Banana Muffins You Will Love

With it being the week of Valentines I wanted to share a few of my favorite recipes that I LOVE and know that you will LOVE too! These Banana Muffins are sure to be a hit. My mom and I went through our favorite family recipes and played around with them to make them even better and this is the one we've come up with. 

If you are more of a Splenda person we have a lower sugar version for you too, just follow the substitution instructions! 

As far as picture details go, a few years ago my mother in law gave me these cute heart shaped muffin tins which make anything that goes in a tin that much more festive! However, if you don't have those you can actually use marbles in regular muffin tins and shape it into a heart! Just give that a google for instructions! But what I love even more than this muffin recipe is that Mickey Mouse cake stand, seriously all the heart eyes for that little guy! My best friend just sent that to me for my birthday and I cannot get enough of it, beyond me already making it part of my kitchen decor I may just display everything from microwavable meals (grad school wife life) to fancy cakes on it! 

1/2 C Butter (1 Cube)

1/2 C Yogurt plain or vanilla-awesome or Butter Milk

1 1/2 C sugar*

3 eggs 

3 C Flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp soda

4-5 medium Bananas- very ripe mashed 

Optional Walnuts or slivered almonds on top 

Cream together: Butter, yogurt, sugar, add eggs

Stir together: Flour, Salt & Soda

Mash Fine- Bananas ( do not use more than 5 it gets to mushy)

Add Bananas to creamed mixture, blend well.  Slowly add flour mixture and optional nuts.  Don't over mix

Pour into lightly greased loaf pans 

Use ice cream scoop 1 per muffin and 4 scoops per small loaf pan 

(My oven runs a little hotter than most so I do it at about 360 for 15. So adjust the following accordingly)

For muffins cook at 375 for 18 minutes

For small loaf pan cook 325 37-40 minutes place 4 small loaf pans on cookie sheet.

For large loaf pan cook 325 for 50 minutes 

* or you can do 1/2 C sugar and 3/4 C Splenda

Another option would be using half the amount of white flour and adding half the amount of whole wheat flour. Remember for buttermilk you can sour milk using 1 TBSP lemon juice or vinegar for to equal 1 Cup milk.

Homemade Christmas Oreos

It is no secret that I have been on a homemade Oreo kick, and I'm not even sorry about it! So to keep with that I have added these super fun Christmas time homemade Oreos to the mix! They're so good, very little mess (granted I don't count the sprinkles as a mess cause I had so much fun rolling the frosting in them) and very festive!

Recipe
1 pkg Devils Food Cake Mix

2 Large Eggs 

1/2 C Canola oil (or vegetable oil)

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Cubes Butter
8 oz Cream Cheese
5-6 Powder Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2-3 Tbsp Evaporated Milk (Based on consistency)

Roll into small balls (just slightly larger than a quarter). Smash out dough. No need to grease the cookie sheet.  However, make sure that you scoop dough balls and shape the dough similar in size so they have a cookie match.  Bake at 350 (if you are at sea level consider going a a little lower in temperature) and then I bake them for right about 8 minutes.  Let them cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. Frost inside generously and sandwich cookies together, roll side frosting into Christmas sprinkles!

Game Day Football Oreos

Game Day Football Oreos! These are so fun, they are the same recipe as the homemade Oreos I featured previously and the only change is shaping the dough a little different and adding the decorative top! These are so fun! I got to go to a NFL Thursday Night Football game recently and experience my first ever NFL game and it was such a blast! So for all of you enjoying this time of year with all the NFL and College Football these cookies will make it that much better!  

Recipe
1 pkg Devils Food Cake Mix

2 Large Eggs 

1/2 C Canola oil (or vegetable oil)

Roll into small balls (just slightly larger than a quarter). Smash out dough and form into a football shape, (not just a circle but more of an oval with points on the end was what I had to keep telling myself).  No need to grease the cookie sheet.  However, make sure that you scoop dough balls and shape the dough similar in size so they have a cookie match.  Bake at 350 (if you are at sea level consider going a a little lower in temperature) and then I bake them for right about 8 minutes.  Let them cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. Frost inside and then put a portion of frosting in a decorating bag and make the lines on top of the cookie like a football has, as pictured.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Cubes Butter
8 oz Cream Cheese
5-6 Powder Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2-3 Tbsp Evaporated Milk (Based on consistency)

Witch Finger Bread Sticks

These bread sticks give "finger foods" a whole new meaning just in time for Halloween!

1 Package (1 scant Tablespoon) active dry yeast
1 C Warm Water (110-115 degrees F.)
3 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
3 C Flour
1 Egg White
1 Tbsp Water
Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese (optional)

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl.  Stir in sugar, salt and oil.  Add 2 cups of the flour and beat until smooth.  Add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough ( I use about 3/4 C).  Knead on a floured surface for 6-8 minutes until smooth and elastic (I use some of the additional flour from the 3rd cup to flour the surface). Spray bowl with nonstick cooking spray; place dough in bowl, turning to coat all surfaces with spray.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour.  Punch dough down and divide into at least 12 pieces.  Roll each piece into a rope.  Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place bread sticks one inch apart on prepared sheet.  Let rise, uncovered, until double in size about 45 minutes.  Beat egg white with 1 Tbsp water.  Place almond slice on as decorative nail (for spooky effect) sprinkle with Parmesan cheese (optional) then brush egg wash over bread stick.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Place a large shallow pan filled with very hot water on the lowest rack of oven, and put baking sheet with bread sticks on the middle rack.  Bake bread sticks for about 10 minute, brush again with egg white and bake 5 minutes more or until golden brown.   Living at sea level I bake slightly shorter amount of time and slightly lower oven temperature.

Mickey Pumpkin Bars

Friends these pumpkin bars are so so good! There are so many things that I love about them but mostly I love that they are easy to make, stay fresh for days on end, feed a crowd, can be made well beforehand, are hard to mess up and are super moist and tasty! Our neighbor shared them in our Church Cookbook and they are just the best! They cut super smooth, which is oddly so satisfying, but also look at how fun it is when you use cookie cutters for them, making mickey and pumpkin shapes somehow makes them even more magical!

Pumpkin Bars:
4 Eggs
1 & 2/3 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Oil (the Costco olive oil works great, but so does just regular vegetable oil)
2 Cups canned pumpkin
2 Cups unbleached flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt (my mom has used regular salt and it works great too, if you do use sea salt make sure it's just fine sea salt you wouldn't want to use the coarse salt)

Beat together eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin.  Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix dry ingredients and wet ingredients just until nice and smooth, scraping sides - do not over beat.  Spray large cookie sheet with cookie spray and make sure to use a paper towel to get it up on the sides as well. Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes (I'm more at sea level so I did more like 335 degrees for 22 minutes and it worked great).  Then Frost when cooled.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

3 Cups powder sugar
3/4 Cup butter, softened
6 oz cream cheese
1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla.

Homemade Halloween Oreos

Homemade Halloween themed Oreos for the win!! These are delightful! I use this recipe whenever I need a quick cookie with little mess! I mean with a pre-made cake mix as the main ingredient that means that most the measuring is done for you and that leads to less clean up, which I am all about!



Recipe
1 pkg Devils Food Cake Mix

2 Large Eggs 

1/2 C Canola oil (or vegetable oil)

Roll into small balls (just slightly larger than a quarter).  No need to smash the cookies and no need to grease the cookie sheet.  However, make sure that you roll balls similar in size so they have a cookie match.  Bake at 350 (if you are at sea level consider going a a little lower in temperature) and then I bake them for right about 8 minutes.  Let them cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes. 

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 Cubes Butter
8 oz Cream Cheese
5-6 Powder Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
2-3 Tbsp Evaporated Milk (Based on consistency)

Dye Frosting colors according to desire, in this case yellow and orange.

Mickey Mouse Waffle Give Away

Friends! My brother (Disneyland Eric) is at it again, giving away all the legit prizes over on his Youtube channel and he's giving away another Mickey Mouse Waffle Maker.  We're obsessed with these, it's the one that you can make waffles the size of the ones in the parks (not the one that says waffle maker but magically makes Mickey pancakes) and while I'm secretly hoping that I win I still wanted to share this awesome giveaway with my friends! No follow loops no required re-posts or shares, just my brother and his Youtube channel give it a follow and fill out the form! Plus his Youtube channel is packed with fantastic reviews, tips and fun Disney adventures. On our Disney Cruise this year as a family we had people coming up to him on a daily basis asking if he was THE Eric from Disneyland Eric and thanking him for his awesome videos and tips, it was awesome so enter to win enjoy the channel and good luck! Click Here or on the youtube video below to be taken to the video and channel and registration form! Details in the link or the clip below!