Peanut Butter, Oatmeal, Banana, Chocolate Chip Muffins

By popular demand, here is my recipe for PBOBC Muffins (I need a better name!)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour (I used whole wheat)
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 egg
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips (I used minis)
1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar (I used Splenda!)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your muffin pans either with paper baking cups or by spraying with non-stick spray.

Peel the bananas and either mash them and put them into a large bowl, or if using a stand mixer, toss them into the mixer and "beat" on low speed until fairly mashed. Add the egg and mix until blended. Then add in the sugar, vanilla, and the milk. After well-blended, add in the peanut butter and mix for about a minute on low speed.

Place the dry ingredients into a smaller bowl and combine. Add to the mixture in the bowl and mix well. Pour in the chocolate chips and mix in on low.

Use a large spoon or an ice cream scoop to drop the batter into the muffin pan. You can either make 12 large muffins or 24 small muffins.

Bake at 350 for about 20 - 25 minutes. Check with a toothpick and remove to cool once done.

Note that I didn't use any oil or butter in this recipe. I always find the bananas to be enough to hold everything together, but if you feel you might need something else, you can always add some applesauce, or if you want to add butter, about 1/4 cup would be my suggestion.

Enjoy!

The Nikhat Hat - Knitting Pattern

So, I'm finally getting around to posting this to my knitting/cooking/everything else blog. For those who were waiting - hope it was worth the wait!

This pattern works over 12 stitches, so when sizing for the hat you'll want to take that into consideration when picking your number of stitches to cast on. I've made this hat 3 times in 3 size, and the small, medium and large seem to work out to around 72 stitches cast on for small, 84 for medium and 96 for large. Of course, you'll want to check your gauge and your yarn type when making this decision as well.

On smaller circular needles (size 7 or 8), cast on your stitches for the size hat you want to make.
Create a 1-1/2 inch bottom band (or size to your liking) by knitting about 12 rows in garter stitch. Decrease or increase the number of rows for a smaller or wider band.

Now start working the hat pattern (switch to larger sized needles - I used 10-1/2 circular)
Row 1: K2, *(yo, k2tog) 4 times, K4. Repeat from * to last 2 stitches, end K2.
Row 2: K2, *P8, K4. Repeat from * to last 2 stitches, end K2.

Repeat rows 1 and 2 until the hat measures about an inch smaller than the final size of the hat you want to make. My gauge worked out to about 8 inches of pattern.

Switch back to the smaller needles and knit 2 rows in garter stitch.

Begin decreasing by 12 stitches in knit. For 96 stitches, I did the following:

• *K6, K2tog. Repeat from * to end (84 stitches)
• *K5, K2tog. Repeat from * to end (72 stitches)
• *K4, K2tog. Repeat from * to end (60 stitches)
• *K3, K2tog. Repeat from * to end (48 stitches)
• *K2, K2tog. Repeat from * to end (36 stitches)
• *K1, K2tog. Repeat from * to end (24 stitches)
• *K2tog. Repeat from * to end (12 stitches)
• *K2tog. Repeat from * to end (6 stitches)

Cut yarn and leave a long tail (about 24 inches or longer). Pull the yarn through the remaining stitches on the needle, then remove the needle and pull the loose yarn tight.

Flip the hat inside out, and using the long tail, sew the side together from the top down.

*Note: I actually changed the way I decreased for each hat relying on eyeing the shape of the hat to determine how fast to decrease. For one hat I had to decrease then straight knit, decrease, straight knit. For another hat I was able to decrease on each row. How you decide to do it will depend on how you think the hat looks.

Have fun with it!