Sunday, May 29, 2011

Recipe for Cookie Pizza

Just in time for your holiday get-togethers this weekend (or maybe a bit late...), here is one of our family's very favorite summertime desserts ~ Cookie Pizza.

  • Start by setting a block or tub of cream cheese out on the counter to allow it to soften while you prepare the "crusts".
  • Next, whip up a batch of basic sugar cookie dough:

Ingredients:

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
2 3/4 cups flour (use all-purpose, or whole wheat pastry flour)

1. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add vanilla and egg, continue to beat until creamy.

2. Add dry ingredients and mix to combine. Dough should stick together nicely without being too stick or crumbly.

  • Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; sprinkle with flour.

  • Shape half of the dough into a ball, set it on the baking sheet, sprinkle with more flour, and roll into a circle. The dough should be about 1/8 inch thick. If the dough sticks to the rolling pin, sprinkle with more flour.


  • Bake at 325 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until the edges of the cookie are barely starting to turn golden. Slide the cookie off the baking sheet onto the counter or a chopping board and allow to cool. Repeat with the second half of the cookie dough.

  • While the cookie pizzas are cooling, prepare the frosting:

Ingredients

8 ounce block or tub of cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
about 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
1-2 Tbsp of milk, just enough to make frosting easily spreadable

Beat all ingredients in a mixing bowl on high speed until smooth and creamy.


  • Spread half of frosting onto each of the two cooled cookie pizzas.

  • Top each pizza with an assortment of fresh fruit. Our favorites are strawberries, blueberries, bananas, kiwi, and grapes - but any fruit will taste fantastic on it! Finish each pizza off with a sprinkling of shredded coconut flakes. 

Prepare to be asked to make this again and again. There is something absolutely addictive about the combination of sugar cookies, cream cheese frosting, and fresh fruit.

If you try this recipe, please leave a comment below with your feedback and any tips you may like to share. 
Enjoy! :)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Q & A answers - Part II

Diana J. said...

I've been waiting for this!!! (1) How do you deal with picky eating? (2) What homeschool curricula do you use, and does it vary by child? And gosh, I've had so many other questions and now I've forgotten them! I'll have to try to recall them. :) 

(1) Hm... I put up with a little bit, such as not liking just a couple of certain foods. Each of our children has a few items that they just don't like, such as pickles, mustard, etc. But I don't allow the kids to not like many different foods (i.e. "I don't like eggs, strawberries, gravy, melted cheese, ..."), or to not like staples, such as "I don't like fruit". How do I deal with it? I try to prevent it by giving them lots of different foods when they first start eating. I also act like "Of course you want to eat that, it is so good!" if they seem unsure of what to think of a meal. If push comes to shove, I plain force them to at least try everything they are served that is a normal, everyday food.

(2) Every child is on their own level for Math and English (which includes reading, spelling, grammar, composition, and penmanship). I use Harcourt Math for all of them, and different curricula for each child for English as their learning styles differ greatly. For all other subjects, we use "Cantering the Country" together, but they each read books and do activities on their own level.


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Chilly said...

Lookikng back through your previous blog posts I saw a bunch about the grocery game. Are you still doing this? If so, I read something, somewhere, that there were people who combined coupons and sales to get stuff for free, which they would then donate to food banks. Is this something you do or have done in the past?


No, I no longer do, just because we switched to eating 100% organic foods almost two years ago. When I did, I only bought as much of something as we needed. If I got stuff for free and we didn't need it, I gave it to others in church.

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Anonymous said...

I'd love to see a tour of your house!

Unfortunately, we have a lot of mentally unstable people reading this blog, who like to write us menacing emails. For safety reasons, I will not be able to share such a "tour". 




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~SALLY~ said...

I know your husband has the "Repentance Black List" and am wondering the reason for this. My pastor is on it and I have yet to meet a man who studies, reveres and knows the Bible more than him. (No, we don't worship him...LOL!) The Bible does say to "Repent Ye and believe the Gospel". So, I am wondering why you are so strongly against Biblical Repentance. I believe that if one does not repent of their sin they are not truly saved...so what are your thoughts on this issue?

The Bible is clear that the only requirement for salvation is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved". Repentance is never one time in the Bible equated with "turning from sin", a phrase never even found in the Bible. Repenting means changing, or turning. The person repenting most often in the Bible is God. If it meant turning from sin, it would mean that God sinned, which we know is not true. The only repentance necessary for salvation is to turn away from whatever else a person was trusting for salvation. For instance, a Catholic might have thought that good works was the way to heaven, but he repented and now believes it is all by faith. He was trusting works, and is now trusting Christ. It doesn't even make logical sense to say that repentance is turning from sins - nobody is trusting their sins to get them to heaven! To say that one must stop sinning, or at least give up some sins, in order to be saved is works salvation. 

Jonah 3:10  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

I could go on for much longer, but there is a ton of information on this on our church website, such as this sermon.




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Karen said...

Along with what Chilly wrote, I would like to know more tips about how you can afford to eat organic food at bargain prices, and what stores you frequent to get some of these deals. Thanks! 

We do not eat organic food at bargain prices. If we were eating conventional foods, I could feed us all on half of what we are currently paying, or even less. The post on this subject is almost finished, I promise!


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Albie said...

A couple personal ones, hope you don't mind!! I notice your girls in dresses. Do girls not wear shorts or jeans in your faith? Do you wear them? Ummm, trying to put this nicely...in your marriage and faith, are couples supposed to enjoy sex? Maybe to put it better, (since men always enjoy it) are women supposed to like it?

We do not wear pants of any sort, which includes shorts, except as undergarments for certain activities. I have nothing against denim, but I personally never wear denim skirts because they are so not flattering on me.

Women are certainly supposed to enjoy the marital act, which is why God designed it the way He did.

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Jessi said...

Yay another Q +A! I love pictures, so I was wondering if you could post some of your wedding and dating pictures? 

We do not have any wedding pictures because we eloped, and they wanted something like $40 for just one snapshot. No, I would not generally recommend getting married that way, but it was what was the most practical solution at the time. 

There are pictures of us dating, but that was before the digital age, so I'd have to scan them individually. Maybe I'll post those for an anniversary post. 

Here are a couple that were taken within the first month of us being married. The first, from a reception that our church had for us. The second, from portraits that we had taken in lieu of a wedding photo. Wow, I used to be young AND skinny. 


 


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Anonymous said...

How can I get my husband to lead his family spiritually. He works about 60 hours a week and all his waking hours at home are watching tv on the couch. I can't even get him to eat meals with us at the table. I am sure all I can do is pray and keep my attitude in check but I struggle with this because I just want so much more for my family. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

The truth is: You can't. That is a decision he must make for himself. The more he feels pressured or cajoled, the less likely he is to want to do it. After all, who wants to be pushed into being a leader, when the whole point of being a leader is to decide for oneself what to do and when? I know this is frustrating.

Kids do not have to have a dad who sits at the table (my husband doesn't unless we eat in the dining room, but we prefer to crowd the kids around the counter, and he eats on the sofa), leads Bible time (my husband rarely does - it is me who reads the Bible to the kids most days. He already preaches to them in church.), or does whatever else  you think he should do. They need parents who love them and each other, and who are a unit rather than trying to undermine the other. You can teach the children from the Bible yourself, and make sure that the TV stays off when he is gone. If you are faithful in trying to do right when you are in charge of the kids' time, God will answer your prayers.


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Renee said...

(1) I know you are into healthy and natural living. Do you also use "green" cleaning supplies, toiletries (soaps/shampoos), etc? What is your approach to these kinds of things? (2) Are any of your kids anxious/nervous types? My oldest child has a tendency to get anxious and worry. For example, when I take him to swimming lessons, he worries if he doesn't see me the whole time watching him in case I may have left. Have you ever had to deal with this and, if so, what was your approach?


(1) Yes.

(2) One of our kids is very cautious, and worries about everything from eating healthy, to natural disasters, fire, and the like. We just try to be reassuring. They will grow out of some of it, and the rest is just a difference in personality and temperament.

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TheCanuck said...

1) What kind of music do you enjoy? Religious, secular, etc. 2) What do you think of the Westboro Baptist Church (the one that pickets the funerals)? I know you're not affiliated with them. Where do you stand on their theology? Their actions? 3) I recently attended a service where the pastor stated that married couples should not have sex when they cannot get pregnant, eg when the woman is already pregnant, has reached menopause, or if they cannot have children. Furthermore, it should be serious, with the focus on getting pregnant and nothing else. The gist of it seems to be that marital relations are just for procreation (I mean 100%), and not for strengthening the relationship of a couple. Where do you stand on this?

(1) Hymns, and classical music. I love to listen to my husband or Solomon playing the piano. The next three youngest kids are just learning to play the piano.
(2) I think they are freaks, and most likely undercover government agents with a goal to make people like us look bad by grouping us in with them. I think that everything they do is despicable. 

(3) Sorry to be negative yet again, but that pastor is sadly mistaken at best, and perverted at worst. There is no verse in the Bible to support his opinion. The Bible makes a point to tell us that Joseph and Mary did NOT have marital relations while she was pregnant with Jesus because that is what he had been commanded by the angel, because Jesus was to be born of a virgin. It obviously made the point of telling us that because normally, married people can and should engage in such actions.




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Spooky said...

I too am curious to learn more about your life in Europe and how you met your husband and how you like living in America. I hope I do not come across as nosy, I am just interested

I blogged about that here


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Andrea B said...

I would also like to know how you handle picky eaters... My son has roughly 10 things that he eats. It is NOT junk. Cheese/yogurt/apples/chicken etc. I do not allow him to "get full" with junk food. He is very polite when he turns down food and will even try new things. He just doesn't like anything else. I do not want to make eating a stressful time for him, but it's hard when he never eats our planned family meals. UGH! Thanks.

Well, as long as it's not total junk, and at least somewhat balanced (dairy, produce, meat), I wouldn't worry too much. Just keep encouraging him to try new foods. One thing that I have found helps a lot is to have kids help with the cooking, or to let them pick out something new at the store that they'd like to try.

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Leslye Romero said...

When do you stop nursing if it is not when you get pregnant? 

I have breastfed every baby until I got pregnant with the next. Then I encourage them to self-wean within about one to three months.


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Anonymous said...

Hair Is there a rule on how long it must be for the girls and how short it must be for your boys in your household?? And also do you think it's wrong for a women to dye her hair?? And How do you feel about makeup??

No set rules, just long for the girls and short for the boys. I do not think that dyeing hair or wearing makeup are sinful/wrong, but I don't do either, nor would recommend others do.


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Anonymous said...

Oh, I forgot one - when you pray, is it in German or English? If German, do you use du or Sie for God?

I think, dream, and pray exclusively in English. If I were to pray in German, I would say du.

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Anonymous said...

1. What are your thoughts on pacifism? 2. If a new neighbor moved in next door and was a gay couple with a small child would you still witness to them? Would you allow your children to play with theirs? 

1. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. There is peace in heaven. Peace is a wonderful thing. I believe we should only engage in wars to defend our own country when under attack. I am against pre-emptive strikes, offensive wars (as opposed to defensive), and meddling with other countries' issues.
2. We would move.

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Anonymous said...

I know you believe in letting God determine the size of your family but what if subsequent pregnancies would put the mother's life in danger? Having faith is one thing but standing in the middle of the highway and saying you trust God not to let you get hit by a car is foolish, so would becoming pregnant after being told it could kill you. What is your opinion on this? 

Becoming pregnant is a natural life process that one has to make an effort to interrupt. Standing in the middle of a busy freeway is not. In fact, one would have to make an effort to do it, not to prevent it. Every single pregnancy puts the mother's life in danger. I don't really think well in hypotheticals.


To be continued...

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Q & A - Answers, Part I

Karen R. said...

YES! ok...Thoughts on courting vs. dating and what you want for your children? -and- What age and how to tell the kids about the birds and the bees. (Anything biblical on this? I am already having cold sweats over this one!)

The whole "courtship" vs. "dating" debate is one of my pet peeves. In short, I believe that the purpose of dating is to find a spouse. Therefore, anyone too young to be thinking about marriage, or "disqualified" from marriage by a previous divorce, need not date.

I also believe that dating people should not be physically engaged other than normal, everyday gestures that they would be comfortable doing around anyone. My husband's advice is always: if you would not feel comfortable doing it with someone of the same gender, don't do it with the pposite gender. Physical intimacies are to be reserved for marriage only. Furthermore, I think young people would do well to only date either with other people present, or in a public place (i.e. meet at a restaurant for dinner, at a park, etc.)

As far as "courtship", to some people it means the same things as what I just called dating. Our job as parents is to function as a gatekeeper - we can control who is allowed within our boundaries, but obviously the child gets to pick whom they want to marry.

But as far as arranging marriages for our children - I am 100% against that. Any prudent child will seek the advice of their parents if they are godly Christians, but the decision and responsibility is theirs, not ours. Hopefully, if we as parents have done our job right, our children will know how to make important decisions on their own as adults. Parents should not control the lives of their adult children. I am also 100% against this new thing of "not falling in love until marriage". True, young people should guard their hearts, but they would do well to be in love with the person that they are wanting to get married to. To say otherwise is insanity, and will only lead to marital problems later on.

Birds and bees: I don't think we'll have some big, isolated "talk". Our kids ask questions here and there, and I answer them honestly and on their age-appropriate levels, using terms that I would feel comfortable about them repeating. It is not a shameful subject, only a delicate one, so I am not afraid of answering their questions appropriately.

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Anonymous said... Favorite scripture verse and favorite "Bible story," please.

My favorite verse is John 12:24: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." That one verse, for me, really sums up what life as a Christian mother is all about: dying to self for our children. I have thought long and hard about my favorite Bible story, but I really don't have one. I like both the books of Ruth and Esther a lot, and of course Psalms and Proverbs which I try to read daily. I like reading about all the things that Jesus said and did, and his miracles. How about my favorite hymn instead? It is "Be Still My Soul".

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Sarah said...

Brilliant I love Q&A posts! I would like to know how else you encourage your children in their faith. I would be particularly interested in any materials you use (I think I asked this in the 'One Year Bible' post) Thank you...looking forward to your post!

Hm, not really sure. I just try to be real with the kids. They know both of us parents have faults and are far from perfect, but they know God is real, and that we love Him and them and try our best. I just have faith that God will make up for our shortcomings and "fill the gaps". Our children love listening to sermons, holding their own preaching services, acting out Bible stories, making related crafts, and playing with their Bible felt set. They also earn prizes for memorizing Bible verses. For penmanship, Solomon is copying the book of Proverbs right now, and although he initially was not always excited about writing in cursive, he did enjoy getting the deeper understanding that copying the Bible gave him. He tells me stuff he learned from it all the time. I will have Isaac start copying a book of the Bible of his choosing next school year.


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Anonymous said..

Do you have any brothers or sisters? What did you think of college life for the short period of time you attended? How do you choose your children's names? Do you go on biblical significance or simply the ones you like the sound of?

I have two older brothers that have the same parents as I do. One is one year older than me, the other two and a half years older. I love and miss both of them, as I go for years without seeing them (or any of my relatives, for that matter, since they all live in Europe). Sadly, my parents divorced, and both remarried, so I also have a (half) sister and brother on my mother's side, and a stepbrother and two (half) brothers and one sister on my dad's side. Confusing, huh? My family tree is like a tumbleweed... 

College was interesting. I took cultural anthropology as my major, and political science and journalism as my minors. I did some things I regret doing or would not condone any more today, so "fun" didn't always equal "right", but overall I was one of the "good" kids and just enjoyed being a young adult and living in one of Europe's most beautiful cities (Munich), traveling, and living a carefree life. Being a mom is so much harder, but so much more wonderful!

We pick our children's names based on what we like, and think sounds nice and fitting. We usually toss around a few ideas while I am pregnant, and don't "name" the child until we settle on a name after birth. A couple of times, once the child was born, we picked something entirely different from what we had been considering (John, Anna).


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Deana said...

I have a question about polygamy, how would you tell someone it's wrong, from the Bible. I think it is wrong and disgusting, but just wouldn't know what Bible verses to refer to. If you could explain it please. 

Well, for starters, God gave Adam only one wife: 

Mat 19:4-5 (4) And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, (5) And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 

I think that the only reason why some condone polygamy is because the Bible talks about people who had multiple wives. However, it is important to distinguish between the clear teachings of the Bible, and the stories. Just because the Bible records people doing certain things, does not mean that they were right in doing so.

I should add that today's wife-swapping (i.e. divorce and remarriage) is no better than polygamy. It means having multiple wives one after the other, as opposed to concurrently, but it is still against God's plan of one man, one woman, until death separates them.


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Liv said...

I'm wondering how much, if any, computer teaching you do with the children. Personally, I think it is highly unnecessary for children below high school age. Even then, I question the necessity. When you do introduce computing, what skills will you teach first? Typing, using a specific program, educational games....? 

I agree with you that young children should not spend much time on the computer, if any. That is one of the many reasons why we do not enroll our children in free public school online/distance learning classes, which are often wrongly considered home education. Kids, even in preschool, are required to spend hours a day in front of a computer screen.

So far, only our two oldest (who are 9 and 8) are allowed to use the computer, but it is rare. I don't even think that either one of them has even spent an hour total on the computer in the last month. Solomon learned how to type using a teaching software for kids. He likes writing stories on the computer, so I thought knowing how to type would help him. Isaac is just starting to learn typing. Other than that, I detest most "educational" games - they are just too loud and zany. We have "Rollercoaster Tycoon" and "Zoo Tycoon" for the kids to play on very rarely - they usually go months without playing at all, and then have a week of building on a certain project every day.

I will admit that the kids like to sneak off and play games on my phone, but that is a different story...


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Mikayla said...

I believe in God being in control of my family size, but something I have always wondered about is your stance on birth control, when you use co-sleeping to prevent your cycle so you can't get pregnant for around a year. It seems like that is still taking steps to prevent children. People who don't use this method have more children. Co-sleeping makes it so you have children when its more convenient for you, not just God giving you them when he sees fit. To me it doesn't seem much different than natural family planning method. Co- sleeping is purposely doing stuff just right, so your cycle doesn't return. I'm not tring to be rude or disagree. I really just would like to hear what you have to say about it, and if you have any Bible refences to back it up. 

Well, I wouldn't say that I use co-sleeping to prevent my cycles. That's almost like saying that I use breastfeeding to prevent my cycles. Obviously, if I wanted to, I could just feed the babies formula and have a baby every 9 months instead of every 2 years (give or take), but God designed breastfeeding as a natural way to space pregnancies at healthy, safe intervals. Allowing God to be in charge of how many children we have does not mean that I need to crank out babies like an assembly line, as long as I stay within the means He designed for naturally spacing pregnancies.

Anna right now only nurses once or twice a night, and usually snuggles up against my husband the rest of the time and only sticks her feet into my rib cage. My delicate milk supply would probably if I did not have her in bed, not to mention all the sleep I would lose. Many mothers would benefit similarly from having their baby in bed with them, and I think feeding our children enough, and having energy to care for the rest of the family, should be high priorities for moms.

As far as a Bible reference: I do not believe it is a Biblical mandate to have children sleeping in their parents' bed. That is just what works best for us. The Bible story that comes to mind is when a man goes to borrow bread from his friend at midnight, and his friend answers: "Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee." (Luke 11:7) Since the "friend" represents God in the story, I think God must be okay with cosleeping if that is how he portrays himself in this parable. 

All that aside, sleeping with my babies is one of the greatest joys of motherhood. I look forward each day to getting to snuggle up with my husband and baby every night after a long day of work.


To be continued...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Gardening update

This morning, as every day, I spent some time watering my plants and looking at them. The boys like doing the watering for me, but I try to do at least one of the two times daily myself just so I can keep tabs on how everything is doing. Today, I enriched some of the beds with more compost, and sprinkled a natural fertilizer around all plants.

 Bell peppers


cherry tomatoes

tomatoes


 banana peppers 


all the peppers and tomatoes


 Remember I tried growing three kinds of corn? 



Well, for some reason, only four stalks came up. I read that melons make good companion plants for corn, so I put one watermelon and one cantelope in the spots where the corn should have been. There is tons of room for them to spread into in front of the planter.

 


I had also put out four different kinds of bush beans:


Becky plucked a few of the seedlings, but mostly, they are all thriving and going into bloom now. I have NEVER before gotten to the flowering stage with my beans, so this is success for me! 




I had started some zucchini, melons, and cucumbers indoors:


 After a couple of weeks, they were ready to go outside, where they have been thriving ever since. To accommodate them, I built two of these 4x4 ft planters which I hope will be large enough as these plants spread like crazy. There is lots of growing room all around the planters, so hopefully this will work out.


 



In the planter right in front of the house, we put out some flower seeds that are not in bloom yet. We also bought some flowers to put in the window planters on the playhouse:


In the fall, I am hoping to put a little picket fence around the front yard, and remove all grass (really, it's all crab grass and weeds we have left). Instead of the "lawn" (haha....), I would like to put in more planters, but this time make them recessed into the ground, and also recess the ones I have already built. Basically, the only thing I want to have left in the front yard is just planters in various shapes and sizes by using edging, wood planks, pavers, etc. around our trees and other plants, and cover the walkways in between them with mulch. I so badly want to be successful at gardening, but my skills, time, and finances are limited. One can dream, right?

Anyway, just wanted to share how things are growing so far.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

When the White House gives out a falsified birth certificate, and claims to have killed the boogieman all in the same week, and you just can't stand their lies any more, bake these. They will help ease the pain of realizing that we are being ruled by evil thugs that are out to hurt and enslave us. 

Regardless of the political climate, these are my #1 favorite use for overripe bananas. I often buy extra bananas to allow them to turn brown just so I can make these.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour (I use whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (mini if you have them, or buy regular and use them whole, or chop them up first)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease muffin tins.
2. Mash bananas in large bowl using a mixer. Add softened butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until light and fluffy.
3. Add baking powder, baking soda, flour, and milk, and mix.
4. Add chocolate chips and walnuts, stir. 
5. Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full. The recipe will make 18-24 muffins. 
6. Bake for about 14 minutes. Check for doneness with a toothpick.
7. Serve with fresh cold milk and ENJOY!