Today is Brian's Mom's Birthday!  Happy Birthday!  Brian's mom is awesome and I am so excited to celebrate with her later!  I also can't wait to become part of her family later this summer! #LegallyPflaumed (yes that is our wedding hashtag and yes it is super amazing).

To celebrate, we are going to get some delicious pizza at Lou Malnati's for dinner.  I was also asked to make my chocolate chip banana bread.  I was really excited to bake this because I haven't in ages and it is so good! I seriously have the best banana bread recipe ever.  Of course there are chocolate chips in it and for this birthday celebration I went with some milk chocolate chips.  This recipe holds nothing back.  It has white flour, sugar, and chocolate chips.  There are also TONS of bananas in it.  This is actually the only way I will eat bananas.  If you want, you can substitute the flour for whole wheat or add in other mix-ins like fruits or nuts, but if you want something just plain yummy, I would stick with the original.  We are celebrating a birthday so you need to get a little crazy!

You can find the recipe HERE.

Enjoy :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! 

Every day is mother's day.  I mean, what would we do without mom's?  Literally, no one would exist!  My mom is pretty amazing and I just wanted to say, I love you!  Bri and I are planning on having brunch with my mommy today and then dinner with his mommy later.  It is going to be a really nice day!  

Here is a round-up of some of my mommy's favorite recipes that I have made in the past:

Oreo Coffee Ice Cream Cake

Skinny Mocha Cupcakes

Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa

Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken

Chocolate Chip Banana Cupcakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting

Whole Wheat Zucchini Bread

I hope that all the mother's out there have a really great day!

Enjoy :)

Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Yay Passover! I just love not being about to eat bread for a week...

Okay, I am very excited to eat bread again! In fact, every year, I take a break from Passover to enjoy Easter! My mom's side of the family has an Easter party every year and it is a lot of fun.  I love doing the colored eggs and sharing a big family meal.  She even brings a Lamb Cake! It's really cute and then we fight over who gets the butt (typical).  So, today I am off to my cousin's to celebrate Easter and I am very excited to enjoy the food and take a little vacation from Passover.

If you didn't see yesterday, I fell while running, and today I am still feeling very sore and beaten up.  My knee has developed a small bump this morning and I am not sure if I am going to make it through my Sunday morning Jillian Michaels work-out.  Wish me luck because I am going to try!

After my work out, I have homework to do for an online class that I am taking and then I am going to attempt to cook a few meals so that we are all ready for the week.  This is all before we drive to my cousins (about an hour away) for Easter.  So, I am up bright and early to share this with you all and then get to work!

Keeping with the Passover theme, today I am telling you about some amazing Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins.  They are crazy simply and crazy yummy.  I have made these multiple times and I even brought them in to school to share with my fellow teachers.  Everyone loved them!

Gluten Free Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
(adapted from Averie Cooks)

Ingredients: 
1 medium ripe banana
1 egg
1/2 cup creamy, natural peanut butter
3 tbsp honey
1/2 tbsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini or regular)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place everything except the chocolate chips into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Spoon into a greased mini-muffin pan until about 3/4 full, or regular muffin pan.  Bake for 7-8 minutes if a regular muffin pan and 8-10 minutes for a mini muffin pan.

Enjoy!

Stacy's Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Last year, my cooperating teacher gave me a recipe for Banana Bread.  It was the best banana bread I had ever had! I just had to share her recipe here since it didn't seem fair that I was one of the only people who knew such great banana bread existed! I tweaked the recipe a tad the last time I made it to use half whole wheat half all-purpose flour, but you can use all all-purpose if you want.  Here it is!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups flour (I used half whole wheat and half all-purpose)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
5-7 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup canola oil (I used 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup greek yogurt)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  Whisk to combine.
3. In a large bowl, beat bananas until well mashed.  Beat in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and oil.  Beat until well combined.  Slowly beat in the flour mixture until just combined and then stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Bake for 55 minutes or until and inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

Enjoy :)

Dark Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

My cooperating teacher during my high school student teaching brought in banana bread a couple of times to share with the math department.  This is the story of how I discovered the best banana bread ever!  Seriously, it is amazing! At the end of the year I asked her for her recipe because I just knew I could not live without this bread in my life.  She said that her secret was that she uses a TON of bananas.  Yep, that's it!  So, I've been saving up bad bananas in my freezer for a while now and last night I finally had enough to make the banana bread!

Dark Chocolate Chip Banana Bread 

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
pinch of cloves
7 medium bananas, mashed
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (or whatever mix-ins you prefer!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
3. In a large bowl, beat sugar with oil.  Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.  Beat in the mashed bananas.  Slowly beat in the flour until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.
4.  Pour the batter into your loaf pan and bake for 55-60 minutes.

Enjoy :)

Healthy Banana Bread: No Butter, No Sugar, Whole Wheat

Holy cow! It's Monday again?  This weekend was a whirlwind for me.  My bestie Caryn came in town from DC and we had so much fun! It was so great to see her and we had an amazing time enjoying the beautiful weather and catching up!

In terms of my half marathon training, I ran 12 miles on Saturday! I finished in a little under 2 hours and felt great.  I ran the route that is posted for the actual half marathon except for the beginning and end and it was fun to see what I will be doing in 20 days! At this point, I get to start tapering off a bit for the next few weeks before the big fun.  This is great since in the next few weeks, I have interviews, graduation, and family coming in town! I am going to be so busy, but running really helps me to stay focused and feel good!

Going along with the theme of being healthy and feeling good, this Healthy Banana Bread was a delicious way to have a little treat while staying healthy.  This recipe uses whole wheat flour, no sugar, and natural sweeteners.  Also, you need super ripe bananas because that will help the bread to be tasty and moist!  This was some great banana bread!

Healthy Banana Bread

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.
3. In a large bowl, mash the bananas and beat in honey, canola oil, vanilla, lemon juice, and eggs.  Beat until well combined.  Beat in the dry ingredients until just combined.  Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy :)

Chocolate Chip Banana Bars

Yesterday, I shared a great banana recipe! It was for my brothers birthday and he requested something with bananas and chocolate.  A few days before, I asked my friend, Patrick, what his favorite birthday treat would be, and he also said something with banana and chocolate! Isn't that strange?  Maybe those two having the same birthday makes them share some sort of banana-chocolate connection?  Anyways, I found a yummy recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Cake Bars and whipped them up for Patrick's birthday! He was a huge fan :)

In other news, school went much better today.  I had a great day teaching, the students responded well, and according to an exit ticket, learning and understanding occurred! We learned polynomial division today and by the end students were able to divide polynomials, and began connecting the idea to finding roots of an equation.  It was a fun lesson and the students did really well.  I also got to see some solo and ensemble singing performances today for fine arts week.  It is really cool to be part of this because I have been able to see a lot of my students in a much different setting.  It is neat to see all the amazing talents they have outside of the math classroom.  One of my students sang a solo today that blew me away and yesterday I saw a student in a great jazz concert!  Fine arts week has also made me miss my singing and dancing and I hope that I can get involved in that sort of capacity at my next school...which I am still searching for! In the meantime, here are some yummy cake bars!

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake Bars (adapted from Taste of Home)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup non-fat plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas, mashed

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 13 by 9 inch baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined.  Beat in yogurt and vanilla until well combined.  Slowly beat in the dry ingredients until just combined.  Stir in the mashed banana.
4. Pour into your prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy :)

Chocolate Chip Banana Cupcakes with Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting

I did not have such a great day yesterday.  I have been feeling super stressed out, my lesson was stressful, and I feel exhausted.  It is a good thing it is Fine Arts week at school and I get to go see some pretty neat performances with my math classes.  On Monday, I saw some highly entertaining group and individual acts and yesterday, I got to see a jazz band concert.  Today I am seeing yet another performance and I can't wait!

These cupcakes are AMAZING.  My mom found a great recipe and then I helped her make it over my Spring Break.  We brought these to my brother for his birthday and him and his friends loved them.  This is such a simple recipe and I am excited to share it with you all because it was so good! Enjoy!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (adapted from Baked Perfection)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup skim milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips, dusted in 1 tbsp of flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees & line cupcake pan with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt.  

3. In a large bowl, beat the butter & sugar until combined.  Add the milk & vanilla.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition until combined.  Slowly beat in the flour mixture, until just combined.  Slowly add in the bananas.  Once all combined, stir in the chocolate chips by hand.  

4. Divide batter evenly into 12 cupcake cups.  Bake until the tops are golden, about 17-20 minutes.  Remove to wire rack & cool completely before frosting.

Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting

Ingredients:

1/2 stick butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp milk

2 cups powdered sugar

Directions: 

1. Cream the butter, peanut butter, salt & vanilla.  Slowly add in 1 cup of powdered sugar.  Then add in 2 tbsp of milk.  Add in the rest of the sugar and add 1-2 more tbsp of milk until you have the desired consistency. 

Foodie Friends Friday: Lodge Giveaway

This week, Foodie Friends Friday is back with a Lodge Casserole Dish!  This week you can win from our sponsor Lodge.   Just follow the rules and link up your recipes! Also, host favorites will be featured on Daily Dish!  This week I'm linking up Cosmic Love Brownies and Banana Bread with Brown Butter Icing!

Last Foodie Friends Friday was sponsored by and here were the winners:

And, of course, here were your top 3 voted and clicked recipes!

Most Votes:

1. Strawberry Napolean

2. Strawberry Jam Cookies

3. Oven Tacos

Most Clicks:

1. Munchies Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins

2. Meyer Lemon Cake

3. I Love You Cupcakes

Grab our NEW button! 

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Enter below and you might be a lucky winner!!

But first, here are this week's co-hosts:

Foodie Friends Friday http://www.foodiefriendsfriday.com

Tracy at Busy Vegetarian Mom http://www.busyvegetarianmom.com

Robyn's View http://www.robynsview.com

Marlys at This and That  http://marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.com/

Lois at  Walking on Sunshine http://walkingonsunshinerecipes.com

Michelle at  From Calculus to Cupcakes http://www.fromcalculustocupcakes.com

Cynthia at Feeding Big  http://www.feedingbig.com

Jodie at Binomial Baker http://www.binomialbaker.blogspot.com

R Dawn at Spatulas on Parade http://www.spatulasonparade.blogspot.com

Angie at A lil Country Sugar http://www.alilcountrysugar.blogspot.com

Kelly at Adorned Well http://www.adornedwell.blogspot.com/

Cindy at Cindy's Recipes and Writings: : http://www.cindysrecipesandwritings.com 

Joanne at Winelady Cooks: http://www.wineladycooks.blogspot.com

Marlene at Nosh My Way: http://www.noshmyway.com

Jutta at Hungry Little Girl: http://www.hungrylittlegirl.com/

Erika at Chef Picky Kid: http://www.chefpickykid.com/

Beth at Honey Locust Hills http://www.honeylocusthills.com

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Banana Cake with Brown Butter Icing

There are certain things that I really love to do when I am cooking or baking.

1. Separating an egg.  It's just so much fun!

2. Whipping cream.  I think it's just ridiculously cool how after a few minutes you go from liquid to more of a solid.  Chemistry man, it's awesome.

and 3. Browning butter.  This may be my newest favorite thing, but it is definitely up there on things I just find fun to do while baking.  I love everything about brown butter.  I love watching the butter melt, turning bubbly, and then swirling it until it browns and you get those awesome brown flecks on the bottom of the pan.  It is just great.  Also, it smells AMAZING and tastes even better!

So, when I was craving banana bread, making a brown butter frosting to go on top just seemed like a natural thing to do.

Banana Bread Bundt with Brown Butter Icing (adapted from Bakergirl)

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 tbsp white vinegar
3 medium bananas, mashed
Icing: 
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp skim milk
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease your bundt pan.
2. In a liquid measuring cup, place white vinegar.  Pour in skim milk until you reach the 1/2 cup line.  Let sit for at least 5 minutes.
3.  In a medium bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined.  Beat in the vanilla.  Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk mixture, starting with the flour and ending with the flour.  Mix until just combined.  Fold in the bananas.
5.  Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 55-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

6.  Make the icing: Place powdered sugar in a large bowl and whisk.  In a medium suacepan, melt butter over medium heat.  Then continue to swirl butter around the pan until it browns.  This takes a few minutes and keep and eye on it so that it doesn't burn.  Pour the brown butter over the powdered sugar and whisk to combine.  Whisk in the vanilla and the milk.  Add more milk for a thinner icing or less milk for a thicker icing.  Ice cooled cake and top with some good, old chocolate chips.

Enjoy :)

Foodie Friends Friday: Growing Up Gabel and Shared Joy

This week, Foodie Friends Friday is back with a DOUBLE party!  This week you can win prizes from Growing Up Gabel and Shared Joy.  You can win a headband or earrings from Jennifer at Shared Joh and a knitted dishtowel from Camille at Growing Up Gabel!!!   Just follow the rules and link up your recipes! Also, host favorites will be featured on Daily Dish!  This week I'm linking up some of my favorite dessert ideas for Valentine's Day: Creme Brulee for Two, Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread, and White Chocolate Raspberry Heart Cheesecake!

Last Foodie Friends Friday was sponsored by Stacy and here were the winners:

And, of course, here were your top 3 voted and clicked recipes!

Most Clicked:

1. Pecan Pie Oatmeal

2. Wild Blueberry Turnovers

3. Creamy Jalapeño Chicken Enchiladas

Voted Top 3:

1. Apple Pie Bars

2. Ravioli

3. Gnocchi

Enter below and you might be a lucky winner!!

But first, here are this week's co-hosts:

Foodie Friends Friday http://www.foodiefriendsfriday.com

Tracy at Busy Vegetarian Mom http://www.busyvegetarianmom.com

Robyn's View http://www.robynsview.com

Marlys at This and That  http://marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.com/

Lois at  Walking on Sunshine http://walkingonsunshinerecipes.com

Michelle at  From Calculus to Cupcakes http://www.fromcalculustocupcakes.com

Cynthia at Feeding Big  http://www.feedingbig.com

Jodie at Binomial Baker http://www.binomialbaker.blogspot.com

R Dawn at Spatulas on Parade http://www.spatulasonparade.blogspot.com

Angie at A lil Country Sugar http://www.alilcountrysugar.blogspot.com

Kelly at http://www.adornedwell.blogspot.com/

Cindy at Cindy's Recipes and Writings: : http://www.cindysrecipesandwritings.com 

Joanne at Winelady Cooks: http://www.wineladycooks.blogspot.com

Marlene at Nosh My Way: http://www.noshmyway.com

Jutta at Hungry Little Girl: http://www.hungrylittlegirl.com/

Erika at Chef Picky Kid: http://www.chefpickykid.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Today we are off for South Carolina!  My family and Bri and driving to South Carolina for a week for a little vacation.  I can't wait to get on the road and get going!  I am going to share all my adventures here.  If you have any suggestions or are familiar with the Charleston area, please let me know! I would love some good ideas :)

But, before we head out, I want to share one more recipe with you!

I had ton of ripe bananas on hand.  So, after I made the Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread, I also make this Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread.  This stuff is so good! It's got it all: chocolate chips, peanut butter, peanut butter cups, and nutella swirled on top!  WOAH!  It's fantastic.  Plus, I used whole wheat flour and greek yogurt to lighten things up a bit.   This is quite possibly the yummiest banana bread ever...you gotta try it!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread (adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction)

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup non-fat vanilla greek yogurt
1/2 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped miniature reese's
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
nutella

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
2.  In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.
3.  In a large bowl, mash the bananas, beat in the peanut butter, yogurt, sugar, and brown sugar.  Beat until well combined.  Beat in the egg until well combined.  Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined.  Stir in the reese's and chocolate chips.
4.  Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan.  Drop a few spoonfuls of nutella on the top of the batter. Then, using a knife, swirl the nutella into the the top of the batter.  Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy :)

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Another Snow Day?!?!?!

That's right! The weather was so bad that the buses are not running for a second day and school is called off again!  That means, I am on Winter Break! WOOO! I made it!

Yesterday was super duper fun.  It was Bri's birthday and we celebrated snow day style!  First, we slept in.  And for me, that means I slept until about 7:30!  Sad right?  Then, we didn't do anything for a few hours! It was great! We just relaxed and took our sweet time getting up.  Next, we met up with friends and headed to Bascom Hill to frolic   We made a snowman, had a little snowball fight and then, when we were cold, headed home to make hot chocolate, eat banana bread (recipe below), and watch a movie.

After the movie, we took a look outside and started talking about how there might be a second snow day.  I mean, the snow was intense, but the wind was even worse! We turned the news on and waited.  FInally, they announced it! SECOND SNOW DAY!

I was crazy excited!  Bri and I, then, got ready for dinner at S2Pizzabar.  This place is delicious and it was opened!  Plus, it is less than a 5 minute walk away and we had not intention of traveling very far in this weather.  Dinner was lovely and it was followed by a trip to our favorite bar, The Red Shed.  We spent the evening with friends and it was a great night.  Bri said he had a very happy birthday!

When we got home, we watched an episode of Sherlock (my latest TV obsession) and then fell asleep.  It was the perfect snow day!  Now, let's get ready for snow day take two!

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread (adapted from Food Network)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup non-fat, vanilla greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
cinnamon and sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
2.  In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3.  In a large bowl, beat the sugar, brown sugar, butter and greek yogurt until well combined.  Beat in the eggs and the bananas until well combined and bananas are mashed.  Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined.
4.  Pour half the batter into your prepared pan.  Sprinkle sugar over the batter and then sprinkle cinnamon on top.  Pour the rest of the batter in.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy :)

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Donuts

I love greek yogurt.  I think it is super tasty and I can't get enough of it!  Recently, Chobani was kind enough to send me a case of their greek yogurt! I was so excited to try all the fun flavors and I couldn't wait to get creative with them!

The middle school that I am at had an adorable holiday breakfast party.  We all got to school at 6:30 in the morning and had a great breakfast.  There were made-to-order omelets, eggnog french toast, fruit and a ton of yummy baked goods. Everyone pitched in in some way.  My contribution was a batch of chocolate chip banana bread donuts!  This recipe is easy to make and does not take a ton of time.  This was key as I had a very busy schedule and needed to bake something quickly.  Plus, I got to use some greek yogurt and whole wheat flour in these!  And, since the donuts are baked instead of friend, this is a pretty good breakfast treat!  The donuts were a hit! They are really cute and, of course, delicious!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Donuts (adapted from Janie's Kitchen)

Ingredients:
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about two bananas)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup non-fat greek yogurt (I used my Chobani!)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
cinnamon and sugar for topping

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 and lightly grease a mini donut pan.  This recipe will make 36 mini donuts.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
3.  In a large bowl, beat the banana, sugar, and yogurt.  Mix in the butter, eggs, and vanilla until well combined.  Mix in the dry  ingredients until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.
4.  Fill the donut pan up to the top and sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon over each donut.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  Let cool.

Enjoy :)

Healthy Ice Cream

I originally saw the healthy one ingredient ice cream recipe over at TheKitchn.  All it is is frozen bananas all mashed up in a food processor. However, I never really felt tempted to try it because I just hate bananas!

When I was little, my mom, being a great mom, was always trying to get me to eat healthy.  She was really into getting me to "eat your bananas." I was never a big fan and one day I got really sick after eating a banana.  Then, I was diagnosed with the stomach flu.  Once I was healthy again, my mom offered me bananas.  I was skeptical because I got sick the last time, but she was adamant that I needed the potassium and that I would be just fine now that I didn't have the flu.  I ate that banana and proceeded to get sick immediately.  I don't know why, but I just can't stand raw bananas.  If they are all mashed up and baked in a banana bread I am totally fine (especially if there are chocolate chips involved).

Lately, I have been craving healthy sweets and I have simultaneously seen many variations on the 1 ingredient ice cream recipe.  The combination of these two things finally convinced me to give it a try.  I bought some bananas, froze them, and then food processed them.  I added in flavors that I like to help mask that horrible raw banana taste enhance the ice cream and it was amazing!

Now, mom, I will finally eat my bananas :)

Healthy Ice Cream

Ingredients:
1 1/2 bananas, frozen and then cut into round slices
1 tbsp natural, creamy peanut butter
1 tbsp honey
topping of your choice (I crumbled up cookie crumbs from the Crazy Layer Cookie Bars I have sitting in my room)

Directions:
1. Food process the banana rounds until well mashed.  Add in the peanut butter and honey and continue to process until smooth and creamy.  Enjoy immediately as a soft-serve style and sprinkle in your favorite toppings or, place in a container and freeze for a few hours until set.

Enjoy :)

Plus! Check out this post and some other fantastic posts on Foodie Friends Friday!!!

Mini Morning Banana Muffins

It felt like a muffin kind of morning and so I decided to whip up some banana muffins.  I found a yummy sounding recipe over at How Sweet It Is and then instead of a brown butter glaze, I opted for plain-old-muffins.

Last night, I had a super nice dinner with my co-site director, Anna, and director, Lucy.  We went to Kona Grill where from 5:30-7:30 in the "seat yourself" section, you can participate in Happy Hour.  They have tons of half-priced appetizers, small meals, sushi, and of course, drinks.  It was exciting because I am finally 21 and I got to order a drink and get "carded" for real for the first time! I love the friends that I make through camp.  We had a great time and it was a nice way to make a Wednesday summer evening feel a little more special.

Afterwards, I got to be super early and of course, woke up too early once again.  Thus, the muffins.

Mini Banana Muffins
makes 36

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1 egg
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup skim milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 bananas, mashed

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with paper liners or lightly grease.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking soda, and spices.
3. In a large bowl, whisk egg and brown sugar together until well combined.  Whisk in the butter, milk and vanilla.  Whisk in the banana.  Stir in flour mixture until just combined.  Pour into muffin pans, filling about 3/4 full, and bake for 12 minutes.
Enjoy :)

...I might even slather some nutella or peanut butter on top of these...