Guest Blogging & Random Trivia

Howdy y'all! (I'm practicing for our upcoming trip to Texas later this week... how did I do?)

I'm over here today, guest blogging and doing crazy stuff like revealing my real first name and talking briefly about something that I haven't devoted a whole lot of time to here: my job. I'd just like to give a quick shout-out to Daci, who I was lucky enough to connect with thanks to some key commonalities---namely our love of med school husbands and precocious canine companions. Her blog is a daily visit of mine, and probably should be for you as well.  Go check it out!

Dr. D and I had another lovely weekend filled with good eats, good friends, and really horrible trivia scores.

Did you know that terminal velocity when skydiving is 122 mph?  Yeah, us neither.

Bye-bye Bananas, Hello Muffins.

As a teen, my Dad insisted that I eat a banana every morning with my breakfast.  I completely resented it at the time, although I'm sure the potassium kept me from being a walking bruise during my rigorous year-round basketball playing days.

Needless to say, once I was in charge of my own breakfast planning, I avoided bananas completely.

It took me a long time to be able to eat anything banana-related after that, but I've finally come around and have discovered that in moderation, they're actually pretty great.  By far the best part about them is when they get too ripe, and I'm absolutely forced to turn them into something sweet and delicious.

Have a recipe!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup white -or- brown sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg -or- 1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt -or- milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (approx. 2 bananas)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another bowl, combine the egg/applesauce, oil, yogurt/milk, and vanilla.  Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in bananas and chocolate chips.  Fill greased or paper-lined cups two-thirds full.  Bake for 22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.  Serves approximately 18 muffins.