Banana Spice Muffins

I was walking down the hallway at work the other day trying to convince myself that stopping at the market on the way home to purchase quick oats was not the worst errand ever.  My normal work day breakfast is 1/2 c. quick oats, 1/2 c. milk, and 1 banana shaken together and left in the fridge overnight.  For me, it's perfect.  I feel full and ready for the day.  However, I was out of oats, so if I wanted my regular b-fast I was going to need to make a stop at the store.  But then a case of extreme laziness set in.  And when I say extreme, I mean extreme.  There is a grocery store lit-er-ah-ly on the way home.  I would not have to take a detour.  To make a right into the store parking lot, walk into the store, walk over to aisle 4, walk to the self check out, feed my 2 singles into the machine, get my 9 cents change, walk back to my car, and make a right back onto the street would add a whopping 6 minutes to my ride home.  Yes, extremely lazy that day.

So, honestly, the fight going on in my head is me saying I need oats so I can make my breakfast and the other me saying I don't want to take the extra effort to stop at the store.  My answer is the mentally sort through the items in my fridge and pantry, an exercise that reveals I have everything I need for banana muffins.  And folks, we now have our winner.  So instead of spending 6 minutes to buy quick oats, I spend 45 minutes prepping and baking banana spice muffins.  Though, let's be real...muffins were the obvious choice.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda  
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3 large bananas, mashed

3/4 c. white sugar

1 egg

1/3 c. butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F and prep muffin tray with liners.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

 
In another large bowl, melt butter.  Then add bananas and smash.

Add sugar, egg, vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon, then mix.  

Stir in the flour mixture.  Once thoroughly combined, scoop into  muffin tray.

Back for 25 to 30 minutes.

This recipe will make 12 muffins and about 10 minutes from being done your kitchen will begin to smell like spicy banana heaven.  These will come out having a distinct spice cake flavor.  If that's not something you enjoy, take out or reduce the nutmeg.

Banana Dessert Burrito

When I made chicken pot pie a few weeks ago, I had all this perfectly good but unnecessary pastry dough leftover.  Since I am not one to waste I looked around the pantry to come up with something to use up the dough.  The banana dessert burrito was my answer.

Ingredients:

2 bananas
~ 1 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
Drizzled honey

Roll out dough.  Slice two bananas onto dough, leaving space around the edges.  Drizzle honey then sprinkle brown sugar.

Fold in edges to make a circle.

Fold in 1/3 then fold again, making what is essentially an ugly burrito.

Bake at 35 minutes at 400F. 

Mmmmm banana!