Banana Bread

This week started off with my 16th birthday, followed by the most amazing and miraculous news I have ever received, and ended with a Honduras-Costa Rica soccer game on a Friday off from school. The bad news, however, is that i have a seven-page essay due on Monday and it is creeping on my conscience. Sometimes, all I need is a little reality break and spend some time being creative in the kitchen. On Thursday afternoon, I walked into my kitchen trying to look for something to treat my sweet tooth. I found a bunch of ripe bananas and what better way is there to save them than making banana bread? So I got to work and made one of my favorite banana cupcake recipes from the one and only Martha Stewart. However, I decided to make the bread extra special and added a few almonds and raisins to her original recipe.

Ingredients: 

• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 ½ cups mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
• 2 large eggs
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp raisins
• 1 tbsp almonds 

Directions:

•          Preheat oven to 350 degrees
•          Mix together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda & salt
•          In the center of the flour mixture, mix together butter, bananas, eggs, vanilla
•          Stir together, add cinnamon, chopped almonds, and raisins
•          Bake about 25-30 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
•      Remove from oven and wait approximately 10-15 minutes to remove it from the container you baked the bread in. 
•          Then, you can add cream cheese frosting (optional), Martha Stewart's honey-cinnamon frosting, or enjoy with a nice cup of warm coffee or tea

You can also make a shift to this recipe by adding 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of or along with the raisins and almonds. It's absolutely delightful. 

Little Things

The long-awaited sixteenth birthday I've been mentioning in previous posts finally came. To celebrate my sweet sixteen, I opened the doors of my residence up in the mountain of El Hatillo to my closest friends and families. We enjoyed a wonderful Saturday starlit evening of all of my favorite things. To begin, an exquisite pina colada made by my wonderful mother. To nibble on, chips and salsa, plantain chips and creamy onion dip, and my rich and fudgey brownies. As a main dish, we had a variety of tacos and gringas (chicken, beef, or pork), topped with pico de gallo, guacamole, and spicy sauces. To end the night, we lit up 16 candles on a pastel-colored, ballet slipper inspired vanilla cake with dulce de leche filling. Nothing gets better than this.

{Sweet sixteen cake: vanilla cake with dulce de leche filling, vanilla frosting, and fondant ballet slippers, of course}

{Sunday treat: original flavored frozen yogurt topped with strawberries and blueberries}

Last week was overwhelming and tiring. Lately, that's what sophomore year seems to be going. However, I value every little time I have to spare to do all of my favorite things, like going on movie -dinner dates and shopping sprees with my mom. After watching the hottest man alive, Channing Tatum, on White House Down, we encountered this lovely yet tiny ring and I completeley fell inlove with it. We ended our night with a dinner at our favorite gourmet burger place and split an enormously indulgent burger with a side of crispy and sodium-infused fries.

{Gold-pink tiny infinity ring}

{Last Saturday's craving: In and Out's Bourbon Chicken Burger.}

Childhood Reminiscences

As a child, waking up to the smell of "Macheteadas" or "Fritas" on a Sunday morning was the best feeling in the world. Whenever my friends slept over, we were absolutely having Macheteadas for breakfast the next day. My grandma passed on this typical honduran recipe to my mother and I recently attempted to learn how to make them. Making them is a step by step process, but  I can assure you it's not hard. When we were younger, my brothers and I used to make all sorts of deliciously, unhealthy, sugary inventions to top our Macheteadas. Some of these inventions were the following:

• sweetened condensed milk
• sweetened condensed milk and chocolate syrup
• whipped cream
• honey or maple syrup
• dulce de leche or caramel (not as easy to find back then as it is now)
• powdered sugar and strawberries (my personal favorite)**

Macheteadas

Makes approximately: 12 macheteadas

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp oil
• approximately 1/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together. 
2. Add the egg and oil to the dry ingredients. Mix them well. 
3. Slowly add in the milk until a firm dough is formed. 
4. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes. Then divide the dough and make 12 even balls. 
5. Use a roller to stretch out the balls one at a time, adding flour regularly so that the dough does not stick. 
6. Cut 3 lines on the flattened dough. Then add to a heated skillet with oil
7. Let the dough fry until golden. After they are well cooked, remove them from the skillet and let them rest on paper towels to reduce the excess of oil on them. 
8. Serve and enjoy! 

Preppy and Pink

{Forever21 bracelets, and LOFT earrings}

Fridays are without a doubt the reason behind my motivation to end every week on the right foot. After a long, stressful, tedious, tiresome, long, monotonous, long, and-did I mention long?-week has passed, the best way to finish the week is by going out and acting like the teenager that I am. As a bonus, this Friday was a day off from school, and I was invited to two different events-a quinceañera (15th birthday) party and a "congratulations you graduated and have to face the tough reality of life, but, oh, I'm glad you're home" celebration. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast at both events and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Finding an outfit that matched both occasions was a little challenging, but as I was hastily searching for something to wear through my closet, I encountered this gorgeous dress that I haven't worn in a while. I bought it at a small boutique at the mall and it is definitely one of my favorite components in my wardrobe. I decided to pair this dress with nude platform heels, a sparkling necklace, a nude handbag, jingling bracelets, and a simple night-time make-up look.  

{Da'Lila (a boutique in Honduras) dress, ALDO shoes, Louis Vuitton handbag}

{Forever21 collar necklace}

{Make-up: foundation, blush, purple eye-liner, mascara, liquid liner, and lilac eye-shadow}

Casually Polished

Being a sophomore and turning sixteen seemed like decades away. Now, sophomore year has begun and so has the birthday season. One of my life-long guy friends turned sixteen a couple weekends ago and I decided to wear this outfit. The weather was the perfect excuse to dress down my girly outfit with a classic denim jacket. I still can't grasp the fact that in a few weeks I'm gonna be the next new sixteen year-old sophomore. 

{Maybelline The Falsies mascara, LANCOME foundation and lipstick, L'OREAL True Match neutral blush and Espresso-colored eye-liner}

{Forever 21 tank top, skirt, and bracelets, H&M jean jacket, ALDO heels and necklace, ZARA handbag, vintage earrings}

Little Things

As an OCD victim, I have found it hard to take my time to meditate on what life has offered me. Juggling between my sophomore year, ballet lessons, piano lessons, and social encounters has unfortunately limited my time writing on my blog. However, I am glad to come back and share some of the things currently making me happy, such as: homemade blueberry muffins, a romantically beautiful bouquet of flowers, Divergent by Veronica Roth, a simple yet exquisitely healthy salad, and the perfect little coffee treat to end the week just right. 

(If you're following me on twitter, these pictures might be a little familiar to you). 

{Last Sunday's baking: Mouth-watering homemade mini blueberry muffins}

{A sparkling Saturday night dinner accompanied by a beautiful center piece and a Louis Vuitton handbag}

{New addiction: Divergent from Veronica Roth's saga}

{Healthy, delightful, and homemade salad during lunch at school: Spinach, cucumber, edamame, strawberries, and Balsamic Vinaigrette}

{Homemade Almond Milk Cappuccino & Pirouline Chocolate Hazelnut wafers on a rainy Friday afternoon}

Flourless Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Crunchy, chewy, and delicious. An all-time granny classic and one of my favorite comfort foods in the world-Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Flipping through recipe books and scrolling down through my Pinterest page, I made up my mind and decided to bake a batch of homemade oatmeal raisin cookies. To my surprise, these cookies were extremely easy to make. Even better, according to Chocolate Covered Katie, each cookie has only about 50 calories (guilt-free, gluten-free). These are perfect for anytime you're craving something sweet and you want it fast, yet you don't want to feel the thousand-calorie guilt afterwards. They are also perfect for improvised desserts, midnight snacking, or simply as a side to a warm, soothing cup of coffee.

Flourless Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Baking Time: Approximately 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees
This recipe makes about 10-12 tablespoon sized cookies.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp and 2 tsp white granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp raisins
• 1 tbsp oil or melted butter
• 1-2 tbsp milk of choice (start with 1. I used almond milk)

Directions:

In an electric mixer, blend together the dry ingredients. Then, add in the butter and milk. Form into tablespoon-sized cookies and place them on a greased cooking sheet. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.