Crumb Banana Bread

Holla!
I think I had posted banana bread recipe before? Oh right, here it is. I am sooo often making banana bread. You know, ugly skinned bananas could easily found in our home when my hubby missed to eat the banana, or if we buy them too much for a week. Yea, my hubby is the prime banana-eater at home, and yes, we buy banana once a week.
Anyway, banana is easy snack or breakfast menu. So today I'm going to post another banana bread. The different from the previous one is the crumbs and the chocolate chip.

This is not really from scratch crumbe...well, not almost. Hm, not it's confusing how to explain this.
Anyway this crumbs is made from leftover Oatmeal Lace Cookies. There.
I put the crumbs after 10 minutes bake, and they come out not to sticky to the dough. Maybe next time I put the crumbs before baking.
It is spring school holiday and the boys need snacks. If the boys at home, I need something quick to make. You know what I mean?

This is easy recipe. The source is from Elise.com,unfortunately, I no longer have the link. However, I made some changes somewhere.

Here it is.

Crumb Banana Bread

Ingredients:
3-4 bananas
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt
a handful of chocolate chips(or more if you please!)
some Oatmeal Lace Cookies, mashed coarsely


Directions:
- Preheat oven to 180 C.
- Mash banana with fork in a bowl.
- Mix in sugar, salt, oil and egg.
- In another bowl mix flour, baking soda and chocolate chips.
- Mix them all together with spatula and do ot over mix it.
- Pour in lined loaf tin.
- Spread the crumbles to cover the top of dough, or you can spread it after 10 minutes bake just ike I did, but it would not be to sticky to the dough.
- Bake it about 50-60 minutes.

Make Your Own Fabric Boxes

The most expensive thing (non-living things!) I wish to have is probably a house. I do not really keen on gold, diamonds or cars. Unfortunately, last year we found that we cannot buy a house in near future, and still uncertain about in faaarrrr future either. It shocked me at first, but eventually I can accept that. It's about following what Allah's command. Eventually I believe that if we follow Him, He must have something better for us, more than what we could ever think of. Could it be house in Jannah? Inshaa Allah.

So, back to mortal world :) If we still cannot have our own house, it does not mean we could not create home, right? I told this to myself actually. Our house is a mess. With two boys hanging around and never stop moving, it's not easy to keep the house tidy and clean. I rrrrreallly need to organize this house. Maybe I need a system, I thought. I don't know, something!

Google is my clever friend. I started to google about how to organizing house...with limited budget, of course. I do not know where to start, so I start anywhere :D Well, first, I sorted unused stuffs by throw them away or donate them. Then I made 'sketches' of what things need to be organized. I'm probably not a perect planner, so my plan and sketches are quite a mess too. I do not have time limit, which probably a wrong move.

Anyway!
My sons' bedroom have quite limited clothes storage. Everytime they pull clothes, it usually cause some mess. So, I thought I need boxes and try to fold clothes differently. I got cardboard boxes freely from Pak'n'Save and with some fabric and old bedsheet I made some boxes. I made them only with glue gun and scissor, and hope it stay firm quite long. I planned to make some more boxes for our clothes and some other stuffs. However, until I type this post I still haven make another single box yet.

Oh, this organizing thing probably need more (and more) time. If possible, I hope I can finish it before October. Why October? Just because I need this house well-organized, pronto!

I thought I was going to give you the 'how to' to make the boxes, but there are a lot of great 'how to'-videos you can check out. So I will just give you before and after the cardboard boxes got makeover.

Here is the 'before'

And here is 'almost-after'. Ha ha, I know, just a little bit better. At least I feel better :)

Well, I hope this post usefull or inspiring. Otherwise, oh what a heck :D !

Simplicity in Eid

Assalaammualikum warrahmatullahi wabarakatuh sisters and brothers in Islam,

I know it is weeks after Eid Fitr day, but this posting is especially to say Eid Mubarak to you all. Taqaballahu minna wa minkum, may Allah Ta’ala accept our and your efforts and good deeds.

In the place where we far away from big family, my little family of me, hubby, and two sons had celebrate Eid very moderately. As our second Eid Fitr in NZ, these Eid days were very quiet compare to previous ones. No big family, no big bunch of friends :)
Last year was even more quiet. I didn't bake any cookies, as the tradition food in Indonesia. Last year we just went to Eid prayer, ate at home, and off we went for vacation out of town.

However, I realize my kids grown bigger and as we live as minority here, there are lots of celebrations that we have to meet with, which is not related to our faith. By that, my kids so close to influences that can pull them away from our faith, Islam. As parents, especially as a mum, I realize how huge my responsibility to keep my sons in track in our faith, especially in this non muslim country.

I realized I have to make our sons recognize that Eid days are more important than any other celebration days that they could meet here. The Eid day have to be special, therefore I could not let Ramadhan month and Eid days passing by without our sons missing them after.

This year, my sons tried to fast a few days in Ramadhan. They woke for sahoor for a few days. They recognize Eid day. I made more effort to make cookies and meals. I made a little decoration and tidy up our home a bit. We gave the boys some gifts because they have tried fasting. We went to Eid prayer in ASB Showground, where a lot of muslims from all over the world, so our son can see that they're not the only muslim here in Auckland, and muslims are not only from Indonesia. In that place, there are festive of food stalls and children's play area. I hope, I really hope, that they remember that day, and wanting it some more. This might be a small clue, but when my youngest son said to me, "Bunda, I want to go there again", I feel cool water flow in my chest, feeling that we've probably started something good here.

We probably away from the very merry Eid day that we used to have, but a little simplicity is better than none. It's just a little effort, I know, but it's one pavement of a good path, inshaaAllah.