Amazing Banana Muffins & The Royal Chef

Banana Muffins with Streusel Crumb Topping

These muffins are probably the best I've ever made! They are so good and flavorful and the easy to make topping takes them up a notch. The whole recipe is easy and SO satisfying and I picked it up on All Recipes.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas, mashed (mine were mostly black, the best for baking!)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted

Streusel Crumb Topping:
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, grease muffin pan or line with muffin papers. I used a mini muffin pan and mini muffin liners (since I did mini muffins, I actually baked at about 360 degrees).

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour (1 1/2 cups), baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, egg and melted butter. Stir banana mixture into the flour mixture. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

3. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tbsp butter until mixture is well mixed. Sprinkle topping over the muffins.

4. Bake in preheated oven for abut 18 - 20 minutes (I did 8-12 minutes for mini muffins) or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy! I made these for a meeting at work and I received compliments on them. Definitely a recipe I'll keep and make again.



In other news, I got to see Darren McGrady speak at a charity luncheon I went to for work on Friday. He's known as "The Royal Chef" an was a chef for Queen Elizabeth II of England and was requested by Princess Diana to be her personal chef after she and Prince Charles split.


He's been on Larry King Live many times, Fox News, the CBS Early Show and CNN covering the Royal Wedding, not to mention the many programs in England and Europe, where he's from. He has also cooked for 5 US presidents. He now lives in Dallas and works as a personal chef, author, culinary consultant, event planner and public speaker. He has his own cookbook (Eating Royally) and shares many of Princess Di's favorite recipes and many of his memories with her and her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.


It was seriously amazing hearing his personal stories and memories with her and made many women at the luncheon teary eyed hearing what a loving, giving and compassionate woman she was.

One story: a woman and her little boy were invited by Princess Di to come over for dinner. The woman had written a letter to Princess Di as her son was dying of cancer and he wanted to meet the Princess. So Lady Di asked Darren if he could make a nice meal for them. As it came out, the boy grabbed his chicken drumstick with his hand and took a bite. His mother was horrified to see him grab his food with his hand at the royal table. Without missing a beat, Princess Di grabbed her drumstick with her hand too and took a bite to make him feel comfortable. Isn't that great?!

Today, Darren carries on with many of the charities and types of charities the Princess supported to carry on her legacy. It was an honor to hear him speak and also to remember the great Princess Diana.

No Poo

Yes, that's right... No Poo. :) Have you heard about it? I just heard about it this week and am seriously interested/intrigued. It's pretty much not using shampoo on your hair. There are various ways people do it, some use baking soda + vinegar instead of shampoo + conditioner, and some just skip shampoo and use conditioner (I personally think this is best for dry/damaged hair). I know it sounds really weird, but the more I read about it the more interesting it is.


Why would you "No Poo"?
The basic gist is that shampoo has lots of chemicals, two of which are believed to be bad for your hair and eliminate/reduce the natural oils your body produces for natural shine. So we shampoo our hair to clean it and dry the oil then we usually add a product with shine to make it look nice. THIS blog, about halfway down, digs into the chemicals and which are bad and what they do to your hair AND body, as your skin absorbs it as you wash. Some of these chemicals are also believed to irritate the scalp and throw off the body's natural oil balance. The girl who wrote that article even has fine hair and loves her hair using this routine.


What if I have greasy/thin/curly/etc. hair and am worried this will not work for me?
THIS blog answers many questions and also explains the concept, along with great step by step instructions - very detailed, along with a great list of certain herbs that have great effects on your hair. Isn't this fascinating?!


THIS blog is the one I read pretty often and happened to catch this post the other day. It's the one that first introduced this whole idea and it's really interesting so I googled it more to see what other people have experienced trying to go shampoo free and I've found lots of positive feedback. Most say their hair had an adjustment period and that their hair was greasier using this method to begin with, but the hair and body found its own balance after a few weeks.

Many comments/blogs I found have great feedback about how amazing their hair is now without using all of the chemicals. Some people had very difficult hair their whole lives and this method completely changed their hair and it's great now! I don't know... it sounds interesting and I may be weird but I'm seriously considering giving it a go for a few weeks to see what it does!

Have you heard about this? Tried it? Want to try it? I'm curious; let me know!

Bake Sale Success

We had a bake sale at work the week before last and I volunteered to bake something. I've NEVER baked for a bake sale or sold anything I've cooked/baked before so I was honestly nervous. What if someone demands their money back after eating my baked good?! So I overcame my fear, sucked it up, and baked. I made double decker pumpkin bars and glazed honey bars. And it was a success! Everything at our ENTIRE bake sale was sold which was amazing because all proceeds went to the United Way. We raised a lot of money and had so much fun in the process!

Double Decker Pumpkin Bars

So this was my first time ever making pumpkin bars. I made them the night before and was a bit disappointed that they weren't the thick, dense bar I was looking for, they were more like a flat cake. I even halved the baking powder and soda following a suggestion I read on All Recipes (love that site!). So I grabbed the icing the next day (yes store bought, I was nervous about letting actual cream cheese frosting sit out all day at the sale! I'm probably just weird, I know), added it and the combination was irresistible. I'm a believer of moderation, so an amazing dessert here or there is allowed in my book :)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
2 cups white sugar (I used 1 C brown and 1 C white since I didn't have enough white)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 tsp baking soda

Mix all ingredients until well blended. Bake in two greased 9 x 13 pans (I used 1- 10 x 15 and 1- 9 x 9) at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool and frost with cream cheese frosting (I put the frosting in a ziplock bag, cut a small piece off the corner, then spreaded it from there because it was making a mess of the bars to just spread with a knife). Then re-layer with another bar the same size, and re-frost. SO good! I improvised a way to take a slightly dry bar, add two layers of frosting and transform it into fall pumpkin amazingness.






Glazed Honey Bars (recipe from the Texas State Fair!)

Ingredients:
3/4 Cup vegetable oil
1/2 Cup honey
1 Cup sugar
1 egg
2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1 Cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp mayonnaise (weird, I know, but this glaze is SO good)
1 tsp vanilla

Combine oil, honey (tip: honey comes out of the measuring cup much better when added right after oil!), sugar and egg in a mixing bowl and stir well. Add flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Press into a greased and floured (this helps the bars come off the pan perfectly!) 10 x 15 pan - aka jelly roll pan . Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 mins. To prepare glaze, mix powdered sugar, water, mayonnaise and vanilla and immediately spread onto hot bars. Cool before cutting, and enjoy!

The hot honey bars after adding the glaze... so good...

San Francisco Part 3 (a few weeks late...)

So I've been busy and tired adjusting my schedule/commute and haven't gotten this post up yet! But I really wanted to post it, so here it is: The final leg of our San Francisco trip, traveling through wine country and the beautiful wedding that was the purpose of our trip.

I liked this action shot :)

Driving through San Rafael, on our way from San Francisco to "wine country" - Napa Valley, and on to the Sacramento area

Are we in Iowa?! No... it's rural California :)

Falling trees?!

They were sure pretty!

Rolling hills of grape vineyards

My amazing salad for dinner in Napa Valley

Cows on our way to the wedding site

The wedding site was on this land with a vineyard... so beautiful.

Nick and Jacob

The tables set up the day of the rehearsal

Practicing their walk down the aisle - they're SO cute!

The ceremony site

Long last friends: Nick with Dave, the groom.

My man :)

Soaking up the beauty of the great outdoors

The tables all set for the reception (on the same land as the ceremony)

Such a beautiful family!

A great area they went to take photos

The picture perfect wedding day :)

Beautiful sunset ceremony

With prayer

The beautiful cake

Us with the couple of the day :) It was so great seeing them and a great vacation for us too!

Our poor plant on our return home. Looking much sadder than I posted about last month here. Not having water for a few days took its toll :(