Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Banana Coconut Muffins

My boyfriend doesn’t eat gluten so there is a lot of flour experimenting going on in our house on more weekends than not. I’ll be honest, usually gluten free baked goods suck. They’re crumbly or spongy. Gross. Not these puppies though.

These gluten free banana muffins are just as good, if not better, than their glutinous cousins. Really. Add in some coconut and chocolate chips and they’re amazing.

That is the muffin I dropped on the counter after burning my tongue and fingers on a straight-from-the-oven molten chocolate chip. Yes, I am that greedy.

I used Pamela's Gluten Free Baking and Pancake Mix and loosely followed the recipe on their site. If you are new to GF baking, any of Pamela’s mixes are a good place to start.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups mashed, very ripe banana (about 4 medium)

1 1/2 cups Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking and Pancake Mix

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with muffin liners.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy with electric hand mixer or stand mixer. Add eggs, vanilla and salt. Beat until combined. Add bananas and beat until combined.

Fold in baking mix until just combined. Don’t over mix. Gently stir in chocolate chips and coconut.

Spoon batter into muffin pan. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until muffins are golden on top and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in middle of muffin.

Little Drawstring Craft Bag

Looking for a last minute Mother’s Day gift? Or perhaps you’re in need of a bit of craft storage?

I whipped up this little drawstring bag the other night to keep a project in while I’m camping out with 200 6th graders at Outdoor School. Yes, it is that time of year, which is why I haven’t been posting. I’m exhausted. But only 5 more weeks until summer and ample available crafting time. Yay!

I have a bunch of projects in various stages of assembly, shooting, editing and writing. I promise someday soon (and by someday I mean June) I will get them up.

Felt Play Food: Pancakes, Eggs and Bacon

When I was a little kid, I loved nothing more than to play house. Shocking, I know. I spent hours “cooking” in my play kitchen. So, the handmade felt food craze was more than I could resist.

I don’t have kids but I do have a good friend, Robin, who has a sweet little girl in need of some felt play food. And by need I really mean I needed to make some and she happens to be just barely old enough to play with it.

For the bacon, I sewed strips of cream felt onto dark brown felt and then ran a gathering stitch up the middle.

The pancakes are 4 layers of tan felt sewn together and topped with brown felt syrup and yellow felt butter. I sewed the butter together, then sewed it to the syrup and then sewed the whole shebang onto one layer of pancake. Then I sewed the pancake layers together.