Let's talk about breakfast! It's my favorite meal of the day but it can be a tricky one because mornings are go, go, go! Ok, dinner is nuts too but there's something so soul satisfying to me about having a hot cup of coffee and a nice breakfast.  I'm a die hard fan of baked goods and I like to make my own most of the time.  This helps me control the ingredients and save on cost but I still try to keep breakfast baked goods simple.  These muffins hit the spot, kick my chocolate cravings in the teeth and my kids loved them too.

Here's what you'll need for these delicious muffins to make ahead and enjoy for breakfasts and snacks....

Ingredients
​(makes approx. 10 muffins)
-2 ripe bananas
-1/2 cup Greek yogurt
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 cup sugar 
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
-1/2 cup milk
- 2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp espresso powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
-1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks

Directions
Grease a muffin tray and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, mash the bananas and mix them with the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, milk and sugar.  Pour the dry ingredients of flour, baking cocoa, baking powder, espresso powder and salt on top.  Use a fork to lightly mix together the dry ingredients and then combine the dry and wet ingredients until mixed thoroughly.

Scoop the batter into the muffin wells.  I use approx. 1/3 cup per muffin.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips or chunks on top of the uncooked muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes and remove from the oven once an inserted toothpick can be removed without batter on it (I find that 22 minutes works great for me).  Allow to cool in the tray for 20 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to complete cooling.  Enjoy!

It has been a whirlwind 8 weeks since baby boy was born! He's healthy, strong, full of smiles and super cute but I still feel like I'm in survival mode! I am admittedly finding it more difficult than I thought I would to get my new content on here (hence, this is my first post in 8 weeks!), but we're still moving forward!

Lavender is an ingredient that used to intimidate me because it sounds so fancy in a recipe.  I'm here to tell you that it is very simple, accessible and it totally elevates a dish and gives it a little something different. I was first introduced to lavender lemonade at one of my favorite New England restaurants, Pickity Place.  This restaurant is incredible with seasonal, rotating menus on a monthly basis and they grown all of their own herbs on site.  Their lavender lemonade is like drinking a spa day.  I picked up a container of their culinary lavender in the gift shop and since then I've made lavender brownies​, vegan lemon lavender sugar cookies and today I've got a simple bread for you that is a perfect dessert, tea time treat or would be incredible to serve at a bridal or baby shower.

Lavender can be potent and a little bit goes a long way in a recipe.  I've used 2 tablespoons of culinary lavender in this bread recipe as the lemon is also quite a strong flavor and can over power; however, you can easily dial the lavender up or down a notch by increasing or decreasing the amount you add to the sugar.  In this recipe, you will create a lavender sugar by processing the lavender with the sugar in a food processor or high powered blender.  It takes only seconds and then you mix it into the recipe as you would regular sugar.

Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

For the bread
-2 TBS culinary lavender
-3/4 cup sugar
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup olive oil
-zest of 1 lemon
-juice of 1/2 lemon
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 1/2 cups flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-1/2 cup whole milk

For the glaze
-1/3 cup powdered sugar
-juice of 1/2 lemon

Directions
Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Add the lavender and sugar to a food processor or high powered blender.  Process/blend until the lavender breaks down in the sugar (you will still see flecks of lavender but both the sugar and lavender will be more fine in consistency.  This typically takes less than 30 seconds).

Zest and juice the lemon.  Reserve 1/2 the lemon juice for the glaze.  In the large bowl for a stand or hand mixer, combine the eggs and lavender sugar.  Cream together until combined.  Add in the olive oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice/zest.  Mix together until fully incorporated.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt.  use a fork to stir the dry ingredients together on top of the wet ingredients before mixing.  Mix the dry and wet ingredients together until a thick batter forms.  While slowly mixing, pour in the milk and mix until combined and batter thins out a little bit.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20-30 minutes before inverting and transferring the bread to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Prepare the glaze while the bread cools by combining the powdered sugar and the reserved lemon juice.  Whisk together until it forms into a smooth glaze.  Once the bread has cooled, top with the glaze, slice and enjoy!

One of the things that I've enjoyed about this quarantine period is that I've been forced to get creative with pantry meals, snacks and desserts.  My usual recipe development has more come from a place of "this is what I want to make and this is what I need so let's go to the store and get those things."  The current situation is very different.  We are only making grocery trips when we need to and my husband has been doing all of the grocery shopping so that I stay out of the stores while expecting (although this week I found a local market that is doing curb side pick up and I'm going to go for a drive later today- times are definitely different when getting out into the car feels like an outing). 

This brownie recipe was developed with all things in my pantry and I have been using up a bottle of Tahini more lately when I noticed that it's pretty creamy....and I had a small amount of chocolate chips left and I wondered if I could melt the two together for a brownie ganache.  It turns out that I can and that it's really good.  The brownies are pretty sweet with both white and brown sugar and the tahini ganache sort of balances it out with a nutty flavor.  I wondered if my kids would back away from it once they tried them but nope.  They each stole an extra brownie when I wasn't looking.

Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

For the brownie (makes approximately 1 dozen)
-1/2 cup butter at room temperature
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup white sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-3/4 cup flour
-1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
-1 tsp espressor powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tsp baking powder

For the Ganache
-1/2 cup tahini
-1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees and line an 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, use a stand or hand mixer to cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).  Add in the eggs one at a time and mix together.  Add in the vanilla and mix together.  Add all of the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients and mix them together with a fork before turning back on the mixer to incorporate them with the wet ingredients.  The batter will be thick...almost frosting like.

Pour the brownie batter into the prepared pan and use the back of a spoon or rubber spatula to spread and smooth the batter evenly throughout the pan.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  This baking time leaves them fudgy and a small amount of batter coming out on a toothpick when inserted.  Allow to cool completely in the pan.

Once cooled, prepare the ganache by adding the tahini to a small pot on medium heat.  Allow to warm up and then add in the chocolate chips.  Stir continuously until the chocolate melts into the tahini and completely blends together.  Pour over the brownies and spread evenly with a spoon or spatula.  Place the ganache topped brownies in the fridge to chill and set for about an hour.

Lift the parchment paper up and out of the pan, slice into 12 squares and enjoy!