Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints

My love for peanut butter is so great that I think I could work it into breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then still be okay with it in dessert or snack form. Of course, in reality, I do manage to eat it in moderation, but that doesn't keep me from bookmarking most every peanut sauce or peanut butter dessert I come across.

When I found cookies that were a spin on the classic PB & J sandwich in Living, I immediately tore out the recipe. For several months, I've been dying to make them, but I didn't quite trust myself to have the 40 or so cookies that it yielded laying around (or even 20 from a half batch). My willpower just isn't what it should be these days.

My solution: Beckett and I would make them to give out as favors for his birthday party! Then I'd get to try them, but would be able to give most of them away. My plan backfired a little, since I only had one left over after they were evenly divided for the treat bags, and I had to share that one with Beckett. For such an anticipated cookie, only getting half didn't cut it. Not to mention that Sage was disappointed he didn't even get one. Since I've gotten feedback they were awesome, I now am going to have to make them again!

I didn't feel the need to alter this recipe, nor did I try to healthify it in any way (it was for birthday party goodie bags after all!) but I do have a few recipe notes to share:

* I used Polaner Seedless Raspberry (our household favorite with peanut butter!) to fill mine, but you can use any flavor jam or jelly you wish.

* I used closer to 1/3 of a cup of jam than 1/2, and used the microwave instead of the stove top to loosen it up. About 10 seconds or so did the trick.

* When baking Peanut Butter Kisses for the holidays, I read the tip that regular natural peanut butter won't allow the cookies like these to correctly set, and that a natural peanut butter spread should be used instead. When I went to make these, I was a little short of the PB spread, so I used a 1/2 a cup and then used a 1/4 a cup of regular creamy natural peanut butter.

* For the final baking step, the recipe calls for cooking until edges are golden, 6-7 minutes. I baked mine for 9, and never got a "golden edge," but that time seemed just right. Perhaps this was due to my peanut butter combination?

Peanut Butter and Jelly Thumbprints
from Martha Stewart Living
yields around 40 cookies

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for rolling
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat together peanut butter and butter with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Scoop level tablespoons of dough and form into balls. Roll each ball into granulated sugar (a great job for little helpers!) and transfer to parchment lines baking sheets. spacing about 2 inches apart.

Bake until cookies are puffy, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven and make indentations in the center, by pressing with the handle end of a wooden spoon. Return to oven and bake until edges are golden, 6-7 minutes more (see note above).Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool completley.

Heat jam in a small saucepan, stirring until loosened, about 30 seconds (or alternately, in the microwave in a microwave safe dish, for about 10 seconds.) Spoon about a half teaspoon into the indentation.

Cookies can be store in a single layer for up to a week.

Peanut-Orange Marinated Tofu with Stir-Fry Vegetables

When it comes to tofu, I'm not very picky on how it's prepared. Sage and Beckett are another story. I've learned that if I making it at home, they only really care for it when it's been pressed, sliced thin, marinated simply in soy sauce with a touch of sesame oil and baked. Then I almost have to fight them for my share. While I'm pleased to have converted them into tofu-likers, I've been on the lookout for other marinating options I think they will enjoy just for some variety.

The other day, Heather at Where's the Beach shared a peanut marinade/sauce she used on some baked tofu and stir-fried vegetables and it sounded delicious. I had tofu on hand, and I got myself all excited about recreating it...and then I remembered I was out of soy sauce. Naturally, I'd just been to the grocery store that day, and I wasn't going to make a special trip back. Luckily, a couple days later Sage had to stop for something else, and I was able to have him grab it.

This was hands-down one of my favorite meals in recent history. I kept thinking about it for the remainder of the night and made sure to put a claim on the leftovers. Since Heather didn't give exact measurements, I just added the marinade ingredients to taste. I used vegetables I had on hand- carrots, snow peas, zucchini and celery- but you could use red pepper, broccoli, mushrooms, you name it. We had ours with rice, but it would be great over noodles, and if tofu isn't your thing, it would go wonderfully with chicken as well.

Peanut-Orange Marinated Tofu with Stir-Fry Vegetables
marinade/sauce adapted from Where's the Beach
3 generous servings, with the additon of a starch

for the marinade:
1/4 cup reduced sodium tamari (or soy sauce)
1/4 tsp creamy natural peanut butter
1 tbsp honey
1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 (16 oz) package extra-firm tofu, well pressed and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tbsp olive oil (you could use peanut or canola if you prefer)
3 medium carrots, sliced
2 celery ribs, sliced 1/3 inch thick on the bias
1 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/3 inch thick half moons
3 green onions, sliced lengthwise and crosswise and separated
2 1/2 cups snow peas
brown or white rice, or noodles, for serving

Whisk together marinade ingredients until well blended. Toss tofu to coat and marinate for at least an hour.

Place tofu in a single layer on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray, and bake in a preheated oven of 350 for 35 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking time. Reserve remaining marinade.

After tofu has been baking for about 20 minutes, heat a wok (or large skillet) over medium-high heat. Add oil and once hot, add the carrots and celery. Use a wide, flat spatula to keep the vegetables moving. After a few minutes, add the zucchini and onion and cook (again keeping the vegetables moving) for about 10 minutes, or until vegetables have nearly reached desired tenderness. Add snow peas, baked tofu and remaining marinade, and cook for another few minutes. Remove from heat.

Serve over rice or noodles, as desired.

Merry Christmas!

Hello, all! Just wanted to take a quick second to wish all of you who celebrate Christmas a very merry one, and to those of you who don't, I hope you are having a lovely holiday season as well!

I have had absolutely no time to blog lately. Christmas is a very busy time in a flower shop, so I've been working a lot, and then coming home and staying up late baking and preparing for Christmas.

Speaking of baking, I made these cookie tray for our neighbors and coworkers. Despite this not so pretty photo, they came out quite nice I thought. I pretty much stuck to the original recipes, so I am going to just include the links instead of reposting them.

I made:

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies (aka Peanut Butter Blossoms) from Savory Sweet Life - I had to add an extra few tbsp of peanut butter to help bind the dough

Swirly Chocolate-Peppermint Bark from Confections from a Foodie Bride

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Ocean Spray- I used 2 cups Craisins and used white chips instead of chunks, increasing it to 3/4 cup

And at the request of my two year old...

Gingerbread Men from McCormick- Even after chilling overnight, the dough was very soft and sticky. It took a little playing around with but we found that if we rolled it in between parchment paper and then placed it in the freezer before cutting the men out (while we had another batch in the oven) that it was fine as long as you worked quickly. It was worth the extra effort, I thought, because the cookies had great flavor and a perfect consistency that was neither too soft or too crisp. I decorated them with not-so-perfect little faces and mini M&M buttons.

I am off today and pretty much done with everything I need to do, besides running out for a quick errand- can you believe I work in a flower shop and I forgot to get flowers for my own dining room table???- and then finish cleaning and prepping for tomorrow. We are hosting Christmas brunch for half of our family tomorrow and then spending the rest of the day at my mom's, who does Christmas like no one else and makes it an absolute blast! I'm so excited to spend time with family and most especially to get to re-experience it all through the eyes of my young child.

I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful Holiday weekend spent your loved ones!

Rice Noodle Salad with Peanut Dressing

I love how food blogging (and cooking, in general) can be a bit like the childhood game of "Telephone." Each cook can slightly adapt a recipe to suit their preferences, and with just a few minor changes, you get a little something different each time.

Take this wonderful noodle salad. I first saw it on Natashya's blog a while back. Then I once again drooled over it on Joanne's blog, where she swapped out the shrimp for tofu and and used zucchini in place of cucumbers. I vowed to make it soon, but before I got the chance, Cate shared her version with a few more changes, most notably the use of peanut butter instead of cashew butter, chili garlic sauce in lieu of hot sauce and the addition of carrots and cilantro. Naturally, there was a little tinkering when it came time for me to make it too.

I really can't rave about this one enough. We absolutely loved it. A few hours after dinner, I found myself still thinking about it and being grateful there were leftovers for lunch the next day. I've tried several similar recipes in the past that were okay, but nothing worth sharing. This one blows those away, which is understandably why it's making it way around.

Rice Noodle Salad with Peanut Sauce

adapted from Living in the Kitchen with Puppies (via Eats Well with Others and Cate's World Cooking)

serves 4

I chose not to saute my tofu along with my vegetables, due to my family's preference, and instead marinated it in soy and sesame oil, baked it and served it on the side. If you'd prefer to lightly pan-fry it, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in your skillet, and saute (pressed) tofu strips for several minutes on each side until golden brown. Then proceed with cooking the vegetables.

for the peanut sauce:
1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
6 cloves garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (chunky works fine)
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark sesame oil
3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 tsp dark brown sugar
1/4 cup warm water
Hot sauce, to taste (I used a few dashes of sriracha)

for the salad:
8 oz (linguine-style) thin rice noodles (I used the last of a package, and it might have been closer to 9 or 10 oz)
2 small zucchini, sliced into half moons (2 1/4 cups)
1 large red pepper, sliced into matchsticks (1 1/4 cup)
3 small-medium carrots, sliced thin (1 cup)

to serve:
3 tbsp chopped basil
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
3 tbsp thinly sliced green onion (white/ light green parts only)

Combine the the ginger, garlic, peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and sugar in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Add warm water a tbsp at a time, blending until desired consistency. Add in hot sauce to taste.

Bring a large sauce pan of water to boil. Cook the rice noodles for 3 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water. Keep submerged in cold water until ready to use.

Mist a large nonstick skillet with olive oil and heat over medium-high. Add zucchini, red pepper and carrots and cook until just tender, about 3-4 minutes (carrots will still be fairly crisp). Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Drain noodles and toss with dressing and vegetables in a large serving bowl. Serve room temperature or chilled. Spinkle with basil, cilantro and green onions to serve.

Tofu and Noodles in Peanut-Tomato Sauce

Tofu is one of those things I've been eating for a long time but never attempted working with at home. I'm not so sure what I was afraid of. I can't tell you how many times I've had it in my hands at the grocery, only to chicken out, put it back down, and then... go buy some chicken.

The other day, I stood over the tofu, took a deep breath, tossed it into my cart and quickly walked away before I could change my mind. (Okay, that might be a little more dramatic than how it really went down.) Point is, I made it home with tofu and needed to find the perfect recipe with it. This was actually the hard part.

Most of the recipes I kept finding were Thai dishes, and while I had all of the stuff on hand to make many of those dishes, I've never been able to make an authentic Thai dish at home that I really loved. While I'm not giving up on that challenge, I didn't want to combine that with my first at-home tofu experience. But then I thought of a dish I've had lots of success with, Peanut Butter Chicken. Since its already one of Sage's favorite dinners, I thought it would be a great one to use.

Since it was my first time, I wanted to cook the tofu separately, and baking it seemed easiest. I made a few other changes to my standard recipe- I used green beans instead of bell peppers (since I'd used all of my peppers in these awesome fajitas the night before.) I always think recipes that have peanut sauces with noodles sound so yummy, so I went with that instead of our usual rice. The result was a great dinner we all enjoyed. I think from now on, tofu will be making more appearances in my shopping cart.

Tofu and Noodles in Peanut-Tomato Sauce, serves 4
1 (14 oz.) pkg firm tofu, pressed and cut in 3/4 inch cubes
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
7 oz. uncooked multi-grain or whole wheat spaghetti
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1/3 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 oz. sliced cremini mushrooms
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 (15 oz.) can tomatoes with mild green chilies
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup natural peanut butter
juice from 1/2 a lime (mine wasn't very juicy so I used the entire lime)

Toss cubed tofu gently in tamari/soy to coat. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

Spread tofu onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray and place into oven preheated to 375. Bake for about 35 minutes, flipping tofu a few times through cooking process.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. Set aside.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and green beans and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add mushrooms, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper, and continue cooking for about 5 minutes.

Add tomatoes with their juices and stock. Cover, and without reducing heat, simmer for about 10 minutes, or until green beans are tender. Uncover and stir in peanut butter until sauce is relatively smooth and begins to thicken, about 2 minutes.

Toss sauce with cooked noodles, tofu and lime juice.

Beckett's Birthday Cupcakes (and some birthday pics of my favorite two year old)

Last week, my little man turned two. I think I was almost more excited about his second birthday than I was his first. Something about the fact he was able to understand and look forward to the big day made it all the more fun. For the days leading up to it, he would say "Birthday- coming up!" He even walked around practicing singing Happy Birthday to himself. And when asked what he was going to get for his birthday, he'd answer "Cake!" We're not big cake eaters, but I knew I couldn't deny him some kind of birthday cake.

For his actual birthday, I made his very favorite dinner, homemade pizza topped with his favorite vegetable, mushrooms. I was all set to make pumpkin cupcakes for dessert, but last minute I began to worry that the others joining us for dinner wouldn't care for them. With limited time, I had to find a recipe that I could make with what I had on hand. That ended up being peanut butter cupcakes specked with coarsely chopped bittersweet chips and topped with peanut butter buttercream. I'm pretty glad I changed my mind, because these were so awesome!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
slightly adapted from TLC Cooking , makes 18 cupcakes

1/3 cup softened butter
1/3 cup creamy or chunky natural peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/4 cup bittersweet chips, coarsely chopped (or mini chips would work well too)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tin with cupcake liners.

In a stand mixer, beat together butter and peanut butter at medium speed until smooth. Beat in sugars until well mixed. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a seperate bowl. Add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in chocolate pieces until mixed well.

Spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling 2/3 full. Bake 23-25 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when touched and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for ten minutes. Remove cupcakes to rack and cool completely.

Peanut Butter Buttercream, from Martha Stewart

2/3 cup natural creamy peanut butter (I used crunchy and it was fine)
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
Fine salt (optional- I actually forgot all about it)
Cream peanut butter and butter together with a stand mixture fitted with the paddle attachment at high speed. On low speed, mix in the sugar until combined, then beat mixture on high until fluffy and smooth. Add salt to taste, if desired. Use immediately.

*This recipe is supposed to yield 1 cup. I would say it was closer to twice that.
I garnished mine with milk chocolate shavings. I think a small peanut butter cup would be great too!


And now, just because I like to show off my super cute kid, here's some pictures from his birthday trip to the The Lowry Park Zoo. We had a group of 17, which included 6 little ones, for a chilly but really fun day.
Prior to leaving, opening a gift from his cousin.

Checking out the Orangutans

Taking a carousel ride with Nana

Watching the Mama Rhino doing laps

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

I think this was cookie fate: I had an urge to bake something. The multiple jars of peanut butter in the cabinet seemed to be calling my attention, just asking to be used and preferably in cookies. As I was mulling this idea over, I thought of the opened bag of chocolate chips I had, and how delicious they'd be with peanut butter.

So, I as I was deciding if I wanted to actually find a recipe for such cookies (you know, since I didn't really need to have cookies- especially one made with tempting peanut butter- in the house) I get on the computer and check my email, then check my blog reader...and there is a recipe for Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter cookies. I took that as a sign that I had to make them.

This recipe comes from Ashlee at A Year in the Kitchen and is a recipe she created herself. We had friends over Saturday night and managed to restrain ourselves prior to them coming over so we could share these. (Okay, well, minus a couple.)These chewy, delightful cookies went over great and were quickly eaten! I didn't make any substantial changes except for minor substituting due to what I had on hand (crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy, dark brown sugar in place of light and bittersweet chips for the semi-sweet ones) so I am just going to link you to the original.

Sweet Potato, Spinach & Peanut Butter Stew

The other day, I woke up with the combination of sweet potatoes and spinach in my head and wanted to pair them together in a soup. While spinach and sweet potatoes can be found together in many recipes, I had a hard time finding one I wanted to try. Either I was missing lots of ingredients, or they were more of an Indian-inspired recipe. I'm not sure why, but I don't usually care for most Indian dishes.

Then I began thinking of a favorite in our household, Peanut Butter Chicken. So I googled "sweet potato, spinach and peanut butter," and found tons of recipes! I found that combo is traditional in West African stews. Again, most of these I was missing ingredients, so I just decided to take my PB Chicken recipe and adapt it. It was a gamble for sure, but one that paid off because it was so good! Even Beckett loved it (but then peanut butter, sweet potatoes and mushrooms all rank in his top favorite foods list.) I will be experimenting with more vegetarian versions of PB Chicken in the future!

I intended garnishing this with cilantro, but forgot. And then forgot again, when we had the leftovers, but I imagine it would go well.

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large carrot, diced

2 medium sweet poatoes, in small dice (around 3 cups)

sea salt and fresh ground pepper

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

8 oz. sliced button mushrooms

1 3/4 cup vegetable stock

2 oz. (1/4 cup) tomato sauce

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup natural peanut butter (I use crunchy, but either will work.)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)

1/2 (9 oz.) bag baby spinach

hot cooked rice (We had ours over Jasmine)

cilantro, for serving

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add carrots and sweet potatoes to the pan, and season with salt and pepper. Saute for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add onion, garlic and mushrooms, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.

Add 1 cup of the stock, tomato sauce, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer until potatoes and carrots are tender, about 5 minutes.

Stir peanut butter into the sweet potato mixture until smooth. It will be quite thick, so add a little extra of the broth to thin the sauce. Add spinach to pan, and wilt. If needed add more of the broth to bring to desired thickness (I didn't measure, but I used somewhere between 1/2-3/4 cup broth to get the consistency I wanted.)

Serve over rice and top with cilantro, if desired.

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dip

I am very behind on my posts, being that this one is from Halloween! I hate to show up empty handed to a party and a few hours beforehand, I realized I was about to do that. I didn't have time to go shopping, but I had some canned pumpkin on hand I wanted to use.

I did a search and found most dips made with pumpkin used either a block of cream cheese or a jar marshmellow fluff- neither of which I had. But I had peanut butter, and I knew that paired nicely with the pumpkin. There is one basic recipe floating out there, with the slight variations being in the quanities of the ingredients. Since they all seemed nearly the same, I randomly picked one, not really noticing that this one had equal parts pumpkin, peanut butter and brown sugar. If I'd been paying attention better, I'd noticed the other recipes had a much smaller ratio of the sugar. We're talking the difference of a few tablespoons versus 3/4 of a cup! Not being a big fan of super sweet stuff, I sampled it and found it pretty much unedible. But with some tweeking, it became delicious!

This kid-friendly dip can be served with graham cracker sticks or ginger snaps, or a variety of fruits or celery sticks. We had the ginger snaps and apples, but it would be amazing on bananas. Sadly, we got to the party a little late, and no one was really hitting up the food table at that point, so I'm certain the majority of this got tossed at the end of the night. Luckily, I had saved a little of it at home, and my toddler went crazy for it on pears and celery. I feel bad for this yummy dip that it didn't get to be enjoyed as it deserved to have been, so I will be making it again!

adapted from Group Recipes
1 (15 oz.) can of pure pumpkin
1 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp reduced fat cream cheese
graham crackers, ginger snaps, fruit or celery, for serving

Combine all ingredients until well blended. (Because I had chunky peanut butter and didn't soften my cream cheese before mixing, I opted to use a immersion blender for a smoother texture.)

Peanut Butter Chicken

One of Sage's favorite dinners I make regularly is Peanut Butter Chicken, a dish that has what I suppose would be considered a Thai-like flavor. For no particular reason, it's been a while since I've made it and he wanted to know why. Last night his mom and sister joined us for dinner, so we wanted to make this for them, and they loved it.

I will admit, it's not the prettiest looking meal out there. The color of the sauce is a little odd but it is so yummy! I usually use three colors of bell peppers just to add extra color, although I didn't have a red in last night's.

My version of this is quite modified from the original I found a while back on allrecipes.com I use way more veggies, and one of the most important additions to mine is using tomatoes with green chiles instead of plain. It gives just the right amount of heat and compliments the other ingredients so well. Sage loves to top this with chopped peanuts or cashews when we have them. I hope you enjoy this house favorite much as we do!

2 tbsp olive oil
3 cups bell peppers, choppped (any color combination)
2 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium onion, chopped
seas salt and fresh ground pepper
1 (8 oz. pkg.) sliced mushrooms
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes with mild chiles, with juice
1 1/3 cup chicken broth
juice from 1/2 of a lime
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 - 3/4 cup peanut butter (I use chunky natural)
hot cooked white rice, for serving (I use Jasmine)

4-6 servings
1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add bell pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add chicken, stirring frequently until chicken becomes white on all sides. Add onion, mushrooms, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook stirring constantly until onions are translucent.
2. Add tomatoes, broth, tomato paste and lime juice. Reduce heat and simmer uncooked until chicken is cooked through (about 10 minutes.) Stir in peanut butter beginning with 1/2 cup. Stir constantly until the sauce begins to thicken (this will take about 2 minutes.) Add additional peanut butter if too thin.
3. Serve with rice.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I'm not much of a baker, which I think is because I improvise a lot while cooking and its difficult to do that when you're baking. Plus we're not big fans of sweets and most baked goods. I have been searching for a muffin recipe lately, but they all seemed to have 2 cups worth of sugar.

On the blog Miss Foodie Two Shoes I found this one, and it had very little sugar, and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I decided to make them. I love peanut butter and banana together, and I liked that the blogger said they weren't that sweet. I was debating the streusel topping, and then forgot it anyhow, but I'm pretty sure they would've been tastier with it. However, they are still yummy. The best part, my toddler son (who has had such a tiny appetite lately,) ate one and asked for another!

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tbs. baking powder

1 cup milk (I used 1%)

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used Chunky Natural PB)

1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (I had one very big banana that equaled 1/2 cup)

1 egg, beaten

2 tbs. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tbs. butter, melted

2 tbs. packed brown sugar

1.Preheat your over to 375 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with muffin liners. (Actually makes about 15 muffins)

2. Combine 1 cup of flour, quick cooking oats, 1/3 cup brown sugar and baking powder. Whisk together milk, peanut butter, mashed banana, egg, oil and vanilla. Add banana mixture to dry ingredients, mixing just until moistened.

3. Fill the prepared muffin cups 3/4 full. In a small bowl, stir together 1/4 cup flour, melted butter and 2 tbs. of brown sugar. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes, until golden brown. Best served warm. (Great warmed for 10 seconds in the microwave.)