Cream Cheese Filled Pumpkin Muffins

Fall is here!!! My absolute favourite time of the year!!! The weather, the colours, Thanksgiving, Pumpkins, Halloween and then Christmas :)

I found these amazing muffins on Pinterest (link to original blog post). The recipe makes a very large batch (24 standard muffins).  I made 12 standard size muffins, 6 large muffins and 12 mini muffins (with no filling). I honestly can't even begin to explain how GOOD they are!!! You will just have to make them so you can see for yourself!!!!

(As a side note: You could use pumpkin pie filling instead of the puree. If you do this, omit all the spices!)

Ingredients:

Filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar

Muffins:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1 1/4 cup oil   

Topping:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 5 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tbsp cold butter, in pieces 

Directions:

1. Filling: mix ingredients together. Place on saran wrap and roll into a log until about 1 1/2" think. Wrap in tin foil and freeze for 2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 350* and line muffin pans with liners
3. Muffins: whisk first 7 ingredients together. In a large bowl, beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil on medium low. On low, mix in dry ingredients until moistened.
4. Topping: whisk sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly.
5. To assemble muffins, add a small amount of batter to the muffin wells to just cover liner.  Cut filling log into 24 pieces, and add one piece to each well. Top with remaining batter to cover cream cheese. Sprinkle topping on each muffin.
6. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack (FILLING WILL BE HOT!!!!)

 

Granola

Hello Blogging World!!!!
Life has been CRAZY!!! So much has been going on in our little world, I haven't had any time!! A little update: We are expecting our second child in April, and I just recently (at 28 weeks pregnant), had to have my appendix out. Add all that to the holidays just finishing up, renovations, play dates, working, etc, it has been insane!! Thankfully my surgery went well, both baby and myself are healing up nicely! Aiden is going to be a great big brother, he is such a loving, caring, helpful little man :)

Now that I am getting up and eating breakfast so early (5:30), I am finding I can't make it to lunch time without getting hungry! I bought Greek yogurt and fruit so I could make Parfaits to have between breaky and lunch. I decided I would make my own Granola, and I must say, it is delicious and incredibly easy to make. Here it is :) I just made plain granola, however, you can add pretty much whatever you like to add some bulk!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 cups oats
• Optional: Coconut, Almonds, Raisins, Dried Fruit

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, mix brown sugar, oil, honey, maple syrup and cinnamon. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add vanilla.
2. Place oats in a large baking dish and pour sugar mixture over. Add in optional ingredients if you wish and stir.
3. Bake at 350* for 10-15 minutes.
4. Stir and cool
5. Store in an air tight container.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Icing

Last week at work we had a ladies pot luck. Both the food and company were great! I love that I have good coworkers.

I didn't have much time to prepare anything. I had the flu the previous week, and Aiden was really sick the beginning of the week. So I turned to one of my favourite treats...Banana Muffins!!!! But I wanted to make them special! What goes great with bananas? Peanut butter and Chocolate of course :)



I'm definitely not a cake decorator!!! Although, I don't think they look that bad :)

 Ingredients:

• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• ~ 4 to 7 tbsp of milk, divided
• 3 tbsp peanut butter

Directions:

1. Combine powdered sugar, cocoa, 4 tbsp milk and peanut butter in a large bowl. Beat on low (while scraping the sides frequently) until well combined. Beat in additional milk (1 tbsp at a time) until you reach the desired consistency.

Chocolate Cake with Buttercream and Ganache :)

It was my husband’s birthday last weekend, and I wanted to surprise him by baking him a cake from scratch!!! Like I have said in previous posts, I am not the baker of the family, but I must say this cake turned out really well! It defiantly wasn’t decorated like a professional, but it sure tasted good! I got this very moist chocolate cake recipe from a good friend of mine. It was really easy to make, and veryyyy good!!!

I put whip cream and chopped up strawberries in the middle, and I iced the whole cake with buttercream icing. I then topped the cake with chocolate ganache! Mmmmm soooo yummy J

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

-          3 cups Flour

-          2 cup packed Brown sugar

-          ½ cup Cocoa

-          2 tsp Baking Soda

-          1 tsp salt

-          2 cups Milk

-          ¾ cup Oil

-          2 tbsp Lemon Juice

-          2 tsp Vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350^oF.
2. In a large bowl, stir flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
3. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients and add milk, oil, lemon juice and vanilla.
4. Stir until smoothly combined.
5. Evenly distribute between two round 8½” pans and bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick put in the centre comes out clean.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

-          ½ cup butter, room temperature

-          4 cups powdered sugar

-          1/3 cup milk

-          2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Beat butter until smooth.
2. Add sugar and milk by alternating (3 parts sugar, 2 parts milk).
3. Beat in vanilla.

Ganache

Ingredients:

-          ¾ cup heavy cream (18%)

-          ¼ cup butter

-          ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, heat cream and butter over medium heat until melted.
2. Pour hot cream over chocolate chips and let sit for a few seconds. Whisk until smooth.
3. Let cool until thick (may take a little while).

Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

With doing BLW, I am finding it hard to think of different breakfast ideas that are healthy. I found a recipe for a healthier version of blueberry muffins over on Skinny Taste. I followed the recipe exactly but mine are not quite as healthy. I used regular white flour and 1% milk instead of white whole wheat flour and almond milk.

 
I thought they were amazing, and apparently Aiden also loved them! He gobbled the whole muffin up! His face was covered in blueberries! I love watching him eat :)



I just love him!!!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups quick oats
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*. Line pan and lightly spray with baking spray.
2. Soak oats in milk for about 30 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine sugar, honey, applesauce, egg whites, oil and vanilla.
4. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Mix oats with wet ingredients and slowly add dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in blueberries.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes.



Bread Pudding

Back in October, my husband and I went to this little restaurant for our anniversary. I had never tried bread pudding before, and they were offering it, so my husband and I shared a serving. I think we should have got two because O-M-G it was AMAZING!!!!

Sunday was the start of a beautiful week. The sun was shining, and of course that calls for BBQ. We had Aiden's favourite meal: Steak and broccoli :) We don't have dessert very often, but it was one of the days that called for some. It was the perfect opportunity for bread pudding. I had to send my husband on a last minute grocery store trip. French bread and whipping cream. This recipe is adapted from the Joy of Cooking.

Ingredients:

• 6 lightly packed cups of white bread, broken into bite sized pieces
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 4 eggs
• 2.5 cups milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• Optional: Whipped cream (see below)

Directions:

1. Butter a 2-quart baking dish and preheat oven to 350*.
2. Spread bread into prepared dish and sprinkle with raisins.
3. In a large bowl whisk eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour over bread and let stand for 10 minutes or so until most of the liquid is absorbed. Periodically press bread down with a spatula.
4. Bake for 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
5. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Whipped Cream:
With an electric mixer, beat 1 cup of cold heavy cream with 1 tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla until thickened.

Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

I had a bunch of carrots in the fridge and wanted to use them up. I really like carrot cake so I thought I would give carrot muffins a try. This is a Canadian Living recipe. However, it only called for 1 carrot and I wanted carrot muffins, so I upped the amount! They are really good and pretty healthy as well :)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1.2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups grated carrot
• Optional: 1/2 cup walnuts or raisins or both! (I used both)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
2. In another bowl whisk together milk, egg, oil and vanilla.
3. Pour wet ingredients over dry and stir until dry ingredients are moistened.
4. Gently stir in carrot, raisins and nuts.
5. Pour into greased muffin pan (I used liners, but you don't have to). Bake at 375* for 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from pan and cool completely on wire rack.
6. Store in an air-tight container for 24 hours or wrap and freeze individually.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I saw this recipe over on So Tasty, So Yummy, and had to give it a try! I always have tons of bananas in the freezer and usually make banana bread, but it would be nice to use them for other recipes. These cookies are so incredibly healthy!! There is nothing to them...no sugar, no eggs, no flour!! Pure healthy, and super easy to make!

They are made with raisins, but would be amazing with chocolate chips, nuts, or cranberries....pretty much anything you want to add!

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas, mashed
• 2 cups oats
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl and let stand for 5-10 minutes so the oats soak up the milk.
2. Drop by tablespoon and bake at 350* for 15-20 minutes.

Pecan Pie

Like I have said before, I am not a huge dessert person. BUT I do love pie!! My husband introduced me to pecan pie and I thought it was really good. A little on the sweet side, but I did enjoy it.
He asked me to make one this weekend. I pulled out my trusty Joy of Cooking and found a recipe. I used the pastry found in my apple pie recipe, I just cut it in half. I have no problem making the pastry, but I need more practice rolling it out! I didn't quite roll it enough, so the pastry didn't come high enough in the pie dish and the filling was seeping over. Good thing it still tastes the same going down! It was really good!!

Ingredients:

• Pastry (divide recipe in half)
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup corn syrup
• 5 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups pecans

Directions:

1. Line a 9" glass pie pan with the pastry and glaze with egg yolk. Bake at 400*F for 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 375*F and position rack in the center of oven.
3. In a large bowl, whisk remaining ingredients (minus pecans). Once blended, stir in pecans.
4. Pour filling into prepared piecrust.
5. Bake until edges are firm and centre is like gelatin when nudged. About 35-45 minutes. Let cool on a rack for at least 1.5 hours.

Zucchini Brownies

I love zucchini, but my husband hates it. I like to sneak it into his diet! Last night he had one of these brownies and thought they were great...and he didn't even know he ate zucchini!! haha :) I found them to be really good, however I thought they were sweet, so next time I am going to reduce the sugar to 1 cup.

The batter is really dry, so don't be concered! The zucchini adds the moisture. (I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

Brownies

-          ½ cup oil

-          1 cup sugar (actual recipe called for 1½ cups)

-          2 tsp vanilla

-          2 cups flour

-          ½ cup cocoa

-          1½ tsp baking soda

-          1 tsp salt

-          2 cups shredded zucchini

-          ½ cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

Icing

-          6 tbsp cocoa

-          ¼ cup butter

-          2 cups icing sugar

-          ¼ cup milk

-          ½ tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350^oC. Grease and flour a 9x13 pan.
2. Mix oil, sugar and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Stir into sugar mixture. Fold in zucchini and nuts.
3. Press mixture into the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.
4. Icing: Melt cocoa and butter and allow mixture to cool. In a medium bowl, mix sugar, milk and vanilla. Stir in cocoa mixture and spread over cooled brownies.

As a side note: My step-sister got me a Rachel Ray cookbook. It is nice because it gives you a whole meal, not just one part! I am planning on making something once a week from the book (I am going to start from the front and make each recipe! They all look wonderful!). So stay tuned! If I really love the recipe I will post about it! :)

Piña Colada Muffins

When we had our baking day last week, my friend suggested I try a recipe she had for Piña Colada Muffins. I thought it would be perfect for my family Christmas potluck this past weekend. I thought they were pretty good! I mean I love a good piña colada so why wouldn’t I love them as muffins!!

Ingredients:

-          2 cups flour

-          ¾ cup sugar

-          ½ cup flaked coconut

-          2 tsp baking powder

-          ½ tsp baking soda

-          ½ tsp salt

-          2 eggs

-          1 cup sour cream

-          1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple in juice

-          ¼ cup butter, melted

-          1/8 tsp coconut extract

-          Additional coconut (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400^oF. Spray 18 muffin cups and line with paper cups.
2. Combine flour, sugar, coconut, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Beat eggs in a medium bowl. Blend in sour cream, pineapples with juice, butter and coconut extract. Stir into flour mixture.
4. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling ¾ full.
5. Bake for 10 minutes and then sprinkle tops of muffins with additional coconut. Bake for an additions 5-10 minutes.
6. Remove muffins and cool on a wire rack.

Maple Pecan Chocolate Squares

I was watching a holiday baking special on CityLine and they were making these Maple Pecan Chocolate Squares. They are like a pecan butter tart but in a bar form. A friend of mine was having a holiday baking day where we brought over the main ingredients and baked. I knew I was going to give these bars a try. They are delicious!!! And surprising super easy to make!

Ingredients:

Base:

-          1¼ cup flour

-          ½ cup icing sugar

-          ¼ tsp salt

-          ½ cup cool unsalted butter

Filling:

-          ½ cup brown sugar

-          1 tbsp cornstarch

-          ½ tsp baking powder

-          ¼ tsp cinnamon

-          2 eggs

-          ½ cup maple syrup

-          ¼ cup butter, melted

-          1 tsp vanilla

-          1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice

-          2 cups pecan halves

-          1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350^oF. Grease an 8” pan and line with parchment paper
2. Prepare base by mixing flour, icing sugar and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly and press in pan.
3. Bake for 15 minutes and cool.
4. Prepare filling
1. Mix brown sugar, cornstarch, baking powder and cinnamon
2. In another bowl, mix eggs, maple sugar, butter, vanilla and vinegar
3. Whisk egg mixture into brown sugar mixture
4. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips
5. Pour filling over cooled crust
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until middle is set (a little thicker than a butter tart)
7. Chill completely before slicing

Dutch Apple Pie

I went to a play date a couple months ago, and one of the moms made a Dutch Apple Pie from kraftcanada.com. It was amazing!! Cream cheese and apples…I never thought they would go well together but do they ever! I make a pretty amazing traditional apple pie, but I wanted to give this a try as well. Peeling and slicing the apples is pretty time consuming, but I used my mandoline and it worked great. Here is the recipe! Give it a try :)

Ingredients:

-          1 ready-to-use refrigerated pie crust (you can also make the pie crust from the apple pie recipe)

-          1 package of cream cheese (250g), softened

-          ½ cup sugar, divided

-          1 egg

-          ½ tsp vanilla

-          2 tbsp + ½ cup flour, divided

-          1 tsp cinnamon

-          4 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

-          ½ cup packed brown sugar

-          ½ cup large flake rolled oats

-          ½ cup cold butter, cut up

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375^oF
2. Line pie plate with crust
3. Beat cream cheese and ¼ cup sugar until well blended. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Spread onto bottom of pie crust.
4. Mix remaining sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and cinnamon and add to apples; toss to coat. Spoon over cream cheese.
5. Mix remaining flour, brown sugar and oats. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apples and cover.
6. Bake in bottom third of oven for 50 minutes or until apples are tender, uncovering after 20 minutes

Nutella cupcakes

I’m not a chocolate person, but I do love Nutella! It is so yummy :) I found a recipe for Nutella cupcakes on Pinterest and I have been dying to try them! Today was the day!! I didn’t have any muffin liners, so I just used a non-stick spray. They turned out great, but next time I will use the liners and I will probably use a little more Nutella. (I used about ½ tsp in each muffin; I will probably use a FULL tsp next time!)

Ingredients:

-          ¼ cup butter, room temperature

-          ¼ cup oil

-          ¾ cup sugar

-          3 eggs

-          1 tsp vanilla

-          1¾ cup flour

-          2 tsp baking powder

-          ¼ tsp salt

-          ¼ - ½ cup Nutella

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325^oF
2. Beat butter, oil and sugar until fluffy
3. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth
4. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to egg mixture and beat until well combined (Note: Batter should be thick so you can swirl Nutella in)
5. Pour batter into 12 lined muffin cups. Drop a spoonful of Nutella into each cup and swirl with a knife.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes

Granola Bars

These granola bars are amazing! My husband loves them. He usually takes the whole container to work so he can share. But this week (he started a new job this year and this is the first time I have made them in awhile) he only took one peice so he could brag about these delicious bars. He says he will take the container on Friday and share the rest! They are great because you can add whatever you want to make them your own. I want to try adding peanut butter the next time I make them.

Ingredients:

-          4 ½ cups rolled oats

-          1 cup flour

-          1 tsp baking soda

-          1 tsp vanilla

-          2/3 cup butter, softened

-          3/4 cup liquid honey

-          1/3 cup brown sugar

-          2 cups of additions (chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, dried fruit, etc.)

Directions:

1. Mix oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, butter, honey and sugar in a large bowl
2. Stir in assorted additions
3. Press mixture in a pan and bake for 18-20 minutes at 325^oF
4. Let cook completely and cut into bars

Amazing Apple Pie (from Gramma!)

**This was part of another post (from last year) where I had two recipes on one post. I am trying to seperate them to only one recipe per post**

My favourite pie is apple! No one makes it better than my gramma, but I am getting close! My husband would beg to differ that his aunt makes the BEST apple pie…but of course he is wrong…and I am right!! Here is my recipe (which I got from MY gramma!)

Ingredients:

Pastry

- 2 cups flour

- 1 tsp salt

- 2/3 cup shortening

- 5 to 7 tbsp cold water

Filling

- 6-8 apples peeled and sliced

- 1 cup sugar

- 2 tbsp flour

- ¼ tsp nutmeg

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 2 tbsp butter

Directions:

1. Blend flour, salt and shortening using a pastry blender until there are small clumps

2. Add 5 tbsp of water and knead dough (if you have to add more water do some now)

3. Separate dough into two balls, and roll each ball into a circle for pie crust

4. Put one crust in the bottom of pie dish and make sure it slightly goes over the side

5. Mix all ingredients for filling together and pour on top of pastry

6. Put second crust on and squish the sides together. Use a fork to indent the sides of the crust to ensure they are stuck together. Cut breathing holes in the top

7. Bake for 50 minutes at 400^o

8. Enjoy!!



My pie dish doesn't have an edge, so I didn't really have a crust!!



Chocolate Chip Blondies

I found this super easy recipe for Blondies on So Tasty, So Yummy. I wanted to make a simple dessert so I decided to try them, and they were delicious (alone or with ice cream)!! They are a mix between a cookie and a brownie…but they only require one bowl!! If you want an easy snack, give this recipe a try!

Ingredients:

-          ½ cup butter, melted

-          ½ cup brown sugar

-          1/3 cup granulated sugar

-          1 egg

-          1 tsp vanilla extract

-          1 cup flour

-          1 tsp salt

-          1 cup chocolate chips (I also used M&M’s!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350^oF, and brush an 8-inch square pan with butter
2. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugars until smooth
3. Whisk in egg and vanilla
4. Add flour and salt, mixing until moistened
5. Fold in chocolate chips and transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean
7. Allow pan to cool completely on a wire rack and cut into squares.

Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins

My husband LOVES the raspberry muffins from Tim Horton's and has been asking me to try to make them. Well I have been searching for a recipe and couldn't find one. Well yesterday I was searching and came across a recipe!!!


Next time they will have raspberries!!!

The recipe calls for buttermilk, but I hate buying things and then throwing them out because I don't use it all. Again I turned to the trusty search engine "Google" and found a substitute: 
     1. Put 1 tbsp on white vinegar (or lemon juice) in a measuring cup.
     2. Top to 1 cup with milk and let it stand for 5 minutes.

I had another little issue!! I bought the raspberries a couple weeks ago and when I went to use them they were no good :( Luckily I had some blueberries in the fridge so I used them instead!! I took a picture, but I *will* be making these again *with* raspberries!!! So I will make sure I get another picture :)

Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

-          ½ cup rolled oats

-          1 cup buttermilk (or use my substitute posted above)

-          ¾ cup whole wheat flour

-          ¾ cup all-purpose flour

-          2½ tsp baking powder

-          ½ tsp baking soda

-          1 tsp cinnamon

-          1 egg

-          2/3 cup brown sugar

-          ¼ cup oil

-          1 cup raspberries (or blueberries in my case!)

Directions:

1.      Combine oats and buttermilk and let stand for 5-10 minutes

2.      Beat egg in a large bowl and add brown sugar and oil

3.      Stir oats into egg mixture

4.      Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon with eggs and oats

5.      Fold in fruit

6.      Bake at 370^oF for 20-25 minutes

Banana Treats (Muffins or Bread)

I LOVE banana bread/muffins!! We always buy bananas but can never finish them. I pop them in the freezer and save them for tasty banana treats! I pretty much know this recipe by heart! I hardly have to look at my recipe card anymore. This recipe is so moist!! It is perfect J I always use frozen bananas, but I am sure it would be just as tasty with ripe bananas. It also calls for orange juice, but sometimes I don’t have any on hand, so I just use ANY juice I have in my fridge. It works every time!!

Seriously give it a try already!!!

Ingredients:

- 3 bananas

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup sugar

- ¼ cup oil

- 2 cups flour

- 1 tsp baking soda

- ½ tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp salt

- ¼ cup orange juice

- Optional: ½ cup chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

Directions:

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.    In a large bowl, mix bananas, eggs, sugar and oil

3.    Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt

4.    Blend well

5.    Mix in orange juice and any optional ingredients

6.    Bake muffins for 15-20 minutes, and bread for 1 – 1½  hours

Chocolate Macaroons!

Let me start off by saying: I am not the baker in the family! That would be my sister in-law (she even made our wedding cake!), and she is a wonderful baker. However I do enjoy it! Since I haven’t done any Christmas baking I thought I would make a few things. Today I made chocolate macaroons - they were my favourite sweet when I was younger (and they probably still are!)

Ingredients:

-          2 cups sugar

-          ½ cup milk

-          ½ cup butter

-          3 cups rolled oats

-          6 tbsp cocoa

-          1 cup coconut

-          1 tbsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Boil sugar, milk, cocoa and butter for 5 minutes
2. Remove from heat and add rolled oats, coconut and vanilla
3. Place small amounts on parchment paper, place in fridge until cooled