2 Ingredient Banana Muffins

These are ridiculously easy and customizable. I had a box of spice cake mix for pumpkin cupcakes and these bananas were going bad so I threw thia together. You could mix in nuts or fresh fruit even! I topped mine with a mix of oatmeal and brown sugar for some crunch.  The muffins came out light and fluffy (not as dense as traditional banana muffins).

Box cake mix
4-5 bananas mashed

1. Preheat oven to 350* and prepare a cupcake pan with liners or spray.

2. Mix box of cake mix and bananas together. Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 of the way.

3. Bake for 16-18min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

I modified a few no chill pie recipes I've seen floating around. I didn't want to use pre-prepared pie filling since they always have a weird taste to me. This filling makes a heaping extra large pie or could be split between two regular sized crust. You can also save the extra cup or so you heap on top to dip graham crackers, apple slices, or ginger snap cookies. I whipped this up quickly and it chilled in time to slice after dinner served with another dollop of whipped topping.

8oz cream cheese, softened
1/2cu brown sugar
1/2cu granulated sugar
1tsp vanilla
2 1/2tsp pumpkin pie spice
1tsp cinnamon
1 can pure pumpkin
8oz tub whipped topping
1 prepared x-large graham cracker crust

1. Beat together cream cheese, sugars, vanilla, and spices until fluffy.

2. Slowly add in pumpkin until well combined then fold in 1/2 the tub of whipped topping.

3. Pour into graham cracker crust and chill for at least 2hrs.

4. Serve dolloped with whipped cream

Peach Pineapple Cobbler

You can thank a late night craving for this one, haha. I wanted a peach cobbler with a little tang and thought of pineapples. I easily had all the ingredients on hand in my cupboard/fridge. The bonus is it taste great AND makes your house smell like peaches. Have I mentioned how I love the Blogger iPad app? It lets me do all my editing and pictures right in the app. I wish I could adjust the hue of the pictures here since some appear kinda bluish, but you get he idea. To was definitely delicious. The edges were buttery and slightly sweet. I preferred it sprinkled with brown sugar and cinnamon for that caramel effect. You can easily adapt this with different fruits. You need about 4-6cu of fruit when it goes into the oven. The peaches cooked down some during baking. I'm already thinking of maybe a mango pineapple and substitute coconut milk for the plain milk in the baking mix!!

29oz can peaches packed in juice (1cu juice reserved)
20oz can pineapple chunks packed in juice, drained
8 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1cu sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
Ground cinnamon and brown sugar, optional

1. In a saucepan heat the peaches with juice and drained pineapple to boiling. Let cook uncovered for about 10 minutes until syrupy.

2. Meanwhile, place the butter into a 9x13 baking pan and place into the oven. Preheat the oven on 350*.

3. Mix the self rising flour, sugar, and milk. Carefully pour over butter in dish, but DO NOT stir. Spoon fruit over and then slowly drizzle remaining drizzle. Sprinkle with cinnamon and a little brown sugar if desired.

4. Place into oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the batter comes out clean.

5. Serve topped with your favorite creamy topper and enjoy! Can be served warm or cold.

Pecan Studded Pumpkin Cupcakes

As I mentioned in my pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese filling recipe one of my coworkers suggested adding pecans to the cream cheese filling. I also added a sprinkle of brown sugar and pecans on top before baking for even more flavor. Delicious!

Healthy Brownies

One of my co-workers is a fitness and nutrition buff. I am always bringing baked goods in to work with me and as he's eating my brownies he talks about how he's going to get fat with me working there. His birthday is tomorrow so I figured I would be nice and bake a lowfat brownie. I wasn't sure how to substitute the 1 1/2 sticks of butter from my usual brownie recipe so after searching the web for a lowfat brownie recipe I decided to give these a try. Some reviews said they're very cakey and they did seem to rise more than my usual brownie recipe does. I put sprinkles on top for some birthday festiveness. I modified the recipe some and this is what I did. I can tell you they came out super moist, but I didn't taste them. I will let you know tomorrow how he likes them!

1/2 cup applesauce
2 small or medium bananas mashed
1 1/2 cup sugar substitute
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups finely shredded zucchini
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

1. Preheat oven to 350* and lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

2. Blend applesauce, banana, and sugar substitute together. Slowly add in vanilla and zucchini.

3. Stir together all dry ingredients an add into wet ingredients. Fold in chocolate chunks and spread into prepared pan. Bake for 25min until they lightly spring back when touched.

Coconut Rice Pudding with Mango

My boys and I go on dinner dates to an Asian fusion restaurant that serves a delicious sticky rice with mango. Personally I LOVE the flavor combination of coconut and mango. I also happen to LOVE rice pudding so this was an easy recipe to put together. The sugar crust is like the icing on the cake. There's no more satisfying way to end a meal than breaking into the crunchy sugar crust on a brulee. Sadly I have an electric stove and no kitchen torch so my sugar didn't brown as much, but it still had that nice crunch!

1 can pure coconut milk
1 cu milk
1/3 cu jasmine rice
1 egg
1/4cu brown sugar
1 tsp coconut (or vanilla) extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cu diced mango
2tbsp granulated sugar

1. Combine coconut milk, milk, and jasmine rice in medium saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil, turn to low/medium and cook for 20 minutes slowly stirring.

2. Whisk together egg and brown sugar. Slowly add in 1/2cu of hot rice to temper (warm eggs without scrambling) the eggs. Pour egg mixture into pot with cinnamon and mix well. Continue cooking at least 10 minutes while stirring until rice is ideal doneness. You can add additional milk to keep the mixture creamy until it reaches the texture you want.

3. Pour into buttered casserole dish and top with mango. Sprinkle sugar on top and broil or torch for a few minutes until the sugar on top is browned like a creme brulee.

Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese filling

 FALL HAS ARRIVED!!! This is one of my favorite seasons because it's not too hot and it's not too cold. It's the best time of year for produce because you still have a lot of the summer seasonal veggies and fruits available, but the heartier items are available now as well. Pumpkin is one of my favorite fall squashes, but it's not a flavor everyone loves. These pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese filling are perfection. You could put the cream cheese on top as a frosting, but I personally love having it as a center. I took these to work and one of my coworkers recommended adding pecans to the filling. I think I will try those next!

8oz block lowfat cream cheese, softened
1/4cu sugar
1tsp vanilla

1. Blend all ingredients together and allow to chill overnight.


1 box spice cake mix
1 small can pure pumpkin puree

1. Preheat the oven to 350* and line cupcake pan with liners.

2. Blend all ingredients together until well combined. This will be a very dry dough and not what you're used to when you think cupcake dough.

3. Fill 1/3 of the cupcake liner with dough and create a small indention. Add a small amount of cream cheese and cover with more dough so the liner is only about 2/3 full. I used my cookie scoop for the cream cheese and put half a scoop into each cupcake.

4. Place into oven and bake about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the side comes out clean of dough. Don't overbake as these cupcakes can get dry quickly.

Oatmeal Scotchies

This is a favorite recipe I got years ago from Nestle. It can be made with quick or old fashioned oats. Sometimes I toss in walnuts, but these quick baking cookies are delicious without. As with all baking recipes, I suggest you leave the eggs and butter out overnight. They won't spoil and they come to room temperature so they're perfect to bake with. If its hot where you live like here in North Carolina the butter will be soft enough to easily cream by hand!

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract or grated orange peel 3 cups quick or old fashioned oats 1 2/3 cups (11oz bag) butterscotch chips 1. Preheat oven to 375*. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl. 2. Beat butter, both sugars, eggs, and vanilla or orange peel in large bowl. Slowly beat in flour. Using a rubber spatula fold in oats and butterscotch chips. 3. Drop rounded tablespoons onto ungreased (or parchment lined) cookie sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes for a chewy cookie or 9-10 minutes for crisp. Cool on sheet for 2 minutes before moving to wire racks to cool completly. *I cook mine for 8 minutes. The cookies will be brown around the edges and look slightly under done in the center. When they cool they're perfection!*

What I'm baking...

This Nestle recipe for chewy cocoa brownies is my favorite!
I will edit this post later to add the recipe if you can't see the pic. I'm posting this from my phone :-)