ChefGirlRP COOKS!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!

Yesterday I organized the freezer...well, really I just moved a couple things around...and I found a hoard of frozen bananas. The thing is I hate eating brown bananas, even if they are even just slightly brown I find they taste too sweet and mushy. I would rather eat green bananas than brown ones. Anyway, whenever a banana turns to brown for my liking I chuck it in the freezer. Which is how this came to be...

Something had to be done. Tracy had spotted some Banana Blueberry Oatmeal muffins on a blog earlier and these frozen bananas were practically screaming "Bake us into MUFFINS!" even though there is currently Wholewheat Apple muffins and Blueberry Bran muffins in the freezer!So, I did. I thought I'd post the recipe and maybe a few of you are in the same frozen banana predicament I was in and could use a little help getting rid of them! *The recipe will be written in full form at the end of the post*

First, preheat that oven to 350F and prepare the muffins cups! Either line them with liners or spray them with oil or butter them with butter. Odds are the difference. I only had 3 liners so I did the rest with oil.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse 10 times.

Grab one egg and crack it into a bowl...

These eggs were given to us by one of the instructors at school. His father-in-law raises chickens and so he gave us a dozen. Aren't they beauties? All because we gave him loaf of homemade sourdough for Christmas!

Peel two frozen bananas that have thawed at room temperature for a couple hours.

Mash the bananas and eggs together!

I used a potato masher but a fork will do too!

Add some canola oil:

And some honey, which I didn't have enough of because of a previous granola making adventure, so I just added a touch of cane sugar too:

And add some buttermilk...or milk with a splash of vinegar!

And some vanilla extract:

Mix that all up real good. You don't want big lumps of honey so make sure it's really mixed in.

Now add in the dry ingredients that we pulsed earlier:

...and mix just till the dry ingredients are moistened. It should look like this:

Now is when you add in the blueberries!

Mix gently and just until it's is barely all combined...lumps are good!
Pan them up filling the cups 3/4's full. I use a 1/3 cup measuring cup.

Pop them in the oven and bake fro 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into a centre muffin comes out clean.

Let cool and enjoy!

B-A-N-A-N-A Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

3/4 cup oats

3/4 cup white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 large egg

1 cup mashed banana, either frozen and thawed or just ripe bananas from the fruit bowl

1/3 cup canola oil

1/4 cup honey

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line/grease 12 muffin cups.
Combine all dry ingredients in a food processor. Pulse 10 times.
Mash together egg and banana. Mix in oil, honey, buttermilk, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients to wet and stir briefly just to moisten. Add in the blueberries and mix until just combined.
Scoop the batter into the muffin tin and bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool.
Makes 12 muffins

Happy Sunday!

And like usual it's a pretty good one! Have I mentioned lately how much I love Sundays? Well, because I have said it in a while...I LOVE Sundays. There is something so comforting knowing at the end of any kind of week, whether long, short, challenging, or exciting, there is a day of recovery. As I kid I dreaded it...urgh, the day before school starts again, a total write-off...but now it's a day were I usually catch up (in sleep, laundry, homework, or cooking). And I so look forward to it.

This morning Tracy and I hopped into the new car that Tracy's husband bought her, his name is Sebastian and he quite a guy.

Here he is waiting for us to take him for a spin.

First we went to the gym and then we went for a Sunday drive...

We visited a little grocery store that we'd been wanting to check out.

It was small and squishy but full of treats!

Like one of our favorite cheeses...Halloumi!And incredibly large rat traps!We finished the drive with a viewing of the water...the sun seems to come and go here quite often and I was so glad that today, all day, it has been wonderfully sunny!

Isn't that gorgeous?

What are you all up to today?

Here I am!

I'm still alive! Sorry, guys. I'm not doing very good at posting regularly. By the time my school day is done I have just about enough energy to make some supper and read a book! I'm enjoying it though! These last two weeks have gone by so fast...and I have a feeling that the next month will go by just as quickly.

This week at school we have what is fondly known as "Big Sandwich Day". We actually had it twice. I made a batch of bread dough that had roughly 18 lbs of flour and made two kinds of loaves, some super long rectangular ones and 3 huge round ones.

With the rectangles we made huge philly cheese steak sandwiches and the round ones were made into muffaletta sandwiches (a New Orleans specialty).

They were quite the sights to behold! And kinda yummy!

We also had Poutine Cook-off. Ha, yup it's all fun and games at Culinary School!! You can check it out on Tracy's blog. It was awesome! See if you can guess which one I did!

I hope you all had a great weekend and hopefully I'll fit a few more posts in this week!

Happy Birthday Brother!

Today is my brother Zach's birthday. You must all be pretty familiar with his face now...he appears quite often here. He is, with out a doubt, one of my most favorite people on this planet. Even when he tries crazy ninja fighting moves on me or holds a knife in a threatening manner...

Even then I still love him!
Happy birthday Zach, I love you lots and lots and lots!

Back on the Island...

I'm back in PEI and back at school. Like always it's a bit of an adjustment to return. I miss my family and all the hustle and bustle of having a whole bunch of people around. Thankfully I have the WBR (world's best roommate) to hang out with. Yesterday I did absolutely nothing except go to the market and get groceries. I lazed around all day...ate delicious food (of course) and played a game of scrabble. A day that didn't cross much of my to-do list but left my feeling satisfied and comfortable tired.

I am having busy days at school as I prepare to head to Vancouver but I will do my best to keep up the posts!

I hope everyone had an easy transition week back into work and school!

Hair Cut

I love getting my hair cut. Before I came to Charlottetown I would get my hair cut every 4 weeks. Not that my hair grows exeptionally fast...I just like getting my hair cut! I had a hair appointment the day before I came back to Charlottetown (yup, I'm back now!) and it was pretty drastic so I thought I'd do some before and after shots. Just for fun!

Before

It was long, eh? Well not any more!!!!

After

Voila! Donna, as always, did an amazing job. I am so happy...have lots of hair is lots of work!

Photos from the last days...Part 1

My time at home is coming to an end. In a couple of days I'll be heading back East. I am spending these last days soaking up as much family as possible. Here are some photos from yesterday and today.

First up, one of the most unexpected and amazing presents I have ever received...footie pajamas! Who knew there were adult footie Pajamas...my darling Cousin Chantrelle did, that's who!

They are wonderful, except if you have to go pee....

Another highlight (though not as exciting as the footie pajamas) was my brothers unloading the dishwasher...let's just say it doesn't happen often!

There was a trip to The Bay...

Zach and I may need to work on our modelling skills.

We found the neatest Asian Market and made a spontaneous stop! It was so cool!It had purple eggs and QUAIL EGGS!!And carts like I used in Italy!And PEKING DUCKS!!We made gnocchi together...