Bananarama! Muffins and MORE!

My favorite thing ever... the Kroger Bag o' Bananas!

**Photo Disclaimer: I seem to have misplaced my camera... so these cell phone pics will have to do**

The recent trend on my kitchen counter is the overflowing amount of bananas that I seem to be accumulating. I'm sorry, but I just can't resist Kroger's cute little "Ready for Baking" discounted bag o' bananas, ya know... the ones that have lost all traces of green and perhaps are a bit brown in areas. I'm just saying... I like a nice mashed banana stirred into my morning bowl of oatmeal (topped with a blob of Better'n PB of course) or tossed into a blender for a tasty smoothie on a ridiculously hot Memphis afternoon.

My Top 5 Uses for a "Ready for Baking" Bag O' Bananas:

1. Place in ziploc bag for 24 hours, throw it in your freezer. Then... toss them in a food processor. Pulse, scrape down the sides, pulse some more, scrape down the sides again... keep doing this until your frozen bananas look like frozen yogurt, or faux-gurt... I'm so clever. :) Delicious. Easy. Healthy. Give it a try.

2. Add a mashed banana to my stovetop oats. Check out my post with my go-to recipe for "Banana Oats." Topped with my fave Better'n PB... this is probably my favorite breakfast of all times.

3. Muffins! Banana muffins! Add dark chocolate chips, coconut, pecans, walnuts, dried fruit, chopped strawberries, or whateva other add ins that float your banana boat.

4. Be a smoothie king (or queen!) My personal fave is a "Green Monster Smoothie." Give that recipe a try and I promise you'll be hooked on these FABULOUSLY delicious and green monsterrific smoothies... and you'll never taste the hefty dose of iron and calcium that you'll be getting from the spinach! Oh and double that dose of calcium with the milk... sianara feeble bones!

5. Finally... training treats for Mr. Teddy! His intake of "people food" is very limited. I've gotta watch that puggy waistline! He is allowed to eat fresh fruits and veggies, with the exception of grapes or onions - they're poison for dogs y'all!

That's a slice of banana on the floor... Mr. Teddy doesn't even look at me as he sits patiently while I instruct him, "Wait... wait... wait... Ok!" As soon as I say "Ok" that pug moves faster than you would believe!

All that to say, banana muffins have been popping out of my oven faster than you can say Curious George.  However, this girl can only eat so many banana muffins myself before I have to start worrying about the formation of my own "muffin top" above my jeans. Not cute.

Luckily I have a fabulous roommate, who also has a love of cooking, baking, nutrition, and food in general, like moi! Side note - we met in our Principles of Food Preparation class at U of M. However... she is lactose intolerant. Which means if I wanna whip up a batch of cupcakes on whim, I have to be a bit more creative if I don't wanna wind up being the only one eligible to consume those little baked treats. In addition, I get to sample her old standby dairy-free recipes. Pretty sweet deal, right? Here's a recipe that I whipped up earlier this evening to make use of some of those bananas on my counter.

Gabby-Friendly Banana Muffins 

1/4 C liquid egg whites (or 2 whole eggs)

1/3 cup *buttermilk (I used the "mock" buttermilk technique that I first wrote about in my pumpkin pancake recipe, I also used you light vanilla soy milk so that Gabby could enjoy the muffins as well)

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup agave nectar 

3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 Tb vanilla extract

2 Tb. chia seeds

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup walnut pieces

- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line your muffin tin with some cute paper liners.

- Blend together the eggs, milk, applesauce and bananas.

- Sift together the sugar, flour, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Add to banana mixture and stir in pecans. Mix well.

- Fill each liner about 2/3 full, place about four small pieces of walnuts on top of each unbaked muffin. 

- Bake for 18 - 22 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Yields:18 muffins*"Mock buttermilk" Take your liquid measuring cup and pour in 1 tsp lemon juice or white vinegar. Then add enough milk to fill to the 1/3 C. line (essentially you'll be using just under 1/3 C. of milk.) Let stand for 5 minutes... use as recipe directs.

 

Into the oven they go..

... and out of the oven they come!

Gabby was working late so I left her this note letting her know they were "Gabby-friendly" ;)

I'm currently partaking in my fave Tuesday night tradition, Biggest Loser and painting my nails.  This is how Mr. Teddy usually "places" himself on my lap. Thought yall might get a kick out of this. Apparently, just because you weight nearly 30 pounds doesn't mean you can't be a lap dog.

It's PUMPKIN season!

Pumpkin season is to me what wedding season is to Owen Wilson.

Love that movie, by the way ;)

Pumpkin Cupcakes? Heck yea I will!

I love the season of fall for oh so many reasons. I love the sound of crunching leaves, pumpkin spice chai lattes from Starbucks (way better than a regular pumpkin spice latte,) the smell of October when you walk outside in the morning, fall sweaters, carving pumpkins, and being able to walk my pug at 3pm without him hyperventilating over the Memphis heat. ;)

Another fun fact about me... my two favorite flavors in the world are s'mores and pumpkin. I will eat any and everything with either of those culinary themes. In fact, I just suggested that the local froyo (aka frozen yogurt) place in town, YoLo, look into getting some pumpkin yogurt in their machines. Can you imagine pumpkin & cheesecake swirled together in a magical mess of froyo! Yum! Ok... I digress...

So the other day when I saw the recipe for these little cupcake cuties from fellow healthy living blogger, Courtney over at Sweet Tooth Sweet Life,  I knew it would be a mere hours before I rushed out to be the ingredients and get those little guys into my oven and into my belly! I love that Courtney took a box of cake mix and "spiced" it up (pun intended.) I'm all about semi-homemade here, if you are too then check out Ann Byrn's The Cake Doctor cookbook. It's a staple in my mum's cookbook collection and she's a published cake decorator. HEY-O! Courtney substituted unsweetened applesauce for oil (which makes a moister cupcake in my humble opinion) and she substituted egg substitute for... you guessed it, eggs! Little healthy alternatives like that will save you calories and you won't even notice! Try it! Now have I mentioned that my roomie is lactose-intolerant? Because she is... which means if I don't want to consume a whole batch of cupcakes by myself, I need to accommodate her dietary needs. I don't mind at all actually, it gives me a chance to be more creative in my baking endeavors.

You're supposed to make the cream cheese frosting for these little tasty treats. I prefer actual homemade cream cheese frosting, but I wasn't about to go on a search for the vegan version of cream cheese. So I asked my roomie what she suggested. Apparently, canned cream cheese frosting is made with soy products, so it is lactose free! Who knew?! Here's the recipe... my adjustments are in purple.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
(Adapted from this original recipe)
Makes 24 cupcakes, or 12 cupcakes and 1 9-inch cake

Ingredients:
1 box spice cake mix

1 15oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
3/4 cup egg substitute (I used 3 whole eggs)

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Paper-line or grease 24 muffin cups.
Blend cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, applesauce, water, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice until moistened. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, about 3/4 full.
Bake for 18-23 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. After 10 minutes, remove from pans, place on wire racks, and cool completely.
Prepare frosting according to directions and spread evenly on cupcakes. ENJOY!

Look at those orange beauties!

Here's my canned frosting with the extras add-ins, canned cream cheese frosting if for a lactose free alternative or if you're just short on time ;)

Honey Agave Nectar Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter (I used 1 can of Pillsbury Cream Cheese Frosting instead of butter, cream cheese, and sugar)

4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
2-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon (I also added some nutmeg for good measure)

1 tb. honey (I used agave nectar)

1-2 Tb. milk


Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and beat for another 2 minutes.
Add the honey and cinnamon, and gradually add the powdered sugar one cup at a time.
Add the milk and more powdered sugar (if needed) until you get your desired consistency.

Thought you'd like to see the end product one more time :) How cute are those muffin liners?  Found them at Target! 75 liners for under $2!!!! Shout out to my BFF Christen and her polka dot obsession! These are so your flavor!

World Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Nom! Nom! Nom!

So recently I went on a quest for the best chocolate chip cookies. I remember my foodie brother making a batch that were off the chain a few months ago when I visited him and his wife in Alabama.

As it turns out. that recipe was a copycat recipe for Levain Bakery in NYC. Apparently this bakery makes a chocolate chip cookie that's so good... it'll make you wanna slap your mama!

So the other day, when I was hanging out with my uber pregger sister and she requested that we make some chocolate chip cookies.... I simply replied with, "I have just the recipe."

The ingredients in this recipe are nothing out of the ordinary... except for the cornstarch. I think it helps to make a more tender cookie. Also the recipe suggested using 2 different kinds of chocolate. I opted for semi sweet chocolate chips and happened to have three milk chocolate Hershey bars left over from s'mores season. I luuuurve me some s'mores. Mmmm.... another blog post, another time. Back to the cookies...

I found the recipe on Parsley, Sage, Desserts, and Line Drives. The author recommends using the "formed" cookie method before tossing these into the oven. She insists that it give the cookie that crackle top appearance of bakery-style cookies. Allow me to elaborate on how YOU TOO can achieve this look for your cookies...

Roll it....

Break it in half...

And put it back together!

Levain Bakery Famous Chocolate Chip Cookie Copycat Recipe

• 2 sticks ‘cold and cubed’ unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cups AP flour
• 1 teaspoon table or fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tb. corn starch
• 2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (I usually use half semisweet and half milk chocolate)
• 1 cup walnuts (I actually left these out, per request of the pregnant sister... next time I'll be adding them for a lil' something extra)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time.. and beat until well incorporated.
2. Add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, corn starch, and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips/chunks and nuts.
3. Place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven 15-20 minutes depending on how gooey and raw’ish’ you like the interior, until very lightly browned, taking care not to overbake. Let cool on rack and store what you don’t immediately eat in an airtight container.

* These are best eaten on the day they are made (ESPECIALLY warm out of the oven – like most chocolate chip cookies).