Heya! I’m currently on a plane to DC for a presentation tomorrow. This is my last trip of the year — woohoo! And if I’m lucky I’ll be bumped to First! 
My weekends have essentially become nonexistent. Work infiltrates my days and errands fill up any gaps I have. This leaves very little time to get in the holiday spirit 
I had been hoping to have baked a ton already and crossed off my shopping list, but sadly neither has happened.
On Saturday I reserved some time (yes I said reserved) with the hubby to go tackle some shopping. I had tons of coupons in hand and was ready to go the dreaded Mall.
This was somewhat of an epic fail because:
- Parking was madness. They had people in uniform directing traffic. That’s just nuts.
- The mall was at least 90 degrees and did not make for comfortable shopping.
- It took 25 minutes to stand in line and wait for our Sbux.
- There were kids everywhere. Screaming kids. Crying kids. Running wild kids. Eeek.
- People were walking at a snail’s pace which does not bode well for a speed walker like me.
- We had no idea what we were actually going to buy for people.
I think you get the point. We decided to jump ship and go across the street to Santana Row, which is a posh street full of high-end stores. We were expecting this to be chaos but at least we’d be outside in the cool air.
It was dead! And awesome! The Christmas lights were everywhere, the sidewalks clear, the stores rather empty. WIN! But we had another quest in mind. We were off to a wine store where you can pick from hundreds of bottles, which they then open for you while you sit and relax. So great! Zach and I easily shared a bottle of Bordeaux along with some French olives. Yum!
So shopping fail. Vino win!
Now do you want to know about some banana scones? I had such success with my PB Chocolate Chip Banana Bread that I thought scones should be up next. I scoured the web for various recipes and ended up with a hodepodge recipe that turned out pretty good.
First, I started with my handy-dandy scone maker thingy-majiggy that was bequeathed to me upon the bestie’s recent move:
Anyone know what the heck this thing is called?
Healthy Banana Scones:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 heaping cup mashed bananas (I mashed about 5 small bananas)
1 egg (beaten)
Mix together flour, salt, baking powder, nutmeg and dates. Mix together oil, banana and egg. Add banana mixture to flour mixture and mix until combined. Drop spoonfuls of dough into your scone thingy until evenly distributed. (If you don’t have a scone thingy simply shape your dough into balls or triangles as desired and place on a cookie sheet). Bake at 400 degrees for 16-18 minutes or until lightly browned.
Before
After
These turned out pretty good! They are not too sweet at all — not a drop of sugar was added. I can even think of tons of additional add-ins like craisins or raisins. My hubby suggested butterscotch chips Clearly he likes things on the sweet side.
May I suggest pairing the nanner scone with some PB? =)
Do you like scones? Super sugary or not-so-sweet?
Have you tackled the malls? And how much Christmas shopping do you have left?
