Banana Muffins

It seems like my kids go in phases with their banana eating. I've got 1 that never likes them, 1 that always loves them and 2 that are wishy washy. We're kind of in the lull part of their swinging banana preferences, I guess, because the last few times I've brought bananas home from the grocery store they've turned up with brown spots before anyone got around to finishing them off. That's OK, though - it means Mama gets banana bread! This time I decided to go with muffins, instead of just straight bread. And this recipe is a smidge different than my standard one because it's got the addition of some cinnamon & nutmeg in the batter for a little extra YUM!

Your ingredients for this one:
(sorry, no photo today)

1.) Flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg.
2.) Bananas, sugar, vanilla, egg, canola (or veg) oil.

First you mix your dry (except for the sugar) in one bowl...


Mix your wet (plus the sugar) in another bowl...


Then combine the two.


Pout the batter into baking cups & cook at 375 for 18-20 minutes.


Tada!! That's it! If you'd like to dress them a little more than that you can mix up the crumb topping on this banana bread recipe & add it to the tops of each muffin before baking. YUM!!!

The addition of the cinnamon & nutmeg add another layer of warmth & cozy to these muffins. Give it a try!!

Enjoy!

Banana Muffins:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup canola or veg oil

Preheat oven to 375.

In one bowl, mix flour, soda, powder, salt, cinnamon & nutmeg. In another bowl combine sugar, bananas, vanilla, egg & oil. Add dry ingredients into wet mixture; stir until combined.

Pour batter into muffin tins lined with baking cups. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Chunky Monkey Pancakes (Banana, chocolate chip pancakes w/ peanut butter maple syrup)

I dog-eared this recipe quite a ways back & have been meaning to make it forever. When the gal was talking about spreading her pancakes with peanut butter & then adding the syrup I immediately though of Hubby - he does the same thing. I thought he was the only one but apparently he's not so I can't make fun of him anymore!! LOL And after tasting these yummy pancakes I just might be a convert to the whole peanut butter on the pancakes club. You should try it - good stuff!

This is where I would usually show you an ingredient photo but I dropped the ball on it today. But here's the list!!

Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, egg, banana, mini chocolate chips.
For the syrup: real maple syrup & creamy peanut butter.

** For the buttermilk, if you don't already have some & you don't want to invest in a big carton that you'll never use up before it spoils (sound familiar!!?? LOL) you can turn plain old milk into buttermilk. You just pour 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar into a measuring cup & then add milk to bring it up to 1 1/2 cups.

So now what!!? Mix the dry ingredients...


.... then mix the wet ingredients...


.... then mix them together!


Mash your bananas. Not super creamy (?) some chunks are welcomed.


Toss a little flour on your chips so they won't sink in the batter.


Then add the bananas & chips to your batter & give it a good whisk.

Pour batter by 1/4 cup onto a medium heat griddle & cook away! You know it's time to flip 'em when they start to get bubbles around the edges.


I always make ugly pancakes. ALWAYS. It's a serious deficiency.

While those are going we'll whip up the magical syrup. Mix the PB & syrup in a cup/bowl & toss it into the microwave for 30 seconds. Turn this:


... into THIS!! (you'll have to give it a good stir when it comes out.)


And dish it up! YUMMmMMMmmmM!


This was one delicious meal!

Chunky Monkey Pancakes:

1 1/2 cups flour
3 TBsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBsp canola oil
1 egg
2 small-med ripe bananas
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips, tossed in 2 tsp flour
----------
1 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Combine flour, sugar, soda, baking powder & salt. Whisk together. In a separate bowl combine buttermilk, vanilla, oil & egg. Add wet mix to the dry mix, combine well. Add mashed banana & chocolate chips.

Heat griddle to medium, coat with cooking spray or butter. Drop batter by 1/4 cup onto hot pan. When edge bubble flip.

While pancakes are cooking combine peanut butter & syrup in microwave-safe dish. Heat for 30 seconds & stir.

Serve pancakes with warm syrup (reheat syrup if necessary).

Source: Our Best Bites

Monte Cristo Sandwiches

Ever had a Monte Cristo sandwich!? Ya - me neither, until maybe 7-8 years ago. Thankfully that has been fixed & I am now well acquainted with this delicious little indulgence! (and by little I mean more a quaint/precious sort of a feel - definitely not small!) If you have ever wondered what it would be like to use French Toast to make a sandwich but weren't brave enough to actually take the plunge... don't worry! Somebody did and they called it a Monte Cristo! Mmmmm Boy! It's sweet, savory, hearty & filling. It's got a breakfast-for-dinner feel to it. Serve it up with some fruit & you'll have a full belly in no time!

The line up:


Hawaiian sweet bread, ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, eggs, milk, vanilla, nutmeg & powdered sugar.

So - normally when I make these I just start out by making a sandwich - bread, meat, cheese, meat, bread - and then I dip the whole thing into the egg bath. But this time my hubby jumped in & started dinner on his own & there was NO WAY I was gonna derail that one! LOL And he always has to fancy things up a bit so these pictures show you a higher maintenance way of making the sandwich... and it was great! But if you don't want to fuss this much, just build the darn sammy, dip it in the egg & fry it up on all sides. And you're done - Mommy Style!

OK - so step one is to make your egg bath. Mix the eggs, milk, vanilla & nutmeg in a shallow dish.


Give it a good whisk & then dip your bread.


Fry it up, just like you're making French toast...


If there's room on the pan/griddle you can also fry up the meat to bring a little more flavor out of it. If the pan's small, just do it after the bread. Make sure you get the cheese in between the meats so it doesn't make a melty mess!


Build your sandwich with the cooked sides of the bread toward the inside & then finish cooking the still-soggy-with-egg sides once the sandwich has the meat/cheese in it. Does that make sense? I hope it does... totally clear to me but sometimes clear to me = mud to every one else!!

Once the sandwich is done give both sides a sprinkling of powdered sugar.


Cut it in 2 & dig in!!!


Look at the gooey, delicious insides! Yum... Seriously. YUM!!!

Monte Cristo Sandwiches:

Sweet Hawaiian bread (slices, not rolls)
Ham slices
Turkey slices
Swiss cheese slices
6 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Option A - the easy way: Use the first 4 ingredients to build a sandwich. Mix the next 4 ingredients to make an egg bath. Dip the sandwich into the eggs bath & then fry it up in a med-hi pan, cooking all sides thoroughly (even the edges). Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve hot.

Option B - high maintenance (but tastier) way: Mix up your egg bath. Dip each slice of bread into it & fry over med-high heat until side 1 is cooked. As this is going make a stack of sandwich guts, turkey-cheese-ham, and get it into the pan, too - put some color on it. Once side 1 of the bread is cooked, assemble the sandwich with cooked sides of the bread toward the inside of the sandwich with the fried meat in the middle. Continue cookie the assembled sandwich until both outer sides are thoroughly cooked. Sprinkle with powdered sugar & serve hot.

Breakfast Casserole

I don't like eggs. At all. I don't like the taste, I don't like the texture, I don't like the smell.... not even a little. I've even been known to turn down french toast because the egg is too strong for me. I know - crazy, huh? The only way I can eat an egg is if it's baked into a cake, or cookies, or a pan of brownies!! LOL There is, however, one exception. This. My mother-in-law made this late one night on her youngest daughter's prom night. After the dance a big group of kids came to the house to keep the fun going. They watched a movie, played some games & had a '4th meal'. Zac & I were there for it & I could smell this cooking as we were waiting to be invaded with too many teenagers. It smelled great! But when she told me what it was I turned my nose at it. But then curiosity got to me. And hunger knocked. I built my courage & decided tat maybe I could get past the egg. Armed with a glass of milk I took a toddler-sized bite. Hmmm. That wasn't too bad. Another bite. Hmmm. That's actually kinda good! Another bite. Are you sure there's egg in here? This is good stuff!! And now it's something we have regularly around our house - and it always goes over well with everyone... even this egg hater!

Ingredients:


Frozen diced hash browns, ham, eggs, shredded cheese, milk, butter, salt & pepper.

First step is to heat your oven to 425. Put some butter in a dish - 8x8 or 9x13, depending how big you want to make this - and put it into the oven to melt the butter in the pan. Don't forget it's in there, though, because nobody likes burned butter. Not that I know ANYthing about burning butter! *blush* Pull the hot pan out & add in your hash browns. Pat them down & then pop it back into the oven for 20-25 minutes.


While that is cooking dice up your ham & whisk the eggs, milk, salt & pepper together in a small bowl. Set aside.


After your 20-25 minutes pull the pan out and REDUCE THE HEAT TO 350!! I forget to do that a solid 50% of the time & end up with overcooked casserole!

Sprinkle the ham over the potatoes, top with cheese.


Now evenly pour your egg mixture over it all.


Put it back into the **350** oven that you remembered to reduce for another 30 minutes. Here it is!!


We had it with some sausage & strawberries tonight. GOOD stuff!


One of my favorite parts of this is the edge! The cheese and butter ooze up together & turn into a thin, crispy, almost-burnt little gem! Can you see it there along the top!? Yum.

Breakfast Casserole:

For an 8x8:
2 Tbsp butter
8 oz frozen diced hash browns (my store only has 32-oz bags so I use about 1/4 of it.)
1 1/2 cup diced ham
1 cup shredded Cheddar Jack cheese
3 eggs
1/3 cup milk
salt & pepper

For a 9x13 just double it!

Put the butter in the pan & melt it in the oven at 425. Once melted, add the potatoes & pat down lightly. Return to the oven & cook 20-25 minutes.

In a bowl, beat together eggs, milk. salt & pepper.

Once the potatoes are done reduce oven temp to 350. Sprinkle potatoes with ham, then cheese, then pour the egg mixture over the top. Return to the oven for about 30 minutes.

Blueberry French Toast Casserole

Blueberry. French toast. Casserole. Three of the most tummy-pleasing words that can come out of a kitchen. Imagine putting them all together!! Mmmmm boy. Perfection. Ready for it? Thank you, Leigh, for this fantastic recipe!

Here are our ingredients:


French bread, milk, eggs, vanilla, white sugar, frozen blueberries, brown sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon.

First step is to chunk up your french bread. Make the cubes about 1 1/2" You don't want them too small or they'll just turn into a soupy mush, but you don't want them too big, either, because then they don't soak up all the goodness that is about to be poured on them. I usually slice the loaf into slices just over an inch wide. Then lay the slice down & cut it down the middle length wise. Then cut each strip into 3 cubes. .... but, of course, you can do whatever you want!


Take those cubes of bread & toss them into a pan that's been sprayed with PAM. The base recipe for this is meant for a 9x13 pan but we don't need that much & I'm not a big left-overs fan so i usually cut it down a bit to fit an 8x8. So, if you see that my pictures don't exactly match up with the summary recipe at the end, that's why!!

Now get a bowl & whisk the eggs, white sugar & vanilla together. Add the milk & mix it well.


Then pour it all down over the bread. & give it a good stir so that the mixture gets on everything.


There will likely be a lot of the liquid in the bottom of the pan. Don't worry! It'll all get absorbed into the bread as it sits. Your next step is to cover it & toss it into the fridge for a couple of hours. If you want this to be a morning meal you can do all this the night before & let it sit overnight.

When you're ready to cook it pull it out of the fridge & give it another good stir. Flip it all over on itself in the pan to make sure the liquid is distributed well. It'll be mushy & look pretty gross, but don't worry, the magic happens in the oven!

In a small bowl smoosh together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon & flour. You can use a fork or a pastry blender... whatever floats your boat.

Before:


After - you want it to be a bunch of crumbles. Get the butter nicely incorporated.


Next step? Sprinkle a bunch of cinnamon over the pan of soggy bread.


Then sprinkle on the blueberries. LOTS of them!


And then add on the butter/sugar crumb mixture you just mashed up.


(totally unrelated side note but I was having a hard time keeping the baby from snatching my frozen blueberries as I was working on this! LOL I guess we found a new afternoon snack the little man will eat!)


Bake it in a 375 oven for 40-45 minutes.

I admit... I burned it a smidge. I'm sorry!


Serve it up with some good sausage & eggs, maybe some fresh fruit! All it needs is a drizzle of syrup!


EAT THIS SOON! It's great!

Blueberry French Toast Casserole:

1 1/2 - 2 loaves soft french bread, cubed (1 1/2" - 2" cubes)
3 eggs
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup flour
6 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon (plus a bunch for sprinkling)
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups frozen blueberries

Grease a 9x13 pan. Cube bread, throw in pan. Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and milk in a bowl. Add to bread; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours, or overnight if you'd like to bake this for breakfast.

Topping: In a bowl mix flour, brown sugar & cinnamon; cut in the butter. Turn the bread in the pan again and sprinkle entire top with cinnamon. Scatter blueberries over the top then add topping. Bake for 40-45 minutes in a 375 oven. Serve warm with syrup.

Banana Chocolate Chip Pecan Pancakes

I know - it's a long name. But I wanted to make sure to mention all three key players because they are all noticed and they are all the stars of the show - a great ensemble, if you will!

Have you ever made pancakes from scratch? It's completely worth the extra steps! The just-add-water stuff definitely has its place in our kitchen, but when I'm feeling like giving it a little more love, scratch is the way I go!

***

I didn't take a picture of all the ingredients because... well, maybe it's because I'm lazy. I think it's probably more that I'm so anal about not having a cluttered work space that the thought of pulling everything out for a pic, putting it all away & then pulling each thing out one at a time as I use it/put it away - the extra work just didn't appeal to me! LOL So - ya. I guess we'll call it lazy.

In a medium bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder & salt. Set it aside.

In another bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, vanilla, butter & sugar.


Now grab the dry ingredients, make a well & slowly pour in the liquid you just whisked up.

It'll be way more than your well can hold, but just go with it. Don't over mix this - just get it all combined & smooth out most of the chunks of powder.

Now add in your diced banana, mini chocolate chips & diced pecans. Please note that I said MINI chocolate chips. You might think that there's really no difference between the minis & the regular ones so you'll just use the full-sized ones in your cupboard. Don't do it! Go buy the minis! The difference is that with big chips you'll get bites of chocolate. That's what you'll taste - is a big, melted chip. But if you get the minis, you get a hint of the chocolate flavor to compliment the bananas & pecans. Just do it. Trust me.


All right - batter's done! now let's get these babies cookin'!

Heat a skillet over medium heat & hit it with a shot of PAM. Use 1/4 cup of batter for each cake. Once it begins to get bubbles around the edges you know it's time to turn it.


FLIP! Mmm.... I'm getting excited!

Serve them up with some bananas, pecans or mini chips over the top, a drizzle of syrup or sprinkle of powdered sugar. You've got a cavity - I mean Heaven - on a plate!


Hellllloooooooo gorgeous!

Banana Chocolate Chip Pecan Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
3 Tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large banana, diced
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped pecans (I buy pecan chips)

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder & salt in a big bowl. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together milk, eggs, melted butter, sugar & vanilla.

Make a well in your dry ingredients & slowly stir in the liquid. Don't over stir - just get it all combined. Fold in bananas, chips & pecans.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Spray it with some Pam & drop on pancakes by the 1/4 cup full. Cook until bubbles show up around the edges & flip. Whenthe second side is done serve 'em up! Enjoy!