The Kids Cook Monday with Mini-Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

It's Monday and time for The Kids Cook Monday segment.  The Kids Cook Monday program is a public health initiative that focuses on starting your Monday (and week) off on a good foot by getting your kids in the kitchen to help cook a healthy recipe.  As their logo says: "Start your week off right: make Monday family night!"  

This Monday's recipe is Mini-Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins.  What makes these muffins "better for you" is the addition of flaxseed in the batter.  Flaxseed is a natural source of ALA Omega-3 fatty acids and a good source of dietary fiber.  The flaxseed doesn't change the taste of these wonderful mini muffins.  They are moist and so good.  Kids would love them for breakfast, in their lunchbox or for a snack.  And don't forget us adults.  We love them too!

Mini-Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Adapted from Bon Appetit
Recipe by Jamie from Mom's Cooking Club

(Printable recipe)

Yield:  36 mini muffins or 12 regular size muffins

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 large or 3 medium)

1 large egg

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons fine ground flaxseed (I used beveri Flaxseed)
3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray mini muffin pans (36 mini muffins) with non-stick cooking spray.  Mix flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in large bowl.  Mix mashed bananas, egg, melted butter and milk in medium bowl.  Stir banana mixture into dry ingredients just until blended.  Add vanilla and 2 tablespoons of flaxseed to batter and mix.  Stir in mini chocolate chips.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with muffin batter.  Bake 15 minutes until tops are pale golden and toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean.  Transfer muffins to rack and cool.   

My girls had fun baking these muffins as well as eating them.
  

Marissa and Mariah sampling their freshly baked muffins.

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson:  This recipe also makes 12 regular size muffins.  Use muffin baking liners or spray muffin cups with non-stick spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.  You can use regular size semisweet chocolate chips but we like using the mini ones in these muffins.

Banana Crumb Muffins

When I have overripe bananas, which is a regular occurrence, I usually make my go-to banana bread . I had some overripe bananas that I needed to use and I wanted to do something different. I started looking through my recipe folder and found this banana muffin recipe that I had printed out from allrecipes.com in 2007. Oh, well. Better late than never, right? The sweetness of the brown sugar/cinnamon topping with the moist banana muffin was really good. We've been enjoying them every morning for breakfast (and snack and dessert).

Click here for Banana Crumb Muffin recipe

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: I use an ice cream scoop to place my batter into the muffin cups. It's the perfect size, quick and much easier than using a spoon.

Southwest Shredded Chicken Three Bean Chili with Corn Bread Muffins

If you like chili, you have to make this chicken and bean chili. This recipe comes from Jenny at Picky Palate. She has an amazing food blog. I want to try all of her recipes. They are family friendly and just great everyday meals. She also makes fantastic desserts and I LOVE dessert! But back to the main dish. The flavors of this chili are so good...I mean really good. This meal will make a regular appearance in my dinner rotation. The list of ingredients may seem long but they are mostly canned items and seasonings. Really easy to put together. I let it simmer as I made the corn bread muffins (recipe below).

Click here for the Southwest Shredded Chicken Three Bean Chili recipe

Note: the recipe calls for 4 cooked medium boneless skinless chicken breasts. I picked up a cooked rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I cut off the legs and wings (my picky eater Mariah ate those). I used the remaining thigh and breast meat for the chili. It was perfect.

Top with your favorite cheese. We used Monterey Jack cheese.

Look at all those healthy ingredients.

These corn bread muffins were a perfect match with the chili. We really enjoyed them. Another great recipe from Cooking Light.

Click here for the Corn Bread Muffins recipe on Myrecipes.com website

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: I have always made my chili with ground beef. This is the first time I have used chicken in chili. Well, this is my new favorite chili. So, try different versions of your own standard meals. You may just discover a new favorite!

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberries, Blueberries, Blueberries! My husband's brother has a vacation home in South Carolina. We just came back from a week long vacation there. What a wonderful time we had! I made these muffins for the "family crew" one morning. They are so light and moist. I know there are plenty of really good blueberry muffin recipes out there. This one was quick to put together and there's nothing better (in my opinion) then freshly baked muffins. Give this one a try. I know you'll like it.

This recipe came from the cookbook Tate's Bake Shop Cookbook. I've featured a few recipes from this cookbook and everything I have made is really, really good. One note: the recipe calls for salted butter, I used unsalted. Click here for the Blueberry Muffin recipe. (you can view recipe by searching inside book. It's on page 7)

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: Skip the store bought muffins and make your own. They taste better and they don't take long to make. In addition you know exactly the ingredients that go into making them. Just natural, everyday ingredients. Now, that's the way to enjoy a muffin!

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins

When I saw these muffins on The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch, I knew I had to make them. Cinnamon Sugar Donuts have always been my favorite. When I was young and my mom would bring home a bag of those assorted donuts from the grocery store, I always went for the cinnamon ones first. Now you can get that similar taste of a cinnamon sugar donut but in a muffin. They were so good. My daughters helped me make these and they loved dipping the tops in the butter and then the cinnamon sugar topping. They also loved eating them!

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins

Recipe from Shelby at The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch & Marthe at Culinary Delights

Batter

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 cup plain yogurt (I used low-fat plain yogurt)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

4 to 8 tbsp oil ( I used 4 tbsp oil)

1 tsp vanilla

Topping

1/2 stick butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

Position oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with paper cups. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, yogurt, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Add flour mixture and mix with light strokes until the dry ingredients are just moistened. Don't over mix; batter should not be smooth.

Divide batter among the muffin cups and bake until a toothpick inserted in one or two of the muffins come out clean, 12-15 minutes.

While the muffins are baking, melt 1/2 stick butter and place in a bowl just large enough to hold a muffin. Combine ½ cup of sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a small, shallow bowl.

As soon as the muffins are done, dip them one at a time in the melted butter and then roll in the sugar mixture.

Set on a rack to cool.

Note: I used 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon for the topping.

Daughter #1 placing muffin liners in muffin pan

Daughter #2 whisking the dry ingredients

Dip the muffin tops in the melted butter



Then dip them in the cinnamon sugar mixture

I ended up making a batch of mini muffins too.

Mama Muffin & Baby Muffin

I took these to work to share with my co-workers. They went great with their morning cup of coffee.

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: Making mini muffins can be so much fun. Kids love them too! This mini version took 9-10 minutes to bake. Just check them by inserting a toothpick in the center of the muffin. They are done when the toothpick comes out clean.