Banana-Oat Muffins

I got this recipe from the Cheerios website. Hugh, my 2 year old, helped mommy by opening a second and unneeded box of Cheerios. Fearing that they would go stale and not necessarily wanting to make "treats" with them I opted for trying this recipe instead. They turned out good and the kids loved having warm muffins for breakfast for a change. I loved that it was quick to mix and toss in the oven.

Banana-Oat Muffins

2 cups Cheerios cereal (where they say you get the "oats"-okay its a stretch don't you think?)

1 1/4 cup All-purpose flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup mashed very ripe banana's (2 t0 3 medium)

2/3 cups milk

3 Tablespoon vegetable oil

1 egg white

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 12 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray, or greased bottoms only of muffin cups.

Crush cereal. In large bowl, stir together cereal, flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in remaining ingredients just until moistened Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown.

Sprinkle muffin with powdered sugar just before serving.

**My kids preferred butter or honey.

For High Altitude (3500-6500 ft.) Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Nutter Butter-Banana Pudding Trifle

Wow as I have looked over my past photos of 2009 I realized that I have missed blogging several of our tasty dishes. We tried this dish in October for our Sunday dinner dessert. It was yummy. The only thing I will change is making my mom's homemade Banana Cream pudding because it is so smooth and creamy. (It doesn't use the egg whites or flour which I think makes the texture more smooth.)

Plan ahead it needs 2 HOURS to Chill!

Nutter Butter-Banana Pudding Trifle (Southern Living Magazine 2009 magazine promo-cover)

3 cups milk

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 Tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

5 medium-sized banana's

1 (1 lb.) package peanut butter sandwich cookies--Nutter Butters

** I couldn't bring myself to use the whole package! I just used what I thought looked good--save a little here and there!

2 cups sweetened whipped topping (We frequently use Cool Whip Free!)

Garnish: peanut butter sandwich cookies, dried banana chips (glad I had in food storage) fresh mint sprigs (glad to be growing my own in my kitchen window). **Garnishing is always a nice touch but there is no way I would go out an buy stuff specific to garnish a dish--just not my style. ;-)

Whisk together first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla until butter is melted.

Fill a large bowl with ice. Place saucepan in ice, and let stand stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until mixture is thoroughly chilled.

Meanwhile, cut bananas into 1/4-inch slices. Break cookies into thirds.

Spoon half a pudding mixture into a 3-qrt. bowl or pitcher. Top with bananas and cookies. Spoon remaining pudding mixture over bananas and cookies. Top with sweetened whipped cream. Cover and chill 2 hours to 24 hours. Garnish if desired.

Whole Wheat Banana Mini Muffins

My good friend Angela D. from Las Vegas sent me this great recipe. It is healthy! The kids and hubby loved them. It felt good to see and hear the comments that they enjoy the muffins. That is always motivating for me to know that someone enjoyed the food I made. It was especially nice to hear those comments seeing that I had to play the "Little Red Hen" and hand mill the wheat for the flour. I was trying out our emergency essentials food storage mill (It's all I've got! So use it up or do with out right?!) I think I would make these more often if I didn't have to take the time to mill the whole-wheat flour every time.

Banana Mini Muffins
4 T margarine (or butter), softened
¼ cup applesauce
2 eggs (or 2 T. Dehydrated Eggs +1/4 C. Water)
2 T skim milk
¾ Cup packed light brown sugar
1 Cup mashed banana (2-3 medium bananas)
1 ¾ C Whole Wheat Flour
2 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (optional)
2 tsp all spice (optional)
¼ t salt (optional)
¼ Cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Beat margarine, applesauce, eggs, milk, and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until smooth.
Add banana and blend at low speed; beat at high speed 1 to 2 minutes.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, all spice and salt; mix into batter. Mix in nuts.
Pour batter into mini muffin pan, . Bake at 350º F for 12-14 minutes. ENJOY!

Banana Cream Pie-A Family Tradition!

If there is one dessert for me and my family of origin that says "Thanksgiving" and "Family Favorite" It would be mom's homemade BANANA CREAM PIE!! Mom would always feed a crowd. We'd have one of almost every flavor of pie and we had to have 6-9 Banana Cream Pies. The other pies were always leftovers! You were lucky if you got a piece of Banana Cream Pie with all the family and extended family that was at our home on Thanksgiving Day. So holding with tradition I have continued to make this wonderful pie for my little family and guest were ever we have Thanksgiving. It is still the Belle of the Ball so to speak! If you love creamed pies this one is in my opinion just "HEAVENLY!!!"

Vanilla Cream Pie
(Enough for one unfilled baked-crust pie crust)

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
(I like to put these in the saucepan and blend them together before adding the milk)
3 cups milk (I always use 1% whatever you normally drink works here)
3 egg YOKES, slightly beaten
2 Tablespoons margarine or butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

Prepare and bake pastry for unfilled one-crust pie using 9-inch pie pan. In medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Stir in milk. Blending until smooth. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Boil for 2 minutes; remove from heat. Blend a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks. (This part can be tricky if you pour it in to hot it cooks the yokes and you get little lumps of scrambled egg type pieces in your pie. I have found the best method after much trial and error is to put my yokes in a bowl that I can add the hot pudding to one Tablespoon at a time. I cool each Tablespoon just slightly before whisking them in the beaten eggs. I continue you this for about 4-5 Tablespoonful then I had one straight from the pan and when I feel like the yokes are warmed up to my satisfaction I pour them slowly into the main batch). Return the hot egg mixture to the mail pot, blending well. Cook until mixture comes to a boil. Boil 1 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in margarine /butter and vanilla. Cool pudding. (We always pour ours out into a new bowl (Because we need the pan to keep cooking several more batches! ;-)) and cover with waxed paper so it doesn't develop a skin. Pour into cooled , baked crust! (Never put a hot filling in a cold crust. Hot in Hot and cold in cold--to keep your crust beautiful and not soggy.) Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set. If desired, serve with whipped cream. (We also cover it with wax paper after putting in pie crust to keep the skin from developing. Maybe mom did this to keep little taste testing fingers out! until time to serve.)

VARIATIONS

BANANA CREAM PIE: Cool filling in saucepan to lukewarm. Pour into Pie Crust. When ready to serve, slice banana on top of pie and top with whipped cream. (Bananas can be added in on top of the crust before pouring the filling in, but we have found that they don't keep as well-turning brown and mushy. Our preference is to add them to individual slices when ready to serve.)

Butterscotch Cream Pie: Substitute firmly packed brown sugar for sugar.

Chocolate Cream Pie: Increase sugar to 1 cup and add 1 oz (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate to filling mixture before cooking.

Coconut Cream Pie: Stir 1 cup coconut into cooked filling with margarine and vanilla.

Banana-Cinnamon Bunt Cake

Hugh sneaking a taste!

My kids loved this recipe. I personally will use homemade frosting next time, and I will probably leave the cinnamon out of the frosting because there is so much in the cake; if I even frost it at all. This cake was surprisingly rich. (We got this recipe from Betty Crocker's recipe newsletter).

1 Box Super Moist Yellow Cake Mix

1/2 cup water

1 cup mashed very ripe banana's (2 medium)

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1/2 chopped walnuts (we always use pecans)

Cinnamon Glaze

1/2 cup Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy cream cheese ready-to-spread frosting

2 to 3 Tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used 1/8 tsp. but will leave it out next time)

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12- cup bundt cake pan.

Beat cake mix, water, bananas, butter, cinnamon, and eggs in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in nuts. Pour into pan.

Bake 43 to 53 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto wire rack or heatproof serving plate; remove pan. Cool completely, about 2 hours. Stir all glaze ingredients in small bowl until thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle over cake.