Mason Jar Salad: Day 1 (And Banana Muffins)

Today's jar salad was fantastic! (It was also the talk of the staff room for both Hubby and I.)  I managed to leave enough room for a good shake an successfully mixed it all up! The lemon vinaigrette was perfect.  The beets managed to colour everything a nice shade of purple too! Of course today was day one. Hubby has a couple more salads in the fridge for his week but I am leaving for 2 days of camp with the grade 8s tomorrow so I didn't make more. I am however tempted to make a couple to take and store in the camp fridge. (I'm not sure if I can handle mass produced camp Cesar salad...)

In keeping with my experimenting theme, I decided to make some banana muffins to take with me to camp. That wasn't the experiment. The experiment was switching out the white sugar for maple syrup! I researched a bit online and decided to use 1 cup of maple syrup in exchange for 1 1/4 cups white sugar. I also added an extra 1/4 tsp baking soda and another 1/3 cup flour. Oh, I also only used 2 tbsp of canola oil instead of 1/3 of a cup and I have a sneaky suspicion that I may be able to omit the oil altogether!

Here's the recipe....and FYI, I'm not sure these guys will actually make it out of the house and to camp...they are just that tasty!

Maple Syrup Banana Muffins - printable recipe here

2 Tbsp canola oil
1 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
5 over ripe bananas
2 1/3 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt (or less if you prefer)
1 cup chocolate chips

Pre heat oven to 325

Whisk together the oil, maple syrup, and the eggs until the eggs are thoroughly mixed in.
Mash the bananas, add them to the liquids and mix it all up.
Add on top, but don't mix yet the flour, baking soda, and salt. Use a fork to quickly stir the dry ingredients before mixing them into the wet....this just saves dirtying another bowl!
Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until almost combined, add the chocolate chips and finish stirring until just combined.

Scoop into lined muffin tins (This made 24 muffins) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes...these ones took 25 minutes but always check at the earliest time.

Try to allow these little gems to cool first but try one if you must. (Remember, they are tasty warm but the flavours will have time to meld and these will taste even better the next day!)

Not too shabby!

Wish me luck at camp!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

I'm Going Bananas & Blueberry Muffins

It has been a busy week!  Between baseball practices, work gatherings, family dinners, and head colds this week has flown by and I realized I hadn't posted anything new.  When we got back from our family dinner tonight I felt the need to bake up some banana muffins.  It really had more to do with the extremely over ripe bannas that were sitting on the counter, beckoning me to mash 'em up into an oh so yummy batch of muffins than the need to have something for the teen age bottemless pit to snack on.  This recipe I have had hand written in my recipe binder for longer than I can remember.  I have made so many changes and notations in the book that it has become my own famliy recipe.  I usually turn loaf recipes into muffins to help with portion control...although the bottomless pit sometimes makes that attempt futile!

Banana Bread/Muffins
Printable recipe

Over ripe bananas are sweeter

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 5 bananas over ripe...the more over ripe the better
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda

Possible add ins:

• Chocolate chips, blueberries, nuts, 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a bowl mix together:

• 1 cup ap flour
• 1 cup wh wh flour
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda

Set this flour mixture aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a bowl with a wooden spoon..whatever you have) mix together until well combined:

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 ¼ cups sugar

Add and mix well:

• 2 eggs

Now add and mix well;

• 5 over ripe bananas

Mix well, mashing the bananas up as you go.

Add the flour and mix until just combined.  Remember that with muffins you do not want to over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough.

This will make 2 loaves or about 24 muffins (depending on size of muffins)

Muffins bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Loaves bake for 40 – 45 minutes or until golden brown and the top springs back when pressed with your finger.