Day 260: Planned Happiness

What do bananas, peanut butter and chocolate chips have in common? They are all ingredients in the delicious muffins I baked for breakfast today. Well, chocolate chips were in half of them anyway. I'd like to just sum these up in one word: YUM. I could probably use a few more words and probably a few moans as well but we'll leave it at YUM. My husband and I have become addicted to banana bread during the past few months after one day I just decided to make a loaf to use up our overripe bananas. Normally we just freeze them to use later for smoothies but we already had an overabundance of frozen smoothie bananas and I was craving something sweet yet semi-healthy. 

I have made this particular banana bread recipe plain, I've added roasted hazelnuts, roasted walnuts and even a dash of ground cardamom. Now with the addition of peanut butter and chocolate chips I can honestly say that this was not only an excellent idea but maybe the best banana bread I've had. I love making peanut butter and honey sandwiches for breakfast and these peanut butter banana muffins really take the cake, no pun intended. The chocolate chips definitely make them a bit more decadent, maybe even verging on the category of dessert, but the peanut butter is a nice protein boost and besides, I reduced the amount of sugar and oil in the recipe with my addition of peanut butter. So they are actually healthy. Right. 

Okay, so maybe not exactly healthy but not terribly bad for you either. And on mornings when I need something a little yummier than cereal, oatmeal or toast, pulling one of these beauties out of the freezer to take to work will be an added pleasure for that day. Heck, it might even just be the thing that makes my day one day. Having these muffins in the freezer are like insurance for happiness. And in my book there is absolutely nothing wrong with planned happiness. 

And I love these muffin cups... The way they are pleated, all you have to do is pull it open a bit on the sides and the muffin comes out perfectly without sticking to the paper. :-)