Strawberry Banana Muffins.... and a necklace.

For some reason, I wanted to take my picture of this muffin with the necklace that I had recently bought. So I did.



Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the muffins that don't have the necklace, and none of them came out terribly well, so... I wish I had realized that before I ate all of the muffins. The necklace is gorgeous, and can be found on Lisa Leonard Designs. Her pictures of it are much, much better!

And please, I already have been informed of the irony of a bird wearing a bird necklace.

As for the muffin... well, I am not a big fan of bananas, so it amused Mama Bird that I would opt to make muffins with bananas. Especially since I had to fight Papa Bird for the bananas, which caused some tension for a few days. But she makes delicious banana bread, so I knew I liked banana flavor, just not something else about them.

These were much more successful than the cherry muffins. I'm not a huge fan of when I get a bite that's all banana and no strawberry, but I'm sure normal people who like bananas would disagree with me. Even with my disdain for bananas, I thought these were pretty delicious, and they will be staying in the breakfast rotation.

Recipe from A Pookie Pantry.
(Makes 17 muffins, with 140 calories and $0.25 per serving)

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup applesauce

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large ripe bananas

1 cup strawberries

2.25 cups all-purpose flour

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teapoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Whisk together brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas.
   
3. Add applesauce and melted butter and stir to combine.
   
4. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
   
5. Gently fold in the strawberries, making sure they are coated with flour .
   
6. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not overmix.
   
7. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
   

Today's lessons learned:

• Bananas: sometimes acceptable.