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.

A Different Kind of Egg Salad

Tis’ the season for egg salad as I’m sure most of you will have a lot of these soon.

This is not a typical mayonnaise and mustard egg salad. It starts with toasted mustard seeds, followed by caramelized onions and curry powder and then finished with fresh cilantro. It’s tangy and a little spicy – perfect piled on a hearty cracker or slathered between a couple slices of toasty bread.

Last week I had some girlfriends over to dye Easter eggs and to sample some recipes from Super Natural Every Day, the new cookbook by Heidi Swanson of the blog 101 Cookbooks. I made the avocado salad from her book, which is what this egg salad recipe is based on. I simply subbed eggs for the avocados and tweaked the ingredients a bit.

Note: I don’t recommend putting both your dye and your cocktail in Mason jars. It can lead to a mouthful of vinegar.

Dying eggs was awesome, even more fun than I remember as a kid.

The dyed eggs are so cheerful. I had to peek in the carton every time I opened the fridge.

Ahhh, they just make me smile. If you find yourself with a surplus of these lovelies give this unique egg salad a try.

Ingredients:

6 hard boiled eggs

the juice of one large lemon

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, finely chopped

2 Tbs olive oil, divided

2 tsp black or brown mustard seeds

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp Indian curry powder

2 small serrano chiles, minced

Instructions:

Peel and roughly chop eggs. Place eggs, lemon, salt and cilantro in a medium bowl.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add mustard seeds and cover. Heat until mustard seeds stop “popping”, about a minute. Add the onion and saute until translucent and starting to brown. Add garlic, curry powder and chiles. Cook another minute until curry is fragrant.

Remove onion mixture from heat and gently stir into egg mixture along with additional tablespoon of oil.

Serve with crackers, over greens or in a pita or sandwich.

Serves 4-6.