Play it again, Sam (and Banana Bread)

You know you like a recipe when you make it two nights in a row. Tonight we sautéed broccoli and onions and had it with our the Pasta Primevera Sauce.  I don't count tonight as left-overs because I made more of the sauce and fresh pasta.  In a previous post, I imagined this would be good with broccoli; I was right, the sauce is lovely with broccoli.

I am now stuffed (again).  Walking on the treadmill and blogging at my treadmill desk is much better than sitting.

In addition, tonight, I baked some banana chocolate chip muffins. I know lots of folks know and love Dreena Burton's recipes. I've only made a few, but when I saw this one, I knew I had to make it. I love maple syrup as a sweetener.  I wrote a teeny bit about it here, and by write, I mean I made links to others. The other thing that drew me in is that 1/3 of a cup of maple syrup is what I typically use in a recipe. I don't like it sweet. Here's the link to Dreena Burton's web site and the recipe pasted below in case it ever disappears from the web. Everything in italics is from her site.
 
Ingredients (1 bread or 12 muffins)
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (or 1 cup + 3-4 tbsp spelt flour for wheat-free version)
3/4 cup oat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 cup pureed overripe banana (see note)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup plain non-dairy milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp non-dairy mini or regular chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine pureed banana, maple syrup, milk and vanilla. Add wet mixture to dry, and add in chocolate chips (if using), and stir through until just well combined (don’t overmix). Wipe a loaf pan lightly with oil (or use a silicone loaf pan). Pour batter into pan and bake for 43-48 minutes, until golden and a toothpick or skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Makes 1 quick bread.
Notes:
If you have an immersion blender, puree several medium-large overripe bananas in a deep, large cup, then measure to get your 1 cup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, mash banana very well.
To make muffins instead of a quick bread: Pour mixture into a 12-cup muffin pan fitted with cupcake liners. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove, let cool for a few minutes in pan, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely

My notes:
I mash my bananas. It doesn't seem worth it to dirty a blender for them. I crossed out the cinnamon and nutmeg because I'm not a fan of cinnamon and chocolate together EXCEPT when pumpkin is involved.  Maybe someday I'll get past this, or not. I made the muffin version and used my silicone muffin pan and no oil.

They came out beautiful and tasty! Pictures if I remember to take some of them before we eat them.  Heh.

(pictures added 5/5/2013)

I imagine we'll be making this recipe often in the future. The girls are excited to have homemade muffins for lunch; tomorrow, they head back to school (after spring break). The muffin recipe is a lot like other recipes I make, except no flax. I'm a big flax fan, but these muffins are very light and moist--fun for a change. It's been a good cooking weekend. Now if I were only done grading papers for my class. (Soon!)

Oh!  I got a new scanpan.... I took pictures of it and I need to write about it. Hopefully tomorrow!