Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Mini Muffins for Boyfriend

As I've mentioned, I am visiting boyfriend in San Diego. I've been making him little treats and freezing them so he has something to eat when I had back to school.

He loves muffins, especially mini ones he can pop into his mouth like popcorn. So, I wanted to make some with the chocolate chip banana bread that he loves.

Fun fact: I am allergic to bananas. Not horribly, I can touch them if I wash afterwards, but I cannot eat them. I am a wonderful girlfriend.

I wanted to share this delicious banana bread recipe. It almost cake-like. Very moist and tasty.

Chocolate Chip Banana Mini Muffins

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup vanilla bean yogurt
• 1 banana mashed
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, microwave the ripe banana  for 20 seconds.

This makes the banana much easier to mash.

Combine the mashed banana with the egg, yogurt, and vegetable oil. I used to very nice, flavorful yogurt to enhance the flavor of the muffin, plus that's what I had in the fridge.

Pour the wet ingredients on top of the drive, and mix until barely moitened.

Mix in chocolate chips.

Spray the muffin tin with no stick spray, and fill 3/4 full.

Sprinkle the top of the muffins with cinnamon and some natural sugar if you can get your hands on a packet, this makes the tops of the muffins look and taste amazing.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean, and your kitchen is full of lovely banana smells. A spoon really helps remove the muffins from their tins without damaging them.

This is a great recipe to make and freeze for days when you need to grab a quick breakfast.

The Friday Night Knitting Club Review

I'm currently on a splendid week and a half vacation to visit my boyfriend in San Diego. It's completely awesome, and the perfect way to end my summer.

Now, before you all start dreaming up pictures of him and I surfing, laying out on the beach, and wandering around with mouse ears for ten days, I have to break it to you. He's here for an internship, and works 8 to 5 on weekdays.

So I'm left to my own devices. :) My plans are generally to laze about, read, knit, and cook some easy meals to leave in his freezer so he doesn't starve when I head back to school.

Since posting may get lighter once school is back in session (and I'm not to regular about it when I'm doing nothing all week) I am going to try and keep updating throughout my vaca.

So, my first order of business was to snuggle up in a sunbeam on his balcony (be jealous, there is an awesome view) and get some reading done. As all other college students and most adults I've ever met can relate to, I could not remember the last time I had read for pleasure and not a class.

I wanted to read something different than the depressing works of great literature I've been reading in advance classes for years now. I wanted something with characters that are relateable in this century, possibly by a living author. I also wanted a storyline that wouldn't bore me to tears and something that could be easily shlepped to the beach if I didn't finish it before this weekend.

I selected The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, and trust me, the possibility of not finishing it before this weekend flew out the window. I was expecting a cute, little story about a group of women in a yarn shop, discussing their daily lives over yarn. What I got was a compelling, couldn't put it down, story of many strong women's lives, whose only similarity was a weekly knitting club they all attend.

There are a great many characters to keep up with, which allows the story to draw the reader in and not let go for 366 pages. It is a fictional book, yet so based in reality that you find yourself in one, if not all, of the characters shoes.

It re-ignited my urge to knit, with a beautiful reminder that the way a person knits reveals a lot about the knitter. Each character has her own, unique knitting style, which allows a special knitters-only insight into their soul. The main character, Georgia Walker, stitches are dependably perfect. She is the rock for the group, and an inspiration to those reading.

I took a look at my own stitches, on some headbands I'm working on for my young cousins, and I realized that my stitches say a lot about me too. They are perfectly even, I've never had any issues with tension. Intricate patterns to keep me interests, and like most of my projects, for someone else.

Those are the patterns I finish. I've knit entire sweaters for myself, only to end before sewing the ends in, or finishing the last sleeve. I'm a giver. I will always enjoy gifting my creations over keeping them.

You could call this book a simple story about Georgia Walker's yarn shop, but the soul of this story moves far beyond a crafting story.

I do hope you pick up this book. It's a great end of summer beach-y read, which will help you relax, even if you are at home.

White Chocolate Orange Cookies

I made these cookies for my mother's friend's retirement party... twice.

You see, the recipe was supposed to yield 24 cookies, which was waaaay more than I wanted. So I originally cut the recipe in half, for a dozen cookies, in a normal cookie size.

Then I made mini-cupcakes and tiny little lemon cookies. The cookies looked GIANT, which worked out, because cutting the recipe in half was too few cookies... I know it sound like a lot, but these cookies are delicous and bake up fast.

I got the recipe from The Goddess's Kitchen, but the recipe was in grams... I'm in college, I do not own, nor wish to own a kitchen scale. So, here is a fantastic cookie recipe - in cups :)

White Chocolate Orange Cookies
Makes 2 dozen, and you are going to want all 24 :)

• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 tsp of orange zest (1 orange)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups - minus 4 tablespoons of flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups of white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream together butter and sugar.

Add beat in egg, orange zest, and vanilla.

Whisk together all dry ingredients.

 Combine wet and dry ingredients.

Beat in chocolate chips.

Roll into balls and flatten on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Try not to eat them all at once.