I Can't Believe It! RIP Davy

Banana Cinnamon Chip Muffins

Hello strangers! Does it feel like forever since we've gotten caught up with what's going on in my life? Not that I think that you have a burning need and desire to know the mundane and miniscule of my day-to-day drudgery, but every once in a while I like to think that you might enjoy hearing from me.

For those still keeping tabs (myself included, obviously) I am now 15 months smoke free. (YAY!) I have lost the 30 pounds that I gained when I quit smoking and am now working on the other 500 lbs I still need to lose. Well, maybe not 500, but some days it feels that way.

Regarding my breast cancer, all is well as far as I know. My next mammogram is scheduled at the beginning of April and until then I refuse to worry another gray hair over it. I'm enjoying life, love, family and friends. Is there anything else that matters?

The recipe I'm posting today is basically a repeat of a muffin recipe I made awhile back. I've changed a few of the ingredients because hubby has told me he's going to commit me to the King Arthur Flour Insane Asylum if I don't start using up the flour that I have in the freezer.

I purchased some perfect pastry flour blend last year thinking that I was going to become the queen of pie crusts. Didn't happen. So now I have all of this flour left to use. I decided to use it in these muffins and they turned out so well that I wanted to have the recipe on record so I can repeat it (because I still have two more bags of that flour to use!)


Banana Cinnamon Chip Muffins (makes 1 dozen muffins)

1 cup minus two TBSP whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup perfect pastry blend
1/4 cup milled flax seed
1/4 cup wheat bran
2 TBSP wheat germ
1/4 cup brown sugar Splenda (or 1/2 cup regular brown sugar)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
1 1/2 cup very ripe mashed bananas
3/4 cup fat free sour cream
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners and spray lightly with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, flax seed, wheat bran, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the cinnamon chips.

In another bowl whisk together the bananas, sour cream, eggs, canola oil and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir well to combine but do not over mix. Spoon batter into cupcake liners. Bake for 24-26 minutes. Remove pan from oven and allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely on cooling rack.

Be Mine

Whose hand gets to hold my heart this Valentine's Day?

Well, that one looks strong, familiar and I'm recognizing a ring that's 33 years old. (Kinda even looks like the love is cutting off the circulation in that finger.)

However, this little cut out hand is screaming "I love you!" and must be addressed.

Thankfully, I have a big heart (not nearly the size of my melon head, but close.) I think I'll have two favorite Valentines this year.

I mean, really. How could I pick just one? Look at them!!

But....if I had to pick strictly on penmanship, Gavin would win hands down (PUN alert)

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL! XOX

Wasabi Sesame Drizzling Oil (I know, it's weird)

Mags here, doing a quick blog fly-by in between games of "Words With Friends" on Facebook. It has become my newest hobby (read addiction) and is quickly separating friends from friends and morphing into the new Hatfields(16 points) and McCoys(17 points) of online games. Substantiated rumor even has it that people are being tossed off of airplanes for refusing to power down their mobile devices in lieu of playing this game. And lest you get all worried about yet another thing to concern yourself with whilst packing, boarding and flying, these passengers were tossed prior to the plane's departure, not during actual flight. And last I heard, you can still get away with such things as tucking marijuana under your scrotum, if that's your bag (so to speak)

ANYWAYYYAH.... back to this quick blog post. And this one is all for my hubby. I promise you that it will relate to only .00062% of the rest of you, and in the time-honored fashion of rounding off numbers, we'll just give it an even zero. I'm merely posting this so I'll remember how I made this recipe a year from now when I run out again.

See that stuff? It is called wasabi sesame drizzling sauce and I found it last year at Trader Joe's. Had I known that it would eventually become hubby's closest and most coveted condiment, I would have bought more than one bottle. But as common sense usually dictates in such incidences, I tend to buy only one of something until I know whether or not I like it. We loved it (of course) and the next time I went back to Trader Joe's and tried to purchase another bottle, I was told that it was discontinued (of course.) Just like when Mary Kay discontinued the jade eye pencil and pink eyecicles that made me look like a cover girl. (Some things a girl just never gets over.)

Hubby puts this stuff on his grilled fish, especially tuna, mahi mahi and salmon. HE LOVES IT!! When I read the list of ingredients, I figured out that I could come pretty close to whipping up something comparable. And I did! Twenty seconds in the blender (not me.... the ingredients) and I was back on the computer licking my "Wars With Friends" wounds. (That's what I call it now.)

Wasabi Sesame Drizzling Sauce

1 1/2 ounces prepared wasabi paste (that's the entire tube)
1 1/2 ounces soy sauce (I used reduced-sodium)
2 ounces sesame oil
3 ounces canola oil

Put all ingredients in blender and process for 15-20 seconds. Pour into jar. Cover and store in fridge.