The Best Banana Muffin Recipe

I have baked a batch of banana muffins every week since school started.  It is a combination of just having a lot of bananas turning too quickly and trying to have something for my teenage son to pack in his post cross country practice breakfast.  I have tried a bunch of different recipes and combined a few and I think I have found my families all time favorite.

Banana Bread Waffles

Banana Bread Waffles from I Heart Cooking

Cream Cheese Stuffed Banana Bundt Cake

Cream Cheese Stuffed Banana Bundt Cake from Baking Bites

2 Ingredient Pancakes [Healthy Breakfast]

Healthy 2 Ingredient Banana Pancakes from Funky Junk Interiors

Chocolate Banana Bread

Chocolate Banana Bread from Picky Palate

Banana Caramel Cream Dessert

Banana Caramel Cream Dessert from Glorious Treats

Birds Nest Banana Cupcakes

Birds Nest Banana Cupcakes from Torie Jayne

Whipped Bananas

Whipped Bananas from Delia Creates

Frozen Banana Bites

Frozen Banana Bites from (Never Home)maker

Healthy Halloween Snacks

Halloween is full of sugar, so it is always nice to have some festive snacks that are a little healthier than a cupcake on hand.

Kellie from Little Nummies posted some fun cracker eyeballs over at Snack Picks.  My favorite are the banana and peanut butter version:

Food Junction has a lot of fun ideas, my favorite being the olive and gooseberry skewers:

Fruit salad jack-o-lanterns from Family Fun are a great pre trick or treat snack or a fun addition to the dinner table:

Banana Ghosts rolled in coconut from junimond:

These meaty fingers from Super Healthy Kids are made from pretzels, ham and an almond, but I am going to replace the pretzel with a cheese stick and serve these for lunch on Halloween:

Do you have any healthy snacks or appetizers that you plan on serving on Halloween?

Banana Ghosts

Another fun banana treat, but this time all ready ready for Halloween:

You can find the directions for this over at Family Fun.

Banana Split Bites

These cute little treats are from Baker's Royale:

They are banana split bites that would be pretty cute on just about any dessert table at any party.  They are even easily dressed up for Halloween.  Did you know you can buy orange maraschino cherries?  One of my favorite restaurants in AZ uses all sorts of colorful cherries.  They are actually different flavors.

But even without the orange cherries you could use some black and orange non perils that are super easy to find in the stores this time of year and it would be perfect.

You can see how to make these treats HERE and if you love the mini bite sized treat idea, Frost Me is featuring a bunch of them on her blog HERE.

PS - If you are wondering why these are called banana split bites when there isn't any ice cream, you need to go check them out, because there is ice cream tucked inside each one!

More S'more Varieties

I have been saving s'more ideas all summer.  Too many ideas.  And summer is almost over.  Not that you can't eat a s'more in the fall or winter, but there are so many fall and winter treats that you have to eat that we just don't have time for s'mores!  So before s'more season is over I have to share them all with you!

I am pretty sure I am going to have to try some S'more Bark:

And A White S'more looks interesting.  Maybe even add a little slice of banana to the party:

And then there are granola thins!  I am going to have to try these out:

Why not try it in pie form:

And if pie isn't enough, what about chocolate cake s'mores cookies:

And if you have pie and cake cookies, then you have to have s'mores with ice cream:

or at least a s'more milkshake:

I don't think we have enough time to get these all in before summer is officially over, but it never hurts to try!   Okay, actually it might hurt to try.  Actually it might kill you.  So please choose wisely!

Nutella and Banana Wontons

I don't post many recipes from the Pioneer Woman.  Not because I don't think they are wonderful, but because I assume EVERYONE reads The Pioneer Woman.  But I had to post this one:

My kids have become obsessed with wontons.  This summer Lou La took a cooking class with her cousin and one of the days they made wontons.  They were good too!  Add their love of Cream Cheese Rangoons to the mix and you have an all out wonton love.  They even ate Crab Wontons the last time we went out.

But these wontons, these are made with Nutella!  And bananas!  YUM!  You don't even have to be a wonton fanatic to love one full of Nutella!  And you can get the recipe at Tasty Kitchen.

Banana Ice

I found a recipe at Not Just A Mommy that we are going to have to try while the weather is warm.  Banana Ice:

It was a recipe that was submitted by a reader, Nancy Scott, to Martha Stewart Everyday Food.

Banana Ice

1/2 cup 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups water

3 oranges and 3 lemons, juiced

8 oz crushed pineapple

3 bananas, cut into small pieces

garnish: mint sprigs

1. In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. Transfer to an 8-inch square dish and mix with the juices from the oranges and lemons, the crushed pineapple and banana pieces.

3. Freeze 3 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from freezer about 20 minutes before serving (mixture should be slightly slushy).

4. If desired, mix with a lemon-lime soda like 7-Up and garnish with the mint sprigs

Chocolate Peanut Butter Dipped Frozen Bananas

I found these at The Moody Fashionista:

Not only are these bananas from Simple Bites a yummy summer treat, that shot glass is a pretty clever way to dip them!  I think it would work perfectly for pretzels too.

You can get the recipe for the Bananas HERE.  And if you want to find out all of the other reasons I think I need shot glasses even though I don't drink, you can check those out HERE.

Banana Ice Cream

We have a new one of these:




I will be telling you all about mine soon, but if you are in the market for an ice cream maker check out your Costco. My Costco has this one with two freezer bowls for $40! A steal!! I wish I would have bought mine there! I almost couldn't stop myself from buying a second one.

Anywho...

Last night the family wanted ice cream and I hadn't really made any ahead of time. I did a little searching online to see if I could find a recipe that didn't require cooking and didn't have eggs as an ingredient.

I stumbled on a banana recipe that looked good. No eggs, but I didn't have half of the ingredients it called for, so I decided to improvise.

What I did have was frozen bananas (always in the freezer for smoothies). I threw together a batch and it turned out SO GOOD. The best part is I used honey instead lf sugar. And did I mention it was REALLY GOOD!!

What you need:

6 frozen (vety ripe) bananas
1 Tbls. lemon juice
3/4 cup honey
2 Tbls. Vanilla Extract
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

What you do:

Slice the frozen banana into 2 inch pieces and put the pieces in a food processor along with the lemon juice and honey.

Pulse for 15 - 20 seconds.

Them slowly add the cream and vanilla while the processor is running and blend until smooth.

The mixture should be cold enough to put right in the ice cream maker.

It only took 20 minutes in my ice cream machine, but follow the recommendations for your machine.

The kids had theirs with chocolate sauce, I had chopped pecans, and my hubby had his with Vanilla Wafers. They were all good, but I highly recommend the wafers!

Only down side is we ate it all before I rook a picture, but it looked like ice cream:



But we didn't eat it on a cone. If you do want a cone ready ice cream, dish it out of the maker and into an air tight container. Toss it in your freezer for a couple of hours (3-6) and it should be solid enough to scoop.

Banana Invitation

If you are having a monkey themed party (or any party theme where you can get away with a banana invitation) you need to see this cute idea from Amanda at A Momma's Two Cents Worth:

See that little sticker that says peel me?  This is what you get when you peel back the yellow felt peel:

Such a cute idea.  You can see the rest of Amanda's ideas HERE.

Banana Brown Sugar Ice Cream

All I can say about this recipe from David Lebovitz is YUM!

I mean look at this:

You can get the recipe HERE.

Grilled Banana S'mores

Okay, there are no graham crackers, but anytime there are marshmallows and chocolate I consider it a S'more. In this recipe the graham cracker is replaced by a banana:

I found the recipe at Everyday Celebrating. You slice a banana lengthwise and stuff it with pieces of chocolate and marshmallows. Then you stick it on the grill to warm it up (and melt the chocolate and marshmallows. I cannot wait to try this the next time we grill!