Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins... a toddler's lesson

My husband and I take turns getting up with our son on the weekends.  On the weekends where Saturday is my day to get up I like to bake with the little guy.  He loves it, and then we have breakfast at the same time.  It's a win-win situation.  Well the husband is in New Orleans so that means it was definitely my turn to get up.  Last night after I put him to bed and organized the groceries for the week I noticed that I still had bananas from last week and I had bought another bunch.  I also noticed last weeks were not looking so hot.  A quick poke told me the bananas were either destined for some kind of baked good or the trash.  Always attempting to do better with the amount of food I waste I decided a baked good would work perfectly and cover the baking for the morning as well. 

First step is to pre-measure everything unless you have patience of steel.  Nothing like trying to level a cup of flour with a little person grabbing your elbow while chanting "I help you Mommy" about 50 times in 2 minutes.  I think my child could have a future as an auctioneer.  I try to use big containers to decrease the likely hood of things spilling onto the counter.  Any container will do as you can see.

I saw two recipes for Banana-chocolate chip muffins on the blogs I read every week but I couldn't remember which ones, so I just googled and clicked on the first thing I saw that had good reviews.  These were perfect, and easy enough for him to help with, always a perk.  The hardest part about this recipe was convincing him we had to leave the muffins to cool until the chocolate was no longer molten lava.

make sure YOU wash their hands as you never know where they are going to stick them

Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Lois Gordon, allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
*1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

*I used vanilla because it's what I had (again with the food waste reduction act of 2010).  I don't think it made a difference.

Method

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the egg, oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in bananas and chocolate chips. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.