The first thing that I made was Double Chocolate Banana Cake from Friday is Cake Night.
I followed the recipe exactly, except for I didn't have mini chocolate chips so I used regular ones.
Here's what you need:
-3 ripe bananas
-3/4 C. brown sugar
-1/2 C. applesauce (I used my mom's homemade applesauce which has just a hint of cinnamon in it)
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1 egg
-1 C. flour
-1/2 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
-1 tsp. baking soda
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1 C. semi- sweet chocolate chips
I placed the peeled bananas right in my stand mixer bowl. I figured I could let the mixer mash up the bananas. Then I mixed in the brown sugar. Once that was well combined, I added the applesauce, vanilla, and egg. I kept my mixer on a low speed while I added each ingredient. Next, came the flour, the cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. I scraped the sides of the bowl once and added the best part- the chocolate chips.
I baked this in a greased pan at 350 for 25 minutes. The result? An extremely moist, chocolaty-rich banana cake. When I read the blog post, I thought, "This is banana bread and I would never count it as cake in my house." Then I ate it. Don't get me wrong, I definitely ate it as a breakfast food (after all I had it baked before 7:30 am on Saturday), but it is extremely rich and could certainly count as dessert.
Up next on my too many ripe banana extravaganza? Dog treats for my Lilybug, of course!
I have baked a lot of different types of homemade dog treats for Lily. She's no picky eater so there haven't been any she doesn't like! I have made peanut butter ones, ones that use beef broth, the following recipe seems to be very healthy and a huge hit of Lily's.
This recipe is for Banana Carrot Dog Treats from Homemade Dog Treats Now. I first tried this recipe after a friend sent me the pin because carrots are by far Lily's favorite snack. When she was a puppy, she would even take bananas out of the grocery bag and peel them herself. I knew she would love this recipe.
The first time I made this, I followed the recipe precisely. This time I made a few changes.
Here's what you need:
-1 C. whole wheat flour
-1 C. of oatmeal (I only had about a 1/3 of a cup so I mixed in some prepackaged instant oatmeal).*
-2 bananas*
-2 Tbsp. coconut oil
-1 1/2 C. chopped carrots*
-1 Tbsp. parsley
-1 egg
Because I switched out the plain oatmeal for packaged instant oatmeal, I omitted the tablespoon of brown sugar that the recipe calls for. I figured the packaged oatmeal had plenty of sugar added already. Also, since I had so many ripe bananas, I added an extra banana to this batch. You can tell too because the banana scent is even more intense (that or it could be my pregnancy nose!). The original recipe calls for two carrots. I only had baby carrots on hand- I finely chopped about 1.5 cups of carrots instead.
Once again, I started by placing the bananas right in the mixer bowl and let the paddle mash the bananas. Then I added the flour and oatmeal. Once that was well combined, I added the remaining ingredients.
Then you can roll out the dough, I always use a heart shaped cookie cutter for Lily. They bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
