Life at a "Swell's" pace

What's Cooking? Wednesdays: Chocolate Banana Snacks

It's Wednesday again and that means another link up with Jenn over at Going the Distance Blog. This week I am posting another chocolate-dipped recipe that my family just loves! Chocolate-covered bananas, well chocolate covered anything, goes over so much in our house. My boys just love anything with chocolate, and so do I. These banana snacks were actually thought of when I had some over-rip bananas that I didn't want to throw out. So I thought, why not drizzle some chocolate over them, freeze them. They are a big hit here, so I hope you enjoy them as well.

Start with ripe, organic bananas.

Add chocolate syrup or fudge to the tops.

Cover the banana completely with the chocolate syrup. You can even add whipped cream at this point, as well.

Pop in the freezer for about 2 hours.

Then serve.

Yep, that's it. Each banana snack is about 20 calories and less if you use sugar-free syrup or fudge.

They are a cool treat for anyone crazing a bit of chocolate.

These make a perfect after-school snack too!

They are a hit. These are also really great with caramel and strawberry syrup on them too!

ENJOY!

Eco-Tip: Be sure and use organic when possible. Make a list of the "Dirty Dozen" and keep it with you when you head to the grocery store, or click on the image below and print out. For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me: Go Green.

Nature's own color palette

Nature always has this way of combining the best colors together to make something simple seem so beautiful. This white moth was kind enough to allow a photo-op against my wonderfully colored fall mum.

Eco-Tip: Take short showers and invest in a water-conserving shower head. Water can run up to five gallons a minute in a non-conserving shower head. For this and other tips on going green visit, The Earth and Me: Go Green.

It's filbert season here in the Willamette Valley

This time of year is always a fun one here in Oregon. From the harvesting of the pumpkins from the many farms, to the filbert picking that takes place all around us. Filberts, also known as hazelnuts to a lot of people, are a very popular crop in the Willamette Valley, with about five farms harvesting them for the season. Recently we visited one of these filbert farms just to see how the process of the filbert collection takes place.

It's always interesting to look out across a field and see many orange, dots throughout the landscape.

You can purchase your own bag of filberts from Hazelnut Hill in Corvallis, Oregon. You can view their entire line of filbert nut products on their site, here.

Five on Friday: Spark of Loves this Week

I have joined in on the fun over at Carolina Charm with her Five on Friday linkup. I adore linkups and this one is a lot of fun. It's similar to the Spark of Loves this Week post that I have been doing already, but this time it will be five things I am loving. In the process, I get to do the Friday loves with a whole slew of ladies that love to blog too. So without further ado, here are my Five on Friday loves.

1. These Bob Marley Flip-Flops for Skylar.

Because even though the winter is coming, we still like to slip on some flip-flops from time to time and these are perfect for my hipster kid's personality.

2. This Strawberry Jam.