Banana Muffins

I would like to start this post by thanking Sheri Neiman for nurturing my love for homemade bread by providing plenty of it whenever I came into her home during my babysitting years with her beautiful family. I have since decided that homemade bread will be a staple in my own home. With that being said, here's a simple recipe for muffins using freshly milled flour that I stumbled upon in my new adventure with making my own bread.

Banana Muffins

from the Bread Beckers Inc Recipe Collection

Cooking Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups freshly milled flour (hard red)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 mashed bananas
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup regular milk + 1 tbsp vinegar)
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
1/4 - 1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Cooking Directions:

1. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in liquid ingredients and mix just until blended.

2. Spoon mixture into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

I only used two bananas which give a subtle banana flavor (the hubs doesn't like anything that isn't a banana to taste too much like a banana). These make for a great addition to a morning meal of bacon and eggs or are great as a quick breakfast on the go all by themselves.

By the way, anyone use Calphalon baking pans? I love my stove top pots and pans, but their baking pans always turn the bottom of muffins/cookies black.

So, thank you to Sheri for growing my love of homemade bread, and thank you to my sweet friend Abby (Becker) Page for hooking me up with everything I needed to get started at Bread Beckers! I look forward to plenty more fresh bread in my future (plus it makes the house smell delicious!).

UPDATE: I've made these now adding 1/8 cup of chopped almonds and they are perfect. Even better, add a handful of chocolate chips too for complete yummy goodness!

Shepherd's Pie

How have I managed to go 25 years and have never eaten shepherd's pie? I wasn't even 100% certain what shepherd's pie was. So I did a little googling and Pinterest searching in an attempt to find the easiest recipe I could.

It's a simple, all in one meal that might just become one of the staples on our supper table.

The original recipe from Kraft can be found here.

Shepherd's Pie

Cooking Ingredients:

4 small potatoes
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 lb ground beef
2 tbsp flour
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can small peas, drained
1 can sliced carrots, drained
1/2 cup beef broth
2 tbsp ketchup
pinch of shredded cheese

Cooking Directions:

1. Peel potatoes and cut into fourths. Cover with water and boil potatoes and garlic for 20 minutes or until tender.

2. Brown ground beef. Add flour and cook over medium heat for 1 minute. Add vegetables, broth and ketchup and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon into 9 1/2 inch pie dish.

3. Mash potatoes. (I think I make my mashed potatoes differently every time I make them. This time I added in a few tablespoons of greek yogurt and butter). Spoon mashed potatoes on top of the pie dish.

4. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with shredded cheese and bake for another 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.

5. Feed this to your man and he will be one happy camper.