That Ship is Bananas

Good afternoon my lovelies. I have been saving this recipe for a while. I don't know why. Maybe just wanted to get those bananas at the perfect ripeness to make them. On a side note does anyone else sing that Gwen Stefani song when they spell bananas, as in that sh-t is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s. When Ella was little she loved that song so we told her they were singing that Ship is Bananas so that is exactly what she sang. Wish we could get away with that now. Whatever works, right?

Anyway, if you guessed banana nut muffins for today's treat you are correct, sir. Or madam. Whatever the case may be. So, I had so much going on this weekend I needed to go to my 'go-to muffin recipe'. This is actually a recipe for my banana bread in muffin form. I don't use wheat flour a lot in my baking but the texture of the bananas and cinnamon blends so well with the wheat flour that these muffins really benefit from the use of it.

Banana Nut Muffins

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup wheat flour (or you could use 1 1/2 cups white-wheat flour instead of the 2 separate flours)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 egg whites, slgihtly beaten
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Mix eggs, banana, sugar, and oil in a large bowl.
4. Stir flour slowly into banana mixture just until moistened.
5. Stir in nuts.
6. Spoon equal amounts of batter into 12 muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Pear & Walnut Muffins...Hooray

Whoa, so I almost missed Muffin Monday but alas I am here, just after 8 p.m. with no less than 1 million things going on at once. Maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but not by much.

After one crazy fun but busy weekend, the girls both started the many clubs this week that their awesome elementary school has, including jump-roping, running, dancing, and choir. I volunteered to help out with 3 of them so between an hour and a half today at their jump roping club and another hour and a half at Zumba (1 hour class & driving there and back) I had a big portion of my day taken away. Add working for 4 hours, getting the grocery list ready, dinner, and soccer practice and I'm one tired mommy.

But I did it! I got my muffins a-made! And, they turned out great. Corey said he liked them even better than muffins with apples which is a huge deal since he thinks apple pie is the greatest dessert ever invented and loves everything apple, except maybe I-tunes. But that is a whole 'nother story.  Anyway, are the muffins:

And here is the recipe:

Pear & Walnut Muffins

Topping:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

Batter:

• 2 cups flour  2 pears, cubed
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 pears, cubed
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

PROCEDURE:

1. Stir brown sugar & flour together. Add 2  tablespoons cold butter and, with hands, mix together until butter starts to break down into mixture. Put mixture in fridge until you are finished mixing muffin batter.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
4. In a smaller bowl mix eggs and milk.
5. Add pears and walnuts to the flour mixture, stirring with hands.
6. Add egg and milk mixture and melted butter to flour mixture.
7. Stir with wooden spoon or spatula until flour is mixed in thoroughly.
8. Fill muffin cups evenly that have been either sprayed or cupcake liners added to.
9. Sprinkle evenly with topping mixture.
10. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy tomorrow's breakfast!