Peanut Butter Banana Popsicles

I am so ready for cooler weather. It has been hot, sticky, and nasty humid here for months. Luckily the weather is supposed to cool down into the high 70's next week, which I am so looking forward towards. One thing I do love about summer are the thunderstorms. There is something so refreshing about a great summer thunderstorm. Everything becomes quiet, the temps drop, and for a few minutes everything is still. It's peaceful, calming, and a great refresher during a busy day. Thunderstorms might just be my favorite thing about summer.

With hot weather comes cold desserts and drinks. My kids are in love with popsicles and they are so easy to make at home and cost a fraction of the cost of store bought. Plus you can use whole ingredients making them a delicious summer treat. The following is my recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Popsicles.

Adapted from Kroger mymagazine mailer.

Peanut Butter Banana Popsicles

Peanut Butter Banana Popsicles

Recipe Type: Dessert

Preparation Time: 0h, 5m

Total Time: 4h, 5m

Yield: Serves 8

A simple summer dessert using fresh bananas and peanut butter. Only takes minutes to make. 

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Cooking Directions

1. Cut bananas into 1-inch chunks. 
2. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. 
3. Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined (do not over mix).
4. Spoon into an 8-serving popsicle mold and freeze until set, approximately 4 hours. 

Tips: 

• If you don't have a blender a food processor would also work. 
• I know a lot of people avoid granulated and brown sugar. I haven't personally tried this recipe with honey, agave etc., but I would love to hear if anyone tries and how it turns out! 
• Run the popsicle mold under hot water to loosen the popsicles and they should pop right out. 
• I have tried this recipe with whole and non-fat milk and they both set beautifully. I have not tried it with soy, almond, or coconut milk, but you are free to try and tell me if it works. 

Banana Crumb Muffins

I seem to be having a string of bad luck. For the last three weeks my family has been fighting hand, foot, and mouth disease. My youngest had it first, then my husband, and today I had to pick up my oldest who seems to have come down with the high fever and sore throat that begins the illness. During these three weeks my father managed to fall and break his hip requiring surgery 2500 miles away. That's a whole other story for another day. To add to it all my oldest was formally diagnosed with ADHD this summer (after three months of appointments) so we have been adjusting our lives to deal with the diagnoses. I'm feeling a little burnout out and as most of you have probably noticed my blog has taken a back seat. I though that once my kids were both in school that I would have more time during the day, that has failed to come to fruition so far. I'm hoping that things will calm down soon and I will be able to go back to blogging more regularly.

When I'm stressed out I bake. I find baking to be almost therapeutic, it helps me to calm down and feel more like myself when life gets crazy. My kids love banana flavored anything so this week I made a new recipe for Banana Crumb Muffins. The recipe is as follows.

Adapted from Taste of Home.

Banana Crumb Muffins

An easy banana muffin recipe with a delicious butter crumb topping. Great way to use over ripened bananas.

Yield: 10 servings

Calories per serving: 243
Fat per serving: 9 grams

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Topping:

• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter

Cooking Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Mash bananas either with a fork or a blender/food processor (I prefer this method).
3. Add bananas to sugar, egg, and butter and mix well.
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined (do not over mix).
5. Grease a muffin pan.
6. Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way full.
7. Combine the sugar, cinnamon and flour for the topping.
8. Add butter and mix until crumbly.
9. Sprinkle topping mixture over the tops of the muffin batter.
10. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.
11. Let cool in pan 10 minutes.

Tips: 

• I have not tried making this muffins gluten free so I can't attest to whether they would turn out or not. 
• The butter may be substituted for canola or vegetable oil. 
• You could also experiment with using Greek yogurt instead of part of the butter to reduce the fat and increase the protein. I do this frequently with muffin recipes and it works well. 

Banana Crumb Muffins

Preparation Time: 0h, 15m

Cooking Time: 0h, 20m

Total Time: 0h, 35m

Banana Pancakes

I am not a kid person. When someone that has a baby assumes that since I have kids I must love all babies, then hands me their tiny infant, I cringe. Don't get me wrong I don't hate kids, I just don't go crazy over every one that I see. I never have. Growing up I never wanted kids, the thought of raising tiny humans was never something that made sense to me. I hated babysitting, it was horrible and babysitting boys was the worst. They destroyed things, they never sat still and honestly I always thought I should be paid more to deal with them. As an adult I still don't enjoy the company of many kids. There are always the exception, but they seem to be few and far between. I seem to be in the minority given the fact that I love my two boys, I don't want to try for a girl, and while your kid might be cute I don't feel a biological attachment to them. Maybe growing up in the late 80's/early 90's has just left my generation a little more jaded, for better or for worse I am the way that I am.

One thing that always makes me happy is pancakes. I love pancakes, I could eat them three times a day (if it wasn't nutritionally a horrible idea). My kids are pretty much the same way, but they love waffles and pancakes about equally. Since my household is also banana obsessed I make a lot of banana pancakes. The following is a recipe for banana pancakes (they freeze very well!).

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Banana Pancakes

Banana Pancakes

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Preparation Time: 0h, 5m

Cooking Time: 0h, 10m

Total Time: 0h, 15m

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

Cooking Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Sift dry ingredients through a flour sifter (this step isn't necessary, but it really does make for fluffier pancakes).
3. Mash bananas either by using a potato masher, food processor, or blender. Using the blender or food processor makes for a better consistency throughout the pancakes and reduces the possibility of part of the pancakes staying uncooked.
4. In a separate bowl combine egg, milk, butter and bananas.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.
6. Don't overmix, the batter will be a little lumpy.
7. Heat either a frying pan on medium heat or a griddle with melted butter or oil.
8. Pour 1/4 cup of the batter for each pancakes onto the griddle.
9. Cook until middle is set and pancake is browned on each side.

Tips: 

• The melted butter can be substituted for canola or vegetable oil or if you are watching your fats applesauce. 
• I have made this with 1 percent and non-fat milk and either one works fine. Whole or 2% would also work, I have not made it with almond or other non-dairy milks. 
• The sugar could be substituted for honey, agave, or the sweetener you prefer. 
• I have made this gluten free before by making my own oat flour. Making oat flour is very easy, just place whole oats in a food processor and process until finely ground. Homemade oat flour is a great homemade gluten free flour (make sure the oats you are using are gluten free and there are some people with gluten issues that have sensitivities to oats, so be careful if you just found out you have celiac disease etc.). 

That's it! The pancakes in the photo I added dark chocolate chips and melted peanut butter. Just place peanut butter in the microwave for 20 seconds and it pours easily over pancakes (and it's great with ice cream and other desserts too-yummy!). 

Delicious Gluten Free Banana Bread

My brain seems to be on overload. I'm having one of those weeks where the combination of dreaded doctor appointments (which are luckily done), the end of the school year, and the stress of trying to figure out my life in two months when my youngest starts school is coming to a head. When I was at the store today I realized my patience with human beings seems to be pretty low, a woman almost hit our car when pulling out of her parking spot and I had to stop myself from saying a rather bad swear word in front of my kids. My husband isn't doing much better than me, he almost told the woman at the fast food drive through off for being less than pleasant. I think the end of the school year is driving all parents nationwide slightly insane.

I have been trying to clear out my cupboards and use the foods that I have already bought before school ends on Thursday. Last week in order to use the blackened bananas I had on my counter, I tried a new recipe for Banana Bread from the Food Network.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 3 hours and 10 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active, and makes one 12 serving loaf. I made a few significant changes to the original recipe. First, instead of regular flour I used white rice flour and a small amount of xanthan gum (about 1 tablespoon). Secondly, I cheated. I poured all the ingredients into my mixer and let it do the work. I hate, hate, hate using two separate bowls when baking and I avoid it if I can. I found that the total time to bake the gluten free banana bread was slightly longer, closer to an hour and 20 minutes.

The texture of this bread was great. It tasted very similar to non-gluten free banana bread and my two boys couldn't tell the difference, they thought I had made them regular banana bread. The bread is a little on the buttery side, which I like, but if you prefer you could reduce the total amount of butter to 3/4 of a stick or substitute coconut oil.

For the recipe go to Banana Bread.

Chocolate, Banana and Tofu Smoothie

Chocolate, Banana and Tofu Smoothie

I am a 30 something feminist with a master's degree. I also chose to stay-at-home with my kids. Right now my teenage self is cringing, so are some of the people probably reading this post. Before explaining my main point, a little background info is in order.

I grew up with a mother who was a giant feminist. I'm pretty sure she actually did burn her bras and was very vocal about her opinions. It didn't help that I grew up in Seattle and learned very young that strong outspoken women were awesome and should be appreciated. By the time I was a teenager I had decided that I would go to college, find a great job and excel in my field. This also entailed not getting married or having kids. The thought of being married, much less being a stay-at-home mom was something I thought was the opposite of being a feminist, my mother had raised me to achieve all the things that she hadn't (college, a great job etc). My father thought that I should do whatever I wanted, that no boundaries should stand in my way. I pretty much did exactly what I set out to do. I started a job at 17. It was supposed to be a summer internship, it turned into a 7 year job that helped to pay for school. I went into a field of geography that was dominated by men, I was the only girl in many of my classes. I excelled and was content.

Then I moved to West Virginia and met my husband. He challenged everything. Not only was he smart, but he called me on the things that everyone else was to afraid to. And I started to change. I realized that my life was about choice, my choices not someone else's. Two years after getting married I decided to be a stay-at-home mom when I got pregnant with my oldest. I no longer saw staying at home as something to be settled for, but rather something that I could excel at.  And I'm good at it. I still get people asking me why I stay-at-home with so much work experience and a degree. Don't I feel like I'm missing out on something? Honestly, I don't. I have experienced both sides and decided on the choices that are best for me. And I'm still a proud, smart and overly educated feminist.

Chocolate, Banana and Tofu Smoothie

I am a big smoothie fan, I drink one most days for breakfast. They are a nice way to get protein in the morning and I can drink them on the go to drop my oldest off at the bus. For the last couple of weeks I have been making a new smoothie recipe for  Banana-Cocoa Soy Smoothies from Eating Well magazine.

Chocolate, Banana and Tofu Smoothie

This recipe has 5 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time (including freezing), 5 minutes of which is active and makes 1 serving. I did make a few changes to original recipe. First, instead of soy milk I used almond milk. I prefer almond milk and it's the normal milk that I drink. Second, instead of honey I used Stevia. If you find that the smoothie is too thick you can add additional almond milk to make a thinner consistency.

Chocolate, Banana and Tofu Smoothie

I really love this smoothie recipe. The flavor of the chocolate and banana together is delicious. If you aren't a big chocolate fan you can reduce the total amount down to 1 tablespoon. I prefer the recipe as is since I love the taste of chocolate. It's a nice way to start the day with 17 grams of protein per serving!

For the recipe go to Banana-Cocoa Soy Smoothie. 

Banana Banana Bread

Gluten Free Banana Banana Bread from allrecipes 

I read all the time. I am one of those people that goes to the library multiple times a week and checks out a stack of books. Part of the reason is that I read very fast. My mother taught me this trait and it only takes me a couple of days to finish a book. It was also my mother who instilled the love of reading in me. Growing up she read every night on the couch. While my dad and I watched television, my mother read, and read, and read. She barely graduated high-school, but had read more and had a larger vocabulary than most of the people I went to college with. When I was in middle school my mother decided that she wanted me to read all the classics. So she started bribing me. She started the bribes as a joke, she bet me 20 dollars that I couldn't finish War and Peace. War and Peace is a very long, very boring book. When I came to my mother 2 months later and told her I finished it she was skeptical, so much so that she decided to make a list of questions to quiz me about the book. I passed with flying colors and started reading Anna Karenina (another very long slightly less horrible book-sorry can't take Russian Lit). By the time I started high-school I was already finished with the entire high-school reading list. I went on to major in English Lit as an undergrad thanks a great deal to my mother. To this day there are few things as relaxing to me as being fully lost in a great book.

Since I have two boys in a growth spurt I have been baking and cooking up a storm in the last couple of weeks. I love sweet foods, but I also like to limit the amount of fat and sugar that my family consumes. This week I made a new recipe for Banana Banana Bread from the new Allrecipes magazine.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 1 hour and 15 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I did make a number of major changes to the original recipe. First since I eat gluten free I substituted rice flour for the all-purpose flour. Since I have been trying to reduce the amount of fat in my kids diet I substituted 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt for the butter called for in the recipe. This helped to reduce the fat and increase protein since the yogurt I used had 12 grams of protein per 1/2 cup. Finally, I made this recipe two ways, the first time with the full amount of sugar and the second time with half sugar and half sugar substitute. Both ways baked up similar and my kids liked both versions. The reduced sugar version was nice since it was less sweet and made perfect toast.

I really liked that this banana bread worked well after all my changes. The bread rose beautifully and had a lot of banana flavor. The reduced sugar version worked very well toasted with butter or peanut butter for a quick breakfast. My kids didn't notice that I substituted Greek yogurt for the butter and I liked that it reduced the fat and increased the protein. A versatile recipe.

For the recipe go to Banana Banana Bread.

Browned Butter Banana Waffles

Brown Butter Banana Waffles 

I can't stand the taste of water. I drink at least 8 glasses a day, but it isn't because I love the flavor, I don't. My husband and two boys don't seem to mind it, but I have to drink my water hot and quickly. I also can't stand ice. I always order drinks without ice and I prefer my pop and iced tea at room temperature. I think a large part of it has to do with the fact that I am very small boned and get cold easily. While everyone else is overheated, I am the one with a sweater on in the middle of the summer. My husband teases me that I never wear a tank top without a cardigan, my shoulders freeze. Whatever the reason, I have strange water habits that everyone in my family always comments upon. I always argue that by not getting ice I receive more drink for my money.

Today my youngest was tired and grumpy. He decided that he would only eat bananas for breakfast. Don't ask me why, he was in a mood. So for breakfast this morning I tried a new recipe for Brown Butter Banana Waffles.

My boys all dressed up! 

This recip has 13 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. I'm not sure if I had very large bananas, or if the type of waffle maker that I have needed thicker batter, but the batter as stated in the recipe was too thin. So after the first waffle was done, I added an additional cup of all-purpose flour. My bananas were on the large side so that have been why my batter was a little thin without the additional flour added. I also added a small amount of almond butter to the batter (about 2 tablespoons) and more on top of the the finished waffles along with sliced bananas.

My youngest son really liked the banana flavor on these waffles. If you have never browned butter, it needs to be fully brown throughout the pan. The recipe makes it seem that just the edges should be browned, but true browned butter is brown throughout with little bits of brown on the bottom of the skillet. You really want the butter to be fully browned for the flavor to come through in the waffles and have a nice nutty taste. Topped with bananas and almond butter these waffles turned out beautifully and were a great breakfast for a growing 4 year old.

For the recipe go to Brown Butter Banana Waffles. 

Browned Butter Banana Waffles

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A great combination of browned butter, bananas and almond butter. Re-heat well in the toaster making them great for a quick weekday breakfast!

Preparation Time: 0h, 20m

Cooking Time: 0h, 10m

Total Time: 0h, 30m

Yield: Serves 6

Gluten Free Banana Bread from Betty Crocker

Gluten Free Banana Bread

My oldest apparently has a problem with talking too much. I think I have myself to blame for this quality. This year they have started a new behavior rewards program at his school and he keeps getting points taken off for talking too much. It's pretty much my fault. I talk a ton. When my husband stops listening I just keep ranting about whatever is annoying me at the moment. It could be politics, a news story or something concerning the kids. My husband has learned just to let me rant until I get tired of talking. Sometimes it lasts a few minutes, sometimes I literally can go on for 20 minutes. My oldest seems to have learned the same talent for talking. He got in trouble on Friday for talking on and on about rocks and minerals. Last time he got in trouble he was talking about how many moons each planet has. It does make me feel slightly better that he rants about things that he reads about or a documentary that he watched. He isn't just babbling about an annoying celebrity or whatnot. I think he is destined to be full of knowledge which he feels the need to tell anyone that's listening. It's obviously genetic since my mother would talk to people in the grocery store about whatever historical non-fiction book she was currently reading. Looking back and seeing that I learned this habit from my mother and passed it on to my son makes me smile. She might be gone, but she is definitely living on through my kids. It's funny how strongly our roles as mothers influence our kids. Now that I have babbled on for an entire paragraph, lets get to the recipe. This week I tried a new recipe for Gluten Free Banana Bread from the Betty Crocker website.

Ritter Park Huntington, WV

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 2 hours 15 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 12 servings. I did make a few changes to the original recipe. First, I don't like walnuts in my banana bread. I know some people do, but I'm not one of them. I like my banana bread full of banana flavor and nutless. For this reason I left out the walnuts in this recipe. If you haven't baked gluten free before texture and consistency is a big factor. I normally follow directions in a recipe and then adjust. With this recipe I added the amount of flour stated and then added a little more until the batter looked correct. This type of adjustment is very normal when baking gluten free.

Harris Riverfront Park Huntington, WV

Gluten free baking can be very hit or miss. A finished recipe can look delicious, but not taste as great. This recipe surprised me. It not only looked great, but it had none of the texture issues that so many gluten free baked goods do. No grittiness, no lack of sweetness. I would definitely make this recipe again and I look forward to using their new gluten free flour mix in the future.

For the recipe go to Gluten Free Banana Bread.

Monkey Bites

Monkey Bites

Today was school picture day for my oldest. Luckily he is over the cold we have all been fighting this week. He was insistent on wearing a Minecraft shirt. Everything in my house seems to revolve around Minecraft, my two boys are obsessed. I shot down his shirt idea, my mother never really let me live down the New Kids on the Block shirt I wore for picture day. I think I might have also worn a Jem shirt, so that definitely shows my age (looking back it was a pretty horrible cartoon). He ended up wearing a nice button down shirt and I'm hoping he actually remembers to smile. Last year he had a grimace on both of his school photos. Since I am still fighting a cold I have been trying to make easy recipes that don't take a lot of effort or time. Yesterday I tried a new snack recipe for Monkey Bites from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.

Old Main Marshall University Huntington, WV

Now normally I don't reprint recipes, but since this only has three ingredients and no actual recipe I will share the information. So monkey bites are just a fancy name for chocolate covered bananas with peanut butter. Here is how to make them. Slice a few bananas into medium sized slices. Place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Freeze for about an hour. take out the slices and spread your favorite peanut butter on half of the slices. Place the other banana slice halves on top. Refreeze for an hour or until frozen. Using your favorite chocolate, I used dark chocolate, melt and place into a bowl. Dip banana peanut butter slices into the chocolate. Refreeze. I kept my monkey bites in the freezer, they are delicious frozen. You could also keep them in the fridge, but I'm not sure what the consistency would be.

Marshall University Huntington, WV

These are a really nice snack. My two boys liked them without the chocolate for an after school snack. Frozen bananas with peanut butter are a nice protein snack. With the chocolate they are a great dessert, especially with dark chocolate.

Triple Banana-Flax Pancakes

Triple Banana-Flax Pancakes

I have always hated funerals and graveyards. It has to do a lot with my mother and the child she lost before I was born. He had the same breathing problems that my oldest developed during labor, but didn't have the state of the art NICU that I was fortunate to have 30 years later. When I was a teen my mother decided to try to find his grave. I went with her and quietly held her hand when she found out there was no grave marker. A tiny piece of my heart left me that day to stay with the brother that I was never able to meet. Last week my husband's family experienced a loss. My first reaction was to find a way to get out of it. I was cranky the entire 1 1/2 hour drive to the service. We were late since my youngest son got very sick on the way. I ended up sitting in the back seat rubbing his back the entire time and we arrived 10 minutes before the memorial service ended. After the graveside service the family went back to the church for lunch. As I sat next to my father-in-law with tears in his eyes, it struck me. Just like I sat and held my mother's hand at the cemetery, my husband and his family needed me. When someone passes away those left behind are the ones that need our love and support. It was no longer about me and my comfort, but what I could provide for my family who I love beyond measure.  I hope that I was able to at least bring a little comfort to my husband, kids and the family that even though I am not related by blood I would do anything for. Family is the thing that binds us together in times of grief. Since last week was a long week with a funeral and the first day of school I made sure that everyone ate nutritious breakfasts. I tried a new recipe for Triple Banana-Flax Pancakes from the September 2013 issue of Parents magazine.

Old Building Wayne County, WV

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 45 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 12 pancakes. Since I was making these pancakes for my kids I did not make this recipe gluten free. While they will eaten gluten free, they prefer wheat flour and at least once a week I make bake and cook for them with regular flour. If you have never tried making your pancakes on a griddle, I recommend it highly. It is the best way that I have found to have light, golden brown pancakes. I left out the canola oil since on my griddle I never have a problem with things sticking and I like to save a little bit of fat where possible. They still turned out nice and brown without it. Make sure to spread out the pancakes for them to cook evenly. That way there will not be any doughy spots. Additionally, slice the bananas thin so that the bottoms of the pancakes brown nicely without the bananas burning.

Old Building Wayne County, WV View 2

My two kids were big fans of these pancakes. When my oldest first saw that the pancakes had bananas cooked in he wasn't sure. He was quickly won over by the first bite and ate three. They worked well with either butter or maple syrup. My oldest preferred maple syrup, while my youngest was a fan of melted butter. They would also be delicious with a combination of both. I froze the leftover pancakes and re-heated them in my toaster oven for a quick weekday breakfast. Freezing big batches on the weekend is a great way to save time and is much cheaper than buying pancakes frozen at the store (plus they taste much better!).

For the recipe go to Triple Banana-Flax Pancakes. (registration required)

Triple Banana-Flax Pancakes

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Summary:

A kid friendly recipe for pancakes with flaxseed meal and fresh bananas. Freeze well for big batch cooking.

Preparation Time: 0h, 25m

Total Time: 0h, 45m

Yield: 12 Pancakes

Overrippened Bananas Strike Again: Time for Banana Crumb Muffins

Gluten Free Banana Crumb Muffins

I have been shopping our pantry and freezer the last couple of weeks. Every 2 or 3 months I notice all the food bits that we have leftover such as half packages of pasta, condiments, half jars of olives etc. Then I make an effort to use as much as I can of everything before doing another large grocery trip. My pantry and freezer have had enough 'bits' of things to last me two weeks with another week or more of meals to go. We routinely eat leftovers, but the little portions of things I have to make an effort to go back and use every couple of months. So I have had a number of recipe experiments, most of which have gone well, a few not so much. Today my youngest son really wanted to eat the bananas he found at the store last weekend, but the heat had already gotten to them and they had turned brown. So it was muffin time again. Today I made a new recipe for Banana Crumb Muffins from Allrecipes.com.

This recipe has 12 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 10 muffins. I actually made two versions of this muffin, one gluten free and one as written. The major change that I made to the recipe was to puree my bananas in my blender before adding them to the wet ingredients. I'm not a fan of lumpy bananas, so this step eliminated that problem. For the topping I let the butter sit at room temperature and then rubbed the warm butter into the sugar mixture with my hands. This allowed for larger chunks of crumb on the muffins, which is what I prefer. My muffins took the entire 20 minutes of baking time to fully set.

The tops on these muffins are the best part. The muffins themselves are a little soft, I might suggest switching the butter to canola oil and adding a small amount of cinnamon or nutmeg to the batter. This would help with the flavor and texture of the finished muffins. My youngest son ate the tops off a number of the muffins, since that was his favorite part. The muffins are on the sweet side due to the topping, so if you are looking for a less sweet muffin you might want to leave off the topping.

For the recipe go to Banana Crumb Muffins.

Looking For a Recipe For Your Overripe Bananas? Try Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Gluten Free Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

My youngest has fallen in love with the library. He has always been a very active child so my husband and I waited until this last weekend to introduce him to our public library. While he has been 4 since December it is only in the last couple of months that he has been able to understand not to break, rip or destroy other people's property. I was a little worried how he would react to the library since he has shown little interest in books despite my best efforts. Apparently the library was the perfect answer. He has asked to go back to the library the last three days. Best of all this afternoon he asked me to read three library books and he is recognizing his alphabet letters with very little help. I love libraries! I try to bake special treats when my children hit milestones or accomplish something new. In light of my son's new love of reading I made a batch of Favorite Banana Chip Muffins from the June/July issue of Taste of Home magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 12 muffins. I made a number of changes to the original recipes. Since I eat gluten free I used gluten free all-purpose baking mix. The baking mix I use already has salt so I omitted the salt from the recipe. I am not a fan of lumps of banana in my muffins, so instead of mashing the bananas I pureed them in a blender. This allowed for a great banana flavor throughout the muffin and no lumps. My muffins took an additional 5 minutes of baking time, for a total of 25 minutes. Gluten free muffins tend to take a little longer to bake.

My husband isn't a fan of gluten free baking, but he loved these muffins. Pureeing the bananas allowed for a great flavor and texture. My youngest son was a fan of the chocolate chips and ate 3 muffins in just a couple of hours. This recipe is definitely kid and adult friendly.

For the recipe go to Favorite Banana Chip Muffins.

Recipe for Easy Blueberry Muffins with Banana Butter

Blueberry Muffins

We eat a lot of snacks in my family. My two boys have inherited my metabolism and seem to snack continuously throughout the day. Most of their snacks are healthy and consist of nuts, fruit or veggies. However, once a week I bake a treat for an after school snack. When I first eliminated packaged snacks my kids complained. They have had a couple of years to adjust now and my oldest comes home asking what I made today instead of what I bought. To me that is success, he understands that the food in our house comes from the oven not a box. That isn't to say that they don't get a few treats, a box of cereal a week being a main one. There are very few homemade cereals that can actually be made (and taste good) and there is only so much granola anyone can eat. One of my kids favorite snacks is fruit and once every couple of weeks I make them fruit muffins as a treat. Yesterday as an after school snack I tried a new recipe for Blueberry Muffins with Banana Butter from the May 2013 issue of Food and Wine magazine.

This recipe has 10 ingredients in the muffins and 4 in the banana butter. The recipe takes a total time of 45 minutes, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 12 muffins. I did make a few changes to the recipe. First I forgot to buy bananas, so the banana butter was out. As many of you know I eat gluten free, but I was making these muffins for my kids so I used bread flour. I never keep whole milk in the house to I used non-fat (the only kind we buy). Fresh blueberries are relatively expensive in my area right now so I used frozen instead. I tossed the blueberries in a small amount of flour before adding to the batter to keep the color from turning the muffins blue.

Since I couldn't eat these muffins I had to use my two sons as testers. They must have liked them since they ate the whole batch in less than two days. The muffins cooked up nicely and they smelled great when cooking. My youngest thought they were best with melted butter (he also ate a few with nutella :). It seemed to be a very kid friendly recipe.

For the recipe go to Blueberry Muffins.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

My two sons are both in major growth spurts. It was inevitable that I would have two kids that ate a ton. I remember my mother complaining when I came home every day after school and raided the fridge before dinner. Granted I would still eat my whole dinner, but I also normally ate half of the ingredients for the rest of the weeks meals. I was lucky that I was very active and took after my dad who is 6'3 and very thin. My two boys are exact replicas of me with food. They snack the entire day, and I do mean the entire day. If being a grazer was an Olympic sport my sons and I would take all three medals. It is one of the things that has always annoyed my husband. When we were dating I would order the worst for me thing on the menu, follow it up with dessert and still only weigh 115 pounds when I got pregnant with my first son. Now time has taken a slight toll, but my metabolism is still very high (with help from my tread-mill which I use while watching TV). Since my kids and I eat so frequently I am always cooking or baking snacks. I try to make my snacks as healthy as possible, but I also do allow in the occasional treat. Now that I eat gluten free I have been trying out a large number of new baking recipes. A couple of months back I tried a new recipe for Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, which looked like the perfect recipe to use the blackened bananas sitting on my counter.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 1 hour 15 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes one loaf (approximately 16 servings). At the time that I made this recipe I had never seen coconut sugar at my local store, so I used regular granulated sugar. I am happy to report that since that time I have seen and purchased coconut sugar and have used it in many baking recipes and it works great. Since my two boys and I are not fans of walnuts in baked goods I left them out of this recipe. I did add chocolate chips. The recipe only uses 1/3 of a cup of dark chocolate chips, but that was just too little for my chocolate addiction so I used 3/4 of a cup. My total baking time was slightly longer than the hour suggested and I tented my bread the last 30 minutes of baking to prevent burning. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys absolutely loved this recipe. Often times gluten free recipes can be too crumbly or taste nothing like their gluten counterparts. However, this recipe was perfect and came out very similar to regular banana bread. It stayed moist and was perfect with a cup of tea for an afternoon snack.

For the recipe go to Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

Gluten Free Banana Peanut Butter Muffins

I am a huge snack eater. Three meals a day has never been something that I could stick to, but instead I eat 6 smaller meals. My two kids are the same way. They pretty much eat from the time they get up to when they go to sleep. Since they eat so often, I make sure that the snacks that I have in the house are healthy and filling. With the fact that I am now eating gluten free it has been trail and error with recipes and making sure that my two sons don't notice the changes. Recently, I tried a new recipe for Banana Peanut Butter Muffins from the October issue of Parents magazine, which looked perfect for snacking and easy to convert to being gluten free.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 15 minutes of which is active and makes 30 mini muffins. I made a number of changes to this recipe. First, instead of using whole-wheat and all-purpose flours I used brown rice flour. Brown rice flour is a great gluten free substitute and I use it frequently in baking. Instead of making mini muffins I made regular sized, with the recipe making 12 regular muffins. Finally, I used liners to make the muffins easier to take out of the muffin tins. I chose not to top with jam, my two boys loved them with the peanut butter alone. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These muffins were delicious. The combination of peanut butter and banana was perfect and the recipe held-up well to being made gluten free. Best of all the recipe was easy enough that my six-year-old helped me with the whole thing. A very easy recipe, perfect for snacking or anytime of the day.

For the recipe go to Banana Peanut Butter Muffins. (registration required)

Banana-Quinoa Waffles

So my breakfast adventures continue. You might have noticed a pattern in my posts in the last couple of weeks. I am determined to fix my breakfast issues. For the longest time I have fought the idea of adding more whole grains and reducing the amount of refined carbs that I consume. This change has been in part due to  my husband deciding to start a new slow carb diet. At first I thought the whole thing was a little crazy. After two months he has lost a large amount of weight and is doing great. My two boys and I are not following in his dieting footsteps. However, I have started adding a lot more whole grains into our diet, especially at breakfast. Gone are white rice, regular pasta and I have limited the amount of baked goods such as bread that I make with white flour. I have discovered that I love white whole-wheat flour. It is great to cook with and my kids don't notice that they are eating whole-wheat. Last week I tried a new recipe for Banana-Quinoa Waffles from Parents magazine, which looked easy and perfect for a family breakfast.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 1 hour and 30 minutes of total time, 30 minutes of which is active and makes 10 waffles. I was rushed for time when I made this recipe so I omitted letting the quinoa sit in the fridge to chill for an hour or more. Instead I let it sit for approximately 10 minutes and then followed the recipe as written. To make one cup of mashed bananas it took two ripe bananas. I topped the waffles with maple syrup and no berries, since my two boys raided the fridge and ate all the fruit before I had time to make the waffles. They were delicious even without any additional fruit.

These waffles only lasted a day in my house. My two boys went back for seconds, thirds and then ate the last two waffles within the day that they were made. I really liked the banana taste in the waffles and the quinoa was great for nutrition and produced a great texture. Overall, a recipe that I would definitely make for breakfast again in the future.

For the recipe go to Banana-Quinoa Waffles.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ever since my potassium became dangerously low in January I have made an effort to eat foods rich in potassium. I drink a lot of low-sodium v-8 and I attempt to eat bananas. The emphasis here should be on the word attempt. My husband and two boys love bananas, I can't stand them. In baked good bananas are delicious, but there is something about the texture of uncooked bananas that I can't stomach. So I have the problem of buying bananas and not eating them for a week. During the colder months this isn't really a problem since it takes the bananas a while to turn brown. However, with the 100 degree days that we have been experiencing, my bananas have been going almost black in a matter of days. So what I have I been doing with all these over-ripe bananas, I have been baking. Last week I tried a new recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins from Taste of Home Magazine which looked perfect since my whole family loves the taste of chocolate and banana together.

This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of baking and makes 24 muffins. I did make a few modifications to the ingredients. I decided to make these muffins at the last minute and I didn't have any chocolate chips. The store across the street from my house only had dark chocolate candy bars, so I substituted 6 ounces of chopped chocolate bars for the chocolate chips. Secondly, I only had two bananas, instead of the three suggested by the recipe and I left out the walnuts completely since I don't like nuts in cookies and muffins. Finally, I made 18 large muffins instead of the 24 suggested in the recipe. I like large muffins and 24 small muffins wouldn't work for my family. Rotate the muffin pan halfway through the baking time to ensure even browning. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My boys ate 10 of these muffins within the first day that I made this recipe. The dark chocolate and banana work well together, without either being overpowering. I liked that the muffins were moist and using the dark chocolate candy bar made for delicious bursts of chocolate flavor. Definitely a recipe I would make again!

For the recipe go to Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Nigella Lawson Chocolate Banana Muffins

Have I mentioned that I love chocolate? I could probably do without any other sweet besides chocolate, but the thought of giving up chocolate is frightening. Over the years I have changed my preferences for what specific type of chocolate I prefer. Growing up I was one of the few people that I knew that loved white chocolate. As the years passed I grew more fond of milk chocolate until a few years back when I feel in love with dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is great for baking and I often substitute it for milk chocolate in recipes. With the heat in the last couple of weeks I was left with a number of over-ripe bananas that needed to be used and came across a recipe for Chocolate Banana Muffins, which looked full of chocolate and delicious.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes approximately 25 minutes to prep and bake and makes 12 servings. With only 7 ingredients I had no problems finding any of them at my local grocery store. Instead of regular cocoa powder I used dark cocoa, I feel that the flavor is stronger and more flavorful. I ended up with chunks of banana when the muffins were fully cooked even though my bananas were very ripe. I think next time I would put the bananas in the food processor or blender in order to fully liquify the bananas. Additionally as suggested by some of the other comments on the recipe page I would add some cinnamon if you use regular coca powder. Make sure to watch the muffins in the oven, mine were done at exactly 15 minutes. I followed the remainder of the recipe as stated.

I love combining chocolate and bananas in baking recipes. This recipe is very easy to make and a great way to use over-ripe bananas. My youngest son thoroughly enjoyed these muffins and ate two of them as soon as they came out of the oven. I like that they have the nutrition of the bananas and the dark cocoa provides a great taste. The next time I make this recipe I think I would add chopped dark chocolate or dark chocolate chips. It would provide an every stronger chocolate flavor and be delicious.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Banana Muffins.