Edible Wednesday: THE BEST! Banana Muffins

So my friend Sam, says these are the  "THE BEST! Banana Muffins ever! So that's what I'm calling it! Just looking at the ingredients, I'm most likely going to side with her. I haven't made it yet, my daughter Elephant wanted to help, the pictures will be coming tomorrow after we make it together!

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 extra-large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 bananas)
1 cup medium-diced ripe bananas (1 banana)
1 cup small-diced walnuts
1 cup granola
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
Dried banana chips, granola, or shredded coconut, optional

INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 18 large muffin cups with paper liners. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the melted butter and blend. Combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and mashed bananas, and add them to the flour-and-butter mixture. Scrape the bowl and blend well. Don't over mix.

Fold the diced bananas, walnuts, granola, and coconut into the batter. Spoon the batter into the paper liners, filling each 1 to the top. Top each muffin with dried banana chips, granola, or coconut, if desired. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from the pan, and serve.

Have a good night! - I'm going to bed early! - kg

Giddy-Up Friday: Don't Forget to Eat your Fishies....

Good Morning! Well it looks sort of dreary outside - but that makes for a great Halloween tomorrow - right?

This morning I wanted to share a little fun snack time with you. Both of my daughters went to a Montessori school and learned so many things in such and easier way that I never learned at their age. I was blessed to be able to volunteer at their school often and decided some of the things they learned in school, I could do at home to keep that easier way of learning in our minds.

I hopped on my computer one day and made these little Fish & Bunny "It's Snack Time" pages. I even sent the Bunny page to Annie's Homegrown to see if they wanted to share it with their consumers (as my twin sister recommended). I haven't seen it on the website yet or on their emails, but they did send me a ton of Annie's products to say Thanks! That was cool!!!

Here's the Instructions: Place 1 cracker on each space in the top row (5), ask your child to move 1 cracker after the minus sign and then count how many are left. Then have your child write the number in the box. Then slide the remaining crackers (4) to the next row and continue until all crackers are gone. For fun: have your child color the Fish or Bunnies before using and then laminate the page in order to reduce excess waste as your child may want to do this more than once! Enjoy!

I am happy to have you share these with friends and family, but instead of placing the files on your own blog, instead please provide a link back to this post. Thank you for your cooperation.

Copyright 2009 2 is Beautiful, LLC

Have a great day! Kerry