Blueberry, Banana, Nut Muffins

Tuesdays are not always a day for new dinners, today was a day for new breakfast.

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/8 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 tsp nonfat half and half
2Tbs plain togurt
1 ripe banana mashed
1/2 + 1/3 cup walnuts chopped

1. preheat oven to 350 and greese muffin tin or use disposable liners
2. mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl
3. mix sugar-banana in a smaller mixing bowl, add to flour mix
4. add 1/2 cup of walnuts, transfer mix to muffin tin doing 3/4 cup full for each muffin.
5. sprinkle the tops with extra nuts, bake for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe was super easy and there are lots of room for mistakes on this one, so experiement a little with it or just enjoy it the way it is.

I picked the blueberries this summer and froze them, so the cost of the blueberries has been left out, other wise the total cost would be $8 for the dozen

Manly Man Man N' Cheese

This recipe was a blast to make. I made it for the fire station guys and it was literally gone in just a few short minutes.

1 lb. box of elbow or shells pasta
2 cups half and half
1 cup whole milk
3 cups of cheddar cheese (shredded) plus one cup
3 Tbs flour
3 Tbs butter
2 1” thick slices of ham diced
1 ½ cups Panko breading
3 Tbs butter

1. preheat oven to 350
2.Bring water to a boil and add pasta (add a little oil to keep pasta from sticking together)
3.In a sauce pan add 3 Tbs butter and melt, add flour and brown. Slowly add half and half and milk to the rue (butter and flour). Wisk until not clumpy. Add cheddar cheese to the mix. Heat up until all the cheese is melted. Stirring constantly. Add diced ham
4.Drain pasta. Mix the cheese/ham sauce with the pasta in the pasta pot
5.Put pasta in a large pyrex or other baking dish
6.In a small frying pan melt remaining 3 Tbs of butter. Add panko breading and brown slightly
7.Add remaining cheese to the top of the man n’ cheese then add the breading to the top of that
8.Bake 10 min.

This is a nice little twist on an old fashion recipe. This recipe only took about half an hour to make total time and is an easy dish to prepare for guests or just whenever you feel the need for some good comfort food.

Total price for ingredients was $15

Sweet N' Smokey Ravioli

This recipe has literally become the bane of my existence! It was tasty but SO time consuming. I strongly recommend using all purpose four and NOT whole wheat flour (like I tend to use too much) AND also using a ravioli dough maker.

3 cups flour
6eggs
pinch of salt
2 Tbs. olive oil
Smoked Ghuda (shredded)
Ricotta cheese
Smoked bacon (cooked and crumbled)
Pear (cut into small cubes)

1. Combine flour, 4 eggs, salt and,olive oil in a mixer (if there is not a mixer feel free to use your hands to mix the dough). If needed at 1 Tbs. of water at a time until the dough is elastic, but not sticky. Either use a recipe attachment on a kitchen aid mixer OR generously flour a surface and roll out to be paper thin (approx 1/16”). Either cut squares (if using the kitchen aid mixer) or use a cup to cut out shapes. Set aside

2.Combine 1 egg, cheeses, bacon, and pear

3.Egg wash all the pre cut out shapes. Add filling and either add a second shape or fold circle in half.

4.You can either store the ravioli’s in an air tight container in the freezer or when you’re ready to boil them until they float to the top.


Add any kind of sauce, a white wine butter sauce with hazelnuts is what I tried and it was pretty good. (1 stick of butter, 1 cup of toasted hazelnuts, and ½ cup of white wine, mixed together, salt and pepper as necessary)


This recipe was INCREDIBLY time consuming. Set aside a few hours to do this one and expect LOTS of ravioli’s to freeze. I easily got a good 100 or so ravioli’s out of this. Try experimenting with the filling a little bit. I added fontina cheese to some of them to make it a little more stringy.
Total Price for ingredients $35