A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I was feeling a bit under the weather today so we stayed in and I thought of my "go to" banana nut muffin recipe.  It's from an old Oprah mag from January 2008 and I kept it in an organized recipe binder ever since.  I've made this recipe many, many times and enjoying the muffins in the morning is always a great way to start off a work week. 

Banana Muffin Recipe

(from my Oprah Mag January 2008)

5 1/3 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c honey
1/2 c cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 to 2 mashed bananas (about 3/4 cup)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 c plain yogurt
1 c walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.  Place butter, honey, sugar, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Beat on medium-high until fluffy (about 5 minutes).  Scrape down sides of bowl, add bananas and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until bananas are smashed (about 1 minute).
3.  Reduce speed to medium-low.  Add egg and yogurt; mix until incorporated (about 10 seconds).  Reduce speed to low.  Add flour mixture in 3 parts, mixing just until no traces of flour remain (about 10 seconds), gently fold in walnuts.
4.  Transfer batter to prepared muffin tins.  Bake 22 to 25 minutes.  Transfer to cooking rack.

Then, I proceeded on making salad for dinner from the produce I picked up at my Saturday morning trips to the farmers market.  I have learned that after making a farmers market trip, I always wash and prep my lettuce for the week. I probably get double the amount of salad with a big head of romaine for the same price (I usually pay $1 for a good head of lettuce at the farmers market) as buying the pre-washed bagged salad at the store.  Besides the cost savings, the lettuce is SO much more fresh and lasts me all week.  I hate it when I buy salad in a bag and in a couple days, half of it is limpy, soggy pieces of salad.  That's very unappetizing for me.

Strawberries are in full blown season and the cherries and peaches have just started coming in.  Yay!  I am the loser who gets excited about these things.  I ate all the cherries in 1 sitting yesterday so I made a simple salad with the strawberries, peaches, homemade spiced nuts, romaine lettuce and a dijon mustard vinaigrette.

And I don't know what my life was like before gorgonzola cheese.  I used to hate blue cheeses but now I absolutely adore it in my salads.

Now I am off to take a nice hot bath with lavender essential oil and epsom salt to mentally prepare myself for another Monday work day.....  It's a perfect lazy Sunday!