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.