cookies

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Whenever I have a hard cookie, it almost immediatley gets dunked in to milk. Soften it up a little, you know?

One day a friend of mine brought over a plate of nice soft, chewy, banana and chocolate chip cookies. Yummo. I could have eaten the whole plate.

I decided I wanted to remake them for myself. I found this awesome recipe and...loved them.

(** I am not sure where I found it. I didn't come up with this recipe, but am not sure who to give credit too!**)

If you are a fan of banana chocolate chip (and who isn't?!) then you are going to love these. If you try them, I would love to know what you think!

Someone snuck a bite...

**Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies**

2.5 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed bananas(about 3)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I prefer milk chocolate, that's just how I roll)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400* Grease cookie sheets. Combine dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream the butter with the sugar until  light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the mashed bananas. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Drop spoonfuls on to the cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

PB Banana Bread

Why is it that some times when I buy bananas, they are gone 30 seconds after they hit the fruit bowl? Then others, they sit on the counter and go brown?

Well, like most women, I refuse to throw them away and either put them into the freezer or turn them into banana bread or smoothies.

Everyone in my home loves plain, ol' banana bread, but I am always trying to find ways to change it up. My children do not like nuts :( and so I usually have to make it without my beloved walnuts.

I found this recipe and we all rrrreally enjoyed it!

**Peanut Butter Banana Bread **

Preheat oven to 325*

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 bananas, mashed ( I actually used 3 because that is what I had)
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda (which I totally forgot about, oops!)

In a large bowl, cream together butter & sugar. Add eggs, beat well. Stir in peanut butter, mashed bananas until well blended. Add flour and soda. Blend until combined. Grease loaf pan and bake for 70 minutes.
* My daughter really wanted chocolate chips thrown in so we added those as well*
**My oven usually tends to be slow, but 70 minutes was just a little too long for mine. So I would recommend you check for doneness after an hour**

This is my first time linking up to Make a Home over at Linda's Lunacy. If you are interested in joining in on the fun, head on over!

The banana bars that weren't...

It looks like someone just couldn't wait!!

Does he look guilty for scraping off the top and chowing down?!

There are a few things that end up on my shopping list every week. No matter what the sales & coupons are for the week, this one remains constant: BANANAS!

Monkey Mason ( that is what we call my 16mo old) eats at least one a day.

Some weeks, bananas last all of 10 minutes in the fruit bowl.

Others, they sit and brown.

So I make a lot of banana bread.

I decided to do something different and make frosted banana bars. They are so yummy!

I had enough bananas to make 2. One for now and one for the freezer. I had one pan baking, and one pan cooling.

My son comes into the living room to talk to me...with his mouth full of banana bars!

"Yum, Mom this banana BREAD is so good Mom!" He tells his siblings and the next thing I know, half a pan has been devoured!

Apparently, no one else in my family wanted to venture out of our banana bread rut (:

However, if your family wants to break out, here is the recipe for the BANANA BARS!

Frosted Banana Bars

1/2 cup butter or margarine,softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

8oz sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 med. bananas, ripened and mashed (approx. 1 cup)

In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a seperate bowl.

Slowly combine the dry ingredients with the wet. Stir in bananas. Grease a 9 x 15 baking pan. (This recipe makes a lot and I tried to fit in a 9x13. Bad idea. It really didn't fit well and took much longer to bake!)

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

80z brick of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

2 tsp vanilla

3 3/4 cups-4 cups of powdered sugar

Cream together first three ingredients. Then gradually add powdered sugar. Frost cooled banana bars! Enjoy!

**I found this recipe (although there are a ton of recipes for banana bars out there) on That's My Home.