Home & Visiting Teaching - July

I made these delicious double-chocolate banana cookies (recipe below) today and Bill and I finished our home and visiting teaching. For anyone that doesn't know what home and visiting teaching is, in our church we are assigned other members of our church to check up on at least once a month.


There are so many cute home and visiting teaching handouts available online and I always look at them and think I'll do it, but then it never happens. What I want is a simple, black and white gift tag with a message and a place to put my name and phone number that I can print and run. So, I've been making my own the past few months.

It's almost the end of the month, but you do still have a few days. Here are the files:
Home Teaching July 2010: PDF or WORD
Visiting Teaching July 2010: PDF or WORD

Here's a picture of the finished treats. I couldn't find my red curling ribbon, otherwise I would have tied the bags of cookies with red, white and blue ribbon for July.


Here is that recipe as promised. These cookies are a great way to use up leftover bananas!

Double Chocolate Banana Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp Vanilla flavoring

1/2 tsp Almond flavoring

2 to 3 medium bananas to obtain 1 cup puree

1 3/4 cups flour (all purpose or whole wheat)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Puree bananas in blender, measure 1 cup for recipe and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and flavorings and blend well. Add bananas and blend. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, oats. Add to butter mixture and stir until mixture is uniform. Add chocolate chips and almonds, if desired. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of batter onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 13 to 15 minutes or until cookies are set and not glossy. Let cool for a few minutes on the pan, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling. Makes 2.5 dozen. These cookies freeze well.

Sympathy Card

Here's a simple sympathy card.
The verse on the front says,

"Each new life--
No matter how fragile or how brief--
Forever changes the world."

I am not sure who the author is, but I love the sentiment.

Here is how to make the card:

1. Download the card template as a Word document or .pdf file. Each sheet contains four of the front of the card. Cut them out. You will only need one, so save the other three.

2. Cut a piece of cardstock 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches. Fold the card in half so you end up with a card that is 4.25 inches by 5.5 inches.

3. Glue one of the card fronts to the front of the cardstock card.

4. If you used a dark piece of cardstock like I did, you might want to cut a plain white piece of cardstock and glue it to the inside of the card so you have a place to write.