Our best new recipe so far...

The girls and I are throwing ourselves wholeheartedly into this "trying new recipes" thing for 2013. So the answer is yes, at the January 15th mark, I'm still sticking to my goals!

To date we've tried five new recipes - more than one per week. And the results have been mixed. Two of them had below-average reviews, and we won't be making those again. But three of them were pretty good and will remain in the rotation.

But the best one so far was a real winner, and I'll probably have to make it again next week! I posted a pic on FB, and by popular demand, am providing the recipe below. These are truly delicious. They're not too sweet and are pretty dense, which makes them great for Brinner (one of our favorite dinners around here.) And the recipe makes lots, so there are some left over for the next morning.

I'm really looking forward to eating more of these. I hope you enjoy them too!

Monkey Muffins
(From the January 2011 edition of Taste of Home)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
2/3 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, peanut butter, milk and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture until moistened. Fold in chips.

Fill greased or paper-lined miniature muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes.
Yield: 6 dozen.

Emily’s Goals for 2013

Yep. Jumping on the bandwagon here and setting some goals. Hopefully I’ll be able to accomplish a lot towards these, if not totally crush them.

Teach my dogs how to walk on a leash. Seriously, this is a must. Jack will be a challenge, because he’s so chase-oriented. See a rabbit? He’s likely to pull my arm off. But maybe if we start slow and with short distances, it will work. I’d love for him to be able to run with me one day. I think Daisy will be a challenge, too, but only because she’s so hyper.

Try one new recipe every week. This should be simple, since I get about 10 cooking magazines each month.

Make one new delicious dessert every month. Why not reward myself with something yummy? And with that new Kitchen Aid mixer, it should be a piece of cake!

Run two half-marathons this year. I’ve already chosen my first one – the New River Half Marathon on May 5^th. It’ll be on the river roads up in Todd, NC, very near where I did some training last year at Cami’s river house. Can’t wait!

Run 750 miles in 2013. Combining this with my previous goal should make it happen, as long as I can stay healthy and keep my klutz factor low.

Teach Alex & Maryssa to cook, with a goal of having them cook dinner once a week or so by the time they’re in 8^th grade. What? Did I just make a goal for someone else? Well, sometimes the other people in our lives need a little push, or they won’t accomplish anything. So there.

Keep blogging. I mean, we’ll have TEENAGERS this year, so it should be quite interesting. Stay tuned!

Tell me what you’re doing this year – maybe I left something out that needs to be added!