Winco Bananas for 18 cents!!!

If you want to save money making green smoothies, go to Winco!!

Winco just advertised 18 cents a pound for bananas at the Orem location!!! I am not sure if that is for every location, but that is a really good deal. I love bananas in my green smoothies and never make one without, it makes them creamier and sweeter.

Tip for using the bananas in green smoothies:

1.Buy up all the bananas they will let you on the sale, take them home.

2. Wait till they are ripe and sweet.

3. Once fully ripe, peel them, break them in half, and put them on a cookie tray.

4. Freeze in the freezer.

5. Put the frozen bananas in zip loc baggies and store then in the freezer.

6. Use them up for creamy green smoothies.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Sorry no picture of the soup, but this soup is worth the post, picture or not!!!

This recipe was given to me by my sister in law, thanks so much Alyce, it is definitely a keeper!!! This soup is perfect for those cold days that are coming our way. Roasting the tomatoes gives it a whole new flavor that is incredible, and the basil just makes it even better. The thing that I loved most about this soup is that I was able to use up all of the tomatoes from my garden. I made a double batch and froze half of it to use on a day when I don't have time to make dinner.

Notes while making the soup:

When I was making the soup I didn't have time to let it cook for 40 more minutes, so I blended it right after I added the tomatoes, and then simmered it while we where eating. I also think to make this soup a little less rich you could add 1 T of butter and olive oil instead of 2.

Roasted Tomato Soup

3 lbs tomatoes

1/4 C olive oil--(this part I didn't measure I just tossed the tomatoes in olive oil)

1 T kosher salt-- (this part I didn't measure either again I just salted and peppered the tomatoes)

1 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper " "

2 cups chopped yellow onion

6 garlic cloves

2 T butter (you could use more olive oil if you like) ( I think you could easily do 1 T of olive oil and butter)

2T olive oil

1/4 tsp red pepper

1 28 oz can of tomatoes with juice

4 C fresh basil ( I only had two)

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 qt chicken stock (vegetable stock would work as well)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Toss the tomatoes in the olive oil, salt, and pepper.

3. Spread on a cookie sheet in one layer not overlapping and roast for 45 minutes.

4. While the tomatoes are roasting, add 2 T olive oil, and the butter to a large stock pot.

5. Melt the butter over medium heat.

6. Once the butter is melted add the onions, garlic, and red pepper to the pot, cook until the onions turn a light brown.

7. Add the canned tomatoes, basil, thyme, and chicken stock.

8. Add the oven roasted tomatoes including the juices on the cookie sheet.

9. Bring to a boil and simmer for 40 minutes.

10. When it is done cooking, blend in batches so that the soup is still chunky but more smooth. I just pulsed mine in the blender instead of blending it all the way.

11. Season to taste, and ENJOY..

This soup freezes well, so as long as you are going to spend the time making it, it makes sense to double it and freeze some for later.

Whole Grain Cinnamon Banana Cake with Gluten Free Version

Wow. These little cakes are really tasty. Shocking enough they have NO oil or butter in them, making them a lot better for you than most cakes. Trust me they don't need it, the bananas in the cupcakes make them really moist, and more then make up for the lack of fat. Along with being "healthyish" they taste really good.

I made the cake for Isaiah's second birthday party. It was adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod's recipe. I mainly just changed the flour to be whole grain flour, and the sweetener to be turbindao sugar instead of refined sugar. In the future I will experiment with agave in this recipe. You can see that the cake in the pictures is frosted, but the cake doesn't need frosting. Since it was a birthday cake I wanted to decorate it, so I frosted it with a light whip cream frosting. If you do end up frosting the cake, omit the topping.

My next project with this recipe is to make it with agave. Truthfully I am still out of it. I ran out of it making the raspberry jam, and being pregnant and tired, didn't make the effort to go get it. You will be happy to know I have picked up a gallon FINALLY.

Banana Cinnamon Cake

3 ripe bannanas mashed

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 C turbinado sugar or raw sugar

1 3/4 C whole grain flour blend**( equal parts, spelt, brown rice, and barley)

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 C cinnamon chips*

Topping:

3 T turbinado sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1. Mash the bananans well with a fork in a big bowl.

2.Add in the vanilla and both of the eggs. Stir the mixture until the eggs are fully incoporated.

3. Add in the flour, baking soda, turbinado, and cinnamon. Carefully mix all of the ingredients together.

4. In a seperate bowl add 3/4 C of the cinnamon chips, reserving the rest for the topping. Toss them with 2 T whole grain flour. This helps them so they don't all sink to the bottom and are evenly dispersed throughout the batter.

5. Fold in the cinnamon chips.

6.Pour batter into baking dish. Top with the cinnamon sugar mixture and remaining cinnamon chips. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

* I found the cinnamon chips at Harmon's

To make this completely gluten free:

Sub out the whole grain flour mix, (which is a mix that is low in gluten, I have found that I am able to tolerate it, in small amounts) and add

1/2 C almond flour

1/2 C sorghum flour

1/4 C tapioca

1/4 C cornstarch

1 scant teaspoon xantham gum