in a mood.

This morning has been a tough one; I won't bore you with the mundane details (and really nothing so terrible happened!) but let's just say, there might have been a few tears shed by every (hormonal) female member of our little family.  I needed some serious cheering up and I needed to do it all by myself.

I've got a little mental list of funk busters that I can draw on when needed and usually one or more works like a charm.  Running is my great escape and at the top of the list, but currently unavailable to me.  Music is always a go-to mood enhancer or chaser.  But putting on my favorite (unoriginal) band from college still left me meh.  G wasn't in the mood for cuddling so I couldn't even "use" her.  So, what then?

It hit me as I was staring off into space, sipping coffee, hearing "I can do anything with my belly belly belly screen" for the 30,000th time, and ruminating in my sad mood.  I had been eyeing these bananas all weekend long thinking, "Why doesn't anyone in this house eat bananas anymore???" And I'd planned on making banana bread instead of letting them go to waste.  (Pet peeve #13: Any sort of produce going uneaten.)  Well, the weekend came and went and shockingly, no banana bread.  Here it is Monday morning, an epically bad Monday morning, and those same bananas were staring me down, mocking me, just daring me to throw them away.  It was at this moment that I realized cooking ALWAYS* lifts my mood.  I mentally wiped the scowl off my face and started smashing those suckers into smithereens (after peeling them of course.)

Cheater "Banana Bread" Muffins
1 box Spice Cake Mix (surprise surpise!)
4 overripe bananas that have been sitting on your counter, staring you down for days, smushed
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup chopped cashews (I used ones that were roasted and lightly salted)  (<--------Okay, I lied.  I did not add this ingredient because the two year old is allergic to nuts but I would add them if that weren't the case!)

Possible other add-ins: white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, raisins, or dried cranberries.

Put all ingredients in a bowl.  Stir everything together.  Portion into a muffin tin lined with super cute baking cups. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until cooked through and a tooth pick comes out clean.

(*I'm not ALWAYS in the mood to cook, but I find that when I do cook, my mood instantly improves.)

So, what are your funk busters?  I'd like to know.

cheater cheater, pumpkin eater, bake sale + block party.

My weekend is full of fall fun.  The school pumpkin patch is Sunday morning, and I'm helping host a block party for our street the same evening.  I need baked goods for both.  And well, you know how I feel about baking.  I've got four boxes of spice cake mix sitting in the pantry.  (They were on sale for 99 cents.)  And of course, a few cans of pumpkin.  But honestly, I'm over the original "cheater pumpkin muffin" and want something a little different.  Who knows why given that I'm making these for other people.  And am not going to eat any myself. Really I'm not. Except I have to eat one,  it is a new recipe after all.  Can't just expect people to eat my muffins (or buy them for that matter!) without tasting one myself.  Maybe I'll just have one bite and then give the rest to Ava.

So here's what I came up with:

1 box spice cake mix
1 cup oatmeal
1 can pumpkin
2 snack size containers no sugar added apple sauce (because that's what I've got in the panty-- about 8 ounces)
1 cup white "chocolate" chips

Mix it all up.  Portion into muffin pan with really cute liners (this is completely necessary.)  Bake about 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until completely cooked through.  Let cool a bit, but best eaten slightly warm so that the white chocolate chips are all melty and still gooey.  What?  I can tell that from one bite.  I can.

P.S.  These are about a thousand times better than the original cheater muffin.  And I can tell that from one bite too.