filling, healthy, and liked by the peeps ... happy days, happy days ;)