Saturday, August 30, 2008

Banana Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

.... or "What To Do With Those Brown Bananas."

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour. You can also be sneaky and make 1/2 cup of that whole wheat flour, if you like.
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (that's two big ones or three small ones, and mashing bananas is a swell job for an energetic three year old)
1 large egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup light sour cream (don't use fat free sour cream - it doesn't bake well)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350. Line your mini muffin pans with wee adorable muffin papers, or grease the cups.
In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together.
In ANOTHER mixing bowl, combine the mashed bananas, egg, melted butter, sour cream, vanilla, and milk. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Now turn the speed to looooooow and stir in the flour ingredients until JUST BLENDED. (mixing muffins too much makes them tough.) Stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon. (Why wood? I do not know.)
Fill each muffin cup with a tablespoon of batter, and bake for 20 minutes or until they're golden and a toothpick comes out with no crumbs. Transfer to a rack to cool, and this should make about 36 mini muffins.

Coughing from All the Dust

This week's menu.
Sunday And My Birthday:
Breakfast - Zeppelin Pancakes and berries
Lunch - out for lunch with a friend
Supper - Southwestern Backyard Burgers, potato salad, tortellini salad, red pepper dip with corn chips AND a chocolate sour cream cake, all of which will be cooked by my husband. hahahaah.

Monday And My Husband Is Home, Hence The Nice Breakfast:
Breakfast - A really tasty cream-filled yeast raised bun with an inexplicably lewd-sounding name or maybe it's just me ("Dewey Buns"), Fruit Salad
Lunch - Brown Rice Lentil Salad
Supper - Shredded Pork Tacos, Avocado Salad and coleslaw

Tuesday And The Kids Are Back To School Tomorrow:
Breakfast - Oatmeal with Berries
Lunch - Leftover Tacos
Supper, Which Will Be A Picnic - Veggie Chicken Wraps, Raw Veggie Sticks, Pasta Salad with a vinaigrette dressing, and an ice cream sundae party at home.

Wednesday and The First Day of School!
Breakfast - Plain Pancakes with Syrup and butter, as requested
First Nutrition Break (ah, the poets of the Ontario school boards!) - Homemade hummus with raw veggies, juice
Second Nutrition Break - Zucchini Bread with Cream Cheese, Pasta Salad (which I made last night), Orange Wedges, 2 Oreos and milk
Supper - Pasta with Sausage and Peppers, Festive Tossed Salad, Birthday cake - likely - because it's my youngest brother's birthday.

Thursday:
Breakfast - Oatmeal with bananas and honey
1st Nutrition Break - Zucchini Bread with Cream Cheese, Juice
2nd Nutrition Break - Hummus and Veggie Wrap, Oreos, Orange Wedges (guess what was on sale this week?), milk
Supper - Slow Cooker Rosemary Chicken with White Beans, Coleslaw

Friday:
Breakfast - Carrot-Pineapple Muffins, applesauce
1st Nutrition Break - Cucumber Chains, Juice, Mini Muffins
2nd Nutrition Break - Little wholewheat lady bug pizzas, Oreos, milk
Supper - Butternut Squash Soup with Apples and Ginger, Honey-Oat Casserole Bread