Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

The other day, I had some very ripe Bananas that I didn't want to go to waste.  I hate throwing food away.  I made what I always make with over ripe bananas, Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins.  My sister Kathi always tells people I put chocolate in everything but that's really not true.  I never put chocolate in my Blueberry Muffins or my Apple Muffins or my Apple Cake.  But chocolate and Bananas really go well together!  And chocolate after all, IS a food group!  Well, it is in my book!  LOL!!!

Anyway, now that it's just about Fall, I bake more often so you'll be seeing some more recipes pop up on my blog from time to time.  Here's my recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins:

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
5 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup vegetable oil
5 bananas
1 12 ounce back Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, mash bananas.  Use a fork or potato masher.  In another bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In a Pyrex pitcher or another bowl, combine wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the bananas and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix well.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Line cupcake pans with paper liners and fill to the top.  I always add sprinkles!  That makes them pretty!

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 22 - 25 minutes (until done).

Enjoy!

Kathi's Gingerbread Muffin Recipe

After braving a trip to WalMart yesterday to pick up a few things, I decided to bake some muffins.  This is Kathi's recipe for Gingerbread Muffins.  It's the first time I made these and I must say, they are good!

Twice Ginger Gingerbread Muffins
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 19 Minutes
Makes 18

2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground Clove
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cup unsulfered molasses
1 cup boiling water
1/3 cup coarsely chopped crystallized ginger

1) Sift together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves & 
nutmeg into a bowl.  Mix the butter and brown sugar together in another 
bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until well blended and 
smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add Eggs one at a time and blend after each.  
Reduce speed to low; beat in dry ingredients.  Add the molasses; beat 
several seconds until blended.  Add the water; beat a few seconds until 
blended.
2) fill two standard-size muffin tins, coated with nonstick spray, about 
3/4 full.  Bake until tops are set but mixture beneath is jiggly,  10 
minutes.  Remove pans from oven; sprinkle muffins with crystallized 
ginger.  Return to oven; bake until a tester inserted into the center 
comes out clean, 9-10 minutes.  Cool muffins in tins, 15 minutes.  Serve 
warm or at room temperature.

Calories=207

I've never been huge on Crystallized Ginger but 

it's a nice added touch and I really like this recipe! 

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Recipe Sloppy Joe Salad

With Summer winding down and Fall right around the corner, I'm starting to think of some new ideas for different meals.  Scott and I are into healthy eating so I'm always trying to think of different ways to make meals into salads and to keep the carbs down to a minimum.

I recently tried something new and it's really good!  I always loved Sloppy Joe sandwiches so I thought, how about making the Sloppy Joe mixture and putting it on salad?  Wow!  Is this awesome!!!

Basically, it starts with a Barbeque Sauce.  You can use a store bought sauce from a jar but I prefer to make my own.

Sloppy Joe Barbeque Sauce

1 medium onion diced
1 cup Ketchup (Hunts brand has NO High Fructose Corn Syrup in it)
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 teaspoon Dry Mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon Corn Starch

Saute the diced onions in the olive oil.  Cook until transparent.  Add all other ingredients except Corn Starch.  Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Add corn starch and continue to boil, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens.  Remove from heat and add to 1 pound cooked ground sirloin.  Serve over lettuce and tomatos with shredded chedder cheese and Ranch dressing.

I've also made this will shredded chicken and I've made it with shredded pork.  It's good every way I've tried it!

Enjoy!

Vintage Gingerbread Cake Recipe

First, I'd like say thank you to everyone who left a comment for mom yesterday.  I'll help her reply to your messages tomorrow.

I tried a new Gingerbread recipe yesterday and thought I'd share it here.  The recipe is from my grandmothers 1945 cookbook called, "The American Women's Cookbook":

There are 3 recipes for Gingerbread Cake in this book.  I just love the way Gingerbread makes my house smell!

SUGAR & MOLASSES GINGERBREAD CAKE

1/2 cup Molasses
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Shortening (melted)
1/2 cup Sour Milk (to make sour milk, add 1 Tablespoon Vinegar to 1/2 cup milk)
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Ginger
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

Mix all ingredients in order given.  Bake in a 350 degree oven in a shallow pan or muffin tins.

The recipe doesn't say how long to bake this but I made mine into cupcakes and baked for about 18 minutes.

This is a very sweet gingerbread cake.  I made a double recipe and ended up with 24 cupcakes.  I added sprinkes and cinnamon sugar to the top before baking.

Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Muffins

Ladies, I have a real treat for you today!  Not only do I have the most awesome Pumpkin Muffin recipe ever, but my sweet sister Kathi agreed to write up a post to go with it as this is a recipe that she created herself!

Enjoy!

Hello Friends:

As a child I remember sitting by my mother while she was in the kitchen cooking and baking.  The smells were marvelous and I sat in awe as she added a little of this and a little of that and made something out of nothing.  She was always such a good cook and still is.

Naturally, I carried the cooking that I learned from my mother into my own family.  It truly is one of my favorite past times and since my son, daughter and husband are especially fond of eating….a lot, I find myself in the kitchen quite often.  I also suffer from a great deal of food allergies so everything I cook or bake must be from scratch.

This time of year I make quite a few quick breads, cakes and muffins but I get bored with making the same thing.  I read cookbooks like most people read novels.  You can go just about anywhere in my house and find a cookbook or cooking magazine out with sticky flags marking all the pages of recipes that sound interesting.

A couple of weeks ago I had been looking at recipes and decided I needed to create my own.  With it being the season for pumpkins, I pulled out a can of pumpkin and said, ok…..lets create.
The general principal for muffins is easy and having made so many I knew mostly what I needed.  I knew I wanted a muffin more the consistency of a cupcake; so light that it almost floats away.  I also knew I wanted something different.  As I’m adding the ingredients I remembered that Pam always adds chocolate chips to everything….yes, I do mean everything.
Couldn’t add chocolate; everyone adds raisins or nuts; I needed something different.  Therefore, I added cream cheese chunks.  I previously tried cream cheese chunks in quick breads and that was very good so I knew I could make that work.

Batter mixed, cream cheese added, cupcake papers ready to go, oven warming and the cinnamon smell was wafting through the air.

After baking the muffins, I placed them on the cooling rack and my husband couldn’t stand it.  He showed up in the kitchen plate in hand and asked me if it was time yet…in case you haven’t figured it out; my husband is the biggest of my children and probably the worse one.
I watched as my husband gobbled down one, two, four, six gone in one sitting.  As much as he likes to eat, this was a bit unusual.  He then proceeded to tell my son that he had better get one while there are still some available.  The label was given as  the best muffins he had ever eaten and told me to write down the recipe right away before I forget how I made them.  So I did.  Now you can make them and be the judge yourself.

Have a great day!


Kathi

Here's the recipe:

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE MUFFINS

2  1/2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Self-Rising Flour
1 cup Sugar
4 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 can Pumpkin
1 cup Milk
1/2 cup Melted Butter
3 tablespoons Canola Oil
2 Eggs
4 oz Cream Cheese Cubed into 1/2 inch cubes

Heat over to 400 degrees  Mix all ingredients in order.  Fold in Cream Cheese cubes.  Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.  Sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar.  Bake 15-20 minutes.  Remove from pan to cool.

This recipe is light, fluffy and oh so yummy!

Note:  if you don't have any Self-Rising Flour on hand, you can make it yourself.

1 cup Self-Rising Flour = 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder + 1/8 teaspoon salt.

Corn Bread Muffins Recipe

I mentioned on Facebook yesterday afternoon that I had just baked some Chocolate Chip cookies and a batch of Corn Bread Muffins.  I was asked for the recipe.  I intended to post it here anyway because, this is the best Corn Bread I've ever had in my life!  It's mom's recipe.  She's been using this one for years and years and although we've both tried others, nothing compares!  So here it is:

CORN BREAD MUFFINS

1 Cup Milk
1 Egg
1 Cup Flour
3 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1 Cup Corn Meal
1/3 Cup Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Cup Melted Butter

In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In another bowl, combine all wet ingredients and mix well.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Spoon into cupcake tin lined with cupcake papers.  Bake at 400 degrees for 18 - 20 minutes.  Makes 12 regular size muffins.

You can also bake it in a pan.  Either way, you'll never find a better recipe for corn bread than this one!

In other news, I'll have an update on my mystery crazyquilt project either later today or tomorrow.  I did stitch on it yesterday but want to get a little more stitching done before I post an update. So far, you have some very interesting guesses!  I knew it would be fun to keep you all wondering!  LOL!!!


Tomorrow, Kathi and I will be heading up to Delavan Wisconsin for a Holiday Show at Tall Grass Farm.  If you live in the Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin area, you might want to check it out!  It's a beautiful farm and there will be all sorts of handmade goodies, roving for felting & spinning, handmade soap and more.  Kathi & I were there in October and had a wonderful time!  If you do head out there, look for the girls with the crazy quilt purses.  That will be us!

I'll leave you for now with some new Christmas Tussy Mussy's by mom:

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

First, I would like to take a moment to say thank you to my very dear and sweet friend, Mary Anne Richardson for being my Guest Blogger yesterday.  I hope you all enjoyed Mary Anne's post and the photos of her gorgeous work! 

I made some muffins over the weekend and they were so good, I thought you would enjoy having the recipe.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

3 1/2 cups Flour
2/3 cup Sugar
5 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
2 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Milk
2/3 cups Vegetable Oil
1 can Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 bag Mini Chocolate Chips

In one bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  In another bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.  Spoon into cupcake tins and bake at 400 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes.

I used the large cupcake tins and get 12 muffins from this recipe!

I have gobs & gobs of new things to share with you over the next couple of days so please be sure to stop back regularly.

Easy Taco Salad

I thought I would share my very easy recipe for Taco Salad.  You won't believe how easy and yummy this is!

Ok, so my photo isn't that great but the recipe is awesome!

EASY TACO SALAD

1 1/2 Pounds Ground Sirloin
1 jar Mild Pace Picante Sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
Pepper to taste

Brown the ground sirloin in a skillet.  Add the Picante Sauce and spices.  Simmer on medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Serve over Romain lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers.  Sprinkle with some Chedder Cheese, add a dab of Sour Cream or a bit of Ranch Dressing and sprinkle with some sliced Green Onions!

I don't do store bought tortilla chips because they're way too salty but I do on occasion make my own with flour tortillas.  I cut them into triangles, place on a baking sheet, lightly spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with bit of sea salt then bake in the oven until crisp.

Enjoy!

Beef Soup Recipe

My sweet friend Judy asked if I would share the recipe for my Beef Soup.  I'm happy to share any recipe that I have so here it is.  This is my own recipe.  It's low sodium and low fat.  And if you would like it be carb free, just leave out the pasta or potato.

PAM'S BEEF SOUP RECIPE

1 - 1 1/2 pounds of Beef Stew meat (cut into bite size pieces)
1 cup celery chopped
1 medium onion chopped
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 cup carrots chopped
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
4 small cans low sodium beef broth
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup dry pasta or 1 large potato chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped (or 1 teaspoon dry parsley)
Pepper to taste

Saute onion, garlic and celery in vegetable oil.  Add beef stew meat and brown.  Add beef broth and bring to a simmer.  Add carrots and pasta or potato.  Add the onion powder, garlic powder, parsley and pepper.  Let simmer for 20 - 30 minutes.  Excellent with Cheese Muffins!

Italian Soup Recipe

I thought I would start sharing a few of my quick & healthy meal recipes with you.  I always say I can't cook but the truth is, I can.  I would just rather stitch than cook!

I have some really nice things that I make.  All are healthy and easy.  And let's face it, pre-packaged things are so full of chemicals & salt these days that we really have no choice but to cook from scratch if want to feel good.

This is my Italian Soup Recipe:

2 pounds Ground Sirloin
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 medium Onion finely chopped
3 cloves Garlic minced
2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning
1 - 28 oz. can Crushed Tomatos
1 - 8 oz package frozen chopped spinach
1 - 6 oz package finely shredded Parmesan cheese
4 - 14 oz cans Low Sodium Chicken Broth

Heat olive oil in soup pot.  Saute onion and garlic.  Add ground sirloin and brown.  Add chicken broth, crushed tomatos and spinach.  Add Italian seasoning.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Add Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy with a piece of Garlic Bread!

This recipe is low fat, low salt and low carb!  And it's excellent so give it a try and let me know what you think!

A Little Late On The Flea Market Finds And Another Sweet Treat Recipe!

Better late than never!  I've been busy as a bee these last few days.  A little too busy actually.  Been rearranging some things in my home, stitching, finishing and junkin!

On Sunday morning, Scott and I picked up my mom and we went to the Grayslake Flea Market & Antique Show.  The theme for this month was "Everything Vintage".  That's right up my alley!

Here are my Flea Market Treasures from Sunday.  As you know, I just love vintage hankies:





I only paid $1 for each of those hankies!  I really don't "need" any but I love them so I keep buying them.

Next, I found some buttons:



Check out those green rhinestone buttons!  They're mint and gorgeous.  So sparkly!  And, then a bagful of little white rose buttons.  Last but not least, I found some pink buttons.  I'm always on the looking out for old pink buttons.  If anyone has any they don't want, I will gladly give them a good home!

The little pink pieces are flowers.  It was hard to open them up so you could see them but when sewn down, they'll make these cool little flowers.

Next, a bag of lace and trim:



Again, I have plenty of lace but I just can't help myself!  I love it!!!!  And I adopt all unwanted lace and give it lots of love!!  :)

I just spent some time photographing our newest projects.  I'll save those photos for over the weekend.  Very time consuming actually.  But as you've probably noticed, my photos have improved greatly!

And speaking of time consuming, I've finally had enough of dial-up and have decided to get a high speed connection.  Next week, I'll make the phone calls and get the process going.  I like to read a lot of blogs (see my sidebar) and those blogs are very graphic intensive.  I get tired of waiting for pictures to load so high speed, here I come!

Let's see, what else have I been doing?  Oh, I baked this afternoon.  Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting!  YUM!!!



I did indulge!  And I don't feel guilty in the least!  Ha, ha, ha!  The recipe is from one of my vintage baking booklets:



This little book is by Walter Baker & Company, Inc.  The copyright date is 1931.  And here is the recipe if you would like to try it:

CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

2 cups Cake Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (real butter)
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks, well beaten
3 squares Baker's Unsweetened chocolate melted
1 1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg whites stiffly beaten

Sift flour, once, measure, add baking powder, soda, and salt, and sift together 3 times.  Cream butter thoroughly, add sugar gradually, and cream together until light and fluffy.  Add egg yolks and chocolate, then add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time.  Beat after each addit;ion until smooth.  Add vanilla.  Fold in egg whites.  Bake in 2 greased 9 inch layer pans in moderate oven (350 degrees) for 30 minutes.

Well, I didn't make mine into cake.  I made mine into cupcakes with pink Cream Cheese frosting and they are quite yummy!  Do give them a try!

Over the weekend, I'll share a low carb sweet treat recipe.  Perfect for a warm Spring day!

For now, I'll leave you with a photo of my Nightmare:



I swear, there is no creature on this planet who can make themselves more comfy cozy than a cat!