Becky Homecky Cooking Tip No. 1

Freeze your uber-ripe bananas!

You heard me. Freeze them. When my bananas get too ripe/old and I don't want to utilize them now nor toss them, I pop them into the freezer. Just like that. Don't peel them, chop them, nothin'. Then when you want to use them in a muffin recipe, etc., pull them out of the freezer, nuke them for a few seconds {I do about a minute for 3 bananas}, goop them out of their peels, and Ta Da! Your bananas are prime for baking. It works like a charm, is super quick and easy, and really- who doesn't love stretching produce life a little longer? Give it a try... and let me know what you think.

chocolate banana muffins

This recipe originally comes from a food blog I frequent, For the Love of Cooking. The concept of adding cocoa powder to banana muffins was super appealing to me, so I decided to give it a try. I changed a few things {adding a few ingredients... skipping a few steps...etc.}, but the recipe is mostly hers. It was a success! We all loved them, and James {let's be honest... Derek} didn't even know that they were good for him. :)

RECIPE: Chocolate Banana Muffins

Yield: 2 dozen muffins

Ingredients:

1 egg

2-3 ripe bananas

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

1/3 c. canola oil

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 c. cocoa

1/4 c. flax seed meal

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix first set of ingredients, whisking well. Then add dry ingredients, minus the chocolate chips {you could and probably should pre-mix these dry ingredients separately, but I never do... who needs another dirty bowl??} and mix/whisk well. Fold in the chocolate chips. Then spray muffin tins with non-stick spray and spoon the batter into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 20-ish minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool on a rack and then gobble 'em up!