Chocolate Banana Smoothie

Happy Thirsty Thursday!  Today I was in the mood for chocolate so I whipped up a Chocolate Banana Smoothie.  

Ingredients:

- 1/3 cup of vanilla yogurt

- 2 tablespoons of honey

- 2 tablespoons of nutella

- a handful of chocolate chips

- a heaping teaspoon of toffee chips

- half a frozen banana

Directions:

Slice up the banana, and place all the ingredients in a blender.  

Blend and enjoy.  I garnished with some maraschino cherries, but they are definitely not a necessity.  Though they did taste awesome when dipped into the smoothie.  

This smoothie was decadent, and yummy!  It fulfilled my chocolate desires, and then some.

Hope your week is going well, and again Happy Thirsty Thursday, chris!

Pineapple Banana Smoothie

Happy Thirsty Thursday!  Today's drink is a Pineapple Banana Smoothie.  

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons heavy cream

- 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice

- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

- 1 small banana

- 1 tablespoon toffee

Directions:

Place the heavy cream in a small blender, and blend for a couple of minutes until it becomes whip cream.  Then add the  pineapple juice, yogurt, and slice the banana as you add it.  Blend all together.  Add the the toffee, blend once more, and enjoy!  

Garnish with a banana slice.  A little toffee on the top would be nice too.  This was yummy, and it might actually be kinda healthy.  I think walnuts or pecans could taste great in this.  I don't have any, and didn't think of it until I had finished the drink.  

Happy Thirsty Thursday, chris!  

Banana Peanut Butter Honey Smoothie

MMM.  I almost drank all of this before I got a photo of it.  I could drink a Banana Peanut Butter Honey Smoothie everyday.  This is basically the liquid version of the cupcakes I made on monday.  

Ingredients:

- one banana

- 1/2 cup plain yogurt

- 3 tablespoons of honey 

- 1/4 cup peanut butter

- 1/4 cup milk

-1/4 cup coffee

Directions:

Blend everything together, and pour into a glass.  Enjoy.  

Absolutely amazing.  Great consistency, perfect size for one, and fantastic flavor.  

Hope you enjoy, and happy DIYing, chris

Banana and Peanut Butter Heaven

Do you ever try a new recipe and think, 'Damn, I'm glad I tried making that, cause it's delicious!'?  I do all the time, and today was the perfect example of that.  I tried out King Arthur Flour's recipe for Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.  I don't have King Arthur Flour, but I figure that doesn't so much matter.  I found the recipe on Pinterest, of course.  

Ingredients: 

CAKE

- 1/2 cup softened butter

- 1 1/4 cups sugar

- 2 eggs

- 2 medium bananas (the riper the better)

- 1/4 cup honey

- 1/4 cup plain yogurt

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

- 3/4 teaspoon salt

- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- a pinch of nutmeg

- 2 1/3 cup flour

FROSTING

- 2 cups confectioner's sugar

- 3/4 cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- a pinch of salt

- 1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk

- 1/4 cup toffee pieces  

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and prep a muffin pan with grease and/or cupcake papers.  I used silicone cups that I sprayed with a veggie oil spray.  Then in a kitchen mixer I combined the softened butter and sugar together.  Once they were well combined, I added the eggs individually.  While that was mixing throughly I cut the bananas up into bite sized chunks, then dropped them in the mixer by the handful.  Next I added the honey, yogurt, and vanilla.  Then I was able to move on to the dry ingredients.  I added the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and flour in that order individually.  The flour I added by the tablespoon with the mixer on slow.  Once everything was throughly combined I filled the cupcake cups with the batter.  Fill to the top, because they don't rise too much.  I should have filled a few of mine more, they were a bit on the flat side.  

Then I popped them in the oven for 25 minutes, which was perfect.  The edges were a nice golden brown, and a toothpick stuck in the center came out clean.  

After the cupcakes cooled I got to making the frosting.  I mixed together the powdered sugar and peanut butter together.  That seemed to take forever to throughly mix, but then I added the vanilla, and pinch of salt.  Then I slowly added the milk,  I used most of a 1/2 cup of milk, but I think my frosting was a bit runny.  It's easy to add more milk to thin, but it's more work to add more sugar to thicken it.  I just went with the runny frosting.  Before frosting the cupcakes remove them from the muffin pan, and get to town.  I'm lazy so I just used a metal spatula, but you can definitely pipe it on for a prettier outcome.  I finished up by sprinkling toffee bits over the tops of them.  The recipe I was following suggested honey roasted peanuts.  I'm sure both would be amazing!  

They aren't beautiful, but they taste amazing.  The banana isn't overwhelming, and the peanut butter is creamy and perfect.  This will be a great quick breakfast on busy mornings.  I can't wait to eat another one!  :)  

Happy Nom Nom Monday, and happy DIYing, chris

Tropical Creamsicle Smoothie

Today wasn't that productive, and I needed something cool and creamy to soothe my nerves when I got home.  This is a tasty kid friendly drink for this week's Thirsty Thursday.  I made a yummy Tropical Creamsicle Smoothie.  

Ingredients:

- half a banana

- half a kiwi

-  3 tablespoons of frozen orange juice concentrate

- 4 heaping tablespoons of cool whip

- 1/4 cup milk

Blend everything together in a blender, and it is ready to be served.  If it's too thick you can add more milk.  It tasted similar to an orange creamsicle from Orange Julius, but wasn't overly orangey like some can be.  The banana balanced out the strong flavor of the citric acid.  Perfect drink for all this hot weather. 

While enjoying my tasty treat I discovered we have a thief.  Squirrels have been stealing our tomatoes before we are able to enjoy them!  I was really looking forward to this plump cherokee purple that was getting close to being ripe enough to pick.   This guy had a twin, but the squirrel ate half of it, and I threw it in the sea of english ivy in a burst of anger.  

Lil' jerks!  Protect yo' tomatoes from those rascally bandits!  Have a lovely thursday, and happy DIYing, chris.