Town Fair

Our Town puts on a pretty good Fair.  We are lucky enough to live a block away from all the great festivities, rides, live bands and not one but 2 nights of a full on fireworks show.  Community wide garage sales and so on, the kids and I look forward to this each year. 

This year I decided to play things a little differently.  TEACH the value of a dollar and budgeting and how it feels to spend your 'own' money vs. someone elses.  Each of the children were allowed to pull $20 from their individual Savings Accounts.  As we visited the Garage Sales and they saw useful & junk type items, they were reminded, they had $20, they use it at Garage Sales OR at the Fair for Rides how they spend their money is up to them.  3 of the 4 opted to save for the Fair, 1 opted to purchase a fantastic bicycle that looks like a dirt bike.  Something he has wanted for a long time, a purchase I very much approved of for $15, he got a great deal.  Later on he also purchased a fish night lamp that looked like an aquarium for his bedroom, leaving him with $2 for the Fair.  Long story short... Did he get a little upset watching his brothers and sister ride a camel, and ride rides, having fun etc, at one point, yes.  Then he reminded himself, in the garage he has an awesome 'ride' he can ride whenever he wants to that doesn't end.  He feels he got the better value, the other kids think they got a good value, in the end they all did well with their money :)

 

To me the Town Fair also marks the 'end' of Summer.  A week and a half after the Fair the kids head back to School.  Sad Me :( I like it when the kids are home.  I also feel that time goes by even faster when they are in school.  Time is going by way to fast, I want to hit the pause button.  Thank goodness for pictures, the 'pause button' on the best of times.

Vegan PB Banana Muffins

While doing my 365 photo blog I found I quite enjoyed photo blogging, sharing the experience behind the photo.  Or perhaps it was simply a great dish of the day or new recipe that I was proud of and eager to share.  Little did I know that my life was far to busy to even get to the computer daily, who knew ;)  Oh that's right, 4 kids, a household to manage, yard to upkeep, 4 cats, there are 3 snakes too... what on earth was holding me back? :)

One of my more notable things I would say from my 365 that I would like to carry through to my new blog.  A recipe that I have repeated several times upon the children's request.  Muffins created one morning simply by accident due to lack of ingredients on hand, have now become a family favorite!

Some of the best things in life are found when you are not looking.


Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Ingredients

4 ripeity ripe bananas
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup boiling water

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line or grease muffin tins.
2. Mash bananas with the oil, peanut butter, and boiling water
3. Sift sugars, flour, baking soda and baking powder, and spices.  Gradually spoon into banana mixture.
4. Pour batter into muffin tins (this is a THICK batter). Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until a toothpick can be extracted clean)
5. Cool for five minutes. Remove from muffin tin and glaze, if desired. (trust me you DESIRE the glaze, the kids say the glaze tastes like PB Cookies! I agree) ;)

Peanut butter glaze

Ingredients
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
2-4 tablespoons water

Directions
Add 1 tablespoon of water to the sugar, followed by the peanut butter.  Slowly add more water until the glaze reaches the desired consistency.  Pour over the cooling muffins.