Hilary's Life: July 2012

Today has been one of those days where there just wasn't anything for me to do. I couldn't go anywhere because our dryer had gone out and I was waiting for the repairman, which is always a fun way to spend my day, so I decided to make a recipe I had recently found on Pinterest. It's a recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares. The recipe link on Pinterest led me to a blog by the name of Gingerbread Bagels. I haven't really looked around her blog that much, yet, but it does look like there are some other very yummy recipes. And honestly, if you want professional pictures to this recipe, click here. I don't fool myself into thinking I'm a good photographer. As a matter of fact, all of the following pictures I took with my iPhone because it's what I had on hand.

But back to the Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares,they are so good! I put all the ingredients into MyFitnessPal to figure out the nutritional value per serving and each serving only has 141 calories, 5 grams of fat, 9 grams of sugar and 4.5 grams of protein. So they aren't that bad for you either!!

So here's the recipe, enjoy!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large mashed banana
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Put the quick cooking oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, kosher salt and ground cinnamon into a large mixing bowl and mix together.

Now add the vanilla extract, milk and egg. Mix together.

And finally, add in the banana and peanut butter. Blend everything together.

Pour mixture into a lightly greased 8x8 baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Now if your like me and don't clean along the way, it's time to clean up!

Once they've cooled, cut into serving sizes and enjoy!!

This was our first 4th of July we celebrated in Sumter and I was glad to find out that the fireworks show was, in part, sponsored by Shaw Air Force Base. I was a little surprised to learn it would be one of the biggest fireworks displays in South Carolina because Sumter is a fairly small town.

Emma in her Pinterest inspired patriotic t-shirt*

The festivities were held at a local sports and recreation park. There were some kiddie rides and jump castles for Emma to enjoy.

Of course I enjoyed the fried goodness of a powdered sugar funnel cake.

Once the rides had been ridden, which took all of about 18 minutes, and the funnel cake eaten, which surprisingly went faster at about 18 seconds, the waiting for the fireworks began.