Chocolate Bananna Milkshake

I used to make banana milk shakes for my lunch when I was trying to loose weight all the time. They are really good to me and it counts for 1 serving of milk and 1 or 2 servings of fruit depending on the size of banana that I use. But a few weeks ago I was reading an article in Prevention magazine about the importance of fiber in the diet and one of their suggestions was to put a tablespoon of baking cocoa powder in smoothies to increase the fiber content. I looked on my can of baking cocoa and sure enough it is true. One tablespoon of cocoa has 2 grams of fiber.
I love chocolate so I decided to give it a try. It taste great to me. Here is how I do it: I put one banana in my blender, add one cup of skim milk, one teaspoon vanilla flavoring, two packets of artificial sweetener and one tablespoon of baking cocoa powder. I start that to blending and then add a cup of ice cubes one cube at a time. It comes out nice and thick and very cold.
There were quite a few tips for getting more fiber in your diet. I am going to try them and let you know what I think about them in later posts.

Whole Wheal Dinner Rolls

Whole wheat bread is much better for you that white bread. Mostly because of the fiber it adds to your diet. Unfortunately, it cost more too. Since I am on a tight grocery budget, I make my own for a fraction of the cost.
These rolls I made small so one roll is the equivalent of one slice of bread. For breakfast each morning I slice 2 rolls in half and microwave them for 15 seconds. In a bowl I scramble 1 egg and microwave for 20 seconds, stir and microwave for 20 more seconds. Then cut the egg in half, fold each half up and put it on the rolls. It makes a nice breakfast with two servings of whole grain and one serving of protein.
When I got the bread cooked, I divided them up in quart size bags (with 10 rolls in each bag) and put them in the freezer so they wouldn't get stale before I could finish them. All together I put 4 bags in the freezer and 1 bag out for me to be eating on.

This picture shows the ones that I tried to get a little fancier with. I used a muffin tin and made three small dough balls for each cup. I use these for dinners when I want to show off a little.

Peaches

A couple of days ago I got in the mood to can peaches. I called my Mom's cousin Lois and asked her to go with me to get some (Lois knows where all the good orchards are around here). We went to one over in Marionville, about 20 miles from here. The ones they had ready were called semi-freestone and they were picked fresh from the tree that morning, so I bought a half bushel.
I used the instructions out of the Ball's Blue Book canning guide. I made 6 pints and 1 1/2 pint of peaches in heavy syrup (my husbands choice).

This picture is of the peach chutney that I made. I have never tried it before, but My daughter and I decided to try a few new things and trade jars so we both could decide if we liked it or not, and chutneys is something they are always talking about and using on some of the cooking shows that I watch on TV, so peach chutney is the one I decided on (my daughter made tomato chutney, I can't wait to taste it). I know they advise against it, but I used some old salsa jars for part of it, and one of them didn't seal (so it is in my refrigerator right now waiting to be used). All together I got two 15 1/2 oz salsa jars (plus the one that didn't seal) and four 1/2 pints. The peach chutney taste like sweet and sour sauce to me. I think it is going to be really good on sweet and sour pork or sesame chicken.

This is peach butter. I have never tried making it before, but one year for Christmas I made enough apple butter to give as presents to my whole family and everybody loved it, so I wanted to see if peach butter would go over as well. I only got 6 half pints (one didn't seal so it is in the refrigerator for me), so if I want to give them as Christmas presents this year I am going to have to get some more peaches. It taste really good to me, and spreads on toast with ease.

This is peach preserves. This is what I went and got the peaches for in the first place. My husband likes strawberry preserves the best, but my favorite is peach. I got nine 1/2 pints.

I also froze a gallon bag of peaches for a peach cobbler the next time my son comes for a visit.

All together, I think a half bushel of peaches went a long way. I was pretty proud of my accomplishments, but then I thought it took me three days to put up a half bushel of peaches, and my Grandma would have done it in one afternoon. Oh well, I am still proud, and I think she would be too.