Recipe: Chicken Quinoa Tex-Mex Soup

Chicken Quinoa Tex Mex Soup

Sauté 1 chopped onion in the bottom of a pot with a little olive oil.  

Add 4-6 cups chicken stock (or use water and a couple of bullion cubes)

Add tex-mex seasoning (I used tex mex from Costco - clubhouse brand.  You could also use a packet of taco seasoning mix, or a combination of chilli powder, cumin, coriander, and garlic powder)  

Add 1 can of tomatoes. 

Add quinoa - about 1/2 cup - dry (rinse before adding).

Bring to boil, then reduce to low so it can simmer and quinoa can cook.

While it's simmering, add some cooked shredded or chopped chicken. I used chicken we had leftover from chicken tacos, so it was already taco flavoured.  But you cook cook your own, or add chicken from a rotisserie chicken- just take it off the bone in smaller pieces and add it to the soup.

Add 1 can of black beans (rinsed).

Add 1 can of corn (rinsed) or frozen corn.

Simmer for at least 20 minutes. 

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, crushed up taco chips, black olives, salsa, etc. 

Enjoy!

Recipe: Kale & Quinoa Soup

I made this soup yesterday for dinner.  Our good friends just moved on the weekend and we had them over for supper.  I served the soup with salad and garlic bread.

Everyone loved it, so I thought I'd share it while it's fresh in my memory.

This was based on a soup I found online, but I added a few changes of my own.

There seems to be a lot of hype about Kale these days.  It's some kind of super food.  Apparently I'm behind the times, because I have never bought or cooked with kale, ever.  But now I've tried it in both soup and salad and I love it!  It's so tasty.  I'm going to try it in smoothies next.

Kale & Quinoa Soup

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 extra large carrots, diced
4 gloves garlic, minced (you can add less, if you don't love garlic)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme (dried would work too)
1 tsp dried rosemary (fresh would work too)
2 tsp dried parsley
3/4 cup quinoa (rinsed)
8 cups vegetable stock
1 big bunch of kale, chopped (remove the stem parts)
2 cans of white kidney beans
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the onions and carrots in olive oil.  When they are a bit brown and starting to be tender, add the garlic, thyme, rosemary, parsley and stir well.

After 1-2 minutes, add the quinoa.  Let it saute for another minute, then add the stock.  Bring to a simmer, then add the chopped kale.

The kale only takes about 5-7 minutes to cook on low heat (it will turn a darker shade of green).  While it is simmering, drain your 2 cans of white kidney beans. One can is to go straight into the soup.  Dump the other can of beans into a bowl and mash them up with a potato masher or fork.  Then stir into the soup (this adds a nice texture to it).  Stir in the balsamic vinegar.

Take out the thyme stems.  Season with salt & pepper.

Enjoy!

Muffins

My friend, Shannon, and I got together to make 13 dozen muffins for our Stake's Young Women Camp.

156 muffins plus extras for our children and husbands to "sample".

We were a good team and got them all done and cleaned up in about 3 hours.

We made Blueberry Muffins, Classic Banana Muffins, Apple Spice Muffins, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Click each kind to see the recipe. I didn't include a link to the Pumpkin Muffins, as I decided to share it right here. Yes, it only has 3 ingredients.

And they are SO good!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 box Spice Cake Mix

1 can Pumpkin Pie Filling

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Combine in mixer, bake at 375 until done (about 15 minutes). Enjoy!

Easter Baking: Some Fun Treats

We found some yummy treats to make this Easter from a great website called Our Best Bites.

First we made this Glass Block Jello.

The kids were really excited about the Jello blocks and they looked awesome!

But they were happier eating the coloured blocks in the pan before the white layer was added. So next time we might just stop there and have colourful jello salad.

We also made these Cadbury Egg Cookies.

They were wonderful! I highly recommend these.

I made two modifications to the recipe. I used all butter, instead of butter and shortening. And I also reduced the flour to 2 1/4 cups. I think that was due to altitude, so you might need the full 2 1/2 cups where you live.

Now that Easter is over, I'm thinking these would be good to make with M&M's. And you wouldn't have to crush them up.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Cinnamon Buns

I think it's safe to say that Cinnamon Buns are a family favourite around here. I love the smell of cinnamon buns in the oven, and to me they smell every bit as delicious as they taste.

I used to make the dough in the bread machine. Before I baked the buns, I made a delicious brown sugar caramel sauce which baked in the bottom of the pan.

The one drawback to my old cinnamon bun recipe is that it only makes about 12 rolls. They are quite large, so you could make 16-18 small rolls, but I was finding the need to make larger batches.

I knew I needed to ditch the bread machine and make the dough from scratch.

My sister came to the rescue when she gave me Pioneer Woman's Cookbook for Christmas one year.

Included in the cookbook was a recipe that makes 4-5 dozen Cinnamon Buns.

I realize that may sound like a lot. But between Scott and the kids, friends, family, neighbours, my Sunday school class, etc. this is pretty much the amount I need to make every time.

And there are never leftovers.

You can find PW's Recipe here.

And some additional tips from PW here.

For the icing, I use vanilla and extra milk in place of the coffee, since we are not coffee drinkers. This substitution tastes great and the icing really does melt right into the hot rolls.

Try this recipe. You won't regret it.

Recipe: Turkey Soup

We love this soup.

Scott insists on buying turkeys that feed 100 people just to make sure he gets lots of turkey soup the day after every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Also, if you substitute chicken for turkey and noodles for rice, this is a great homemade chicken noodle soup recipe.

Ingredients:

Celery, Onions, Carrots (diced)
Olive Oil
Leftover turkey, chopped
Chicken Stock and / or chicken bullion cubes or powder
Water
Basil, Parsley, Salt & Pepper, A bay leaf or two
Corn
Rice

Start with diced onion, celery, and carrots. I don't measure these. For a big pot, I use approximately 1 large onion, 4-5 carrots, and 1/3 stalk of celery.

Saute the onion, celery and carrots in a couple Tbsp of olive oil in your big pot. Give them about 5-7 minutes or so and stir occasionally as they start to cook.

Now you add your spices and stock.

For the spices, I use pepper (to taste), dried basil (quite a bit), a little dried parsley, and a couple of bay leaves. Again, add as much or as little as you like. I don't add salt at this point because the stock will have salt already.

For the stock, I have used all boxed chicken stock, bullion cubes and water, homemade stock, or a combination of the three. Last time I used 2 boxes of chicken stock (low sodium) and 3 bullion cubes with water.

Let the stock and veggies heat up and get your meat ready.

Usually I make this with leftover turkey, but I have used chicken as well. You can buy a rotisserie chicken and take all the meat off the bones, chopped it up, and added it to the soup. You could also cook your own chicken and add it, but I love to save time. Any kind of chopped, cooked chicken or turkey will do. Throw it in.

Get this nice and bubbly and hot, then turn it down and let it simmer for a while - anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour or more on very low heat.

About 30 minutes before you serve it, add some rice and corn. You can use a combination of white rice and wild rice. To give you an idea of amounts, last time I used about 2/3 cup white rice and 1/3 cup wild rice. Again, quantity is up to you.

For corn I used 2 cans of corn. You could also use frozen.

Let the rice cook through and keep stirring occasionally for another 25-30 minutes or so. Season to taste. You may wish to add a little salt at this point. Sometimes you may not need salt, as it depends on how salty your stock is.

Serve with fresh homemade buns, hot from the oven, with plenty of butter.

Enjoy!

Recipe Time: Mandarin Chicken & Rice

This is a really good recipe when you don't have a lick of groceries in the house, and you need dinner on the table in 25 minutes. Every single ingredient here can come from your food storage (if you choose) and it is really easy to make.

The ingredients are completely approximated, so you can dump in whatever you like or have on hand. I've made it dozens of times, and it's evolved over the years. I use it as a rough guideline, as opposed to an actual recipe.

Mandarin Chicken & Rice

Chicken - I throw some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the oven until cooked and then chop / tear them into bite sized pieces and set aside.  Alternately, you can use canned chicken (I've only tried the Costco brand) if you don't have fresh or frozen chicken.  Drain and set aside.

1-3 cans of mandarin oranges.  Drain and set aside but make sure to reserve all of the liquid to use in the sauce.

Mushrooms - I like to use smaller sized fresh mushrooms and there's no need to slice them.  If yours are a little larger then cut them in half.

Rice - Go ahead and get it cooking because dinner will be ready soon.  We've also tried this over egg noodles and that tastes good too.  I prefer  rice, but either will work.

To make the sauce, first you saute the mushrooms for a few minutes in your pan.

Next add 2-3 cans of cream of mushroom soup (depends how many people you are feeding).

Whisk in the mandarin juice and a good splash of soy sauce (about 1/3 cup).

Add some garlic & ginger.  I use the freshly chopped refrigerated kind.  I use about a tsp each or so. 

Add a good dash of pepper and a bit of salt to taste (the soy sauce is salty already).

Next you need to decide how thick you like your sauce.  I usually add a little more liquid in the form of milk or water.

When you're just about ready to eat, add in your chicken and stir while it gets nice and hot in the sauce.  You want to heat it through without cooking it any more. 

Last thing you do is gently stir in the mandarins, as they tend to break up if you add them earlier.

Serve over hot rice (or noodles).

Enjoy!

More on the Rainbow Party

So I mentioned that we did a little rainbow theme for Clara's first birthday.

It all started when my sister recommended a rainbow cake, as she had recently made one for my niece.

We made the cake, strung some rainbow coloured balloons up around the house, made rainbow Jell-O and popcorn and invited some family and friends over. So easy and fun!

The older kids LOVED helping with the rainbow food. Especially Samantha - she was in kitchen heaven.

Here are the recipes. Notice you will need a lot of Jell-O. And a good helper.



Recipe: Rainbow Popcorn

For each colour of popcorn, you will need:

10-12 cups popped popcorn
1 package any flavour Jell-O
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda

First, microwave the Jell-O, sugar, butter, and corn syrup on high for 1-2 minutes. Stir and microwave 1-2 minutes more, until it is starting to bubble.

Stir in the baking soda until it is incorporated and foamy.

In a large paper bag, layer the popcorn and Jell-O mixture. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Shake. Microwave for 30 seconds, and shake again until popcorn is evenly coated.

Spread on parchment paper or cookie sheets until cool. (Store in an airtight container)





Recipe: Rainbow Jell-O Salad

6 packages Jell-O (rainbow colours of course!)
water
vanilla yogurt

Mix 1 cup boiling water with 1 package of Jell-O and stir until it is dissolved. Then divide it evenly into 2 bowls.

To the first bowl, add 3 Tbsp cold water, and pour into a 9 X 13 clear glass pan. Chill in the fridge for 25-30 minutes (or until set).

When the layer is ready, add 1/3 cup yogurt to the remaining Jell-O and stir until smooth.

Pour into pan and chill for 25-30 minutes.

Repeat the process for each colour. You will end up with 12 layers.

Enjoy!



Recipe: Rainbow Cake

1 box white cake mix
food colouring
lots of white icing


Mix cake according to directions on box. Divide batter into 6 equal portions and add food colouring to each one (rainbow colours of course!).


Bake each colour separately in a 8 or 9 inch round pan (you will need to adjust the baking time, as the layers will be thinner than usual). Cool.


Layer cake colours onto serving tray with white icing between each colour. Frost the whole cake in white. It doesn't look that pretty in this picture, but when you ice the whole thing and then cut it into slices, it looks really cool.


I was so busy getting a video of Clara eating her cake that I didn't get the best pictures of the actual cake once it's served, but these will give you an idea. Enjoy!

My Kind of Holiday Baking

I found this great recipe for Pretzel Hugs. It's super easy and the kids loved making and eating them! We made about 300 of these for teacher gifts and for refreshments for the Christmas Piano Recital we had on Saturday. The rest of them we packaged up to give out to friends and family.

Pretzel Hugs Recipe

(from Becky Higgins)

Ingredients:

pretzels (I think the square waffle type pretzels are best)
hugs
plain M&Ms

Directions:

Place the pretzels on a parchment lined baking sheet, and place one (unwrapped) hug in the middle of each pretzel.


Bake at 200 degrees, until hugs get shiny and start to look a little melted - about 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and put an M&M in the middle of each hug. Press down a little. Cool in the freezer for 15 minutes, or on the counter for a few hours until set.

Enjoy!


Here are some tips you might want to consider... (trust me, I learned these the hard way)

You can use kisses instead of hugs, but they don't melt at the same rate, so you'll need to do them on separate baking trays. I think the hugs taste better and they melt faster too.

You definitely need the parchment paper, or you'll be scraping them off your pan.

Don't wait until they actually look melted to take them out of the oven, or they will be too runny.

If you want red and green ones, try to find the Christmas M&M's. I looked in four stores and couldn't find them, so I ended up buying the regular ones. Now we're stuck with a huge tin of blue, yellow, orange, and brown M&M's.

(You should have seen Samantha making sure that nobody laid a finger on the red and green ones when we were making them.... Just picture the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.)

Homemade Pizza

Our family loves to have pizza night every weekend, usually on Saturday nights. When things get too busy we sometimes get take out. Our favourite take-out pizza parlors are Byron Pizza, which we've loved for years, and now Panago, which just opened up right by our house this fall!

But our favourite pizza is homemade, and last night we made a whole pile of pizzas and invited Jeff & Lindsey, Bill, and the missionaries to join us.

Here's our recipe for homemade pizza:

Add the following ingredients to your bread machine in the order listed:

1 cup very warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups of flour (you may need slightly more, depending on where you live - sometimes I use closer to 3 cups)
2 1/4 tsp yeast

Start the dough cycle. When the dough is ready, dump onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to desired size.

This amount of dough will make one extremely large pizza, or 2 smaller (or thin crust) pizzas. I find that if I double the recipe I get three nice round pizza crusts that aren't too thin.

Top with your choice of pizza sauce, toppings, and lotsa mozza cheese.

Hill family favourite combos:

Classic Canadian - pepperoni, mushrooms, bacon
Classic Hawaiian - ham & pineapple
Samantha's Specialty - pepperoni & black olives
Scotty's Deluxe - pepperoni, mushrooms, green olives, red onions, tomatoes, bacon, peppers

Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes, until bottom is golden and cheese is nice and bubbly.

Enjoy!

Cinnabon Cake

I made this cake for Nathan's first birthday. I didn't realize that I typed the recipe up over six weeks ago, but never got around to pushing the post button.

Grease a bundt pan and coat with cinnamon sugar.

1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
Combine in a bowl and set aside.

2 cups flour
1 ½ cups white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
Mix in mixer on low speed.

Add:
½ cup applesauce + ¼ cup vegetable oil
3 eggs + 1 egg yolk (room temperature)
1 tsp vanilla
2 X 100 g yogurt cups - I used a vanilla/caramel duo (or you could use 1 cup of plain yogurt or sour cream)
Mix again on low speed until combined.

Pour ½ of bater into greased and cinnamon sugar coated bundt pan. Sprinkle cinnamon mixture over top, and then remaining batter. Swirl with a knife.

Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes.

Icing:
1 cup icing sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp cinnamon

Whisk together in a bowl, then drizzle over top of cake while still warm.

Enjoy!

Mexican Lasagna & Awesome Brownies

Today at about 5:00 PM, I had 4 hungry kids, an almost-empty fridge, and no plans for dinner. Normally, in this situation, I would go to my favourite recipe site, all recipes, and do a search for something quick and easy with very few ingredients. (Or else I would make sandwiches , soup from a can, or something else equally exciting.) Unfortunately, Scott was on an important business call in the den, so I didn't have access to my computer.

I decided to wing a recipe I had seen made somewhere at sometime with ingredients I had on hand and this is what I came up with. I know there are quite a few recipes for this type of dish out there. It may not be totally original, but I didn't follow a recipe when I made it tonight, so it was new to us.

Mexican Lasagna

Chop an onion and saute in a heated pan (with olive oil) until soft. Add 1 can of stewed tomatoes with juice, 2-3 cloves of garlic (I used the frozen cubed kind), 1 cup of water, 2 tsp cumin, 3 tsp chili powder, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, grate a huge mound of chedder cheese (or other Mexican blend). Drain and rinse 1 can of black beans. I happened to have leftover shredded chicken from our quesadillas last night, but you could use any cooked chicken (seasoned with taco-type spices).

Get a box of oven ready lasagna noodles, and you are now ready to layer your lasagna. Well, almost ready. I had to add in a little step here due to one of my children being a little weary of seeing "vegetable chunks" (ie tomatoes, onions) in any type of casserole. So... I blended the whole tomato mixture in the food processor to make a thick, smooth, sauce. It's amazing how many vegetables my kids will eat when the can't see them. ;)

Stir the chicken and beans into the tomato sauce.

In a 9 X 13 casserole, spread a thin layer of sauce, then noodles, then a thick layer of sauce, cheese, noodles, sauce, cheese, etc. until everything is in the pan. Top with a final sprinkle of cheese and back at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

(ETA: Next time I might experiment with coloured peppers, black olives, or chopped green chiles, etc. Also, I think it would be good topped with shredded lettuce, sour cream, salsa, and tomatoes - or you could substitute tortillas for the lasagna noodles.)

While the lasagna was baking, I found this brownie recipe and we had these for dessert, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Awesome Brownies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
  
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
4. To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Frost brownies while they are still warm.

Halloween Treats

I made these Halloween Treat Bags for the kids to give to their teachers tomorrow. They are filled with chocolate chip cookies that were baked in mini muffin tins and decorated with Halloween sprinkles. I used Alton Brown's Recipe, "The Chewy". We have made them a few times now and they really are chewy and so good!

The pumpkin suckers are treats for Samantha's classmates. Brett's class takes turns bringing things in (and he's off the hook until February), and Jesse didn't need treats either, so we only did 20. Samantha helped and I think it took us about 5 minutes to do it together. I can't justify spending more time than that on something that will be sitting in the bottom of a trash can in less than 24 hours.

All the kids are wearing orange and black to school tomorrow - that seems to be the new "thing" for Halloween at school these days. When I was little we always wore costumes to school on Halloween, but I have to say that as a Mom, I'm quite happy to send the kids off in black and orange clothes instead. I will try to remember to take pictures before school, but since that's typically the most hectic time of day around here, we'll see how it goes.

Potato Salad Recipe

My friend Tasha asked me to post this recipe. I sort of made this up on the spot and it turned out really good. I got the idea of roasting the potatoes from Barefoot Contessa - I LOVE her recipes and cooking style in general.

You will probably have to adjust the amounts here - I made this to feed 3 families (about 6 adults and 10 children) and we had a bit left over, but not much. If I was making it for just our family, I would have used about 1/3 of this amount.

Roasted Potato Salad

5 lbs mini new white potatoes - I get these at Costco and they're great because they're small and you don't have to peel them. Just a quick wash and they're ready to go. Cut them into large bite-size pieces.

Put potatoes on a pan or baking sheet. Drizzle generously with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss together (I use my hands). Bake at 425 degrees for about 25 - 30 minutes, until potatoes are cooked through (tender). This is the secret to great flavour in the salad - the roasting of the potatoes.

Let the potatoes cool for a while after taking them out of the oven.

Next, mix the potatoes with the following:

mayonnaise (I used about a cup or so - just enough to coat)
crumbled cooked bacon (I used Real Bacon - pre-cooked and comes in a bag)
chopped green onion (about 4-5 onions)
more salt and pepper (to taste)

Let the salad chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Enjoy!

If anyone actually tries this recipe - please post a comment and let me know how it turns out!

Canada Day Fudge

My friend Sarah makes the best fudge - it is Samantha's absolute favourite! Sarah's recipe has peanut butter and milk chocolate, and I thought it would be fun to make a Canada Day version. It's not so red and white, but more pink and brown... oh well! Here's the recipe:

White Chocolate Raspberry Chocolate Fudge

Mix 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk with 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips and melt in microwave for 1 minute. Stir and return to microwave for 15 second intervals until melted (stirring in-between). When melted, stir in 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp raspberry essence/flavouring, and a few drops of red food colouring. Pour into greased 9 X 9 square pan. Cool in fridge.

Mix remaining 1/2 can sweetened condensed milk with 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and melt in microwave (see above). When melted, stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Pour over top of raspberry layer. Cool in fridge until set. Cut into squares. Enjoy!

Easy Cheese Biscuits

These are the best cheese biscuits and are super easy to make. This is a Kraft recipe that I actually haven't modified (*shock*), except for once when I threw in some dried herbs just for variety.

Tip of the day: Instead of trying to cut in the butter, take it straight from the fridge and grate it into the flour mixture with a cheese grater. All you have to do is mix it with a wooden spoon and you're good to go!

The original recipe says it makes 9 servings, but I double it just for our family alone. I still cut it into 9 portions, but they're pretty big.

Easy Cheese Biscuits

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold butter
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, sugar and salt. Cut in butter (or grate and add - see note above) until mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in cheddar cheese. Add milk; stir until mixture forms soft dough.

Place on lightly floured surface and knead 6-8 times until smooth. Pat dough into a square and cut into nine squares. Place on baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Enjoy!

Banana Wildberry Explosion Muffins

Those of you that know me know that I love the kitchen. I love cooking, baking, and I LOVE recipes. I could read recipe books (or watch the Food Network) all day. I love trying new recipes, and modifying recipes to fit whatever ingredients I have on hand. And I rarely measure ingredients when I cook (but always when I bake). Usually this method of cooking turns out pretty good, sometimes it's fantastic, and once in a while it's a complete disaster.

The ironic thing is that my Mom also cooks without recipes (or uses recipes as *guides*) and this used to drive me crazy when I was younger. Now when my Mom sees me cook like this she just laughs. I'll probably share a few recipes on here every once in a while. I'll try to post ones that are fairly edible, but try them at you're own risk :)

Today I had some over-ripe bananas and 1/2 a can of wildberry pie filling to use up. So I modified a favourite banana bread recipe and came up with this. If you don't have pie filling on hand, you could add 1 cup of blueberries to the batter instead.

Banana Wildberry Explosion Muffins

4 ripe bananas
3 eggs
1/3 cup shortening (could use softened butter)
1 cup white sugar (I might cut this down next time as they were very sweet)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (this is a great substitute for oil and fats in baking)
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 can wildberry pie filling

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease muffin tins or line with muffin cups. Mash bananas in a medium bowl and stir in eggs until well blended. Cream shortening and sugars. Add vanilla and banana mixture and mix well. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Blend into batter (don't overmix).

Spoon a small amount of batter into muffin cups. Scoop 1 Tbsp pie filling into centre of batter. Spoon additional batter on top of pie filling, until muffin cups are almost full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until muffins are done. Enjoy!