My little muffin.

The overripe bananas on the kitchen counter and a-bit-too-tart-to-eat-straight-up blueberries in the fridge were calling my name today, so I found a recipe online for blueberry banana muffins to give them some justice. (Thanks for the inspiration, Jess!)

Gabrielle was playing quietly and reading books just off our kitchen area, so I began to retrieve the necessary ingredients to get started. Out of the corner of my eye, I looked over and saw this sweet little "hello my mama" face. She's a pretty irresisitable (and persistent) "play with me, mama" kind of kid, so her moments of peaceful, solo play always make me proud. "Who wants to make muffins with mama?" I excitedly asked. "I do!" she said in her exclamatory tone.

So I put her right to work preparing the bananas for mashing. I loved all the little lessons I got to teach her in the experience of cooking together.

She overcame her fear of the mixer.

We worked on measuring and counting and pouring…

and stirring…

and folding.

I taught her how to sample the recipe as we went along. She was pretty happy about that step in the process!

She filled the muffin pan with paper liners.

And was overjoyed at the sound of the minute timer when she could see what the final product looked like.

Here's the simple recipe we used:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cup (3 large) mashed very ripe bananas

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups all purpose or uncleached flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bottoms of 18 muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. (These are my favorite baking cups.) In large bowl beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add bananas, milk, vanilla and eggs; blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuiring cup; level off. Add floor, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently stir in the berries. Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 18-23 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

But the best moment of all was when she got to hold a warm muffin in her hands and take a bite into its goodness! She was pretty proud of the outcome and couldn't wait to give one to papa! I loved having her as my little muffin helper.