Banana, Chocolate Chip, Granola Muffins

Does anyone know what time it is?  You guessed it!  It's time for Secret Recipe Club.   Want to know more about SRC and join in the fun?  Check it out here! 

This month I was assigned the Kitchen Witch.  Rhonda a.k.a. Giggles, a middle-aged blogger, culinarian, photographer and avid motorcycle rider.  Drop by and give her blog a look, you'll find beautiful photographs and delicious recipes!

After making my way through Rhonda's recipes, I settled on Banana, Chocolate Chip, Granola Muffins.   No granola in the pantry?  No problem, I used coconut and quick oats.  I found these to be done after 15 minutes.  I always set the timer on muffins for less time than the recipe calls for because muffins tend to be dry when overcooked! 

Banana, Chocolate Chip, Granola Muffins

• 1 1/2  cups plus 2 tbs. all purpose flour, divided
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 or 3 bananas)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 plus 2 tbs. butter, melted and divided
• 1 1/2 cups granola, divided
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F.  Lightly grease 12 muffin cups or line with muffin paper liners.  In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.  Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until moistened.  Then stir in the  granola, and chocolate chips.  Do not over mix.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tbsp. flour, cinnamon and melted butter.  Then stir in 1/2 cup granola.  Sprinkle topping over muffins and gently press into batter.
Bake in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of muffin comes out clean.

An InLinkz Link-up

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats

When I was a kid, the only options for Rice Krispie Treats were the original ones.  I always thought they were too sweet.  Today it's fun to see all of the different recipes.  There's one's made with red hots,  a salted caramel variety, this one using cake batter and a recipe made with everyone's favorite biscoff. 

With hot chocolate season over,  left with a few extra packets in the fridge, this recipe caught my eye.  Fun how it uses the hot chocolate packets in the recipe.  These are yummy and you could substitute almost any kind of chips.

Just a little recipe note on this one...the next day I was planning to send these to Tim's office and tried to cut them.  They were hard as rocks.  Have you ever had this happen with Rice Krispie Treats?  I did some reading and apparently my marshmallows got too hot which results in very hard Rice Krispie Treats.  Note to self, don't let the marshmallows get that hot ever again!!  I'm so glad we enjoyed a couple of them the night we made them.  

Peanut Butter Hot Chocolate Rice Krispy Treats

Recipe Courtesy of A Kitchen Addiction

Serves: 24

Ingredients

• ¼ C butter
• 1 (10 oz) bag marshmallows
• ¼ C creamy peanut butter
• 2 packets dry hot chocolate
• 3 tbsp unsweetened baking cocoa
• 6 C crisp rice cereal
• chocolate chocolate chips, for garnish
• peanut butter chips, for garnish
• mini marshmallows, for garnish

Instructions

1. Butter or spray with non-stick cooking spray the bottom and sides of a 9×13 inch baking dish.
2. In a large saucepan (I used a 6qt.), melt butter over low heat. Stir in marshmallows until melted. Stir in peanut butter, hot chocolate mix, and baking cocoa until smooth.
3. Add crisp rice cereal and stir until coated.
4. Gently press mixture into the bottom of prepared baking dish. Do not press too hard or bars will turn out hard.
5. Sprinkle with chocolate chips, peanut butter chip, and mini marshmallows. Gently press down.
6. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars and serving.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

3-Ingredient No Bake Toffee Bars

I would love to write a cookbook featuring nothing but quick and easy recipes.  How many times do you need a dessert but don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen?  Or how about someone is coming over and you need a quick appetizer?  Don't get me wrong, I love to cook when I am in the mood and have the time.  Unfortunately, that's not as often as I would like.  I either am out of time or too tired.  So when I find an easy but yet delicious looking recipe, I'm there.

One of my favorite blogs is Dine and Dish.  Kristen lives in KC and often features something from my home town.  Besides that, she's an amazing writer and has a wonderful blog. If you don't follow her, you should.  She shared this recipe as one that her kids can whip up, quickly and easily.  For me, these were what I made for the monthly birthday treat day at Tim's office.

 

3-Ingredient No Bake Toffee Bars

• 2 sleeves Ritz Crackers
• 1 14 ounce can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 8 ounce package Heath English Toffee Bits (found in the baking aisle)

Instructions

1. Spray a 9" square pan with Pam cooking spray
2. Place Ritz crackers in a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Remove the air and seal tight. Using a rolling pin, roll the crackers into fine crumbs.
3. Pour cracker crumbs into a medium bowl. Stir in sweetened condensed milk and toffee bits.
4. Press firmly into prepared square pan. Store in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
5. Cut into small squares and serve.

Brown Sugar Balsamic Roasted Carrots

Roasting any vegetable makes it sweeter.   By adding balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, these carrots were almost like candy!!!

Brown Sugar Balsamic Roasted  Carrots

Recipe Courtesy of Let's Dish

Serves: 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 4 - 5 carrots, washed, dried and sliced on the diagonal
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
• Coarse salt, to taste
• Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper, or line with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
3. Place carrots in a medium bowl.
4. In a small bowl whisk together the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and 1-2 tablespoons brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like your carrots).
5. Pour the balsamic and brown sugar mixture over the carrots and toss to coat well. Arrange in an even layer on the prepared baking sheet.
6. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, or until carrots reach desired tenderness.
7. Remove from oven and transfer to a serving bowl. Sprinkle with coarse salt and chopped fresh parsley

Old Fashioned Banana Pudding

 Do these months just keep going faster and faster or is it me?  Hard to believe it's April and my third month cooking with Secret Recipe Club, Group C!  If you'd like to learn more about how Secret Recipe Club works, check it out here!  I look forward to seeing who had my blog each month, it's such a fun surprise!!

This month,  I was assigned Angels Homestead.  April, the woman behind the blog is a dedicated wife and almost empty-nest, mother of five, as well as Mamaw to two adorable grandbabies. She resides in Southern Indiana, along with her husband Joe and daughter Melissa, and enjoys the quite life on their 3 acre homestead. She enjoys blogging about her adventures in frugal allergy-free cooking, gardening, household tips, and her family.  Stop by her blog, you'll find some delicious recipes and great household tips!!

I must admit I have never made any type of pudding from scratch.  Recalling my childhood, I don't even remember my mother making pudding from scratch.  It's always been the box of Jello pudding.  When traveling in the south, I have enjoyed a bowl or two of  banana pudding.  April's recipe for Old Fashioned Banana Pudding caught my eye.  After all it was time I make a scratch pudding.

I cut the recipe in half and it made enough for two delicious dishes for Tim and I.  I don't think I did the best job of tempering the eggs when combining them with the custard.  When I was assembling the pudding, I did see a few streaks of what may have been scrambled egg.  Be careful when mixing, slowly is the key. 

Old-Fashioned Banana Pudding
Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 cups milk
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces (1/2 stick) butter
3 medium bananas, sliced
Vanilla Wafers

Directions

Mix together sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and slowly add milk.
Stir constantly until it thickens. Slightly beat egg yolks and temper with a small amount of the hot custard; stir well.
Add egg mixture to custard and cook 2 more minutes.
Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter, stirring to combine. Let cool.
In a 9 x 9 serving dish, alternate pudding, bananas, and wafers, beginning with pudding and ending with pudding.

An InLinkz Link-up

Smoked BBQ Glazed Meatloaf with a Bacon Weave

Earlier this year when Tim and I were on our cruise, we met Rick and Nancy, a wonderful couple from Canada.   When discussing things we do in our spare time, we discovered both Rick and Tim liked to BBQ with their smokers.  We shared one of our favorite recipes, Smoked Mac and Cheese.  Rick shared their recipe for this Smoked Meatloaf.

One of the nice things about the smoker is most recipes are pretty simple, glaze or rub the meats and place them on the smoker.  This recipe, not so much.  It requires lots of steps but the end result is well worth the effort.  I'm going to share the link to the original post which goes into detail on how to prepare the meatloaf for smoking.  Needless to say, this is moist and delicious!!!

SMOKED HONEY BOURBON-GLAZED MEATLOAF with a BACON WEAVE

PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOK TIME: 1 hour 45 minutes
RECOMMENDED PELLETS: Hickory or Oak
SERVES: 6 to 8
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1 carrot, peeled and diced or grated
1 stalk celery, finely diced
4 oz. mushrooms, finely diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, grated or diced
Olive oil
3 to 4 fresh sprigs of thyme, leaves only
1 egg, beaten
6-8 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1 cup bread crumbs
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup condensed tomato soup
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 lb thick-cut bacon
Traeger Honey Bourbon Sauce or favorite barbecue sauce

PREPARATION
Start the Traeger on Smoke with the lid open for 4 to 5 minutes or until the fire is established.
Mix together the carrots, celery, mushrooms, and onions in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave for about 2 minutes just to soften the vegetables a little.
Let the vegetables cool and then mix them in a large bowl with the ground beef, garlic, thyme, egg, crumbled cooked bacon, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, bread crumbs and tomato soup.

Form the mixture into a loaf and place on a wire rack over a foil-lined baking sheet.

Make your bacon weave using the thick-cut bacon, weaving it on a large piece of parchment paper.

Gently flip and lay the weave on top of the meatloaf so that the parchment is on top and peel off the parchment paper.

Put the meatloaf on the Traeger and smoke for 45 minutes.

Then take the meatloaf off and turn the heat up to 300 degrees F and allow to preheat, lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes.

Place the meatloaf back on the Traeger and cook for about an hour or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer.
During the last 15 minutes (once the meatloaf reaches about 140 degrees/145 degrees F) brush the meatloaf with the barbecue sauce to let it caramelize and for the exterior turn into bacon candy gold!

After you take it off the Traeger allow the meatloaf to sit for 15 minutes before you slice into it.