Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Peanut Butter Reese's Cup Cookies

Yes, I know it's a mouthful, but there are not fewer words to describe these cookies. I had bad banana's, I was craving chocolate and peanut butter, and I threw in some oats to be healthy :) Throw it all together and you get a banana oatmeal cookie with reese's. These were different, but delicious. They have the banana bread flavor and kind of a cakey texture for a cookie. If you like these flavors, you'll love these cookies. Here's what you'll need

Butter, sugar, and egg, a banana, vanilla, flour, baking soda, salt, oats, and reese's cups. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugar

Beat that together on medium speed until fluffy. Mash up a ripe banana and add to the mixture along with the egg and vanilla

Beat until combined. In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, salt, and baking soda. Add to the dough; mix in, but not too much or cookies will become flat. Chop of the reese's cups in bite size pieces and add to the dough

Gently fold in

Cover and chill in fridge for an hour. Scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake

Let cool on baking sheet about a minute. Transfer to foil or a cooling rack. Store in an air tight container up to 3 days

Banana Oat Reese's Cookies

6 Tbs. butter, soft

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1 banana, mashed (1/2 cup)

3/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup old fashioned oats

15 mini reese's cup, chopped

Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla, egg, and mashed banana; set aside. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and oats. Add to the first mixture and stir until combined. Be careful not to over mix or cookies will become flat. Fold in chopped reese's cups. Cover and chill at least an hour. Scoop onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-12 minutes. Let cool on pan for 1 minute. Transfer to foil or a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container up to 3 days. 

National Banana Bread Day

So we're a little behind on the national food days, and I had planned on doing more, but it's a whole lot more time consuming then I realized. I didn't want to make just plain old banana bread, so I went with Blueberry Banana Bread. I adapted the recipe from Amy's Bread in New York. I loved this bread, because you get a taste of blueberry, then banana and it's SO moist! Here's what you need for the bread

Eggs, oil, milk, oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, sugar, ripe bananas, and blueberries. Whisk together eggs, oil, and some of the milk; set aside

In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining milk and oats; set aside

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt

Pour egg mixture and vanilla over the flour mixture

Fold in until just moist

In a small, separate bowl mash the bananas

Add mashed bananas, blueberries, and oat mixture to the batter

Gently fold in until completely combined

Pour into two greased loaf pans

Bake and cool in pans about 5 minutes

Then take out of the pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I was so excited the loaves puffed up and cracked on the top. I've always known bread is supposed to do that, but I've never made bread that does that like I want it to. Here's the inside of the bread

I read some reviews that this bread wasn't that sweet so I added some sugar to the batter and on the top of one of the loaves.. and I liked it the best, but that's up to you! 

Blueberry Banana Bread
5 large eggs
3/4 cup plus 3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. milk
1 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
4 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 cups ripe mashed bananas
3 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, and 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs of the milk; set aside. In a separate bowl, pour the remaining 1 cup of milk over the oats and soak for 5 minutes. In a very large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Pour the egg mixture and vanilla onto the dry ingredients and stir until partially moistened. Add the oat mixture, bananas, and blueberries. Gently fold together until just combined. Divide the batter evenly into 2 greased loaf pans.  Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degress and bake for 45 to 50 more minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of a loaf. Let the loaves cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn out of the pans and place on a wire rack until completely cool. Slice and enjoy!

Big Blonde & Beautiful

This delectable treat is Smitten Kitchen's simple blondie recipe. We just livened it up a little bit! It's a combination of two very distinct flavors, so it might not be appealing to all tastes. However, it is easy to add or take away any "add-ins" that you wish. Our creative taste buds went for banana and butterscotch (You might be slowly catching on to our love for butterscotch)!! Here is what you need for the Blondies:

Flour, butter, brown sugar, butterscotch chips, an egg,  over-ripe bananas, salt, and vanilla. You start out by melting the butter in a saucepan. Once the butter is good and melted, add the brown sugar. Heat it on medium heat until it is smooth and bubbly.

Take it off the heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. While the butter and brown sugar mixture is cooling, mash the bananas.

After the bananas are thoroughly mashed, add them, an egg, and the vanilla to the slightly cooled butter mixture.

 Whisk all of this together just until combined. Then, toss in the flour, salt, and butterscotch chips.

Give it a good stir or ten (making sure not to overmix, once again). Pour in a greased 8x8 baking dish, and sprinkle with some extra butterscotch chips.

Bake for about 25 minutes, slightly cool, and most importantly...eat up!

They are definitely gooey :)

Butterscotch Banana Blondies

8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1. Butter an 8×8 pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. On medium heat, melt butter in a small saucepan. Add brown sugar and stir until bubbly and smooth.
3. Take off heat and cool for about five minutes.
4. Mash bananas in a bowl with a fork until there are no big chunks.
5. Add egg, vanilla, and mashed banana to the pot with the butter and brown sugar mixture. Beat just until combined (being sure not to overmix).
6. Stir in salt, flour, and butterscotch chips.
7. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until set in the middle (for us this was about 25 minutes). I prefer mine gooey so I lean more towards the 20-22 minute range, but even for me that was not long enough. In other words, it is possible that it could take up to 28 minutes until the are the desired "doneness".
8. Slightly cool and eat with vanilla ice cream if you so desire!

Here is the link to the original recipe so you can make whatever combination you can think of:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/blondies-for-a-blondie/