Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chips Muffins

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chips Muffins

I love muffins. They are so easy to make and perfect for breakfast or snacking in between. Its been a while since I made muffins at home. Every week during our grocery shopping, I was getting some Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Muffins from Wegmans. Finally yesterday I thought to bake some at home. I am glad i did because these muffins are light, flavorful and delicious. And the best part of these muffins is that they are not too sweet, the way I wanted. I love these muffins with a cup of tea.

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chips Muffins

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 2 extra large eggs, at room temperature
• 3 large ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup light olive oil
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and place liners in a muffin pan.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Then add the chocolate chips to the flour mixture.
• In another mixing bowl, blend the bananas on low speed  for 3-5 minutes until well mashed.
• Add the oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla and mix again on low speed for 1 minute until combined.
• Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and combine until just blended. Don’t over mix the batter.
• Divide batter equally among muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full.
• Bake muffins 20-25 minutes, until tops are starting to brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
• Remove pan from oven and let cool on a rack for 5-20 minutes then remove muffins to a rack to cool to room temperature.

Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chips Muffins

Mango-Pineapple-Banana Smoothie

Mango-Pineapple-Banana Smoothie( Orange Smoothie)

Time to post another fruit smoothie. I just love-making smoothies. There are so many different fruits combos that you can try, there’s no way you could ever get bored with them! It’s a great way to start the morning and at the same time it’s so healthy and nutritious for you. Just throw in some fresh or frozen fruits in blender and whip up a nice, totally fresh and delicious smoothie for yourself; paired with a granola bar and you are good till lunch. Here’s what I did to make this smoothie.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup  pineapple juice
• 1 cup ice
• 1 banana, peeled and cut in big chunks
• 1 cup diced mango
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger

Combine all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth and well-blended. Enjoy!

Mango-Pineapple-Banana Smoothie/Orange Smoothie

Green Smoothie

Breakfast and smoothie goes hand in hand in my house. When I am tired of eating regular bowl of cereals and want some exciting and nutritious breakfast, I go for smoothies. I love smoothies…they are so versatile and incredibly easy to make.

I make my smoothie with all the fresh fruits in season but you can definitely go with the frozen ones, its doesn’t make any difference.  And let me tell you, this is the best way to include fruits in your diet. If you have kids, you know how difficult it is to feed them fruits and veggies. So, you can sneak in some veggies in their smoothie and they don’t even know what is in there…believe me it works! As I said, smoothies are so versatile and easy to make that you don’t have to go with an exact recipe – just little bit of this and that.

I keep thinking of all kinds of fruit combos to try , seriously the flavor combos are endless, so be creative.

Ingredients:

• 1 green apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
• 1 banana, peeled and broken into pieces
• 1 ripe pear, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 orange, peeled and cut into segments
• 1 cup baby spinach
• 4 tbsp greek plan yogurt
• 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup milk (I used 2% milk)

Method:

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender, and puree until smooth. And serve! Doesn’t get easier and healthier than this…Cheers!!

Banana Walnut Bread

The funny thing about this post is whenever I feel like making/baking something with banana, I would be out of banana at home. Then I have to buy most ripen banana from the store which I regularly not even touch..:)..For the reason that this will not even last two or three days .

To be honest banana bread is the most easy and delicious thing to bake at home.After getting the main ingredient I decided to make this for our weekend breakfast and the best part is it does not require a mixer.

I would say this is the best banana bread recipe I have ever tried. The result is an super moist and perfect bread to serve for breakfast or anytime in between.

I gave a slice of banana bread to my son and  asked him “How is it baby?” and his verdict was YUMMY MOMMY…:)

Banana Walnut Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe banana, smashed
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup walnut, chopped
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoon milk
• pinch of salt

 

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Lightly grease a loaf pan so that the bread comes out easily and does not stick.
• In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and keep it aside. This will be your dry ingredients.
• Take a large mixing bowl, mix butter and sugar until the sugar melts. Add eggs, vanilla, milk , walnuts  and mashed bananas. Mix everything until compelety blended.
• Now add the dry ingredients in batches and incorporate well.
• Pour the prepared batter in loaf pan.
• Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted into center of the loaf, comes out clean.
• Let bread cool in pan for about 15 minutes, remove from pan and slice to serve.

Banana Walnut Bread

 

Recipe Adapted from: Simplyrecipes.com

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

Recipe Yields: 2 Servings

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

This is the most common smoothie you will find in every home, restaurant and places you can think of. Everyone makes this smoothie either with the frozen berries or with the fresh ones. So, there is nothing to share the recipe here but still wanted to post this as the name itself makes me feel like having a glass of this refreshing drink. Also, summer is the time you can have this kind of smoothies, drink or juices to cool off the excessive heat and use those fresh berries.

Last weekend when we were grocery shopping at BJ’s, I saw this beautiful, fresh strawberries on shelf which I could not pass; we grabbed that 2 lb box. But 2 lb is a bit more to just eat it like a fruit. Hence made this smoothie.

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

For the Smoothie:

• 10 fresh strawberries
• 1/2 cup low-fat yogurt
• 1 ripen banana
• 1 tablespoon honey
• water if needed

Grind everything together in a blender and add water if needed to loosen the consistency like smoothie. I have added couple of tablespoon of water to it.

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

And Enjoy this drink!

Have a lovely weekend guys!

Banana nuts muffins

Banana nuts muffins 

As usual whenever I see Ina baking something I feel like baking on the same day or on the coming weekend. 

So, recently I saw her baking banana nut muffins with granola, I could not wait to try it. I had some bananas but they were not that much ripen required by the recipe. So, I got ripen banana from the store to make this muffins, funny right everyone makes banana muffins when they have ripen banana on hand and in my case it’s totally different. Anyways I made this and it turned out awesome. Had a friend visiting at my place and got some compliments from her that she do not like to eat muffins as they tastes very sweet but yours are perfect, they are delicious. So, here goes the recipe: 

Banana nuts muffins

Ingredients: 

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup walnut, slightly roasted, and roughly chopped
• 1 cup granola cereal
• 2 grated banana
• 1 banana, diced in small pieces

Preparation: 

• Pre heat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit
• Heat a skillet and slightly roast the walnuts, do not take your eyes of it or else it will get burn. Slightly roasting walnuts give wonderful taste of the nuts.
• In a large bowl, combine dry all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and keep it aside.
• In a bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix butter and sugar until blended completely.
• Add one eggs at a time and mix well. Now add vanilla extract, sour cream and mix well.
• Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combine together.
• With the help spatula fold in grated banana, banana chunks, granola and walnuts to the batter and mix well. do not over mix the batter.
• Prepare a muffins tin by placing liners and brush the outer part of the tray with butter .
• Spoon the batter in the prepared muffins tins with liners and sprinkle some granola on the top and bake .
• Bake for 20-25 minutes on 350 deg fahrenheit or until a tooth pick inserted come out clean.
• Cool it on wire rack and serve at room temperature.

Note: Grate and diced bananas in the end when you are done mixing the batter completely otherwise it will turn black . 

Banana nuts muffins