Food Challenge

After reading a friend’s blog today I was inspired to challenge myself. Starting April 1st I‘m going to be cooking every meal in our house, meaning breakfast, lunch and dinner for 1 month, 7 days a week. So please don't invite us out to dinner :)

I’m really looking forward to this challenge. I have our whole meal list planned out for next week, which means a pretty big shopping list, but most of the stuff will last for a month or longer. Thank goodness for Sam’s Club. I tend to cook pretty healthy but I am taking it a step further. I'm eliminating white flour and will now be using whole wheat flour, we will be using all ground turkey in place of ground beef and we will only be eating red meat one time this month. I think that is going to be the hardest part, because we love steak. I have replaced most of the stuff in the kitchen with organic, cage free and grass fed, so I feel like I’m taking a step in the right direction.

I would love to hear from my other mom friends on this subject. Do any of you cook all of your meals at home? Do you tend to use natural, organic, fresh ingredients? Do you typically stick to making the same things or do you try new things? How do your kids react to different food and how do you get them to try it? Please feel free to share recipes, I love trying new things. With that being said, I will share one of the recipes I love. It is not super healthy, but I will be tweaking it and adding new things like whole wheat flour to make it a little healthier. I’ll share the revised recipe once I have perfected it myself.

Banana Bars

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 medium)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Dash salt
• 
  FROSTING:
• 1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

• In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, applesauce and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into butter mixture just until blended.
• Transfer to a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
• For frosting, in a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth. Frost bars. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 3 dozen