Recipe and Reviews

Heey!!!! Happy Friday!

My mom got in safely on Wednesday and we were all soooo happy to see her!!!!! She said that all of her flights went well and that her planes were mostly on time. She was really tired, but glad to be home. Funny story: while she was gone, dad wanted to get the couches reupholstered for her to surprise her when she got home. The real surprise is that when she got home, the couches hadn't been returned yet, so she walked in to an empty living room!

Soo yesterday morning I whipped up a batch of muffins so that mom wouldn't have to worry about breakfast. I based them off of my coconut lemon muffins, and made banana coconut muffins! Here my recipe:

Banana Coconut Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 egg, slightly beaten, 
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.
2. In another bowl, combine bananas, egg, butter, vanilla and sugar. Add dry ingredients to wet. 
3. Stir in about 1/2 cup of coconut.
4. Lightly grease or line 8 muffin tins, and divide the batter between them. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of coconut on top of the muffins. Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes, or until done in the center. If you want, serve with a powdered sugar glaze. 

These muffins were super easy to throw together, and tasted good too!! They were even better today, because the banana flavor really had some time to get stronger. What is your favorite fruit to combine with coconut? I like banana-coconut, but I think that my all time favorite combo is pineapple coconut. Tastes like the beach! :D

One of the things my mom brought back was a gift bag from the awesome people over at Larabar!  I got several different flavors to try out, including the new chocolate chip cherry torte, which I'm going to review here!

I was sent four of these bars, and my entire family has tried them. According to the website, the ingredients are dates, chocolate chips, almonds, cherries, cashews, and sea salt. Here are our reviews:

Mom: Not a huge fan of cherries anyway, she just had a bite of my sister's bar. She was really surprised at how strong the flavors were in the bar, and said that if you do like cherry flavored things, than you'll probably like this. 

Sister: Tried it two different ways, straight out of the package, and slightly heated in the microwave. She said that the cherry flavor is strong both ways, but that when the bar isn't warm, the texture is a little bit crumbly and the chocolate flavor isn't in every bite. After heating it, she said that she loved the bar and it was a great snack! 

Dad: It's tasty! (believe me, he only says this when he means it. :P)

Me: I took my sister's advice and heated up my bar before eating it! Definitely the right decision to make!!!! :D This bar seriously tasted like dessert, but I knew that I was eating whole foods that are super nutritious at the same time! 

So there's our review, hope its helpful! 

Now, I've got a couple of tests take, and than its the weekend!!!!! What are your weekend plans?