The following is a list of things that are currently huge hits at our house:

–This blueberry banana bread
The blog post above was linked on another site that I was reading yesterday. It caught my eye because I had 3 past-their-prime bananas staring me in the face from the counter top that I didn’t want to waste, along with some blueberries that I picked up from the store the other day.

I didn’t have any whole wheat flour on hand, so I just used regular ol’ all-purpose, and I had also just run out of eggs, so I used a “flax-egg” as a substitute. Even with those substitutions the bread is delicious; I bet it would be even better if I had followed the recipe, which I plan to do next time I’ve got some sad-looking bananas on hand.

-These drinks

When Justin and I were down in Florida a few months back, his mom Cathie had these drinks on hand. We drank them all and had to go out and get some more, and we’ve been stocking the fridge at home with them ever since. I love mixing them with sparkling water and tossing in a lime slice. My favorite combo right now is the pomegranate blueberry flavor mixed with pomegranate Polar Seltzer water. So good! They’re light and refreshing and having a fancy drink like this has made giving up those Dark n’ Stormies a breeze. Plus, they have actual fruit juice in them, so it’s practically a health food.

-Cable
After realizing a few years ago that we were spending more time than we would like watching TV, Justin and I decided to cut our cable package back to just the basic channels (4, 5, 7, FOX, and some local channel that shows a lot of Seinfeld and The Big Bang Theory). Somehow Justin also snuck HBO into that deal, which allowed us to get On Demand as well. We were very happy with this setup and had a few shows a week that we watched, but since there isn’t too much to choose from on those channels, we didn’t find ourselves watching a lot of extra garbage TV. Recently, though, the call of the Bruins led Justin to call Comcast and upgrade our package, so now we’re back on the Cable bandwagon. I’m not going to lie – it’s pretty great. Man alive, the options! They’re endless! I’m wondering how long it will take before we find outselves watching too much Alaska State Troopers and have to cancel again, but we’re enjoying it for now.

 -Silpat baking mats

My mother-in-law Cathie gave these to me for Christmas and I have used them, on average, once a week ever since. No matter what you’re making, it won’t stick to these bad boys, even if you forget about a mini batch of straggler cookies (you know, the 5 leftover cookies that wouldn’t fit on the pan with the rest of them) and leave them in the oven for 15 minutes too long. Sure, they’ll still burn until they’re no longer fit for consumption, but they won’t stick. I’m going to try out some lime and coconut macaroons this weekend; I’m looking forward to not having to peel parchment paper off of the back of each cookie like I did the last time I made macaroons.

-Zuke’s Mini Natural dog treats

Brody has always been a good dog overall but he’s got a few habits that drive us batty. Finding out that we’re going to be expanding the fam by 2 little feet has given us the push that we needed to work on the manners of our 4-legged resident. He really reacts to food and these treats make great a great training tool because he’s bonkers about them and they’re tiny, so B will keep his svelte figure even if he’s huffing down a bunch per day. I’ll probably do a seperate post on the different ways that we’re working in his manners later on down the road (and if anyone else out there has tips on getting pups ready for babies, send ’em along!). Whenever these treats come out, B gives us these eyes:

…which quickly turn into these eyes if the treats don’t come fast enough:

-This song/video

And the movie Pitch Perfect, if you haven’t seen it. Anna Kendrick sang this song in the movie and some genius out there decided that she should record a radio version and make a video to go along with it. Well done, genius, you deserve a raise. And to the readers out there: good luck getting it out of your head. I went to bed singing it and I woke up this morning singing it, so enjoy!