Banana Crunch Muffins

These Banana Crunch Muffins are a favourite of mine because I like a little crunch in my muffins. Plus they have just a hint of cinnamon in them. These are delicious warm, but also freeze beautifully. Wrap these Banana Crunch Muffins individually for snacks or school lunches.

banana crunch muffins

Banana Crunch Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup low-fat granola

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12 standard muffin tray with paper liners.

In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients; set aside. In a medium-size bowl, combine the eggs, light-brown sugar and melted butter. Whisk until smooth. Add mashed banana and vanilla. Pour banana mixture into well in dry ingredients; stir until just moist.

Divide batter evenly in muffin tray. Sprinkle granola over muffins and gently press into batter. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool in tray 5 minutes then remove to cooling rack.

 

 

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Chocolate Banana Muffins

These Chocolate Banana Muffins are ridiculous. Ridiculously good that is! I mean chocolate and banana go together like PB & J, peas & carrots, Sonny & Cher for pity’s sake. What I’m trying to tell you is that these muffins are calling your name. Don’t ignore them. These are perfect for school lunches. Wrap and freeze individually so they’re ready to throw in lunch bags in the morning. That is if you can keep them on hand long enough to freeze.

chocolate banana muffins

Chocolate Banana Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1 cup of mashed bananas (2 bananas)
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

chocolate banana muffins

Preheat oven to 350F. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, bananas, milk and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add to the banana mixture in mixer and mix until just combined. Fill a greased or lined 12-muffin tin 3/4 full. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Share your Chocolate Banana Muffins with those you love.

Pleasantville Note: You can make these extra chocolatey by stirring in a 1/2 cup of chocolate chips at the end or go nutty and add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.

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Kale Chips – Make Your Own

I love chips. Chips and me go way back to my formative years, where we would curl up on the couch together and watch Gilligan’s Island. Chips are the best thing ever. Kale chips? Not so much.

BUT, since you-know-who had a heart attack, I’ve been questioning my relationship with chips. Shhhhh. I’m not quite ready to share this info with chips yet. You just don’t break up with someone you’ve been with that long overnight you know. I am however, sourcing out other options and when I first heard kale chips, I laughed and laughed and dipped a chip in some dip.

You can’t say I’m not adventurous though. I brought in the kale and decided to put this whole kale fad to the test. Look at my chips? Don’t they look so betrayed?

kale vs chips

You should know that in a pinch kale makes excellent pom-poms. Go Kale!

kale pom poms

And colour me surprised, but I really enjoyed these. Even more surprising, so did my family. Go figure.

enjoying kale chips

Kale Chips

2 bunches of kale
2 tbsp olive oil
Pinch of sea salt

Preheat oven to 350F (convection if possible) Carefully rip leaves from stem and tear into bite size pieces. Rinse clean and dry in a salad spinner. Line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide kale between two sheets. Drizzle one tbsp olive oil over each tray. Toss to distribute olive oil and spread kale evenly over pan. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt on each sheet. Place in oven for 10-15 minutes until leaves are dry and are beginning to brown on edges. Remove from oven and let cool.

Toss in a bowl and then curl up on couch to watch Gilligan’s Island.

kale chips in bowl

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Love Bait

By Candace Derickx

I can’t lie to you and tell you this is an original post. It’s not. I’m totally recycling this from my post last year for Bunny Bait. Why you ask? Because I was desperately seeking another occasion to make the crack, er, I mean popcorn.

love bait

The truth is I’ve been pining for it since last April. So with a little changeroo of the name, now you have Love Bait. I’m also sure I can work it in for other holidays — Canada Day/Beaver Bait, Labour Day/Work Bait, Thanksgiving/Turkey Bait, Halloween/Witch Bait, Christmas/Elf Bait. You see where I’m going here, right? There are MULTIPLE opportunities to make this through the year. You’re welcome.

Love Bait

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
12 oz. white chocolate candy melts (available at Bulk Barn)
1 1/3 cups pretzel sticks
1 12 oz. bag red and pink Smarties or M&M’s

Directions:

Make popcorn…..the easy, healthy way. Pour into a large bowl, removing any unpopped kernels. Toss in pretzels and Smarties. Melt white chocolate in microwave safe bowl on high in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth. Drizzle half of melted white chocolate over popcorn mixture, then stir, tossing gently a few times with rubber spatula. Then drizzle remaining half of melted white chocolate over popcorn, and gently stir until evenly coated. Do not overstir. Pour mixture into a single layer onto parchment paper. Allow to cool and harden, then gently break into pieces. Give to people you love for Valentine’s Day.

love bait to give

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Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

I love baking all the treats for my family’s lunches. The best way to ensure that I’m not standing at the oven daily though is to bake in large quantities and freeze in portions for quick lunch-packing in the morning. This recipe makes 24 muffins and one loaf. I love nuts in zucchini bread but most schools have a no nut policy. If you don’t intend to send these to school, cut back on the chocolate chips by half and add in 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

6 eggs
4 cups sugar
2 cups oil
5 cups zucchini, shredded
6 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla
12 ounces chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat together eggs, sugar and oil. Add zucchini and remaining ingredients, mixing well. Divide amongst two muffin tins and one loaf pan. Cook muffins for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove muffins and let cool. Place loaf pan in oven for 45 to 55 minutes of until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Wrap muffins individually and freeze. Freeze loaf whole for when you have company or slice and wrap individually. Great for school lunches or fast breakfasts served with a smoothie.

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Truffle Popcorn

This is going to a bit of long-ish post for a simple recipe but bear with me. I’m going somewhere with this. Sort of.

A couple of years ago, me and my best girls had a weekend getaway to Chicago. While there, we had the pleasure of dining at Graham Elliot’s restaurant. It was, as expected, totally delicious. BUT, the thing that has stuck with me most about our meal there was the popcorn. That’s right. The popcorn. Instead of putting traditional bread and butter on the table before you meal, Graham puts out popcorn. Totally decadent, truffled popcorn.

I have been trying to replicate this recipe for two years! TWO YEARS people! And tonight I nailed it.

First though, you should know that I made this earlier in the summer for a party I was having but the recipe called for store bought microwave popcorn. I’m not such a fan of conventional microwave popcorn, but I decided to give it a go anyway. It was very good and if you’re okay with all that gunk in traditional microwave popcorn then go for it. I served it in little paper bags. Yummy.

No offense though, Graham, but I felt your recipe needed just a little tweaking. Here is my version.

Truffle Popcorn

1/2 cup popping kernels
3 tablespoons grated parmesan (Please I’m begging you, not the stuff you shake out of can)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons white truffle oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper (feel free to omit if you don’t like pepper)
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
2 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley

Pop 1/4 cup of popcorn at a time in microwave, according to my directions here. While popcorn is popping, melt butter and then stir in truffle oil. Pour both bags of popcorn into a large bowl. Toss with truffle butter mix, and remaining ingredients. Share with your children, if you must ;)

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Sour Cream Coffee Cake

I hate coffee. I love coffee cake. I’m a total conundrum.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream (can use light)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cinnamon-Walnut Topping

In a small bowl, stir together 3/4 cup chopped walnuts, 3/4 cup sugar, and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 350º. Butter and flour a 9-inch nonstick tube pan. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together sour cream and baking soda.

With an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three additions alternately with sour-cream mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until moistened.

Spread a third of the batter in pan; sprinkle with a third of topping. Repeat twice, ending with topping. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 60 to 70 minutes.

Cool in pan 30 minutes. Turn out of pan; cool, top side up, on a rack.

Pleasantville Note: This coffee cake freezes beautifully. Freeze in portions that work for you; half, quarters or slices.

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Bunny Bait – Make this for Easter

So a few days ago I kept coming across this picture on Pinterest, called Bunny Bait. “Cute”, I thought. After searching through a few recipes I finally settled on this one. AND.OH.MY.GOD. This isn’t Bunny Bait, it’s crack! No kidding, as I was scarfing handfuls of it in my mouth, I turned to my husband and said, “This should be classified as an illegal substance. I would pimp you out for this stuff”. It is that good.

Perhaps it’s just me but I have something for salt and sweet together, and this fits the bill nicely. So, there is no doubt, you’ll catch a bunny with this bait, but that’s if you don’t eat it all first.

Bunny Bait

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
12 oz. white chocolate candy melts (available at Bulk Barn)
1 1/3 cups pretzel sticks
1 12 oz. bag pastel coloured M&M’s
Easter Coloured Sprinkles

Directions:

Make popcorn…..the easy, healthy way. Pour into a large bowl, removing any unpopped kernels. Toss in pretzel and M&M’s. Melt white chocolate in microwave in microwave safe bowl on high in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until melted and smooth. Drizzle half of melted white chocolate over popcorn mixture, then stir, tossing gently a few times with rubber spatula. Then drizzle remaining half of melted white chocolate over popcorn, and gently stir until evenly coated. Do not overstir. Pour mixture into a single layer onto to wax paper. Sprinkle with Easter sprinkles before chocolate hardens. Allow to cool and harden, then gently break into pieces and lock yourself in a room and enjoy. I kid. Store it in a airtight container or fill cello bags and tie with pretty ribbon to give away.

This would also be great for birthday parties as a party favour.

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Make Your Own Microwave Popcorn

Make your own microwave popcorn? Absolutely.

I complained in this space once about the fact that store bought hot chocolate was a major con. In fact, I posted the recipe so that people could a) see how easy it was to actually make your own b) save you a few dollars and c) keep the garbage out of your house. All of that is also true with microwave popcorn and then some.

It’s so easy to make your own, in fact, it’s RIDICULOUSLY EASY.

You will need a plain paper lunch bag and 1/4 cup popping corn

Pour popcorn in bag and fold over top of bag twice.

Place bag in microwave and turn microwave on high two minutes. Keeping it real: yes, that's spaghetti sauce splattered in my microwave. So?

Listen for popcorn to slow down and remove when 2 to 3 seconds between pops.

Et Voila! Popcorn without carcinogens! Enjoy!

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Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars

I love making my kids snacks for school. I try not to buy store bought treats because a) they’re expensive and b) they’re usually not made with the best ingredients. This is one of my go-to recipes for weekday lunches.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
2 cups quick oats
1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375F. Coat a 8x8x2 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together. In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter on medium-high speed until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low and beat in milk, then flour mixture. Stir in oats and 1 cup of the chocolate chips.

Spread batter into prepared baking pan. Bake at 375F for 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. Microwave remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips for 30 seconds; stir until smooth and drizzle over bars. Cut into squares.

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