Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

I always buy too many bananas.  I eventually forget that I even have them and they just sit on the counter screaming "Please use me!"

Days later my girl's finally see them and start screaming for bananas.  I pull them out of the bag the grocer packaged them up in and TADA!...they have black polka dots, are extremely squishy, and I have to somehow think of a way to destract the kids with some other type of snack.

This bribing doesn't work for them.  They don't forget anything and they aren't going to just let me get away with this. I tell the husband to occupy them for a little bit and I make something they will agree with.

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread!!!

Ding! Ding! Ding!

We have a winner ladies and gentlemen!!

The bread wasn't even out of the oven yet before everyone started shouting and jumping up and down in anticipation.  I had to fight my husband off quite a few times just so I could take a picture!  My own piece of bread?....HAHAHA yea right! Mom's don't get anything "food related" to their own.  Especially when it is filled with bananas and warm melted chocolate chips!

They keep calling it cake.  Which I can't totally disagree with.  It was pretty delicious and super moist!  They have had 3 pieces this morning and are currently jumping up on the table telling me.... "Mommy! More cake!!"

I don't know what excuse I am going to use when it's all gone! HELP! 

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread:

Takes about 1 hr 30 min

Makes 1 bread pan 

You will need:

3 old very ripe bananas

1 tsp lemon juice

2 c all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

8 tbsp softened butter

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c sugar

1 c chocolate chips

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 c sour cream

Preheat oven to 325 F

Grease and flour bread pan.

In a medium bowl mash he bananas until they are creamy.  Stir in lemon juice and set to the side.

In a seperate medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a large bowl cream the butter with the eggs, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.

Fold in bananas.

Add vanilla and sour cream.

Mix well.

Fold in chocolate chips.

Add dry ingredients and fold very gently.

Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick in the center an it comes out clean.

Butterfinger Poke Cake

Summertime is my favorite season of all!  Other than the heat....and having to wear bathing suits, it always makes me so happy.  There is just so much to do when it is warm and beautiful outside. 
We have been going to the pool with friends, fishing in our pond, meeting friends at the lake, and don't even get me started on the cookouts people have.

When it comes to cookouts I always want to make an AMAZING JAW DROPPING dish. I mean, I want people to know I can cook! I love it when others ask me for recipes, especially friends and family.  It makes me feel all gooey inside knowing others love my cooking :) So feel free to drop some lovely comments on by ;)

I am making dinner for my family tonight and I wanted something easy but delicious for desert.  I have been craving peanut butter and chocolate and thought back to this Butterfinger Poke Cake.  It has been probably 2 years since I have made it.  I sent my sweet husband to the grocery store and got busy as soon as I had time last night.

I usually make this cake with yellow cake mix, but I was craving chocolate and thought I would try it.  I tried to look up recipes on Pinterest to help me remember how to make mine since it had been so long.  However, I had no luck with the links downloading so I winged it.

Angie from Big Bears Wife was over when I putting this cake together.  It looked and smelled so good we had to taste test.  Ooops! Didn't even wait for it to cool!  Is it bad that we tore up the cake before I even had the guests over to try it?  Oh well.... it was worth it!  My husband even ate it which tells me it must have been AMAZINGLY JAW DROPPING !!  YES!  Score for me! I guess for dinner tonight I'll go ahead and place them on plates so no one knows our little secret ;)


Angie urged to me to post this to share with the world....so here it is :)
I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did! 

Butterfinger Poke Cake

1 box of devils food cake mix or yellow
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar caramel sauce
4 full sized Butterfinger candy bars
1 big container of cool whip
chocolate syrup


1)  Mix cake mix as bake as said on the back of the box in 8 by 13 glass dish.  It will bake about 30 minutes on 350.

2)  Let cool and poke several holes in the cake.  I use a straw but you can also use a fork.

3)  In a medium sized bowl mix the sweetened condensed milk with about 3/4 of the jar of caramel sauce.

4) Pour over the cake and let sit for about 5-10 minutes to let the cake absorb the sauce.

5) Spoon the cool whip evenly over the cake.

6)  Crush the Butterfinger bars and spread over the cool whip.

7) Drip the leftover caramel and a bit of chocolate syrup over the layer of Butterfingers.

Make sure to keep refrigerated while the cake isn't being served.

Peanut Butter Cups

My husband and I are supposed to be on a diet.  A weight diet AND a money diet!  For Valentines Day though, I figured we could splurge just a little on calories and sugar, and I could save money by making a little treat from things we already had at home. 

Peanut butter cups are SO easy to make and I always have the ingredients! After trying it out this time it made me wonder why we ever buy Reese cups in the first place!  You can even buy Reese peanut butter in the store to make your own cups with...so why not?

I decided to make both white chocolate and chocolate peanut butter cups. For 8 white chocolate peanut butter cups follow the recipe below.  You can always double the recipes, use different kinds of chips, whatever you wish :)

This is how I did it:

mini muffin pan
mini cupcake liners
2 c white chocolate chips (divided)
1 c peanut butter
2 tbsp sugar


I lined my mini muffin pan with my mini cupcake liners. At first I wasn't sure if the paper cups would work...but after the white chocolate dried...they were perfect!

Melt the white chocolate chips according to the package.  Heat until smooth and creamy.

Take a spoon and drizzle the chocolate into the liners.  Make sure to push the chocolate onto the sides of the cups as well as the bottom.  The chocolate should form a "bowl" in the liners.

Let the chocolate dry and harden.

If you are doing white chocolate peanut butter cups, the white chocolate hardens within a few minutes.  If you are using regular chocolate it takes a while.  You can speed up the process by placing the muffin pan in the refrigerator for a few minutes.  Be careful not to leave them in there too long though because the chocolate will become very very hard.






Mix peanut butter with sugar (optional).  With two baby spoons I filled the chocolate with peanut butter.  Leave rims of chocolate exposed so when you add the other layer of chocolate, it will make a peanut butter cup.

Melt the remaining white chocolate chips and drizzle on top of the peanut butter, covering the whole cup.  You can decorate them now like I did if you would like.



Let harden. 

Eat.

Get a sugar rush! lol

Gluten Free Triple Chocolate Layer Pie

Before my husband and I lived together, he hated sweets.  He hated them so much he would not even try them!  I couldn't believe I married someone that didn't even like cookies!  Here I am a total chocoholic, sweet tooth, crazed cupcake fanatic!

However, I won him over to the dark side with this pie recipe I found on the Kraft site!  WOOHOO go me!  Not only is this a very very easy dessert to make, but it's loaded with cookies, chocolate, AND whip cream!  What can get any more sweeter than that?  

After making this pie, my husband was making me make it for everyone in the family.  We lived in Jacksonville so family would often drive to visit for the weekend.  His father is on a gluten free diet so before they would come down I would go crazy trying to think of food recipes without gluten.  It seemed that everything I thought of had some little part of gluten..even this pie. 

I had an idea! What about gluten free chocolate cookies instead of Oreos?  Yes, that's right...they do have them!  The pie was a huge hit for the in laws!  One of their favorites, and nothing is better than having your in laws rave about your food :)

Triple Chocolate Layer Pie:

1 package Glutino Vanilla Creme Cookies

1/4 c melted butter

2 small packages Jello chocolate instant pudding

2 c cold milk

1- 8 oz tub of cool whip divided in half

-  Finely crush 24 oreos until they are a create a fine powder texture like the above picture.


-  Mix with butter until all of crushed cookies are covered and then press them onto the bottom of a pie
    plate.

-  In a large bowl, beat pudding and milk with a whisk for about 2 minutes or until the pudding is very thick.

-  Spoon half of the pudding onto the pie crust and even out with a spoon.

-  Mix half of the cool whip with the rest of the pudding and it will create a mousse.  Spoon this over the
    pudding layer in the pie plate and even out with a spoon.

-  Top off the pie with the remaining cool whip and top with any remaining cookies.

-  Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.




OPTION:  1)  If you do not want gluten free, use Oreo's.
                 2)  If you do not want a whole pie you can use 1 c milk and 1 pk pudding.  Layer into glasses to 
                      make a trifle and just top with cookies instead of making a crust.