Banana Blueberry Muffins

More Saturday morning muffins with more bananas. :-)

 

Banana Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp.baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 large ripe bananas

3/4 c. sugar

1 egg

1/3 c.melted butter

1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.Make a well in the center and add mashed ripe bananas, sugar, egg, and butter. Mix just until batter is moistened. Fold in blueberries. I have found that if you use frozen berries, it will turn the batter a blue/ purple, which my kids think is pretty cool. Fresh ones don't do this so much and you will have normal looking muffins. Line muffins tins with paper cups or grease. Divide batter into the muffin tins. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until done. Makes 12 muffins.

Peanut Butter Cookies

Who doesn't love warm peanut butter cookies? Or cold peanut butter cookies. Unless you're allergic, but that doesn't count because you probably would love them if you could eat them. This recipe is my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe. I have several, but this is my go-to peanut butter cookies. They are delicious!

 

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. peanut butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

 Mix softened butter, peanut butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla together in a large bowl until they are well blended. Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (or use salted butter and skip the salt). Mix well. Shape into 1 inch balls or use a cookie scoop and drop dough onto the cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with fork tines, making a criss-cross pattern on the tops of the cookies. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes or until they are golden brown around the edges.

Banana Coconut Muffins

More Saturday morning muffins recipes. More that use up old bananas. #6 was pretty funny about this one as I was making it. The boys had a two hour delay today due to cold temperatures so he was home as I was mashing up bananas. He looked at the bananas and said "I thought you use the old bananas for that." I assured him that I do use the old bananas - and the bananas in it were old. He seems to be under the impression that brown bananas aren't old, only the black ones are old. Yuck. The only thing brown bananas are good for is - muffins!

 

Banana Coconut Muffins

2 c. flour

1/2 c. sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1 c. milk

1 egg

1/3 c. oil

1 c. mashed banana

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. shredded coconut

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and add in remaining ingredients.  Mix just until combined - the batter should be lumpy. Line muffin tins with paper liners or grease. Fill about 2/3 full of batter and bake at 375 degrees 18-20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Almond Flour Cookies

These cookies are different than the traditional cookie - they use honey to hold them together rather than eggs and almond flour rather than wheat flour. The almond flour I use is not as finely ground as all-purpose flour, but they taste good and that is the point of the cookie! They are good alone or try adding in some chocolate chips and/ or coconut to them. So good!

 

Almond Flour Cookies

4 Tbsp. melted coconut oil

6 Tbsp. honey

2 tsp. vanilla

2 c. almond flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

sprinkle of salt

Mix the coconut oil, honey, and vanilla together in a small bowl. This make a small batch of cookies - I get about 15 when I make them - so you don't need a large bowl. Add in the almond flour, baking soda, and salt. Add in a few chocolate chips and a little coconut if you desire. Mix together well. This does not look like traditional cookie dough. It is more grainy looking and the dough separates easily but they turn out just fine when they are baked. I use my cookie scoop and drop the cookies onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Flatten them with the back of a spoon or they will stay in balls. They don't spread out much. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Mashed Potatoes

This is one of those recipes that is difficult to write down because I make it a little differently each time. The boys (and I) love homemade mashed potatoes - boxed mashed potatoes are NOT the same and we don't eat them. Well, occasionally we'll pour chicken noodle soup over them, but that's about it. We are mashed potato purists. This is what we have at Thanksgiving and Easter dinner.

 

Mashed Potatoes

8 pounds potatoes

1 c. butter

milk

salt to taste

pepper to taste

Peel the potatoes and chop into pieces. The larger the pieces, the longer they will take to cook. Put the cut potatoes in a pot and add water to cover them. Place pot on stove and turn heat to high. Boil until the potatoes are cooked through. Pour off water and put potatoes in a large bowl. Add butter. Using a hand mixer,  begin mixing the potatoes and butter. Add milk slowly until you get the consistency you desire. You can add more butter if you feel they need it. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Hot Cocoa Cookies

These cookies are amazing! I am a hot cocoa lover so when I came across this recipe, I knew I had to try it out! They lived up to the hype! This recipe is a little more work, but it is so, so worth it! It's a Rachel Ray recipe you can find here. I changed it just a bit because any excuse to use a Hershey chocolate bar in cookies is a good excuse. And I found an excuse for this one!

 

Hot Cocoa Cookies

1/2 c. butter

2 c. chocolate chips

1 1/4 c. brown sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. flour

1/4 c. cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 large Hershey bar

30 large marshmallows

First off, I freeze my large Hershey bar. Not the King Size one, the bigger one. I think it's a pound size. Something like that. Melt the butter and the chocolate chips in a pot over low heat. Once it is melted, allow it to cool about 15 minutes.  OK, so Rachel Ray gives more complicated directions that probably make these cookies even better, but I am going to admit to doing it the easier way that uses a few less dishes. I'm not a big fan of washing dishes. So once the butter/ chocolate mixture is cooled, mix the sugar, eggs, and vanilla in right in the pot. Then I add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir some more. I use a cookie scoop and scoop the dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake about 12 minutes at 325 degrees. The cookies will be slightly undone. While the cookies are baking, take the chocolate bar out of the freezer. Break 3/4 of it into rectangles along the scored lines. It does not break well frozen, but that's ok. Do the best you can. Then cut each rectangle into thirds. Grate the remainder of the chocolate bar. Cut the marshmallows in half and top the cut part with a piece of the chocolate. When you take the tray of cookies out of the oven, quickly turn a marshmallow upside down onto each cookies, chocolate side down. Return to the oven about 4 more minutes or until the marshmallows are soft and large and turning golden. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the grated chocolate. You can slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheet so you can reuse the cookie sheet for the rest of the dough. Allow to cool before removing from the parchment paper.

Bean Dip

This is another family favorite from years ago. I adapted it a bit for my family from the original so I could feel a little better about serving it for dinner. This is so versatile! We use it for nachos, tacos, burritos, etc. The boys all love it, too! The picture is from a nacho night with all the toppings we like - lettuce, cheese, olives, sour cream. No tomatoes that night. Only person missed them. We aren't huge tomato eaters.

 

Bean Dip

1 pound hamburger

3 cans refried beans

1 can cheese soup

1 package taco seasoning

Brown the hamburger and drain the grease. Mix all remaining ingredients together in a pot over medium to medium-high heat. Heat until warm, then serve as you choose.

Rice Krispy Treats

This recipe isn't anything new, but it is a favorite around here. And we make a few variations that we love. The basic recipe you can find on any box of cereal, but following will be some favorite variations.

 

Rice Krispy Treats

6 c. crispy rice cereal

4 c. marshmallows

1/4 c. butter

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat on the stove. Add marshmallows and stir until the are melted. Add in cereal and stir until it is all well coated with the marshmallow mixture. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and press firmly. Or, I pour mine  onto a piece of greased waxed paper and press into into whatever shape I want - a heart for Valentine's Day or a Hershey Kiss shape, etc. Allow to cool, then cut and eat.

Cocoa Krispy Treats

Same as above, except use chocolate crispy rice cereal instead of plain.

Strawberry Kripsy Treats

2 Tbsp. butter

4 c. marshamllows

6 c. Rice Krispy Cereal

3 Tbsp. strawberry milk powder

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat on the stove. Add marshmallows and stir until the are melted. When marshmallows are melted, add in strawberry powder and stir until it is dissolved. Add in cereal and stir until it is all well coated with the marshmallow mixture. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and press firmly.

Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs are delicious. They just are. And they are super flexible - you can put anything in the middle that sounds good to you. Chocolate is a big one for me. This time I doubled the recipe, which I won't be doing again. I'm not sure why, but it didn't work the same as when I make them as a single recipe. I used chocolate instant pudding for the filling - although that was another accident. I thought it was the cooked pudding which is MUCH better than instant. Oops. Helps to read the package and not discover your mistake as you are heating up instant pudding, wondering why it is getting thick so quickly. Then, to top it off, I melted some milk chocolate chips with a little milk and drizzled it over the cream puffs.

 

Cream Puffs

1/2 c. butter

1 c. water

1/8 tsp. salt

1 c. flour

4 eggs

In a large pan, bring the water, butter, and salt to a boil. Add the flour and stir. A lot. Cook and stir until it forms a ball that doesn't separate any more. Remove from the heat and cool about 10 minutes. Add the eggs on e at a time, beating after each addition. This will make your arm very tired - just a warning. Drop batter onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until the puffs are golden. This should make about 10 puffs. The ones pictured are mini-puffs, not full-sized. Allow the puffs to cool, then split them in half. Pull out any dough from the inside. Once hollowed out, fill with your choice of filling. Some ideas for filling: pudding, whipped cream, ice cream, etc.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Another Saturday morning breakfast item... and another way to use up old, mushy bananas. Maybe one day I will figure out how many bananas to buy each week so they aren't gone in a day or left rotting on the counter. Sigh. At least there are plenty of ways to use them up and these muffins have fruit and oats so they are really nutritious, right?

 

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

2 c. flour

1 c. quick-cooking oats

1 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 1/2 c. mashed banana

2 eggs

1/3 c. butter, melted

Mix all dry ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Make a well in the center and add the wet. Stir just until all is moistened - there should still be some lumps in the batter. This says to use quick-cooking oats, but I have also used regular oats and it has been fine. Scoop into lined or greased muffin tins and bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes. This recipe makes more than 12 - I usually get 20-21, although that depends a little on how much banana I put in. I tend to add what ever banana I have on the counter so sometimes it is a little more than what the recipe calls for.

Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

These were requested by a friend at work. Actually, she asked me to make something lemon for her because she loves lemon. I thought and thought of what would be yummy but not too terrible because she has also recently lost a bunch of weight. So, I thought maybe a pound cake, but it didn't seem quite right, but nothing else sounded better. Then, it came to me as I was falling asleep! Cake mix cookies! I could totally do cake mix cookies! I don't make them a ton, but one of my favorite cookies is a cake mix cookie and lemon cookies with white chocolate suddenly were perfect! I baked these a touch too long so they were a little crunchy on the outside, but still soft on the inside.

 

Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

1 box lemon cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 c. oil

1 c. white chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Drop onto cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.