Chocolate Banana Muffins

- recipe from epicurious.com 

Evelyn’s Coffee Bar, Banff, Canada

Yield: Makes 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large)
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line twelve 1/3-cup muffin cups with foil muffin liners. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Mix mashed bananas, egg, melted butter and milk in medium bowl. Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients just until blended (do not overmix). Stir in chocolate chips.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake muffins until tops are pale golden and tester inserted into center comes out with some melted chocolate attached but

no crumbs, about 32 minutes. Transfer muffins to rack; cool.mI

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A Day of Great Food

Breakfast: Cheese & Sausage Corn Muffins

The original recipe can be found at this blog http://chickensintheroad.com

1.1 cup of all purpose flour

2. 1 cup yellow cornmeal

3.1 T. baking powder

4. 1/2 t. salt

5.1/4 cup canola or other oil

6. 2 eggs

7. 1 cup buttermilk

8.1 lb cooked sausage

9. 1 cup cheese

Preheat oven to 425. Fry sausage. Once it is cooked and finely crumbled, drain and set aside. Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Stir to combine. Add sausage and cheese and stir lightly. Prepare your muffin tins. I used butter in mine. Fill the cups almost to the top and bake for 15 min. I doubled this recipe and it made 30 muffins. Adding some Chiles would be nice too even bacon.

Snack: Armadillo Legs

• 12 Jalapeños
• 1 container of cream cheese
• 1 lb of bacon

Preheat oven to 425. Cut jalapeños in half. Scoop out seeds and rims. If you like it hotter leave some in ( that is the way I like mine). Take the cream cheese and  fill the halves. Then slice the bacon in half crosswise not lengthwise. If you have large jalapeños you will want to use the whole slice of bacon so do not cut. Mine were smaller ones. Place on a broiler pan and cook for 15 to 20 min.

Dinner: Crockpot Beef Stew

You can find this on my recipe page.

Crockpot Oatmeal..Some Things Should Not Be Done!

As a mom of 5 of which 3 now go to school. The mornings are a little hectic around here. I have exactly 1 hr to get everyone up, dressed, fed, teeth brushed, hair done, and out the door. I have come to find that the more simplified things are the faster this goes. This includes breakfast.
We do not do a lot of cereal here because it is way more expensive and it does not last as long. Like most larger families it is easier to feed a good breakfast that is cooked rather poured in a bowl. This has sent me on a mission of scouring blogs to find good & easy breakfast ideas. This is how I happened to come across the idea of Crockpot Oatmeal. My kids LOVE oatmeal. It's just a little hard to make during the week because when it comes straight off of the stove it is REALLY REALLY HOT!
Thus I decided to give it a try. My husband and I were a little apprehensive.We both were thinking that it was going to become mush. Mushy oatmeal is never good. Against better judgement I decided to give it a go. I put it in and set it and left it. When I awoke it was worse than I had imagined. Not only was it mush but there was this gelatinous gooey crust that had formed on top. It was brown and black. Underneath that was mushy oatmeal. Underneath that was stuck on oatmeal. This is not going to be fun to clean up later.
I decided to give it to the kids to try anyways.....no one even wanted to try it. With a lot of coaxing they eventually ate it. They did not like it and asked that I never make that again. You know it is bad when the kids that LOVE oatmeal hated this. So, PLEASE whatever you do..NEVER EVER PUT OATMEAL IN THE CROCKPOT!

Here I Am...

So...The last several months have brought along many events. I moved 4 times, had a baby, husband got out of the Navy and finally found a new job, the kids have started school, and we are still trying to unpack and get stuff out of storage. That is the basics of the past 6 months.
It has been a whirlwind of good times, bad times, and in between times. I sit here on my last nerve so it feels. It has just been one of those days..You know what I am talking about. The day when you try to get stuff done, but yet nothing gets done. The kids are doing everything they possibly can to get on each others nerves including mine. The baby refuses to be put down for any period of time. It's dinner time and I haven't the energy to even try to cook. Who hasn't been there?
This has been my life alot lately. I really need it to change. I think I need to wipe the dirt off of my butt stand up and get back to my life before the whirlwind of events began. I hope that this is the beginning of that. I am going to start menu planning and chore planning that way with the grace of God I can get my life back. Whish me luck :)