Recipe: Strawberry Oatmeal Banana Bread

This recipe is from Rachel Mansfield—Strawberry Oatmeal Banana Bread. We had some extra ripe bananas, and I love new banana bread recipes, so I gave it a go!

It was cute, but the taste wasn't my favorite, and I think that was 1) because I made my own oat flour but didn't put it in the food processor long enough and 2) because it's vegan, so naturally it tastes different from what I'm used to. 

See? It was adorable, but the consistency was off, and the flavor was a little weird. I also had to use strawberries from the freezer instead of fresh ones, so that probably didn't help. 

If you're a vegan, I'd be interested to see what you think if you make it. Also, make sure you food process the oats until they're finnnnne. 

Here's the final verdict:

Visual: 10/10 (Such little effort for such cute results!)

Taste: 5/10 (meh. It's yummy when I crumble it in my yogurt parfait! Maybe just because I can't taste it then...)

Easy-to-Make: 8/10 I had to melt the coconut oil and peanut butter in the microwave, but nothing else took long at all! 

Here's the link!

http://rachlmansfield.com/strawberry-oatmeal-banana-bread/

Baking: Vegan Banana Bread from The Vegan Six

Here's my second shot at vegan baking. My little sister recently decided to be vegan, so I'm focusing on finding some good vegan recipes to support her choice! If there's anything I've learned from this last year of adopting a more healthy lifestyle, it's that different things work for everyone, but support is so important regardless of the differences.

Anyway, this recipe is a keeper. It was miles better than the last one I tried (yay!), good enough that I sent one of those tiny loaves to a friend who isn't vegan! 

Sorry the picture's crummy, it was late by the time they came out of the oven, and I wanted to go to bed. Priorities, man. 

The recipe is from The Vegan Six on Instagram. She doesn't have a blog, so I posted her post below:

Yumm!! Here, as always, is the verdict:

Taste: 7/10 on my scale, 10/10 on a vegan scale. 

Visual: 10/10 Putting bananas on top? I'd never heard of that, and it was so so cute! 

Easy-to-Make: 8/10 Nothing too hard!

Recommendations: Apps

I don't know about you, but, despite the phrase "there's an app for that," I find that I have remarkably few apps on my phone. Recently, that's begun to change, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite apps with you all.

Slide
Slide has reduced the size of the average wallet by 39%. How? By eliminating the need to carry gift cards around.

So I made up that statistic (what's new), but this app is at the top of my list because it is so practical. All you do is take a picture of the back of your gift card, and the app keeps it handy for you. When you're at the register, all you have to do is scan your phone, and poof!—your gift card money comes up. Yeah, it's that easy.

Checkbook
Okay, this is another practical app. It's absolutely increased my efficiency in the budgeting area of my life. I balance my checkbook every month, which entails entering each purchase I've made on my debit card and clearing it. This task used to take me hours, and I'd put if off because I knew it would take so long. Thanks to this app, though, I am able to enter the purchases when I'm at the register. Then, when it's time to balance my checkbook, it's all on my phone, and all I have to do is clear all the entries. Easy!

Google Drive
This one is a new discovery. I use Google Drive on my computer for personal stuff and for work stuff, so having the app on my phone enables me to have access to my pictures and Google Docs on-the-go.

Google Maps
Why do I use Google Maps instead of the Apple Maps? I'm not sure. I think when the two separated, Apple's wasn't quite as good, so I downloaded Google and now I've stuck with it. Why, though, do I keep using it? One perk is that it tells you which lane of the street you need to be in. And with highway driving, that's super helpful.

VSCO
You know those people whose Instagram page looks extra shiny and bright, and their pictures look way better than everyone else's? You know how you've never been able to figure out why? The answer, my friends, is quite possibly this app.
It's basically a more complex version of Instagram's filters and Apple Photos editing (you know, like where you crop your pictures in the "Photos" app). The two features I use the most are the ability to add contrast and edit exposure. You have to mess around with it for a while to figure out the interface, but once you do, you're all set! It's especially fun to use when you travel. Just so you know, you have to make an account. Some people post their pictures on VSCO—yes, it's a network/media site of its own—but I mostly use it for other social media sites. Just "Save to Camera Roll," and I'm good to go!

iMovie
Last but definitely not least is this magic app. It's free from the App Store, and it's a way to make little movies or music videos on your phone. I love it because you can record right from the app, so the videos don't have to save to your camera roll and clog up your Photos app. It takes music and videos as you record them or that you already have and allows you to edit them together. I do this for every trip I go on now, and it's such a fun way to remember it!

Anyway, those are my favorite apps! What are some of yours?
All the love,
Charlie

Messy: Needing Help- School

I don't like to need people. 
          It's not necessarily as decisive a tendency as that sentence made it sound. I didn't even realize this about myself until someone pointed it out to me. She told me to be careful, to remember and decide to let people in. 
          One area where I've learned to need people is in my schoolwork. Since coming to college, I've gotten help with writing papers, calculus homework, critical reading. 
          Two weeks ago, I tried out a new type of help. I went to the Academic Success Center. Technically I work for the Academic Success Center. I also work as a tutor at the writing center. But I had five papers due in the upcoming weeks, and I was paralyzed, so I wasn't getting work finished on any of them. And I knew that if something didn't change, my grades weren't going to be what I wanted. So I emailed the Academic Success Center and asked to meet with someone. 
          That's not the only reason I went to the center. I also went because I knew that if I went, it would free other people to go. I knew that the hardest part of working at a place like that is actually getting people take advantage of what you're offering. I knew that help centers seem scary but usually aren't, and I knew that the people who work there are enthusiastic and passionate about helping students. So I went to the Academic Success Center so that I could tell people about it. I went so I could tell people that I needed help, and got help, and anyone else can do the same. 
          The Academic Success Center couldn't do the work for me (sad, I know). But I knew that, and what they did was the next best thing. What they did was way more planning than I was accustomed to putting into a paper: they had me write out every single step for every single paper, how much time each step would take, and when each day I would complete that step. This was fantastic because all I had to do was stick to the plan, and I knew my work would be accomplished. Because every day had a task, the whole mass of papers was more manageable. I no longer had to manage five papers, but one section of writing or one category of research. 
So I'm still bad at needing people emotionally, but scholastically, lemme tell you, get yo self some help! It's . . . helpful! 

Recommendations: Birmingham

If there's one thing that's sure to get me excited, it's telling people about the city of Birmingham. I explore the city with gusto (I hate that phrase, but it's true). I consider myself an expert on coffee shops, and have visited every one I've heard of. Yay! I also love finding places to eat, art galleries, hiking, shopping (cool places. not real shopping), and more!

This, ladies and gentlemen, is my master list of places to go in Birmingham:

Coffee
See my earlier (and slightly lame) post here.
The Red Cat
Urban Standard
Church Street Coffee
Seeds Coffee
O'Henry's
Octane
Saturn
Woodlawn Cycle Cafe
The Abbey
The Neighborhood Brew
Lucy's Coffee and Tea
East 59 Vintage and Cafe
Coffeeology at Hoover Library
Revelator Coffee

Breakfast:
Over Easy
Alabama Biscuit Company
Feast & Forest
Big Bad Breakfast
Trattoria Centrale
The Pantry
The Original House of Pancakes
Another Broken Egg
Urban Standard
Demetri's
The Egg & I

Donuts:
Yoyo Donuts Etc.
The Heavenly Donut Company
We Have Donuts
Pop Donuts
Shipley's

Dessert:
Mountain Brook Creamery
Edgewood Creamery
The Whole Scoop
Steel City Pops
Bruster's

Bakeries:
Continental Bakery
Pastry Art Bake Shoppe
Klinger Cafe
Savage's Bakery
Edgar's

Cutsie:
Real and Rosemary
Urban Cookhouse
Chicken Salad Chick
Olexa's

Yummy:
Melt
Mugshots
Yo Mama's
FlipBurger
Nabeel's

Fancy:
Gianmarco's (Italian)
Five Bar
Avo (haven't actually eaten here)
Chez Lulu

Sushi:
Bamboo
Wasabi Juan's

Mexican:
Taco Mama's
La Fiesta
Babalu Tacos and Tapas
El Barrio
Mexico Lindo

Pizza:
Tortugas
Slice
Brixx
Dave's Pizza

Barbecue:
Saw's Juke Joint
Saw's Soul Kitchen
Saw's
Dreamland BBQ
Jim 'n Nick's

Hiking:
Ruffner Mountain
Red Mountain
Oak Mountain State Park

Adventures:
Reed Books
Birmingham Botanical Gardens
Pepper Place Market
Railroad Park
The Alabama Theatre
Lyric Theatre
Sound and Page
WorkPlay
Iron City

Libraries:
Emmet O'Neill
Homewood
Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest
Hoover Library

Messay: Eating Me Alive

          Recently, I've been struggling a lot with gluttony. I love food—making it and eating it—but there is very little healthy perspective on food in our culture or in my life. That's hard, because I've had to make my own healthy environment. I started focusing on eating health foods in January, and that has been great. I stopped eating dessert for the month of March, and that was so empowering. But every time I come back home, leaving school and the healthy environment I made for myself there, I return to my habits of gluttony.
          I consider this struggle to be an eating disorder. One of my friends who's struggled with bulimia told me that she felt like she couldn't call her experiences an eating disorder because she had never been diagnosed. That was so flawed that it reminded me to call my experience what it is. I think it's important to do, because recognizing the weight of the issue by naming it what it is helps me deal with it.
          I know that many people struggle with eating disorders of a kind different from mine, where they can't make themselves eat food. Because of the difference between these, I sometimes hesitate to call my issue an eating disorder—I don't want people to think that my struggle, because it's so different from theirs, is too different to fit under the same title. But I realized that it wasn't an issue of me eating too much, it was a mental battle that consumed my thoughts. And I saw that I was unable to make myself stop eating, in a similar way to the inability of some people to make themselves start eating. So even though my struggle is different, I have chosen to call it an eating disorder. Even though the manifestation is very different from anorexia or bulimia, the symptoms and struggle have been similar.
          Another thing I need to offer in defense of calling this an eating disorder: I am well aware that many people indulge in gluttony and would not consider themselves to struggle with an eating disorder. I have varied thoughts about this, but I want to say two things: I don't think that everyone who indulges in gluttony has an eating disorder. Gluttony is not super mental for some people—dealing with it doesn't consume their thoughts all the time—so I don't want to speak on behalf of anyone besides myself and say they have an eating disorder. Gluttony is so widespread culturally that I don't think I can say any sweeping statement like that. The second thing I want to say is, however, a sweeping statement: I do think that everyone who indulges in gluttony is indulging in sin. Gluttony is not a sin that's regularly discussed by the church; I've found that it's routinely ignored. That's one thing that's made it harder to deal with, and potentially something that's brought it about in the first place. Despite the failure of the church, however, Scripture does not fail to  treat the issue.
          That brings me to mention the two most encouraging things in my struggle with gluttony. The first was a set of scripture verses that I compiled in an order that made sense to me: essentially, I made myself a chapter of Scripture that dealt exactly with the problem I was struggling with. I've shared that below. The second thing was telling Jane.
          Jane is one friend who actually pursues me, which I can't say about very many friends that I've ever had. She asks me how I'm doing and listens well. In November, I was doing poorly in my struggle with gluttony, and one of the hardest things about it was that I was hiding it. I had spent enough time in Christian community to know the value of confession. I knew that Satan loses his power when we bring our sins into the light. And because of the type of friend Jane had been to me, I knew that, as much as I would be uncomfortable talking to anyone about it, I could tell her, and she would listen. So I told her that I needed to talk. We planned a coffee date, and she sat, listening, until I was ready to tell her about it. It was so freeing just to know that someone else knew, and it gave me a level of freedom in my eating disorder that I hadn't experienced until then.
          I could talk about other experiences I've had dealing with this—fears, failures, hurt—but I think what I've said so far gets at the skeletal issues of my thoughts about gluttony and my experiences with it. I write this post because today was especially hard, so as I came to do my quiet time, I sat down and flipped back to my Scripture compilation. It spoke truth over my struggles, and I hope it does the same for you. If you're curious about references, you can google the verse.

In Him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Holy Spirit. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. If we have food, with this we will be content. Pray then like this: give us this day our daily bread. It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefitted those devoted to them. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The rules of the Lord are sweeter than honey. One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. From all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And do not grow weary of doing good. Do not give up. Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. These desires are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.