31 Days – Eat breakfast, maybe this bananas foster french toast.

Posted: October 20, 2012 | Author: realisticallydomestic | Filed under: 31 days, Family Life, Recipes | Tags: 31 days project, bananas foster french toast, french toast recipe | 1 Comment

(Don’t miss the AMAZING, drool worthy, breakfast recipe after my blabbing.)

It is easily the most skipped meal of the day. How often are you in a mad rush to get out the door and completely breeze past breakfast, grab a cup of coffee and go?

I think, for me, making breakfast has to be a conscious decision. It isn’t something that comes naturally for me for some reason. I LOVE breakfast foods, and make them often for dinner, but usually just go for a bowl of cereal or some toast if I am lucky. As B grows up, I want to make meals around the table a top priority. The husband and I are not table eaters, especially now that we have the little munchkin crawling around while we try to quickly devour our meals so that we can catch him before he goes to the cold air return grate and starts sticking his fingers in the holes.

One thing that I think our home needs is a steady breakfast routine, at least once a week. I’d love to keep a consistent schedule, but Nick works super early (I cannot fathom waking up at 5am, cooking breakfast and staying awake.) and doesn’t always have weekends off. So, we tried making breakfast on one of his days off and it was wonderful. I can’t explain it, but I got to cook something new, spend time with my two favorite guys, and start the morning with a relaxed mind. This NEEDS to happen more often.

Bananas Foster French Toast

2-3 Fresh bananas, peeled and sliced
6-8 pieces of thick bread, I used Texas Toast
4 Eggs
1/2 cup of raisins
1/4 cup of dark rum, or 1 tbs of rum extract
1 tsp of cinnamon
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of chopped nuts (I used walnuts, they were cheapest!)
1 stick of unsalted butter
3/4 cup of milk
whipped cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In a sauce pan, melt the stick of butter and mix in the brown sugar, and rum (or rum extract, add a couple tbs of water if you use extract). Let simmer on low/medium heat while you make the french toast. Stir occasionally.
Heat a frying pan or griddle, and melt a small amount of butter to create a non stick surface.
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract.
Dip each piece of bread into the egg mixture for 3-5 seconds on each side and place in the frying pan. Cook as many pieces as you can fit at a time.
Flip pieces when the underside looks golden and place onto a baking sheet.
When all pieces are cooked, place in oven to ensure a cooked center, for 7-8 minutes.
While those are in the oven, place sliced banana, raisins and nuts into the sauce and stir gently. If you stir too much the bananas turn to mush.
Pull french toast out of oven, set on plates, top with sauce and whipped cream.

My mouth is watering just thinking about this. It is a sweet, sweet breakfast so I like it served with a tall glass of ice cold milk. Yum!

31 Days – Out of the Woods

Posted: October 4, 2012 | Author: realisticallydomestic | Filed under: 31 days, Our Home | Tags: 31 days project, cleaning up the yard, fall outdoor cleaning | 1 Comment

Ok, maybe “woods” is an exaggeration. One thing we decided when moving into the new house is that we’d focus 100% on the inside and save the outside until next year. We do the typical things like mow the lawn and water the grass when it is dry, but that is really the end of it. So much of our efforts are going in other directions that we really just let the outside do whatever it was going to do. Plus, I wanted to see what we have and where I can improve. For instance, we have this vine in the front that was thick, braided and huge. In the Spring, it looked dead. Seriously, we broke off a branch and it was dry and there was dust inside. Well, time got away from us and before we knew it, this dead and yucky vine had blossomed beautiful orange flowers that attract hummingbirds like crazy. I am SO glad we didn’t tear it out like we were going to do.

Well, that vine has grown wild and the pretty flowers have gone with the Summer. The bushes next to it are crazy, too, and there are mini trees growing all over the place in that same “bed”. I say “bed” lightly because it is really just a place where things are growing. There is no organization or design to it. I decided that day four of the 31 Days project would be to FINALLY trim down all of those crazy plants. Maybe “woods” really was accurate…

This was a very easy project and took about 15 minutes. Just me, the gorgeous weather and a pair of giant clippers. I still need to clean up that pile of branches, but that will have to wait. 😉

31 Days – Decluttering Your Kitchen Cabinets in 6 Steps

Posted: October 1, 2012 | Author: realisticallydomestic | Filed under: 31 days | Tags: 31 days project, cleaning kitchen cabinets, decluttering the kitchen, home projects, make a house a home, realistically domestic | 1 Comment

I am in the kitchen a TON and the most frustrating thing in the world to me is not having everything organized and easy to find. This is especially true when you have your hands covered in brownie mix and the chocolate chips are all the way at the top and in the back corner. Am I right?

Today’s project, and our very first in the 31 Days series, is to organize the chaos that is my kitchen cabinets. I am going to try and do this in a way that makes the most sense. What do I use the most, what needs to be easy to grab… I am a short girl and typically have to either grab a chair, ask my husband or create some sort of grabbing contraption with a spatula and duct tape when I need something off the top shelf. Hopefully, I will be able to fix that without extreme leg extending surgery.

Step One: Stand back and take it all in. It took a while to get to this point. Hours were dedicated to making this mess.
Step Two: Pull EVERYTHING out. Throw away empty boxes, combine low quantity items, check expiration dates, look for donation items, etc.
Step Three: Wipe down the inside of the cabinets and any sticky bottles or jars.
Step Four: Organize in a way that makes the most sense for you and the way you use your cabinets.
Step Five: Make it look pretty. Even though the prettiness will only last a day, lets be honest.
Step Six: Stand back and take it all in. Try to show off to your husband, who seems a little less than enthusiastic about your project.

31 Days To Make A House A Home

Posted: September 30, 2012 | Author: realisticallydomestic | Filed under: 31 days | Tags: 31 days project, making a house a home, realistically domestic | 4 Comments

As you know by now, we recently purchased our new little house and busted our butts making it livable over the course of 2 months. Once we finally moved in, we did a few projects here and there, but we wore ourselves completely out. After living in the house for 4 months, and recovering from the insane exhaustion, we really need to knock out some of these projects that are stopping it from feeling like our home.

I haven’t shared too many of the “during” shots yet, but I plan on doing a lot of that and then some this month. Welcome to my 31 days challenge! 31 days to make our house a home. Huge thanks go out to The Nester for starting the idea. I am lucky #275 out of #653 (so far!) to participate. That is a LOT of 31 days projects! Definitely head over there and check out some of these posts. If you have a 31 days project you’d like to share, please head on over to our Facebook page and tell our fans all about it! Make sure to like RD while you are there and share us with your friends.

Check back to see our upcoming posts all about making our house a home. I cannot wait to share! All of the links to the posts will be listed below this photo as they are completed.