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Banana power muffins

In Recipes on 21 April 2026 at 8:58 pm

Banana muffins allow for endless variety – swap in applesauce for one or more bananas, milk or yogurt in place of the water, throw in some peanut butter … every time it’s a different combination. Nuts, seeds, berries, raisins, orange rind, lemon zest – so many options to stir in you can make it every week and never repeat for years! Though I used to use honey or maple syrup or date sugar, these days I have been able to skip all of these and sweeten these treats with ripe banana alone. And even add wheat germ – hence the name power muffins!

Here is what I did the other day for a potluck – got so many compliments including from a 1 year old baby, that I thought I had better write it down before I forget. It is also easy to make vegan since it is leavened with baking soda.

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork (or hands)

1 cup milk (can also use water or yogurt) (and honestly I did not measure this so based on the texture you can adjust as needed.

12 ounces “mixed nut butter” – I used the entire jar, including the oil that had separated to the top. This in the only oil in the recipe. Any nut butter will do, with no added sugar. If the nut butter is salted, then reduce the salt by 1/2 a teaspoon.

2.5 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/2 cup chopped pecans (sunflower seeds or any nuts will do)

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp apple cider vinegar (if you used yogurt instead of milk you may not need the acv)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F

In a large bowl, stir together the wet ingredients including the nut butter. Use a fork, your hands or a whisk to stir the nut butter in evenly.

In a second bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix well to distribute the salt and baking soda evenly.

Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix well.

Texture should be like a thick batter or wet dough. Scoopable but not easily pourable.

Scoop into well-oiled muffin pans. I used a silicone muffin pan and did not use any oil, and they came out fine.

Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes. Fork should come out clean. If you are using a mini-muffin pan then check in 20 minutes.

I think this would have made 2 dozen muffins but I ended up making 1 dozen regular, 2 dozen mini and still had batter, which I then pushed out into a small square dish and baked that too like a mini banana bread. That stayed in the oven longer, probably 40-45 minutes. That is all that is left at this point so I will try to take a picture of that. Actually I will try to repeat this and take pictures as I go along next time.

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My very round and not quite square average

In Real Talk on 4 September 2025 at 1:44 pm

At some point shortly before the pandemic I discovered that my phone kept track of my steps. I had had fun with pedometers before but never carried them consistently. Or they stopped working. In their heyday they were even among the give-aways at trade conferences, something that a vendor might put their logo on, like a pen or pen drive. Later when things got fancy with Fitbits and smart watches, I went digital in the sense of counting as I walked and noting every 100 on my fingers. Only I’d do paces as that was easier to keep count. Home to vegetable market – 300 paces. Deonar depot to home – 600 paces. If I recall correctly the young cousins in the family even started a spreadsheet to keep a daily tally and compare notes. Heady times!

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Lady Like: Mackenzi Lee enthralls again

In Books on 12 June 2025 at 8:00 pm

When Khiyali introduced me to Mackenzi Lee via The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, I was shall we say, not quite ready for the Age of Enlightenment. If the title had not already raised my eyebrow, the first page made me almost fall backwards in the bookstore. But it quickly became one of my favorite novels to recommend especially to young people. So my excitement by the announcement of her latest work of historical fiction, Lady Like, was eclipsed only by Khiyali’s. Her review follows. As luck would have it, I got the chance to tag along on a visit to Shibden Hall, the home of Anne Lister, and to walk around the hills of Halifax and see the view from Beacon Hill. A quote from Anne Lister’s famous, voluminous diaries, appears in the front

Back to the book. Over to Khiyali:

I’ve long been a fan of Mackenzi Lee’s Gentleman’s Guide series. So when my mother revealed that she had acquired an advance copy of Lee’s latest, Lady Like, I jumped at the chance to take a look. The book begins promisingly with a quote from renowned lesbian diarist Anne Lister, and it delivers.

From sapphic Shakespeare to burgeoning self-determination, the novel is at once cozy, exciting, and cathartic. It retains elements from the Guide series – delicious queer romance, delightful sentence structure, and exciting dialogue – and it felt significantly more lighthearted. This is not to say the stakes are low – far from it. Our heroines encounter terrifying, heartwrenching, but ultimately adventurous challenges on their way to the future. In brief, Lady Like serves up all the feels. Snuggle up with it and a sweet treat this fall, and let me know what you think.

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