Quite Possibly The Best Banana Bread Ever...

When it comes to Banana Bread, I've tried quite a few recipes. I came across this recipe the other day when I was looking to try something new. I have to admit the title caught my eye "No Ordinary Banana Bread". So I thought to myself....why not put it to the test and give it a try? Can I just say.....O'ma Goodness! This banana bread blew all the other recipes I've tried out of the water. It has a couple of ingredients that keep it super moist and the chocolate chips on top add a little something special. I can see this recipe will become a family favorite!

Banana Bread

¾ cup butter, softened 

2 eggs

1 ½ cup brown sugar

7 medium mashed bananas ( about 3 cups)
*Here's the secret. Substitute one of the cups of bananas with 1/2 cup crushed pineapple and 1/2 cup applesauce.

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon cinammon

2 ½ cups flour
1 (11 ounce) bag milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter, eggs, brown sugar, bananas, applesauce and crushed pineapple with a mixer. Add baking soda, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, and flour. Mix well.

Pour into 3 medium bread pans ( I like to use disposable foil pans) and sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the batter. Bake at 325 for 55 minutes to 1 hour.

Go ahead, pour yourself a nice tall glass of cold milk and dig in while it's hot!
It's so moist and delicious...and really easy to make! 

Enjoy!!

Recipe courtesy of: The Girl Who Ate Everything

Boston Creme Poke Cake...

So, I'm well into my third trimester now and I'm craving ooey gooey sweet stuff all the time! Looking around today on the internet for a quick and easy dessert recipe led me to one fabulous  little place..... My new favorite slice of heaven!

If you like Boston Cream donuts, I promise you’ll like this easy recipe.

Boston Cream Poke Cake

Print

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 12-16

A simple and delicious cake-version of Boston Cream Donuts

Ingredients

• - Yellow Cake Mix (and cake ingredients)
• - French Vanilla Pudding (5.9 oz. box)
• - Chocolate Pudding (5.9 oz. box)
• - Milk

Instructions

1. Make cake as directed in a 9×13 pan.
2. Poke holes into cake using the end of a large wooden spoon while cake is semi-warm.
3. Make French Vanilla pudding as directed. Wait a minute for it to thicken up a little more and pour over cake.
4. Make Chocolate pudding as directed. Pour over cake as well.
5. Refrigerate at least for 30 minutes and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Lil' Luna.

This cake is seriously so quick and yummy! 

Enjoy every last bite...

Champagne Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting...

Happy Wednesday! I hope your week is off to a wonderful start. If you're like me you're buried in boxes and Christmas decorations you're painstakingly trying to package up and put away before the New Year begins and your home looks like a department store after they have a holiday 75% off clearance merchandise sale {violated and abused}.  So let's take a minute to breathe and let go, ready....Aaaaaahhhhhh!

Yesterday I posted a few of my favorite New Year, New Beginnings holiday looks I'll be trying to decide on for my New Year's Celebration get together. Since it'll be a low key evening spent with great friends, I needed to find a little something special to bring to the party. Needless to say, when I came across this recipe for Champagne Cupcakes on Pinterest, I couldn't have been more excited. The best part is now {at 6 months pregnant} I can have "champagne" for New Year's Eve too! 

Here's how you make them:

Champagne Cupcakes

 { made 36 mini cupcakes }

Cupcake Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup champagne (we used Korbel is fine)
6 egg whites

Champagne Buttercream Frosting Ingredients

3 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons champagne, at room temperature

Directions

Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Prepare a cupcake pan with liners.  (This recipe yielded about 20 for me.)

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together, and then blend into creamed mixture alternately with champagne.

In another large clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into batter to lighten it, then fold in remaining egg whites.  Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Frosting:

With an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter. Mix on low until well blended, and then on medium for another two minutes.  Add vanilla and champagne, beating on medium for another minute. Fill you favorite pastry bag with fluted tip, and frost away!

There you have it, it's that easy! What a fun and sassy way to

 ring in the new year! You're guests will keep coming back for

 more of these little popable, adorable frosted delights. 

If baking just isn't your thing....No worries! Just remember this....

I'm sharing this recipe over at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Tuesday's Treasures. Stop by and find more inspiring recipes and home decor ideas!

 

Have a beautiful day!

Cookie Dough Dip...

This time of year I love to have delicious dip recipes for serving when we get together with family and friends, and the holidays. O'ma Goodness....this dip speaks for itself!! Originally the recipe called for just chocolate chips,  but I always like to add a little something special so I thought "mmmmm, toffee chips". C'mon, What compliments chocolate better than toffee?

That little bit of crunch and toffee flavor tipped this already delicious dip right on over to out of this world!

My secret....I’ve served it with chocolate graham crackers, honey graham crackers, animal crackers (for the kiddies) and even some apple wedges. But, this dip would be heavenly just licking it straight off the spoon....trust me on this one! All you need is a cracker or apple slice to look dignified while you are gobbling it up. So, the choice is really yours on what you serve with this dip.

Here’s how you make it....

Cookie Dough Dip Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes

 Total Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 12

The most delicious recipe for cookie dough dip you've ever tasted.

Ingredients

• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup toffee bits

Instructions

1. Cream together cream cheese and butter.
2. Add all remaining ingredients and mix until well-combined.
3. Serve with graham crackers or apple wedges.

I hope you love this delicious treat as much as I did and if you have any creative ways of serving it up or other delicious add-ins I'd love to hear your spin on it! 


Don't forget to enter to win these fabulous earrings during my Holiday Bling Giveaway....





There's still plenty of time and THREE chances to win! Here's the link with all the details on how to enter:
Holiday Bling Giveaway from WhimSea Designs

Have a delicious day, Everyone!

Mini S'mores Cup Cookies...

Mmmmm, sweet smells are filling up my kitchen this week! With only two weeks until Christmas...I've got a lot of baking to do, so I thought I'd share another one of my favorite little treats with you. This is an amazing Pampered Chef recipe I came across recently and it makes the perfect gift to take to a Christmas "Cookie Exchange Party". They're quick and easy and you'll be the biggest hit at the party....

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place graham crackers into a large resealable plastic bag. Finely crush into crumbs. Combine graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and butter in a small bowl.
Place 1 tablespoon of crumb mixture in each cup of a mini muffin pan. Press crumbs to form shallow cups. Bake 4-5 minutes or until edges are bubbling. Meanwhile, break two of the candy bars into rectangles. Remove pan from oven; place one rectangle into each cup.

Cut marshmallows in half crosswise using shears dipped in cold water. Place one marshmallow half, cut-side down, into each cup. Return to oven 1-2 minutes or until marshmallows are slightly softened. Remove pans from oven to cooling rack; cool 15 minutes. Carefully remove cups from pan. Cool completely.
Break remaining candy bars and place in small microwavable bowl. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring every 20 seconds. Dip the top of each marshmallow in melted chocolate. Turn top-side up and let stand 40 to 60 minutes or until set. Makes 24 cups.

Note: Store the cups in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 1 week. Freezing is not recommended. For a richer chocolate flavor, substitute dark chocolate candy bars for the milk chocolate.

WARNING:  THESE YUMMY LITTLE GUYS ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE....
TRY NOT TO EAT THEM ALL BEFORE YOU GET TO THE PARTY, OKAY?   {wink}

Oreo Truffles...

The countdown to Christmas has begun! One of the things I look forward to this time of year is spreading a little love and Christmas cheer to those around me. I love spending the weekend baking some unique and delicious cookies and then wrapping them in cute little festive containers to hand out to my neighbors. I found this recipe this morning and couldn't wait to share it with you all...this is one of many I'll be sharing I'm sure...

Easy OREO Truffles

Rated: Submitted By: BAKER'S Chocolate Ready In: 1 Hour 30 Minutes Servings: 42

"These truffles are very easy and delicious. You can't go wrong with OREO, cream cheese and chocolate!"

INGREDIENTS:

1 (16 ounce) package OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies, divided 1 (8 ounce) package PHILADELPHIA Cream

Cheese, softened 2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER 'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, melted

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor; reserve for later use. (Cookies can also be finely crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended. Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.
2.	Dip balls in chocolate; place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. (Any leftover chocolate can be stored at room temperature for another use.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
3.	Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

Recipe courtesy of All Recipes

HELPFUL TIP: I used "Candi Quik" instead of bakers chocolate in this recipe. It's much easier, you can find it in the baking isle of the grocery store (or even walmart) and it has microwave instructions on the back...I LOVE IT!

So, how do you spread a little Christmas cheer with your neighbors? I'd love to hear your thoughts and am always looking for new ideas to share...

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone! 

Mini Pumpkin Mousse Parfaits...

I don't know about you but when it comes to the holidays and enjoying all the fabulous foods that come along with them...I just can't seem to get enough pumpkin! Since I have so many left over cans of pumpkin in my pantry I thought I'd make a few more delicious treats and share...

I found the pumpkin mousse recipe on this great little blog I stumbled upon called  The Tom Kat Studio. Oh my goodness, is this recipe Fabulous!!  The recipe was originally adapted from Food Network and trust me, if you love pumpkin, you will love these! They are very simple with just a few easy-to-find ingredients.  I followed a recommendation to use regular sugar, rather than superfine and it turned out great.

Photos by: Laura Winslow Photography

Ingredients

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Ginger snaps, for garnish

Directions

Combine pumpkin, 1 cup cream, sugar and spice in a medium saucepan. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes. Cool fully. Whip remaining heavy cream and vanilla to soft peaks and fold into cooled pumpkin mixture. After you make the mousse recipe, use these steps to create the mini parfaits:

{1} Add crumbled gingersnaps to bottom of mini parfait glasses

{2} Put the mousse in a large plastic bag. Snip off the corner and pipe a layer into the glasses

{3} Repeat step 2, but with Cool Whip

{4} Top with crushed gingersnaps

{5} Enjoy!

I can not begin to tell you how amazing this was! Hope you love it as much as I did!!

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Are you ready? Well, when it comes to entertaining you can never have too many cookies out...especially for the kiddies! Here's another favorite pumpkin dessert recipe I love. These fantastic pumpkin cookies will have your guest sneaking a few in their jacket pockets on the way out the door!

Ingredients

2 c butter (softened)

2 c sugar

1 16 oz can pumpkin

2 eggs

4 c flour

1 T pumpkin pie spice

1 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1 bag white chocolate chips

Frosting

1 can cream cheese frosting

1/4c brown sugar

Heat oven to 375. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and pumpkin pie spice, set aside. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add pumpkin & eggs beat until smooth. Slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl. Beat medium speed until blended. Stir in chips. Drop cookies by tablespoons on to a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!