TROPICAL BANANA NUT BREAD

Once upon a time I had a goal to bake something new each month for a year. It started out decent enough with a fairly tasty and successful raw cashew cheesecake in January, but come February, my ideas of being such a domestic goddess were promptly squashed, resembling the cake I attempted to make. I had high hopes for a beautiful, photogenic, decadent German chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting on the sides and a coconut pecan topping. The middle of the cake sunk. The frosting was too thick. It was a disaster that ended in a pile of crumbs held together by brown goo, topped with coconut mush. It was still tasty, but it was not picture worthy. I thought seriously about creating a 'nailed it' meme, but was not in good enough spirits at the end of the whole ordeal to laugh at myself yet. I was frustrated and I was sweaty and all I wanted was a piece of (okay, like half of a) cake and a bottle of wine. That's how bad that baking experience was. Thank God I still have my Kitchen Aid mixer to pull me back to reality or I might never bake again. (Who am I kidding? I love cookies too much.)

After I lost my baking juju, I waited for baking inspiration to strike, and I waited, and I waited, until I neared the end of the month, saw some old bananas on my counter and thought, "Eh, those'll do." So I set out on a quest for a banana bread recipe, but I didn't want the plain old stuff your Grandma makes and I think it's just wrong to add chocolate chips. (I know that statement will probably cause uproar, but I like chocolate chips in cookies. Period. Not in waffles or pancakes or banana bread or anything else that people toss them into. They were made for cookies.) While browsing Pinterest, I came across a recipe for Tropical Banana Bread on theKitchn and it was like an eHarmony commercial. It was love at first sight. I had to make it.

So I did, with a few little additions of my own, and it turned out better than I could have imagined. I mean this has to be what Manna tasted like.

MORNING GLORY MUFFINS

I've been taking a bit of a break from blogging. I wasn't sure exactly why I was stepping away or how long I'd be gone. I just knew that I needed time to organize my thoughts and hone in on what I really want to use this space for. Last week, inspiration hit and I started brainstorming on paper and here I am: I'm back. While I wasn't writing, I managed to sort through older posts to tweak some things and mostly make it all a bit more accessible. I originally posted this recipe a few years ago while I was in the throes of the 'morning sickness in the middle of a Brooklyn Summer and this window unit is not cutting it' stage of my life. I basically laid on the couch all day, nauseous and in my underwear, and fed my kid a bag of Goldfish for lunch. It was fun. We took these on the road with us to Niagara Falls and I will forever equate Morning Glory Muffins with Canada and my pregnancy with Noble. I stumbled on a more basic recipe years ago and since then, we've made them our own by tweaking them just right until they became a staple in our house. My favorite thing about these muffins, besides how healthy and filling they are, is how versatile they are. As long as you keep the ratios generally the same, you can add anything you like. We've added blueberries, oat bran, flax meal, chia seeds, and more. When I think of muffins, I think of food and I want something that tastes like food, not cake. This is really the only muffin recipe we bother to make because we enjoy them so much. Don't let the long list of ingredients intimidate you though! It may seem daunting or expensive, but they come together quickly, easily, and cheaply once you have the basic ingredients in your pantry.