Halloween Special: Chocolate Banana Muffins

Are you planning to throw away those over ripe bananas?? Please don't, instead make this banana chocolate muffin... It tastes so good that i regret giving away those pretty 9 muffins to my husbands office friends... :D
And yes, Happy Halloween to all!! Today is 2015 Halloween, and my very first Halloween. I wanted to make something special for Halloween and cookies were in my mind for few days.. But I ended up making this banana muffin as i had some over ripe bananas at home and also some left over buttercream frosting too.
The recipe is adapted from Joy of Baking 

Ingredients:

1. Flour - 1 3/4 cup
2. Baking powder - 1 tsp
3. Baking soda  - 1/2 tsp
4. Sugar - 1/2 cup
5. Brown sugar - 1/4 cup
6. Cocoa powder - 3 tbs
7. Chocolate chips - 1/2 cup
8. Salt - a pinch
9. Egg - 3 (small or medium size)
10. Butter, melted - 1/2 cup
11. Banana, mashed - 3 large, about 1 1/2 - 2 cups
12. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
13. Buttercream frosting - 1 1/2 cups (optional)

Note:

• I have used mini chocolate chips
• You  may mash banana manually or use a blender to do the same. I used a blender for mashing bananas
• Since i had problem with mixing baking powder and baking soda with flour last few times, i have put extra effort to make sure it is mixed very well with flour and other dry ingredients by putting all dry ingredients into a canister and giving nice shakes and stir :)
• I have used a 12 cup muffin tray and 4 silicone cups for baking

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F heat
2. Prepare a 12 cup + 4 cups muffin tray with paper cups
3. Mix all dry ingredients from 1 to 8 very well. Make sure there is no lumps
4. Mix all wet ingredients from 9 to 12 in another bowl
5. Fold in dry ingredients mixture to wet mixture until they are combined and not many lumps in the batter left
6. Spoon the batter in to each muffin cup to fill 3/4 or little more than that of the cup
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or unitl skewer comes out clean when dipped at the muffin center
8. If you are frosting your muffins, you may do it after the muffins are cooled to room temperature. I have used blue color and white color frosting with star tip and round tip. And top it with wilton  sugar eyes. 

I am linking this post to Fiesta Friday

Strawberry Banana Parfait

Strawberry banana parfait is an easy no cook breakfast dish which is rich in nutrients.

Ingredients:

1. Banana, sliced - 1
2. Strawberry, chopped - 6
3. Lemon juice - 1 tbp
4. Rolled oats - 3 tbs
5. Milk - 3/4 cups
6. Yogurt - 2 tbs
7. Sugar - 2 tsp optional
8. Plain cornflakes - 4 tbs

Method:

1. Things to be done on previous night
2. Soak rolled oats in milk in an airtight container and place them in fridge
3. Mix chopped strawberries with sugar and lemon juice and place them in fridge too
4. Things to be done in the morning
5. Place sliced bananas in 2 cocktail glasses, half in one and half in second glass
6. Spoon the overnight soaked oats with milk equally among the 2 glasses
7. Take only the strawberry pieces from the strawberry mixture from fridge and layer it above the rolled oats leaving a tbs of strawberries and the whole juice in the bowl itself
8. Top with cornflakes equally in both cups
9. Mix yogurt with the left over strawberry mixture and top both cocktail cups with it

The beautiful strawberry banana parfait is ready to be served!

Banana French Toast

Here I am after a short break from blogging due to relocation. In the coming days, you should see some recipes with minimum ingredients being used as I am yet to unpack my kitchen items. Here goes our breakfast recipe for French toast with banana.

Ingredients:

1. Banana, chopped -1.5 cups
2. Egg - 2 big
3. Bread slices, white or brown - 4
4. Cinnamon , powder - a pinch
5. Sugar - 2 tbs ( Optional)
6. Milk - 2/3 cups
7. Butter/ oil - 4 tsp

Method:

1. Mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon and milk well in flat bottomed bowl with enough diameter to fit a bread slice
2. Add chopped banana and give a stir 
3. Heat a pan and add a tsp of oil
4. Dip a bread slice in the mix so that there is a coating of egg mixture on both sides of bread slice
5. Place the bread slice on hot pan and spoon on it banana pieces from the egg mixture.(the bananas will not stick to bread slice when you just dip the bread in the mixture, that is why it is good to spoon some of the banana pieces on bread slice when one side of the bread slice is being roasted)
6. Once the it is almost cooked (you don't see liguidy egg mixture once cooked), and you can flip the bread slice (now the top side of the bread should be slightly browned) and brown the banana side of the bread too.
7. Once roasted on both sides, move it to a serving plate.
8. Repeat from step 4 to 7 for the rest of 3 slices of bread by adding 1 tsp of oil into hot pan.

Banana Dates Overnight rolled oats

It is time to bid goodbye to instant oats. Introduce the healthier choice of rolled oats or steel cut oats.

Overnight rolled oats breakfast is a time saver for anyone busy or lazy to make breakfast in the morning. And yes, it is a much more healthier choice than your usual breakfast items. 

 

Below is my today's breakfast recipe. 

Ingredients:

1. Rolled oats - 1 cup
2. Low fat milk - 1 cup
3. Greek yogurt - 3 tbs
4. Dates chopped - 3
5. Sugar - 1 tsp optional
6. Banana sliced - 1 small or 1/2 big
7. Salted caramel - 1 tsp

Direction:

1. Mix all ingredients from 1 to 5 in a mason jar and store it in the fridge overnight.
2. Top with sliced banana and salted caramel. 

Sweet Pongal or Payasam???

Stir it some more time and let that bananas disappear...

Being born and bought up in kerala, i have never had sweet pongal before. After marriage, when i made payasam, with rice and jaggery without coconut milk,( thick payasam which we get from temple as prasad) my husband told me that is Sweet Pongal. When I searched for sweet pongal recipe in other blogs, i could find that sweet pongal has green gram or moong dal and milk in it...Anyway here is my version of sweet pongal with banana.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rice (podi ari/ parboiled ponni rice)
• Jaggery to taste.( I used about 200gms)
• 1/4 tsp cardamon powder
• 2 tbs ghee
• 2 tbs chopped cashew nut
• 2 tbs raisins
• 2 banana(njaalipoovan is the best)

Procedure

• Cook the rice well.
• Add crushed/melted jaggery to it.(You can add chunks also)
• Once the jaggery is melted, add chopped banana to it.
• Stir well to make it thick.
• Add cardamon powder and 1 tbs ghee to it and continue stirring. The banana pieces will be completely blended with the rest. Make sure that the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the vessel.
• Heat rest of the ghee and lightly fry cashews and raisins.
• When the rice mixture reaches its required consistency, switch off the flame and add the fried cashews and raisins to it. Sweet pongal/payasam is ready!!!

Tip: Immediately transfer the contents on to banana leaves to get that special taste and aroma...