Strawberry Banana Muffins

When I was a kid, we found out that I was allergic to strawberries. I was incredibly sad when we first made the discovery. My mom had brought home a giant box full of them, and I ate about half of it. To myself. I'm not even ashamed to admit it. Anyhow, later that night, I was suddenly hit with a horrible wave of...itchiness. I was covered in welts, and the worst was the bottoms of my feet. I know it sounds weird, but an intense itch of your feet bottoms is pretty horrible, I remember my mom putting my in a cold bath, rubbing them with calamine lotion, everything she could to get it to stop. Not fun. I spend the next 10 summers watching in jealousy as everyone around me snacked on the beautiful red berries, longing for one. Every so often I'd have one to see what would happen, and it was always the same.

One summer, I just couldn't take it anymore, and I ate 10 in one sitting. And nothing happened. I had some more, just to check. Nothing. I feasted for a whole day on strawberries, and it seemed my allergy had gone. I made strawberry pie, ate strawberry jam, drank strawberry smoothies, and it seemed that I had grown out of the allergy. Horray!

These muffins are deliciously moist, fresh, and of course filled to the brim with strawberries.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

4 ripe, mashed bananas (about 2 cups)

1/4 cup water

1  1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees ferenheit
• Mix together flour, baking soda and salt
• Add remainder of indredients, blend well
• Put muffin papers in a muffin tin and fill about 2/3 full
• Bake for 18 minutes or until lightly browned
• Serve warm with a bit of butter

-Jessica



A little bite of Disneyland (peanut butter banana bites)

I had a pineapple sitting on the counter that needed to be used. They were on sale, so Matt grabbed one- I had to stop him from buying two- he's a big pineapple fan. But it was a busy week and before we knew it, the pineapple was uneaten and nearing the end of its life. So I cup it up and decided to dip the pieces in chocolate for dessert. When in doubt, cover in chocolate.

The problem was, I over estimated and wound up with a bunch of melted chocolate and no more pineapple. My first thought was to go Disneyland style and make chocolate covered bananas, but I had no peanuts to sprinkle on top. It wouldn't be the same. But what if I put the nuts on the inside. Not peanuts of course, but peanut butter. Like a healthy Reese's cup. Sorta. Anyway, they're pretty delicious, I think. My family thinks so too. And I bet yours would too. Make them, watch Aladdin (my personal favourite) and pretend you're there, eating a real Disneyland banana.

Peanut Butter Banana Bites



3 bananas
1 cup dark chocolate (I used chips, but you could use whatever is in your pantry)
1 splash of vegetable oil (it helps the make the chocolate runnier)
1/3 approx. of peanut butter (I used smooth, but I wish I had had some crunchy in the house)

• Slice up bananas
• In a double boiler, melt chocolate over low heat
• Add the oil and stir until it's really smooth and creamy
• Spread a bit of peanut butter of the top of each banana
• Put the banana slices, one by one, into the pot of chocolate and cover completely with chocolate using a spoon.
• Place dipped slices on a foil lined cookie sheet and freeze for at least one hour.

-Jessica