Friday Favorites March 8th

  Happy Friday friends! As usual, I am linking up with Andrea & Erika for a little Friday Favorites. A peek into a few of my favorite things from the week. 

one

 Y’all last week I shared those simple little bracelets from Amazon, and so many of you purchased them! I think I had some kind of FOMO, because I bought three more colors this week. 

I got the pink, the green, which I think is perfect for Spring, and a neutral stack. I just love them.

two

Something about this time of year makes me crave banana bread. I made it last weekend, and I wish I could share the smell of the house with you here. 

This is a pretty simple recipe, and I love that it doesn’t call for buttermilk. Buttermilk is not some thing I always have on hand, and this one is just as delicious without it. You can grab the recipe here. 

three

Now this may be one of the most random favorites I might ever share. We had an electric knife that was Paul’s grandmothers. You can see in the picture here that it was from Sears.... like a Sears brand electric knife. And we’ve had it forever.

When we were using it at Thanksgiving, it had a very bad burning smell, and we knew it was time to say goodbye to the knife. So I bought a new Cuisinart one, and we used it for the first time this week and it is amazing. Maybe because the blades are actually sharp- but we grilled some pork tenderloin and Paul was so excited to use this new knife. I also loved that Luke wanted to check it out as well. Nothing beats my two guys in the kitchen!

And dinner was delicious too!

four

We took an amazing family trip last year to the Bahamas. I wasn’t blogging at the time, so I never really shared our experience. Seeing people head out Spring Break trips, made me want to reminisce about that trip. 

So I shared all about our experience at Baha Mar. It was amazing and if you are ever thinking about going to the Bahamas, you can see all the details here. 

five

Last weekend I went to a fundraiser with my girlfriends. There were some opportunities to take a chance on some pretty fancy handbags. Unfortunately, I didn’t come home with a handbag, but it was a fun night out and was able to support an amazing organization. 

They had the cutest little flower stand where you could build your own bouquet, and the fanciest and most delicious mashed potatoes!

 I mean, can you really go wrong with potatoes in a martini glass?

I am off to wrap up my work week, and then get to packing. I am heading to Florida tomorrow for a little fun at Disney before my work meetings start there on Monday. Looking forward to a mix of fun and new trainings over the next few days. 

Have a great weekend friends!

 See you on Monday, there is always room for one more at our family table.

xoxo
Genevieve

Trip Down Memory Lane.....Bahamas 2023

Hey friends! I had plans to share this post yesterday, but life happened, and this post didn't! I'm seeing lots of posts of people gearing up to travel for Spring Break and wanted to share our experience in the Bahamas last year. I wasn't blogging then and it was a truly amazing trip, so I don't mind going down memory lane for today's post. I had so many beautiful photos from this trip, I'll try not to go crazy here!

We have done quite a bit of travel with the kids, however, most has been up and down the East Coast, as we typically visit my in-laws in Florida a couple times a year. We have added on fun other adventures during those trips, but this was really the first what I would call "big vacation" for our family. 

The team at Mix & Match Travel had been amazing in planning some previous trips for us, so I did not hesitate to reach out for help with this one. I had some good conversation with the team at Mix & Match Travel around Atlantis or Baha Mar and we ultimately decided on Baha Mar. Now I have not been to Atlantis, but we all fell in love with Baha Mar!

We arrived in Nassau and were picked up by a limo service and taken to the hotel. 

The view of that water from the plane is truly unmatched!

There are 3 different hotels on the property to choose from and we stayed at the Grand Hyatt. This was the most family friendly. I would say the SLS was for a younger crowd (not kids) and had more of a club vibe with a DJ at the pool during certain times. The Rosewood was beautiful, and I would recommend that for a couples vacation or a trip with friends. All three have several restaurant options that are available regardless of which hotel you are in.

We had a spacious room with two queen beds and a balcony that offered daily views of the sunrise. 

The resort has several pool options, including one with a cliff jump, a water park, beach area and so much more for fun in the sun. We all loved the water park and the lazy river was amazing! You can grab beach chairs and spend the day at the beach. There is beach chair service for beverages and often some of the locals selling their items along the beach.  

They also have kayaks, paddle boards and water mats available. 

Ice cream stand in the water park was a win!

As for the resort, all of the food we had was amazing, but I will also say it was on the pricier side. It is not an all-inclusive, so you are paying for everything. In my opinion, the quality of food, drinks and selection was worth it. We enjoyed everywhere we ate. I think there are over 40 restaurant options to choose from on property.  Every morning, Paul and I would be up earlier than the kids and go grab coffee. There are two Starbucks on property, both very busy in the mornings. I really wish this was my coffee view every morning!

On our third day we found Cafe Madeline. Also busy, but it moved quickly. The cutest little Parisian inspired cafe with a pastry case to die for and great coffee! 

    

Paul loved the guava pastry...it was his daily breakfast. We would find a spot by the water to enjoy our coffee and start the day. 

The kids loved that the Starbucks was right outside the elevator, so they would sleep in, grab Starbucks and meet us down by the beach. 

There were lots of lunch options and cute little food trucks on the beach. My daily lunch was the Poke Bowl. I still dream about it!

There was a big variety of places to eat, from Marcus Samuelsson's restaurant, seafood, Mexican, Mediterranean, Asian, Pizza, so many options! Here's a few pics of our dining experiences. 

While the resort was amazing, the highlight of our trip was our excursion to the Exumas. This was set up for us through Mix & Match Travel and was it officially a core memory for us!

We took about an hour boat ride out to Exuma and had an epic day! 

Our first stop was to a little island to feed some iguanas. With a grape on a stick, they were all happy to see us!

The water was just unreal!!!

Stop number 2 was some snorkeling around Pablo Escobar's sunken plane. 

Our next stop we got to spend some time with a few friendly sharks. 

But the highlight of the trip was to see the swimming pigs!! 

As our boat approached, these massive pigs started swimming towards us. It was the most fun and bizarre an amazing thing!

Once on the island with the pigs, there was a whole pen of baby pigs and I'm pretty sure Ella wanted to take one home!

After the pigs, we stopped for lunch at a super remote island. There was a restaurant serving up an authentic Bahamian lunch in very rural setting. 

The dock spot for lunch also offered the chance for an epic jump into the crystal blue waters. 

Absolute core memory for us!

Back at the resort, with a few more highlights. They have a lot of green space for kids to hang out, play or toss a football. 

Twice a day the flamingos come out for a walk. You can also sign up to take a flamingo yoga class!

Lots of fun photo ops throughout the property.....

And the cutest little bathrooms I have ever seen!

So thanks for coming along with me as I reminisce about this trip. I highly recommend Baha Mar... it brought the most amazing memories. 

See you back here tomorrow for Friday Favorites. There is always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve

Something New for Your Family Table A New Banana Bread Recipe

 Happy Monday friends! We are coming off a pretty low key weekend.... a much needed low key one I may add! You will be happy to know that I finally unpacked my suitcase, 7 days after returning home. Now I head to Orlando this weekend for work, so I'll be packing it up again!

This weekend I made banana bread. I love banana bread and make it pretty often. But something about March and heading into Spring makes me feel like banana bread. Anyway, I had a recipe I loved and still do, but it called for buttermilk and that was just something I didn't always have on hand. So a few months ago I stumbled on a recipe that didn't call for it and tried it. And dare I say I like it even better? I wish I could tag the source who posted it, but I took a quick screenshot of the recipe and the source isn't there.

Here is what you will need

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 medium)

1/4 cup unsalted butter melted & slightly cooled

1/4 cup coconut oil melted & slightly cooled

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (can use coconut sugar)

1 large egg (room temperature)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Walnuts, additional brown sugar, cinnamon for topping (optional)

Heat oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan or line with parchment paper (9x4 or 8x4 will work) and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Add the melted butter and oil and stir until combined. Stir in the brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth. 

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, don't overmix. If you overmix, the bread will flatten and end up heavy. 

Pour batter into prepared pan. I sprinkle with some chopped walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon for a delicious topping. But you can skip that step if you want. Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Check the bread at 50 minutes to be safe, as oven times vary. 

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before slicing. If you baked in parchment paper you can just lift out to a cutting board to slice. If not, run a knife around the edges of the bread and carefully remove from pan. 

This is delicious warm, but also good at room temp!

Hope you enjoy!

See you back here on Wednesday, where there is always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve