Banana Coconut Upside Down Cake

After whipping up a batch of banana muffins I had one lone banana left sitting on the counter, looking sad. I almost threw it in the freezer to make something with when I had more, but I saw the bag of coconut and an idea came to me. Banana and coconut are good together, especially with caramel. I wonder what it would be like as a cake... 

Turns out it's amazing! Basing it off the classic pineapple upside down cake I used browned butter, brown sugar and coconut to make a sweet, chewy glaze surrounding the bananas.

 

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

It seems like we go through phases in our house when it comes to eating bananas. Some weeks we're out a couple of days after I get them, other days I can't get anyone to eat them and they sit and get brown. Then there's my favorite; when Amelia opens one, takes one bite and then leaves it lay.

I usually take all the uneaten bits and the over-ripe ones and throw them into the freezer until I have enough to make banana bread, but then I go through the same dilemma with getting a whole loaf of bread eaten.

The solution I came up with are these tasty muffins made with oatmeal that are perfect for a quick breakfast. The best part is I can throw them into the freezer and pull them out the night before or even morning of to serve to my finicky eaters!

monkey food

It's been a raining all day today which left me with a broken hearted child. Amelia stood in the kitchen chair, staring out the window at the swing Daddy just hung in the tree, begging me to go outside. I offered her a snack in hopes of focusing her attention elsewhere but she snubbed my banana and told me "monkey eats that." She then insisted her snack be the chocolate chips she found in the pantry. As a compromise we came up with "monkey food," chocolate dipped bananas and peanut butter.