Banana Bread Muffins - Only 3 Ingredients (Gluten Free Option)

My favorite - okay, only - sister has been eating wheat free. While you do not have to eat gluten free to eat wheat free, wheat is pretty much in - well, everything. Except for gluten free flours, of course. We have been experimenting with all the different flours (I'm on a tapioca/potato starch kick lately), and we try to pick up gluten free mixes or treats when we're out to try which are best. One of the grocery stores near us had a huge selection of GF one day. She was stoked. While going to stock up the other day she was informed they were just running it as a test and they would not be carrying more gluten free products. She bought all the yellow gluten-free cake mixes that she could find, because that's all there really was left. 

So we have a lot of cake mixes. I ran across an idea for banana bread with cake mix, eggs, and bananas. We also had 3 over-ripened bananas sitting in the fruit basket at home. We thought to try to make them gluten-free and then made them into muffins. We're all about portion control. I lie, I ate two that night. We then decided to try some of them with the chocolate chips. These were, of course, even better than the "regular" ones. They're banana bread-y without being too heavy and positively divine while still warm out of the oven. 

While I'm a huge supporter of  making things from scratch when you can? I'm also a big supporter of being able to make something tasty and quick when possible, and I hate wasting fruit. So we solved all of those in one night. Bonus that we made our gluten-free. But I imagine they are just as wonderful with all the tasty glutens. 

So, try them for yourself. Let us know what you think. Go ahead, you know you want to. Go bananas. See what I did there? 

Ingredients:
3-4 ripe bananas
1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs

chocolate chips (optional)

Other utensils: 

Bowl

Spoon

Cooking Spray

Muffin pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mash ripened (over is better!) bananas with fork until smooth.

Add 2 eggs and mix well.

Stir in cake mix and incorporate well.

Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.

Fill muffin tins 3/4 of the way. 

If you're adding chocolate chips I suggest adding a few to each tin and then stirring in well. You can add a bunch to the mix before pouring into the tins, but adding to the individual tin  promotes even distribution and stops you from having way too many or too little. 

Bake for 17-20 minutes or until tops spring back and toothpick inserted is clean upon insertion. 

Red Velvet Cake Cookies

 A couple of notes before I give you the recipe for this amazing cookie. 

1. I don't like cookies much. But these? These I had to hide from myself. We made them for a friend and I didn't want to eat them all.
2. I like to make most things from scratch. So I'm sure that these would be great if you made the flour mixture yourself. But when cake mixes are on sale for 98 cents? You find inventive ways to use them.
3. I can't take the credit for this as I snatched it from Mr. Food. Here's his original recipe. I just skipped the frosting. And they didn't need it, trust me.
4. Sorry there are no good pictures of them. But I couldn't stop myself from sneaking a few and I had to wrap them up right away or risk them never getting to their destination.
   They're fantastic (and easy!)

Ingredients:

1 box red velvet cake mix

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons water

1 cup white chocolate chips

Other utensils: 

Bowl
Spoon
Cooking Spray
Cookie Sheets
Cooling Rack

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
 
Combine box mix, eggs, oil, water and mix well. 

Fold in white chocolate chips. 

Drop by teaspoonful onto greased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. 

Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool for 3 minutes or more. 

Transfer cookies to wire cooling rack until completely cool. (And try not to eat them in the process. Go ahead, I dare you.)

 

Lemon Squares - The Cheaters Edition

The other day I was missing my dad. He loved lemon squares. And food in general. I wanted to make some but didn't have enough lemons to even attempt it. After some Internet browsing we came across a lot of tips on how to do them with angel food cake mixes. Which of course I didn't have. So we made a crust (from another recipe) and crumble from a yellow cake mix and added pie filling, which had been done in the angel food cake mix recipes. I am sure I wasn't the first to come up with this idea. But I love it.  

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can lemon pie filling

Other utensils: 

Bowl

Spoon

Cooking Spray

13 X 9 inch glass pan

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix (room temperature) butter and cake mix together until combined well. 

Spray pan with cooking spray.

Reserve 2/3 cup mixture of cake/butter mixing.

 

Press mixture from cake/butter into the bottom of the pan to form a crust.

Pour lemon pie filling on top of the formed crust.

Spread evenly.

Crumble remaining mixture over the top of the lemon pie filling. 

Cook for 25 minutes. 

That's it. It's seriously that easy. They were delicious. I like mine cold, so I waited a few minutes and then cut out two pieces and slid them into the fridge for Mom and I to try. I can't say enough how easy and tasty they were. And three ingredients. Voila. 

We're debating on what we want to try as the pie filling next: cherry or peach. Either way, I think we hit the nail on the head with a tasty and easy way to make dessert next time we are craving a sweet treat.

Tip: I know that they have a great gluten free yellow cake mix. This could easily be a great crust for many gluten free desserts, for sure.

Sometimes you feel like a nut (and sometimes you can't have them, so you make Mound cookies instead)

My aunt is unable to eat regular sugars. She was in town for the holidays and said "I want you to make me some Almond Joy cookies, please?" But she wanted them "Aunt Lori" safe. So without sugar. Since I can't eat (and shouldn't cook with) nuts, I compromised and asked if we could make some "Mounds" cookies instead. This is what we came up with.

When we made them for her we used Splenda blend sugar and brown sugar and unsweetened coconut that we pulsed in a food processor for a moment with some splenda. With all the added sugar that probably isn't even necessary, to be honest.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups  brown sugar
4 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chocolate chips
2 1/2 cups sweetened coconut

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375

Grease cookie sheets

Combine flour, baking soda, salt - set aside

Cream butter and white/brown sugars together.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Stir in vanilla.

Stir in dry ingredients a cup at a time, until well mixed.

Fold in chocolate chips and coconut.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheets***

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes.

Cool for five minutes on baking sheet. (Important, don't move too soon. They look cakey, still until they sit.)

Move to wire rack to finish cooling.


Okay...time for the notes. Heh.

Original recipe that we tweaked a bit called for 5 cups of the chocolate chips. If you're looking for way chocolatey? Go for it. I used 3 and each cookie still had ALMOST too much chocolate chips in it. But they'd be more "mound" like if you added more chocolate chips, for sure.

*** I used a cookie scoop. If you have one, use it! So much easier.

Also, this originally was for Almond Joys so they also added 2 cups of chopped almonds when they added the coconut and chocolate chips. If you like almonds? I would try that, too. I just can't even cook with them safely. So I took them from Almond Joys to Mounds.

You Gotta Be Kidding Me Cake

I'm ashamed, yet again, to call this a recipe. I saw it in an Amish cook book and then saw it online and decided...why not. Let's try it. My caloric intake probably hates me  but my taste buds were happy.

Here's the ingredient list:
Can of pie filling
Box of cake mix
3 eggs

Add all three ingredients and mix.

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray.

Pop into preheated oven at 350 degrees.

Cook for 25 to 35 minutes. Until your toothpick looks clean when inserted into the middle. And done. Seriously,  that's it. 
The pictures are from a chocolate and cherry cake. We've also made a pineapple with blueberry pie filling with which outstanding.

On deck we have a white cake with apple filling. That sounds pretty marvelous. And let's not forget the strawberry cake with strawberry filling that's also in the on deck circle.

The cake is moist, keeps well for days, and even the edges are soft and fluffy. It's baffling and wonderful how easy the whole thing is 

Crock Pot Caramel (One Ingredient Only...Really!)

I'm sure that this "tip" (I can't really call it a recipe, seriously.) is all over the Internet. But I hadn't come across it until someone posted a recipe for a bundt cake in a crock pot with this caramel sauce cooking in the center (to create the hole in the cake). So I figure there has to be more people like me, who didn't know this tasty nugget of information. And who doesn't love homemade caramel sauce?

It's easy.

Take one can of sweetened condensed milk. 

Remove label. 

Set can into crock pot.

Fully cover the can with water. 

Set crock pot on high. 

Cook for 4 hours. 

Remove from crock pot. 

Let can cool. 

Open. 

Stir. 

That's it. Done. It looks like this after removed and put into a mason jar.

I wanted to save what we didn't use that night, and I was curious how much it made in regards to a mason jar, as I think it would make an amazing gift basket. Think: Caramel sauce in the center of a basket, some nice nuts in a tin, and a basket of delicious apples. What could be better?