Merry Christmas…
Hey friends, it’s Christmas once again. I swear it comes faster and faster every year. At least we’re here – together – and in good health… for the most part. Let me explain.
You see, our youngest son was sick last week and we were thrilled to see him getting better before Christmas. Unfortunately, our eldest, Michael, followed his brother’s lead and now he’s sick. The good news is that it appears to be a cold… and with rest, lemon tea, and the chicken soup Nelson made for him, we’re confident he’s on the mend.
So, although there’s some bug running through our home, we’re making the best of it and enjoying Christmas together.
Twinkling lights and memories
I love this time of year. I love the decorations, the trees, and the tiny white lights. There’s something magical about it all. Sometimes I just sit and stare at our tree–not that it’s designer-kind-of beautiful–it’s just special to me.
Almost every ornament has a story and I enjoy reminiscing while I decorate the tree. I remember the vacations where we bought the ornaments, or the friend who lovingly made the ornament or gifted it to us.
And then there are the ornaments our kids made. We get to remember our kids as little boys in kindergarten and grade 1 when they used to make ornaments at school. The whole thing makes me happy.
Gift wrapping…
I even enjoy wrapping gifts (I’m strange that way). I set myself up in the living room and I watch corny holiday movies while I get the job done. Sure, it takes me two or three times as long as it should, but I don’t mind. It’s my time to watch movies that nobody else in this house wants to watch and it ends up being kind of therapeutic.
Having said that, I think next year I’ll wrap differently. I’m going to wrap with craft paper, twine, and little branches of evergreen. Yes, I read an article today… it was about how much gift wrap ends up in the landfills at this time of year. Despite what I thought, the colourful gift wrap and gift bags we’re accustomed to using are actually not good for recycling. Who knew? Now we now.
So where do muffins fit in?
Uh… muffins. Do we need a reason? We had some brown bananas and Nelson wanted to make something super easy for us to snack on before our big family dinner at my parents’ place, where there will be waaaay too much food.
…super
easy
These yummy treats are perfect anytime of the day, and anytime of year. They’re super handy to pack for a treat during a skate or toboggan, or a road trip to visit family and friends during the holidays.
Make the holidays delicious and beautiful in your own way, and always eat well, friends.
Banana dark chocolate chip muffin
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose unbleached flour (bleached is also fine)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 large bananas mashed
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 ºF.
- Place paper liners in a 12 muffin tin.
- In a medium bowl, use a whisk to mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Add the sugar, vegetable oil and butter to a stand mixer bowl and beat for about 3 minutes on medium high.
- Lower the speed to medium and add the egg and vanilla, and beat for one minute.
- Add the bananas and beat for one more minute.
- Remove the stand mixer bowl from the stand mixer and add the flour mixture and chocolate chips.
- Incorporate all the ingredients with a rubber spatula. Do not beat or over mix.
- Fill each paper liner with batter almost to the top. Make sure the batter is divided equally amongst all 12 liners.
- Bake on the medium rack for 22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes before moving the muffins to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- Enjoy!
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