I may need a new post office

Having a business that I more or less run out of my home, means that I’m running to the post office frequently for stamps, or to ship orders out to people.  That means that the guy (ironically named “Guy”) that works behind the desk has become familiar with my face. Usually there is a big line behind me and I don’t ever get to have small small talk with him without feeling the razor gaze of the poor person behind me that wishes I would hurry the hell up. The extent of our conversation up to this point was my assurances that there was no liquids, fragile or hazardous materials in my packages, and that I would like the “love or celebration stamps, please.”   Yesterday, about an hour before they closed,  I ran over to ship 5 padded envelopes to ship from my last party. This time the post office was miraculously empty, and I said something to Guy about seeing me often to which he responded, “What do you sell anyways?”…

Enter awkward silence for a moment. Not that I’m not embarrassed in any way about what I sell, or what I do, Latino men in their mid-50's aren’t exactly my target audience, so I go for broke and say, “sex toys more or less. I’m a consultant with Slumber Parties so I sell sex toys, but also lotions and candles and such. Most of these are candles and lotions.”  I think he may have swallowed his tongue at this point, and eye contact is now in short supply.  He picks up a package, squeezes it and says “well…I know what’s in here!” I think for a second, actually trying to remember what had been put in that package, and respond, “Actually that’s just a packing bubble to even out the package. All that is in there is a candle, good try though.”  He makes a noise in his throat that I interpreted to mean, “yeah right, I know you’re shipping dildos, but whatever!”  Our conversation more or less stops at this point as someone else comes into the room. 

So, now my postman will be feeling up my packages and trying to guess what’s in them, and very obviously laughing his ass off at me after I leave. I think that I may actually have made his afternoon. I’ll give him my business card next time I’m in there, see how he reacts. That will be amusing. Either that…or find a new post office.  

Sunshine and Salaams

It was a beautiful day for a walk. I met a friend in the parking lot and set out around the lake.  Coming down a hill we saw a man walking and my friend pointed out that he looked like he was wearing PJ's. I commented that it was probably a thobe, and then saw that he had prayer beads.  I explained what they were, and as we walked by said "Salaam aleykum" to him.  The man, an African man, probably in his 30's was dressed in a thobe, matching pants, and a kufi, with a large string of prayer beads in his right hand (think of Catholic nuns and their super sized rosaries that we thought were cool as kids).   He smiled and responded "wa aleykum salaam" and I turned back to my conversation. 

Down the bend there was a bridge, and a mother goose with goslings. Canadian geese are a pain in the ass, but even annoying water fowl have beautiful fluffy babies, so we stopped to coo over them.  I had forgotten about the man I spoke to earlier until he caught up with me and asked me how I knew Arabic, and if I’d been to Africa before. I told him that, no I hadn’t been to Africa but was Muslim in college, but no longer considered myself Muslim. I also attempted to explain that, while I still search for my faith but don't necessarily feel the need to be constrained by labels.  He asked if he could say a du'ah (prayer) for me, and in a whisper prayed for me quickly in Arabic.  My friend, who is white, probably hasn't spent much time around Muslims and frankly, doesn't know me very well yet, didn't know if this guy was propositioning me, or doing something to make me uncomfortable, and quietly asked if we wanted to continue our walk. I held up a hand to ask her to hold on until she was done. When the man finished, I said thank you, and we continued on our walk. I explained to her that he was saying a prayer for me, and that talking about religion with strangers doesn't really bother me at all. 

Normally, I would never have said anything but I must have been intoxicated on sunshine, fresh air and the cool breeze.  I felt compelled to talk to him, not to show off my mad Arabic skills (cause I don't have them anymore), but perhaps like my niqabi friends that like to buck stereotypes and Rollerblade in niqabs, I want to be the person that isn’t afraid to talk to people just because they look different.  Everyone has something to offer, and I don’t want to miss an opportunity to see what they have to teach me.  Also, I lived in fear of judgement from others for so long. The fear that I was too Muslim for the culture I lived in and not Muslim enough for the culture and community that I was trying to enter. I put restrictions on myself, that others weren’t imposing, and today I realized this. I didn’t know this man, and will probably never see him again, I had nothing to prove to him, but two little words, “salaam aleykum” brightened up both of our days. 

It was truly a beautiful day for a walk. We couldn’t have asked for better weather and I’m four pounds away from some badly needed new clothing.  I'm happy for a new found friend that is going to make me walk off of the pounds around our area's beautiful lakes, and for the don't give a damn attitude that people thought I had, but I've really just developed.  

5 years of my life I will actually remember!

My mom had surgery yesterday, and thankfully it seems like she is on the road to recovery.  I was awaken this morning by a phone call from her, and was so happy to hear her sound like herself.  However, being woken up with a phone call lead to me forgetting to take my medicine and later finding myself sprawled on the couch wondering why I barely had the motivation to blind, let alone get any work done. Luckily I realized that I'd forgotten my medicine but I still feel like crap. Does anyone else get instantly and insanely addicted to caffeine? I do. I can drink 2 sodas one day and feel like I have a 8 shot tequila on an empty stomach hangover the next day. What...the...hell!  I hate it. Please pause for me to go make tea because I'm sick of my head spinning.

Okay moving on.  Last year I met this lovely flight attendant whom my husband decided was the coolest girl like EVER after she did the safety speech for him. Oh yes, she did.  Anyways, this fabulous lady had a journal. It's the Q& A a day 5 year journal and when I saw it I knew I needed it. I love writing, I love keeping records but I suck at maintaining routines, which means that I have tons of half filled notebooks.   This journal has guided questions and 4 lines to answer, with space for 5 years worth of answers. I knew I needed this thing, and she promised it to me for my birthday but when she went to the store they didn't have it (and apparently I was too lazy to look it up on amazon like I just did for you). Anyways, a couple of weeks ago, after watching the Newies (oh yeah, the only school Disney one!) and drooling over baby Christian Bale for awhile, she pulled my own awesome journal out of her bag annnnd of course I had to start writing! Note that she made me wait until after I'd watched the entire movie.  

My Weight Loss Journey check in...I've lost how much?

There is a show on TLC currently called “My 600lb Life” that has struck a note with me. It follows around 4 different people that had gastric bypass surgery for almost a decade to see what happened after the surgery. It isn’t a before and after shot, but an in depth view of the struggles and the triumphs that they face.  This show inevitably makes me cry every time I watch it.  I had it on my DVR for weeks before I could.  This show is hard to watch.  The journey of being 600 pounds isn’t easy, and the weight loss isn’t easy either. People develop addictions to food for a reason, and it’s a hard hard job to face those addictions, admit to them, and then struggle to stay on top of them. 

The reason that that show is hard to watch, is the same reason that I started this blog.  It resounds so closely to my own battle, and my own constant fear of uncontrolled weight gain.  I started this blog after a discussion with my college friend Benita.  I had been thinking seriously about getting some sort of bariatric surgery to help me lose weight.  At 300 pounds, getting to anything with a 1 in the front of it seemed like an impossible task.  This was about the same time I had an aunt that I’m close to (and resemble in body type) have gastric bypass and lose an amazing amount of weight,  feeling like she had energy and the ability to live for the first time in a long time.  Maybe it was laziness, maybe fear, or maybe damn stubborn persistence that I could lose this weight, that I never went through with the surgery. I'm still not sure, and commend those that were able to make that decision and have lost huge amounts of weight.

You sell what? *gasp*

It has been far too long. It’s been far too long since I sat at a screen, wrote down my feelings and shared them with the world.  I take pictures, I script out blogs in my head, but my lazy distracted self has failed in blogging lately.  One of the reasons is that it’s really hard to just shoot off fast posts. I have to sit, and ponder and then percolate, and eventually genius ends up on the screen. Just kidding about the genius, but I don’t want you to read anything stream of conscious from me. If you think I get distracted by sparklies in conversations, my writing is worse. I write in paragraphs and then somehow make things sort of fit together. Sort of…see, I’m trying.  Plus, if I don’t at least make a cursory attempt a editing, my husband…judges.  

So my life has been taken up by sex toys, and it’s been difficult for me to figure out exactly what level of hilarious but not necessarily ‘safe for work’ detail I should go into on here.  For example, should I tell the story of how my husband managed to hurt is back ‘lifting a crate of dildos,’ or how I almost shot a ‘sleeve’ across a room while practicing for my demo, or how I fed a parrot a wiener. Actually that last one has nothing to do with sex toys, but it was fun!  So my life, if I thought it was reality TV worthy before, only got better when mixed with gratuitous amounts of lubrication, laughter and my own…lets go with unique, sense of humor. 

I guess I should write here more because someone other than me, and my husband should be in on these adventures.  For example, yesterday I was having lunch with some new women from one of my meetup groups, and they asked what I did.  They were intrigued and we were discussing my company, toys, sexuality and the whole gauntlet of topics.  After awhile one of my friends had to leave, so I turned on the seat to talk to the remaining person at the booth and glanced at the computer the guys in the booth behind us had.  On the screen was a picture of a bloody thorned ‘crown’ as I hear this guy passionately discuss how the thorns in the crown they forced Jesus to wear were 3 inches long.  Apparently I missed the Bibles the dudes were carrying when they sat behind us and began attempting to convert a fellow hipster.  Funny, the guy they were trying to convert was sitting with his back to me, and I’m almost certain he heard…everything that I said. And for the record, I wasn’t at all embarrassed. 

I love to study religion, and spend a huge amount of my time and energy learning about my faith.  I however am sick of ‘religious’ people that  straight out judged me and my character because of what they presume I do.  Yes, I sell sex toys… and lingerie…and lotions… and massage oils…and great products and great opportunities. What I don’t sell are the poor life choices, infidelity and immorality that their judgement charges me with.  What I do isn’t dirty. What is dirty is societies perception of people that use my products.  I say this now, and I will say it again—there is NOTHING wrong with have a fulfilling sexual relationship with your spouse (or partner because I’m not discriminating).  There is nothing in the Bible against finding your spouse attractive, and trying to be attractive for them.  There is an entire book in the Bible extolling the virtues of finding your spouse beautiful, and desirous.  There is nothing in the Qu’ran against having a healthy sex life. Heck, the hadith actually had requirements on how often men were required to ‘visit’ their wives based on their jobs, and advised lots of foreplay.  No, I’m not digging out quotes.  If you don’t believe me, I will thought.  Please just believe me. I’m lazy.

Starting a business has glaringly brought back into the forefront of my life, my inability to deal with stress.  I have serious difficulty filing things in order of necessity, or priority without first freaking out about feeling like I have a million things to do and no time.  I had a really really hard time in the beginning, feeling like I needed to shove as much knowledge into my head as could possibly fit. When I started having dreams about sending out invitations, and organizing and learning my demo, I realized that I realllllly needed to take a step back.  The crying and fighting with my husband weren’t worth it at all.  It wasn’t until I told myself that it was okay not to be the best immediately that I sort of allowed myself to relax a little. I still am freaked out…I’m worried that I’m having an open house this weekend and no one will come, but then I have to remind myself that I can only do what is in my control. 

That in mind, I’ll clean my house, I’ll make cookies, I’ll ENJOY myself, and I’ll let something be out of my control, because I’ve had an iron grip on that control for so long that my hands have cramps. It’s time to let them relax.  

Okay..brain dump here readers—answer these questions and get a prize.  Okay you won’t get a prize but I’ll write more;).

Who has read 50 Shades of Grey? Am I the only person that didn’t like it? Well…me and the 400 ppl on Amazon that said that they didn’t like it. 

Anyone else feel an incessant need to move their furniture at least once a month? I move my living room furniture constantly. 

Recipes—any new ones?  I just threw some quinoa, veggies and chicken together for lunch and it was tolerable…I may even go so far as saying it was good. 

Time management…what is that? 

Sleepy? I am, so I’m going to bed now.  

DIY Nasal Saline Rinse Solution

I hab a cold (said in most pitiful of voices). I always seem to have colds or some sort of congestion between being around kids, and having sinuses that are chronically swollen. People have been telling me for years about how much I need to do nasal rinses, and while I did them sporadically, I've only recently started to do them regularly.  I'm sick of being sick, and  if they help keep me from getting horrible sinus infections that are having to be treated monthly with antibiotics, I'm willing to shoot pressurized water up my nose.

For the record they AREN'T sinus rinses. You do NOT rinse your sinuses, but rather your nasal passages. If we could rinse our sinuses we would get mondo infections because anything we inhaled could get in them.  This little disclaimer was brought to you by my old ENT who got verrry annoyed when people talked about how wonderful sinus rinses were.  

Not ignoring you!

Or rather...I'm sort of ignoring everything right now. I have my debut Slumber Party on Tuesday and then two other parties already booked, and I'm ... going a little crazy trying to get everything planned. It would help if I would just sit down and write my notes instead of reading all the books, cleaning my house, getting distracted with anything and everything and being worried that I'd wing it.  Four years of Speech Team taught me that I'm an excellent improv speaker, but those were 5 minute speeches, not 90 minute presentations.  must...get...this...done!

I'm not entirely sure what my husband thinks of our kitchen table being covered in demo 'toys' but he hasn't complained yet.  I think he is intrigued.  I am hoping to book more parties off of the three I have coming up and then work from there.  I swear I have non-toy related recipes, and updates to make when life is a little calmer!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!
back to work.

My grocery dilemma...

My husband and I have a grocery budget. Or at least we are supposed to. Sadly, the hundreds of dollars that we blow at Costco every month on God knows what, don't seem to be a part of that budget, and yet we were still spending them.  So after realizing that we were pretty low in cash this pay period (thank you medical bills!) I decided we didn't really need to go shopping for two weeks.  I made smoothies out of old fruit, we ate pasta, the sauce my dad canned this summer, all our veggies, meat from the freezer, and more stuff from the freezer, and ate at our friend's houses, and tonight I might have picked up dinner. Okay, so no, we didn't not buy food for two weeks, we just didn't use our shopping budget, we had to use our own fundage if we wanted anything extra.  It seemed to work except that I've been trying to make a meal plan for the last 4 days and I'm stuck.  I'm not really sure why.  My brain is sort of in a muddle as I contemplate what foods I should buy. We desperately need  fresh veggies and fruits. At this point all we've got are some leeks I bought for soup that we ate the potatoes for a week ago. The husband cleared us out of smoothies, any milk products, anything with the word juice in it, and any snacks I shoved his direction.  Tonight he was dying to open our last bottle of Martinelli's Apple cider (that I wisely hid in the pantry and forgot about), and I offered to make him lemonade instead. I heated up some water, poured a bunch of True Lemon in it, and squirted some honey in. He said, "I don't like it, but I can deal." Eh, I'll take it.  I wasn't trying very hard to impress him.

Please note that we still have food in the house, and if it weren't for my need for ketchup (still can't find mine--whoever stole it is going to hell because taking my ketchup is a sick sick joke!) and nail polish remover (they won't be used together!) I would probably attempt to avoid going to the store this week either. I find though that I'm doing a craptastic job of being all domestic like and cooking lately and my other half isn't really a fan of dinner duty. 

Instead of that shopping list which is still avoiding being written, I'll just post some recipes that I'm excited to make. Maybe I'll feel motivated, or maybe I'll spend 5 hours on pinterest and get nothing done.  

1. Paleo Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

http://pinterest.com/pin/56154326573776047/

Yumm...these look good. I've got all of the ingredients, even after not grocery shopping in weeks. Once again, if it weren't for that damn ketchup, I just wouldn't go! I'm leaving the walnuts out though since neither of us can eat them. 

2. Spinach Bites

http://pinterest.com/pin/56154326573776997/

This is from my friend's blog and they are amazing. How do I know this? Because the perk of babysitting for her daughter was getting to taste test these puppies. I detest boiled, steamed, cooked spinach.  The first time my grandmother gave it to me, I spit it back out on her.  No joke -- sorry grandma! These things are nothing like that boiled mess though.  The spices and potato give them great texture and flavor, while baking them gives them an awesome crunch. There is no overwhelming spinach flavor unless (I think) you make them super thick.  Think of them as a healthy green french fry thingy.  Just do it, and you'll thank me me later.  Spinach is our friend! Popeye had it right, even if I thought he was lying for most of my life. 

3. Sweet Butternut Squash mash yumminess (yes, my super professional chef name!)

Please for the love of God, just buy it pre-peeled and cut! Save your fingers...or in this case mine. Actually the real issue is that butternut squash, while I love it, lasts for-ever. So I just let it sit and think about how I want to eat it...for months.  If I buy it already cut, it's got a pretty clear expiration date, and I actually will EAT it.  Is that cheating?  You can judge me while I'm eating my butternut squash mash with a teeny bit of brown sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg. Judge away, but I'm not sharing.

4. Anything on this page

It just looks delish...http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/category/dinner/

specifically these: http://www.multiplydelicious.com/thefood/2012/02/moroccan-meatballs-with-citrus-glazed-carrots/ which will be gracing my kitchen after I do a spice inventory tomorrow morning. 

This website isn't strictly paleo but she's got a paleo section that looks amazing.  

I would love to do the paleo diet and give up all (or most) grains, legumes, and dairy. I already know dairy and I had a love affair that needed to end.  My bronchial tubes thanked me for that, and I figured out the cause of my decade long headaches.  Grains are a hard one though. I don't doubt that cutting them out would make a difference in my health and weight loss. It's just hard, and I don't need people who are already drinking the kool-aid to harass me unless they want to get slapped. 

I like the idea of the paleo diet except for a few sticking points-I don't eat pork and can't make myself eat most fish.  This means that I'm missing out on the, seemingly vital food group: Bacon. Ugh...sorry guys, I can't do it.  I can't even stand turkey bacon anymore. It just grosses me out.  I'm pretty sure I'm allergic to walnuts (hence leaving them out of the above recipe) and raw almonds and I may have a tenuous relationship. My husband can't have any soy or walnuts (thyroid issues), just to complicate matters.  I'm figuring out how my stomach and mouth react and deal with raw food and meats. Most of my life, I stayed away from meat because it gave me stomachaches.  I'm not sure I really have a problem with incorporating more beans into my diet either. I know that more veggies is basically the answer though. I'm figuring out the root causes of my dietary issues, and experimenting with different foods. Please...give me some time. If you don't, I've already warned you about smacking potential.  

On another note, I've decided to torture Newton by tying his stick toy (hot pink b/c that's how my man rolls) so it hangs, feather down, into the cat house that my dad made him.  Now, instead of just perching on the top most perch and sleeping like the prince he is, he's getting into the house, balancing on the back scratching post and go crazzzzzzzy playing with it. It's...hilarious fun to watch and I'm pretty sure he's enjoying himself. If you guys need more pictures of Newton...just ask. Since everyone knows that I anthropomorphize my cats since I don't have kids, I have pictures a plenty. It's not my fault he so freaking fluffy you want to squish him to death, and that Henry has the most amazing anime eyes ever.  

Anywho, off to attempt to sleep next to a freight train that call himself my husband.  If he knew how often I kicked him in his sleep, he'd probably stop talking to me for awhile.  And since he's going to read this, I might add in looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove you baby :)

Why is there a man with a gun in my living room??

Anyone that follows me on facebook knows that my GPS was stolen out of my car back at the end of January.  My car was opened, riffled through, all parts of the GPS taken and then the door was closed again. This was all done without setting off my car alarm.  I posted what happened on our neighborhood board, and found out that there were quite a few cars that had been broken into--also without setting the alarms off, taking any electronics that could be found.  

So like most people would, I bought a new GPS.  This time I was much more careful about taking it down every night and dropping it in my purse.  Apparently not careful enough two nights ago when, hands full, I left my GPS in my car (in the center console).  I was so distracted that I didn't even realize that I had forgotten it.  Yesterday I came out to my car to go to the gym and realized that I didn't see my GPS cord.   With a plunging heart I quickly realized that I had been robbed...AGAIN.  35 days after the first theft, the bastards had managed to get into my car again (cause the first time wasn't difficult enough apparently) and took my GPS again.  

If you feel stupid reporting that something got stolen out of you car because you left it in plain site, let me tell you that feeling increases ten fold when you have to call the police AGAIN because your car has been broken into twice in one month.  At first, I have to admit I was almost amused that it happened again.  That quickly turned to fury that I projected at anything I could find.  

Now readers, I don't live in the ghetto, or the projects. I live in an upper middle class townhouse community with million dollar homes down the road. We are getting targeted.  Since I posted on our neighborhood board that people need to file police reports when these thefts happen, the police now are required to come out and take a statement in person.  I mean, it's great and all to meet my neighborhood county cop, but it my GPS is still gone and I'm pretty sure they aren't perusing pawn shops for it. My neighbors have a camera pointing at their cars, and another over their door. I hoped that perhaps they recorded that night, but no luck.  The police talked to them this morning and found out that their camera's don't record.  

Now comes in the guy with a gun....

I was sort of sneakily getting a shot of him while my husband talked to him. All of the stuff on the floor was donations I was taking after our swap. 

When this nice officer came calling we learned how incredibly short staffed they were, to the point that there was one officer for half our county.  That must be close to half a million people (if not more!) and one officer is in charge. No wonder they can't patrol!  

So morals learned

1. Screw GPS's, I'm using my phone.  Ironically I hated the new GPS I'd gotten anyways.  

2. Depending on the police might not be the best idea. as they are understaffed, over stretched and under funded.

3. Get a house with a garage...no seriously, I'm willing to give up a basement to keep my car safe.

4. Living in a nice area means that your car is MORE likely to be broken into. 

5. Learned to be grateful that they didn't break a window.  

6. VOTE! This is a RICH county with a LOT of people that make a LOT of money. It's unacceptable that our police are so radically underfunded, and that the police are expected to have to sacrifice an officer to be solely responsible for the mall near my house.  

7. I did mention that we are looking to move, right?  I think that this event might have thrown me over the line from 'eh' to 'I'll pack tomorrow!' I love our house, but the petty crime in this neighborhood is getting scary. 

8. This is really sad, but one of my first thoughts was "damn, this is going to make a great blog post!" I'm sort of pitiful like that. 

Oh ... what a week! Sorry I didn't mange to make this post funny.  I'm just sort of emotionally drained after this week.  

What's Cooking? Peanut butter Banana Oatmeal Squares

You know that Veggie Tales song, "Oh where is my hairbrush?"  Well, the version I've been singing is, "Oh where the hell is my ketchup!?"  No, seriously, my ketchup is missing.  I made eggs the other day, and went to the fridge, tasting the tomatoey goodness on my tongue, and...I couldn't find it. I physically touched everything in the fridge to make sure that no one cast a spell of invisibility on it, but nope. It's gone.  So now...I am out of ketchup around the same time I discovered that I love eggs with ketchup, and only have eggs in the house to eat for breakfast, and refuse to go grocery shopping for the next week. What a conundrum!  Now moving on to unrelated food issues, I recently made another recipe from Pinterest.

I was pursuing Pinterest, and found and immediately made this recipe. I actually forgot to pin it when I made it, and had to go back through my internet history to be able to find it again! I loved the wholesome ingredients (no butter or added oil!), and the fact that I had them all on hand!  With a few easy ingredients you can make a breakfast bar, serve it with a little peanut butter, and have a ready made breakfast for your whole family.  I even put these out at my swap-a-thon as a 'cookie' and most of them were eaten.  Since these have a super moist consistency, I would suggest you eating them pretty quickly.


If you are looking for something super sweet, this isn't it. However, it's a great bread-like base for things like nut butters, honey, or just something quick to grab. I plan on using different spices next time. I think it would do well being spicier with nutmeg and a tiny bit of cloves. I'd also love to try it with a hardier oatmeal that maintains it's texture after it's been cooked.  Quick cooking oats tend to lose all of it's texture when they're cooked. If you want it to be a bread like texture without making you think of oatmeal though, currently, this is it.

Variations:

• Use rice milk, like I did to make it dairy free
• Use gluten free oats to make this celiac friendly. 
• Use Egg substitute and rice milk to make it vegan
• Experiment with some honey/agave nectar to take out the sugar. 
• Make them in muffin tins...I think these would make great muffins.
• Allergic to peanuts, or don't like them? Almond butter would work! As would any other nut/seed that ends in butter!
• Hate bananas? Use unsweetened applesauce or pumpkin puree instead. I'm not sure on the measurements, so check online and tell me how it tastes!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares
From Here!

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk *(I used rice milk)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large mashed banana *(I keep my old bananas in the freezer, so I just pulled one out)
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
*my comments on the recipe. The links are to the actual product that I used!

Mix together the quick cooking oats, light brown sugar, baking powder, kosher salt and ground cinnamon.

Add in the vanilla extract, milk and egg. Mix the ingredients together.

Then add in the mashed banana and peanut butter. Combine all of the ingredients.

Pour the mixture into a lightly greased 8 by 8 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Cut into squares and enjoy!

Pressed into Pan

All Done!

Yes, I can see my reflection too.