Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I’ve recently made it a rule in my house and to all of our friends and family to not throw away their ripe bananas (no matter how ripe they are) as I’ve become very determined to transform them into something delicious! In addition to making banana bread with the bananas ( my banana bread recipe is here) I made these bad boys!  Oh my gosh, they’re to die for. In the midst of my healthy eating I managed to sneak one of these bad boys into my meals to snack on and it was so worth it. You can’t go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate mixed with bananas. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1½ cups mashed bananas ( 2- 3 bananas )
• ⅓ cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 1½ cups flour
• ¼ cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup peanut butter chips ( you can do chocolate chips )
• Sugar for sprinkling on top of muffins * optional 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl combine bananas, oil and egg .
3. Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder in separate bowl.
4.  Add to banana mixture to flour mixture.
   
   
   
   
5. Stir in peanut butter chips.
   
6. Spoon batter into greased or lined muffin tins.
   
   
   
   
7. Sprinkle the tops of each muffin with 1 teaspoon of sugar. * optional
8. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees F.
   
   
   
     
   
   

Featured on Blogher | Challenge: Praise Your Sweetie for A Month Via Texts!

As many of you know alongside my personal blog, I also blog with a great community of local moms here in Reno. RENOMOMSBLOG creates a great community of mothers in Northern Nevada that are dedicated to their families. I recently wrote a blog about the little texts that I’ve sent Waymon during our time apart to keep the love alive and spice things up a bit with us. This article has also been featured on Blogher.com in the Love & Sex section on the homepage of the website.  My second feature for Blogher feels just as amazing as the first. You can check out the feature here!

Thank you all for your support on Blogher, Facebook, Instagram and on here! Your shares, likes and comments allow me to love what I do so much more. Please check out the original link here to view the article.

For more of my blog please check out my feed on BLOGLOVIN & BLOGHER!

Lil' Miss Designs Accessories Monthly Bow Subscription- Month Five

I can’t believe I’ve only gotten 5 months of bows (I’ll be getting my  6^th month pkg sometime this weekend/early next week). This bow set is for the month of July. I wanted to get ready for the fall as well as get some new, fun and quirky bows to fill her collection. I ordered the following bows; ce cream/cupcake,-rainbow/multicolored and red paisley.

The rainbow bow is my favorite this month. I love all of the bold colors and how the bow itself is just a statement piece. It’s really easy to pair with any of her outfits because it is rainbow. This bow is also Haidyn’s favorite as she “oohs” and “ahhs” over the colors as well.

The cupcake bow is something that LMDA got to play around with.  Like I’ve said before I let the shop get creative with my bows, after all this is her expertise and not mine. I originally ordered cupcakes/ ice cream for this set, but I was generally happy with the result. Anything pink matches with her outfits.

Last but not least, the Wolfpack/UNR bow was on my list for August but because she ran out of red paisley she bumped up my order for this bow. When I envisioned the bow, I thought it was going to have the college logo of some sort on it just like the ones one she’s previously made for other clients. As you can tell, that I didn’t get the latter so I was a little disappointed at first. When I came to think of it, I like this bow a lot more because it’s something she will be able to wear for even longer than the bow with the logo on it.

Thank you again Lil' Miss Designs Accessories! I’m already anxiously waiting for my Fall/Holiday bows! 

Check out the business Facebook here and check out the different bows and accessories she has to offer!

** This blog post is not a paid promotion by Lil’ Miss Designs and is simply a review of the business’ products ***

Baby Hack | Snacks On-the-Go

The struggle of packing snacks used to be the death of me, but not anymore! I’ve found a simple and efficient hack that has saved me from tantrums while were out at the store/while we’re out to eat and waiting for our food order. Halleluiah!!  Remember those pesky formula dividers? They were a little annoying when you had to use them because there was not a way for you to get the formula out of them quick enough for your starving infant. Those were the days, weren’t they? Well I now use them for snacks! That’s right snacks!

 They’re a perfect divider for all their snacks. These containers keep everything divided, gives them variety and easy to store in your diaper bag, purse or mini lunch box.

I like to bring at least two of these around with me so that Haidyn has more than enough snacks to keep her going where ever we happen to find ourselves. You can use any size you’d like, but my go to one is the Munchkin. You can find it, here. It’s so much easier giving her a variety of her favorites rather than me trying to find something she can snack on, on the fly or dealing with a tantrum.

Here are some of our favorite on-the-go snacks; 

Orange Segments
Apple Slices

Teddy grahams

String cheese

Fruit snacks

Goldfish

Cheerios

Raisins

Grapes

Trail mix

Do you have a favorite snack carrying method for your little one?
What snacks does your toddler like on-the-go?