Moist Banana Muffins w/no added sugar

This is a yummy recipe for day-old bananas. Makes 24 muffins

1 ½ cups mashed banana, about 5 bananas

1 beaten egg

½ cup milk, or prepared powdered milk

½ cup oil

1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour, or whole wheat flour, or a mix of each

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ cup chopped pecans (optional)

GREASE muffin tins. Do not use paper bake cups. 
PREHEAT oven to 375°

MIX WET INGREDIENTS: In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the egg, beat it into the mashed banana. Add milk and oil. Stir.  

MIX DRY INGREDIENTS: In a separate bowl, Mix together flour(s), baking powder, salt.

COMBINE.  Pour dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Add pecans (optional). Stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin, filling each 1/2 full. 

BAKE in a 375° oven for 15 - 20 min, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 2 min. Remove from muffin cups. Serve warm.

Kody's Apple Crisp

by Kody H P

8 cooking Apples (Granny Smith or Rome Beauty)
1/2 C packed Brown Sugar
1 t Ground Cinnamon
1/2 cup Water
1 C Flour
1 C Oatmeal
1 1/2 C of Sugar 
1 C or 2 sticks butter 

Ice Cream

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Peel and core apples then slice.  Put apple slices in cake pan.  Mix Brown Sugar and Cinnamon in bowl and mix, then sprinkle over apples, stir with spoon.  Pour water water over apples.  

Topping or Crisp
Put Flour, Oatmeal, White Sugar and melted Butter in a medium bowl.  Mix with hands and sprinkle crumbly mixture over apples.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until apples are soft.  Cool for 10 min.  
Serve with Ice Cream

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins w/ Chocolate Chips

3  1/3 c. whole wheat flour, fine ground

1  t. baking soda

2  t.  baking powder

1  t. salt

4   eggs

1 c. milk, or prepared powdered milk

1/2 c.  oil

1/2 c. butter, melted

1 c. cooked cream of wheat, oatmeal, or cracked-wheat cereal, warm (optional, adds moisture)

1  1/2 c. sugar

15 oz. can pumpkin, or 2 c. frozen pumpkin puree defrosted and drained

2  t. cinnamon

1/8  t. nutmeg and 1/8 t. cloves (optional)

12 oz. bag chocolate chips

Makes 24 tall muffins or 36 short muffins. 

Mix first 4 ingredients, then add the rest.  Grease muffin tin with oil, not with oil cooking spray. Put 1/2  to  2/3 full into the greased muffin tins.  

Bake 15-20 min at 350 degrees. The smell of autumn will fill your kitchen. Lightly touch the center of a few muffins, if it bounces back, they are done. Wait 2 min before removing from tin. Enjoy them hot! 

These muffins freeze very well. They make a great (somewhat healthy) after-school snack. We like to make '36 short muffins' because they cook fast, fit in kid-sized mouths, and if frozen defrost easy.

No need to spread extra butter on top of these babies.  The butter is already inside.

Pumpkin Nutrition:

Great source of  Vitamin A

Low in calories and fat

High in fiber

Can replace oil for pumpkin in many recipes.

The bright orange color of pumpkin is a dead giveaway that pumpkin is loaded with an important antioxidant, beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is one of the plant carotenoids converted to vitamin A in the body. In the conversion to vitamin A, beta carotene performs many important functions in overall health.

Current research indicates that a diet rich in foods containing beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protect against heart disease. Beta-carotene offers protection against other diseases as well as some degenerative aspects of aging.

Scarber Kettle Corn

Not too sweet, not too salty, but just right! 

1/3 c. vegetable oil

1/4 c. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

3/4 c. popcorn

1   "Stir Crazy Popcorn Popper 6qt"

In a small bowl, mix sugar and salt.  Set aside.

Plug in the "Stir Crazy 6 qt Popcorn Popper." Add 1/3 c. oil and 2 popcorn kernels. Once the 2 kernels pop, the popper is hot enough for the rest of the popcorn.  Add the 3/4 popcorn, then quickly add the sugar/salt mixture and close the lid. 

Stay close and listen carefully; it can burn easily.  When pops slow to 1 pop per second, pull the plug.  Grab hold of the unit and its lid, and quickly tip it upside-down.  Remove unit, being cautious of escaping steam. To prevent kettle corn from sticking to itself, transfer it to a different serving bowl.

While the popper is still somewhat hot, wipe out the oil/sugar stickiness with a slightly damp paper towel.  Enjoy! :)

Texas Goody Cake

Submitted by Lynne Maxfield

2 squares Butter (or butter-flavored shortening)

1/2 cup milk

1 cup water

2 eggs, or egg substitute

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

Melt butter.  Add and mix the rest of the ingredients.

Pour into greased cake pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes

Peach Cobbler

Submitted by Lynne Maxfield

Peach mixture: Mix and set aside

          1 quart  bottled peaches (slice peaches and add 1 cup juice)

          1/2 cup sugar

Cake Batter mixture: Mix thoroughly

          1 cup sugar

          1/2 t. salt

          1  1/4 cup flour

          1  1/4 cup milk

          3 t. baking powder

Melt 1/4 cup Butter in a cake pan. Swirl to coat bottom of pan. Pour cake batter into buttered cake pan. Do not stir.  Spoon peach mixture on top of cake batter. 

Bake 350 degrees for 40 min.

Bottled Apple Pie Filling

Submitted by Lynnette Behunin

4 c. sugar

1 c. cornstarch

3 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

~Whisk together and add 10 cups water.  Cook until thick, stirring constantly, then take off heat.  Add 3 Tbsp. lemon juice.  

Fill quart jar 1/3 full with sauce.  Slice & peel apples.  Pack into jars tightly.  Put hot lids on.  Boil 20 min in water bath canner.

To use:  Open jar and fill a pie shell.  Cook like you would a regular apple pie.  Can also use filling for your favorite Apple Crisp recipe.

Here is a link for different cooked jam recipes.  

http://www.kraftbrands.com/surejell/howto_cookedjam.aspx

Strawberry Scones

Last Friday, I made these delightfully delicious Strawberry Scones from Good to the Grain  by Kim Boyce.  It is one of my most beautiful cookbooks, though the premise of the book is  that she uses lots of different grains besides "flour" (like quinoa flour, polenta, kamut, rye, spelt, etc) and I rarely have any of those on hand, so I don't cook from this book nearly as often as I should - but everything I've made from it has tasted A-MAZ-ING.
Since I decided to make these last-minute, and didn't have any barley on hand, I had to alter the recipe, but it still tasted very yummy, and I think that my version was a little easier to "throw together."



Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup + 2tlbs whole wheat flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp bk powder
1/2 tsp bk soda
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 stick cold butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
generous 1/2 cup strawberry jam
powdered sugar for sprinkling

1. Whisk or shift together dry ingredients, and cut in butter (like you're making a pie dough) until butter pieces are the size of rice grains or little peas.

2. Whisk together buttermilk and egg and add to dry mix, mix until barely combined.

3. Turn on to a floured surface and separate in half, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky to handle. Pat each half into a disk, about 3/4" thick and 7" across.

4. Cover one disk of dough with strawberry jam. Top with the remaining pastry. Slice it like a pie, into triangles and transfer to a well-buttered baking sheet.

5. Bake for 22-26 minutes at 350 F, rotating the pan half way through.

6. Remove immediately to a cooling rack (or the jam will harden and you'll never scrape your scones off the pan if you don't move it while it's warm), and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

These were delicious served warm with a cup of tea for Second Breakfast, and only took me about 40 minutes to make, and 24 of those minutes they were baking. It's also one of the first times that my version looked like the picture in the book! I was so proud.

Leave a comment and let me know if you make them!

By Becky Pitcher