Banana bread bundt

I love baking banana bread, but I often have trouble getting the middle to set perfectly without over-baking the ends. When I found a recipe for a moist and rich banana bread baked in a bundt pan, I was excited to try a new method. It turns out, it bakes beautifully! The boys thought the "banana cake" was extra delicious, and I have to agree!

You'll need:

2 cups mashed, ripe bananas (about 6 bananas)

4 eggs

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 (3.5 oz) box vanilla instant pudding

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp sea salt or kosher salt

1 cup shredded coconut

4 ounces chocolate chips or chocolate chunks

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan (or use a baking spray). 

Mix together mashed bananas, eggs, and oil in a large bowl. 

In a second bowl, mix flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt.

Gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold in the coconut flakes and chocolate chips/chunks. Pour the batter into the bundt pan.

Bake for 60-80 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean, or the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Let cool for 10 minutes before you gingerly flip it onto a cake plate. (You may need to use a knife to release the cake if it gets at all stuck to the sides.)

Let me know if you decide to try it!

xo

Rachel

Valentine's

Junia had a nice first Valentine's Day! 💕 No chocolate, but plenty of tiny paper valentines from her brothers for her to eat. ❤️💌

We woke up to Steve making heart-shaped pancakes for us!

I tried my hand at making heart meringues. My first round didn't turn out well, but I thought these ones were cute!

Nine months old, never stops moving, learned how to clap, cruises the furniture, only wants Mommy, sleeps quite terribly at night, fits in perfectly with our chaos, loved to pieces. 💕

I love their little handwriting.

Tiny girl playing in the kitchen!

How is February already ending?!!

XO

Ephraim turned 6!

 

Ephraim turned six, despite me pleading with him to stay five for a while longer. We had friends over to celebrate with an outer space party 🚀, and E was really so overjoyed. I love watching him learn to read, and color amazing art, and pretend to be Luke Skywalker with a white tee shirt and khaki pants and a light saber. And I just think he's got all of the qualities of the best kind of friend - I'm so happy he's mine. 🌔👨‍🚀🎂

 

We had a low-key day on his actual birthday, complete with storebought emoji cupcakes, and then waited a few days until Feb 1 for his party.

A fun new building toy from Grandma and Grandpa Z!

Ephraim watercolor painted the moon cake topper, just about an hour before the party, and it was my favorite decoration!

Beautiful space cookies baked by my mom.

Ephraim and his cute friend. All of the kids played hard and had a great time! We filled up on hot dogs and chips, cake pops and meringues. I hope it made a sweet memory for our six-year-old!

XO

August is 3!

At the beginning of January, August turned THREE! 

You definitely know how to hold your own as boy number three - you play superheroes ⚡ and fight with light sabers and push your older brothers around. You have a great throwing arm, and you love riding your new scooter through the house. You like finding words that have A's in them (saying "A is for August!") and you would sit on our laps and read all day if you could. Baby sister changed our dynamic, and though you love her, I think you get a little sad to be on the sidelines, and you make up for it by being loud and demanding (mostly for snacks and drinks). 😉 I'm praying that you'll learn how to love big this year, and that you'll never question God's presence and provision for you. I'll eat you up, I love you so. 💛

My mom did an awesome job making August's birthday cookies! ⚡ Throwing a party right after Christmas is always a little stressful for me, but we narrowed down the guest list to just family, and we kept the food and decor simple. And August - LOVED it all! ❤️

Nolan made this Super A out of Duplos! He always amazes me.

Nolan was sick in the morning on August's birthday, so we stayed home from church while he napped. August and I played his new favorite game, Candyland. He plays only to get the ice cream cone! :)

 

Three is going to be so fun! I do love this age. 

XO

 

Christmas recap

I could come up with a million excuses for neglecting my blog, but every time I come back to it, I ask myself, "Am I ready to shut it down?" And the answer is no. I just have to rethink the way that I use this blog, and let go of my perfectionistic tendencies. This is a little piece of our history that I see myself being incredibly grateful for as my kids get older.

We had a fantastic Christmas season! We didn't travel to Pennsylvania this year, but Pennsylvania family came to us. Some of us were sick at untimely moments (like as we were getting in the car for the Christmas Eve service), and things didn't go as planned, but all in all, it was wonderful. :)

'

At this time, 7 months-old!

It's always a highlight to go to Daddy's work and pet some live animals - like reindeer!

Steve agreed that we could get a real tree this year since we weren't traveling, and we picked out this sweet Fraser fir! It was a dream - we had it until the end of January, to be honest, and it still looked pretty great!

Junia is our first baby to not have a dog in the house, so it was sweet to see her with a friend's puppy!

French silk pie at the holidays is a must.

Our traditional TJs A-frame gingerbread house!

We don't eat out much, so it's always a real treat to have dinner at Chick-Fil-A!

Our Christmas card photo!

And the annual matching jammies pic! A year ago, I didn't know if we were going to have a new boy or a girl in this photo!

All the Zimm kids lined up on Christmas Eve Eve!

We inherited quite a few Christmasy outfits for Junia, and it was so much fun to have her wear them all! 

XO