Tag Archives: banana

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Bananas!

At our house we do this weird thing where if you say, “What’s two plus two?” the answer is “Bananas!” I’m not 100% sure of the origin story, but it has to do with trying to jinx someone, or avoid being jinxed. I am sure, either way, it hasn’t help Jack learn his math.

As I have have mentioned many times, I buy more bananas than people have time or energy to eat, especially since no child will eat a banana with one spot of brown on it, which makes it hard to pack them in lunches. And I should say, I also only like slightly underripe bananas, and I don’t like to pack bananas with bread (i.e.: for lunch or a camping trip) because bread that takes on the flavor of banana makes me want to gag. But do I love to bake with bananas? Yes I do. And while I searching my blog for banana references, here is an old story about Jack.

I have two banana FBFs that I haven’t shared – I made banana muffins last Friday that I forgot to photograph. I used this recipe for bread, and I put a couple chocolate chips on top of each one. They were enjoyed by all.

Longer ago, I made this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, which I have made before. I had a memory that no one liked it because of the millet, which Dave correctly identified as a main ingredient in bird seed. But once I thought about the bread, I decided I had to make it, and if no one liked it, well… more for me. Unfortunately everyone loved it this time and it was quickly devoured.

OK – we are now officially all caught up on FBFs and approaching the 2 year anniversary of this fun project. Last year around this time I started to put together an index of recipes, and maybe I’ll get back to that soon! Maybe not!

One Jack quote from an old blog post, when he was three:

And when I asked Jack if he wanted any butter on his banana bread he said, “No, just give it to me straight.”

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Blueberry Banana Muffins

I made these blueberry banana muffins last week and I thought they were the best muffins I had ever made. Then I looked through my archives, and found a recipe for the “Perfect Banana Muffins.” It was so perfect, I made it again a year later and thought I had invented something new. I loved these muffins so much but the boys said, “At first the blueberry and banana was a weird combo, but I got used to it. It tastes like banana bread.” I guess I love banana bread. I was thinking banana and blueberry must be two of my favorite flavors, but the other possibility is that I always have bananas and blueberries in my freezer. When I am planning a Fancy Breakfast Friday as I fall asleep Thursday night, there are only so many options. I mean, I also made these, these, these, these, and these Here the recipe is again, with the modifications I made this time:

Perfect Banana Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3 overripe bananas
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
blueberries – as many as you want
2 T vanilla crumb – see below

Vanilla Crumb – make this to top your blueberry coffee cake. Use half for the coffee cake and then freeze the rest for whenever you need a little crumb. This recipe is from Rustic Fruit Desserts, and it’s worth owning for the coffee cake recipe and the strawberry short cake recipe. It’s amazing.

1 cup all purpose flour (120 grams)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

In a food processor, add all ingredients and pulse until coarse.

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat muffin pans with nonstick spray or use liners.
This makes 12 large muffins, or 12 smaller muffins and 12 mini muffins.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stir with a whisk.
Cream together butter and sugar, add the eggs, 1 at a time. Scraping down the sides after each addition.

In a separate bowl mash bananas to desired consistency. Add the bananas, yogurt, and vanilla to the sugar/butter/eggs and blend until completely mixed together. Slowly add the flour and mix on low until just blended, don’t over mix.

Scoop into 12 muffin tins, and then top with about 5 blueberries per muffin. Then top that with vanilla crumb.

Bake at 350° for 25 minutes (I started checking at 25 minutes but I recall it took significantly longer.) Or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Banana Muffins

This week reached again for my never ending supply of frozen bananas. I baked banana muffins from the King Arthur Flour website, using this recipe with a few changes.

I used 3 bananas instead of 2. 1/2 a cup of sugar instead of 2/3. And instead of chocolate chips I topped the muffins with cinnamon and sugar. I thought they were good, and I liked that they had whole wheat flour and less sugar than some recipes. Dave liked them. Luke seemed to like them. Jack only ate half of his. So… not a unanimous endorsement. I still might consider making them again. But I think my banana and my muffin obsession may have run it’s course. This is the 13th FBF muffin. I think it’s time to work on perfecting my coffee cake.

In other news, I have a tragic story of a cooking fail from last week. I subscribe to Cook Smarts, which sends me 4 dinner menus per week because thinking of a list of 7 things to cook ever week is too hard for me. Last week, I was making Spring Pork Ramen with Snap Peas and I decided to get fancy… too fancy. I made the pork shoulder in the crock pot, and per the recipe I was straining the broth from the crockpot through the strainer into a bowl. When I was done, I thought, “That looks delicious! But also it could be more clear. I should put a cheesecloth in the strainer and strain it again. That would be fancy.” And I had just found cheesecloth in a really weird place. If only I could remember where? I called Dave and said, “Where did we find that cheese cloth?” And he said, “I don’t remember, but it was somewhere weird and unexpected.” That sparked my memory and I found the cheesecloth in the pool bag that we had taken to the hot springs in Steamboat when we were on spring break. I guess at some point someone thought, “Sunscreen, goggles, pool toys, cheesecloth, yep, we have everything we need.”

So I washed the strainer and the cheese cloth and I poured the broth out of the bowl and through the strainer… and right down the drain. I said, “NOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo. I’M SO DUMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Jack ran over to give me a hug and said, “You are still really lovable.” So that was nice.

Needless to say we had ramen, pork and snap peas on a plate instead of in a bowl, because I’ve turned into a lovable dummy.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: Banana Cinnamon Waffles

Back before the internet was invented, I used to cut recipes out of magazines and glue them into a composition book. (I still do this.)

Towards the front of this ancient artifact, is a recipe for banana cinnamon waffles, that you can also find here. I used to make this all the time, but I stopped when I found this recipe for pancakes. But since I have been on a kick to use all the frozen bananas in my freezer, and also because I got a fancy waffle maker this year, I decided to make them again. And they are still delicious! Or so I assume. I only ended up with 6ish waffles. I ate the part that Jack couldn’t finish. I think Luke could have eaten more. And I served Dave the ugly ones. Thanks for taking a picture of your waffles, Dave!

Note to self: Double this recipe. The recipe calls for buckwheat flour, but I sub whole wheat.

This weekend will be our first camping weekend of the year, and I have already downgraded my fancy breakfast menu a couple times. Fingers crossed it doesn’t get downgraded all the way to cold cereal.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: The Perfect Muffin

DSC07123 (1) I think I have created the perfect muffin for my family. Texture-wise it was amazing. It was also yummy, and on the healthy side. (Sort of.)

I stayed up until incredibly late last Thursday so that the muffins would be ready in the morning because Dave and Jack were going to a baseball tournament in Englewood and Luke and I had to be in Commerce City for his tournament at 7:00 am. The muffins, as I said, were delicious. But I somehow managed to forget my coffee, my wallet, my chair, and my camera. And guess what else? I had the times wrong. I thought the games were at 8 and 10 but they were at 8 and noon. I really could have used coffee, a wallet, a chair and a camera. I finished my book about 5 minutes into the 2.5 hours between games. It’s weird that I forgot everything since this was about the 7,103,503 baseball game I had attended this season. No photos of the perfect muffin, because… I was a spaz last week. But I did bring my camera the second day of the tournament and Jack took this great photo. (above)

At least I packed a bunch of muffins for the games. (And other food as well for our 9 or so hour day.) This is based on the banana bread recipe from Cooking Light, which I highly recommend.

Perfect Banana Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
3 overripe bananas
1/2 cup cream top vanilla yogurt ** not low fat
2 Tbs chia seeds (optional)
1/2 cup granola (optional, but so good)

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat muffin pans with nonstick spray or use liners.
This makes 12 large muffins, or 12 smaller muffins and 12 mini muffins.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, chia seeds, stir with a whisk.
Cream together butter and sugar, add the eggs, 1 at a time. Scraping down the sides after each addition.

Bake at 350° for 25 minutes (i started checking at 25 minutes but I recall it took significantly longer.) Or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Fancy Breakfast Friday: The Force Awakens Edition

We went to Steamboat Springs for New Years eve, and I knew that the motel continental breakfast wasn’t for everyone. I mean, the boys love a good toaster waffle, and I secretly love taking a break from making breakfast, but a continental breakfast can only take you so far. When you are headed up to snowboard for hours in sub-zero temps you need a little something extra. So I made banana bread to take with us. I mostly follow this Cooking Light recipe – sub full fat vanilla yogurt for lowfat yogurt, and since the yogurt is sweetened, I put in 75% of the sugar. It’s so good.

MetaMegan

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