Leftover Bananas

You all know what I'm writing about. Those bananas that sit in the fruit bowl or on the kitchen counter that are just a little bit past their prime. They are starting to get that not so fresh feeling - a little bit mushy, brown spots, you can start smelling them when you walk by. Maybe, just maybe, there are some fruit flies that have appeared out of nowhere...not that it happens at my/your house.

Sometimes I get daring and try to eat one of these bananas, and I usually regret it. Sometimes, I toss one of these bananas in the blender with some berries, yogurt and juice or milk to make a healthy smoothie. If I'm really ambitious, and I have at least 3 of these old bananas, I will make banana bread. Lately, I have only had one of these sad and lonely bananas. Because of this I have started making banana muffins. I love to bake, thanks to my mother. She would always bake things from scratch when I was growing up, and still does today. Luckily she let me and my sister "help" her. Helping her usually consisted of holding the hand mixer and licking the bowl. Mom has a standby muffin recipe in her head that she made up one day. It works for blueberry muffins, apple muffins, and yes, banana muffins. She has given me that recipe - not in writing - and I now have it in my head too!

My favorite kitchen appliance

There used to be a dozen...

The only difference between my mom's banana muffins and mine is that I use my KitchenAid stand mixer instead of mixing by hand...I LOVE my stand mixer. Here are some photos of the muffins I made yesterday. Please note that there are not a dozen muffins - because of course I keep eating them.

Yummy!