Wrapping up the long weekend.

What a positively lovely weekend it was!

Last night, I did make up the breakfast cookies and banana bread, as planned. Unfortunately, it was an evening of "oooops" mistakes and "darn" I don't have any of that ingredient.

Breakfast cookies: These turned out pretty well. I managed NOT to mess it up, but I didn't have the cheerios nor the rolled oats. I instead used rice crispies and quick-cooking oats. I figured this was better anyway, as the quick cooking oats are always in the oatmeal cookie recipes I find. I also topped each cookie with a simple frosting/glaze (just water and powdered sugar). I have found that my picky three year old will eat nearly anything with frosting on it. I gave her a bite last night, she told me it was good, yet tried to tell me she didn't like it this morning. I told her it was what we were having for breakfast this week, so "tough cookies..." No pun intended, of course!

Low fat banana bread: This was a HUGE oops. I added TWICE the buttermilk called for. I caught it just as I was ready to spread into the loaf pans - and added the last little bit of white flour that I had (1/4 cup) to remedy it. I then poured it into pans and hoped for the best. It WORKED! In fact, it is so good, I am hesitant to make it as written in the future. Let me add that I didn't have buttermilk, so I looked up alternatives online and found that you can "make" buttermilk by adding 1 tsp of vinegar to a scant 1 cup of milk. I put in 1 1/3 teaspoon and filled with milk up until the 1 1/3 line. The vinegar actually mixed with the baking powder in the dry ingredients to make a wonderfully spongy banana bread; an effect that I'm not sure could be mimicked with regular buttermilk. I ended up using 2% milk, but had I used the fat free, the only fat would been the small amount in the oil and the natural fat in the bananas.

Chickpeas: They are done and in my fridge. Just as I said, I boiled them with a tablespoon of thyme leaves, 1 tablespoon of rubbed sage, 2 tablespoons EVOO, and salt to taste. Now they will be ready for salads and rice for the week.

Pizza: We grilled it tonight, as scheduled. What was NOT scheduled? Running out of white flour. So, I made a "Colorado style" pizza instead, just changing the white flour out for wheat. I found that I needed slightly less flour, but it cooked up just the same. As any Coloradoan would dictate, we dipped the crusts in honey once the cheese and tomato sauce had been eaten off each piece. The kids LOVED it! I think my husband found himself right at home, too.

On top of the cooking and eating going down, my husband and I are working on some green changes as well. Amazon.com is having a Memorial Day Sale, and Pyrex dishes are part of it. If you have considered giving up on some of your plastic pieces, now would be a good time to toss some Tupperware and go with glass. Pyrex is made in the USA, and it's not plastic.