Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins

My friend and neighbor, Jen, called last night. She had been at home yesterday with a sick kiddo and found herself with some extra time and decided to do some baking. She also decided to try to clean out the left-over baby food that her toddler no longer eats. So, she found a recipe that would allow her to bake and use up the left-over baby food. Success! She called to tell me that I just had to try this recipe and post about it on my blog. So, here you go!

I made these muffins this morning. I just happened to have some overripe bananas in the freezer that needed to be used. Just as Jen said, they were delicious! They were taste-tested and approved by myself and my son, by his teachers at pre-school, my friend Linda and the ladies who attended the Zumba class that I taught this afternoon and a few others along the way.

While Jen used baby food bananas for her muffins, I used a banana that I had in the freezer and just threw it in the blender. She used baby food carrots and I used orange puree (pureed sweet potatoes and carrots) that I had in the freezer. We both used flour blend instead of plain whole wheat flour. Slightly different ingredients, but the same result-healthy and delicious muffins!

Hope you enjoy these as much as we have. I even have some stuck in the freezer to take for snack next week at pre-school.

Just a reminder - all you have to do is click on the title of this post to access the recipe. Or click on the Recipes tab on the right sidebar.

Puree Party Schedule

Who wants to Party? Puree Party that is! Are you curious just what exactly a puree party is? Then just click here to check it out.

If you live in the Evansville area and want to join us then just click on the sign-up link and pick your date to attend.

The dates being offered right now are 9/29, 10/7, 10/14, 10/19, 10/29 - all from 8-11 pm.

Look forward to partying with you!

French Toast and Rocks

I made french toast for the first time today. I am not sure why I had never made it before, but nevertheless, it was a first. I made orange puree earlier in the week so that I could make a ton of chicken tenders to freeze and had some puree left over. My intention was to make applesauce muffins, but I discovered that I was out of brown sugar and therefore could not make muffins. I was determined to make something for breakfast that would use this orange puree. So, I looked through my cookbooks and discovered this simple recipe for french toast. Eggs, orange puree, cinnamon and whole wheat bread. Yum! There are a million variations of this recipe I am sure and I intend to try more, but this was a good start.

I almost forgot about the rocks. If you ever need to make some rocks, I have a great recipe. I attempted to make oatmeal raisin breakfast cookies, but instead ended up with, you guessed it, ROCKS. No taste, hard as a rock and just plain awful. They can't all be winners, right? Do you have a favorite oatmeal raisin cookie recipe to share? I would love to hear it!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday - No mess meatloaf

I love meatloaf. But, I certainly do not love mixing it up. If you are like me and don't like getting your hands dirty or cleaning up the mixing bowl later, then try placing all ingredients in a sealed plastic bag and smash/mush/smash/mush until the meatloaf is completely mixed.

Then, place in pan to cook. Toss the bag!

Also, I never just make one batch of anything. If I am going to make the mess then I might as well make it really big. This past weekend I made my favorite meatloaf recipe x 8.

Even if you don't have a ton of freezer space at least double the recipe so that you have dinner tonight and one to freeze for another night.

Another reason I love meatloaf, is that with this super healthy and tasty recipe I turned 8 pounds of lean ground beef and turkey into 16 pounds of meatloaf. Not only am I stretching the budget, but I am sneaking healthy ingredients such as old-fashioned oats, wheat germ and pureed broccoli, spinach and peas into dinner.

Don't forget to hop on over to Tammy's Recipes to check out more kitchen tips.