Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Muffins

In our house we prefer hearty muffins and breakfast breads, we only eat cold cereal as a last resort which means I am always on the lookout for new muffin recipes. This recipe is made with whole wheat flour and oat bran so it contains a lot of fiber and the chocolate chips turn it from bland bran to yummy bites of mini muffin goodness!! Little Foodie went nuts over these, she ate them at breakfast and as an after school snack. I adapted this recipe from one found on tastykitchen.com. Enjoy!

¾ cups Oats, Ground In Blender

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

2 Tablespoons Wheat Bran

½ cups Brown Sugar

¾ teaspoons Baking Soda

½ teaspoons Salt

1 cup Applesauce

2 Tablespoons Melted Butter/Margarine

1 whole Egg

¼ cups Milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

½ cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan or mini muffin pan with non-stick spray.

Sift together ground oats, wheat flour, wheat bran, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce, oil, egg, milk, and vanilla extract.

Add applesauce mixture to dry ingredients, stirring gently to combine. Fold in 1/2 to 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. Avoid over-mixing.

Distribute mixture evenly between cups. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

I have this crazy obsession with banana bread. I will actually buy 2 bunches of bananas just so I can let one bunch get really ripe so I can make banana bread. This bread is sooooo yummy and super moist because it is made with sour cream. Little Foodie has been enjoying a piece each day when she gets home from school, I think she will eat the whole loaf all by herself. I saved the second loaf in the freezer and I am going to take it to Little Foodie's school for a teacher breakfast during teacher appreciation week. Enjoy!!

1/2 cup of butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

3 super ripe bananas

1 cup of sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons of baking soda

2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 2 loaf pans.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas , sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking powder, cocoa powder and flour. Stir in chocolate chips and divide into prepared pans. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Black Bean Soup

This is not my picture, if you have made black bean soup than you know its pretty unattractive looking and hard to photograph so I am grateful for pictures found on the web! This is a yummy soup that is very filling. We enjoyed big bowls of soup and a side salad and it was the perfect dinner.

4 cans of black beans (no need to drain)

1 large can of diced tomatoes

1 cup of chicken or veggie broth

1/2 cup of salsa

2 tablespoons of cumin

1 tablespoon of garlic powder

few dashes of hot sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in your crockpot, stir and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours. Top with shredded cheese and enjoy!!