The NorthWesternBelle

The August 21 Solar eclipse has been a big deal for several years in my world. Since I found out about it, say, three years ago or so. Since then, the fever over it has only grown, but it is important to me personally because it is happening on my birthday, and its path of totality passes very close to my home town, Idaho Falls. The plan was always to go to IF and be in the path of totality. For two solid years I looked forward to spending a couple of days with my sister & brother that live there and being there to experience the full thing. Then, news from the City Counsel: they're expecting 500,000 people to descend on Idaho Falls, a city of 50,000. Citizens are advised to have enough supplies on hand for a full week, including gasoline. The freeway will be turned northbound all lanes beforehand, and all southbound afterward. The power grid and cell phone towers won't be able to handle the influx. Treat it as an emergency situation between Wednesday and Wednesday.

What's a girl to do on a lazy laundry Saturday when the bff shows up with a giant zucchini straight from her garden? I meant it when I said "giant" Make zucchini banana bread of course! Spoon for scale because the bananas I used were not camera friendly. They were 100% perfect for bread making, though. I still have over half of the zucchini left, too. As it turns out, I cut a piece that turned into exactly three cups shredded. Nailed it! Reviewing the recipe I usually use for zucchini bread (out of the trusty red Betty Crocker Cookbook) I noticed that the only non vegan ingredient is eggs. Well, bananas are as good as eggs, right, so let's do this without the animal product! Also, the sugar content can come down, since, you know, a ripe banana is a sweet banana. I used a full cup, but you could scale it back to 3/4 or even 1/2 if you wanted to. Vegan banana zucchini bread 3 c shredded zucchini 1 c sugar 3 medium ripe bananas 2 tbs vegetable oil 2 ts

I made another video using YouTube's editor. This time, it's about the last vacation I took...seven years ago. Making the video made me very nostalgic and sorta bummed that I haven't been on another one since. Granted, shortly after this vacation I started a business and had a baby. One day, I'll return to Playa Del Carmen with said baby, my hubby & the BFF, hopefully! Enjoy! ~The NWB