Peanut Butter Cake

Landon loves his "pb cake". I can't keep enough of it in the house. I have to bake a batch every three days. The peanut butter muffins are a great alternative to sweet, sugary snacks. I always pack one in his snack cup for when we're out of the house and they freeze amazingly well. I came across the recipe in "Deceptively Delicious", one of my favorite cookbooks.

Peanut Butter and Banana Muffins:
Ingredients:

• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup carrot or cauliflower puree (I always use carrots and 1/2 cup puree equals about 1/3 pound of carrots)
• 1/2 cup banana puree (equals 1 1/2 bananas- I just use two whole bananas)
• 1 large egg white
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with baking cups. 
• In a large mixing bowl, mix 1/2 cup of the brown sugar with the peanut butter, the vegetable and banana purees, and the egg white.
• Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and mix. Add to the bowl with the peanut butter mixture and stir just to combine (the batter will be a little lumpy- do not over mix). Add the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar and stir once or twice.
• Pour the batter into the muffin tins and bake until the muffins are lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center, 15 to 20 minutes. Place the muffins onto a rack to cool.

These can be stored at room temperature for two days or wrap individually and freeze for up to one month. I also add 2 tablespoons of flax seed meal to the muffin mixture.

Peanut Butter Mayhem

Landon is able to tell when I am not feeling my best and he takes full advantage of the situation. Remember this post here? Well, today Landon took it one step farther. Seeing how he is now a toddler and no longer a wobbly one year old he can create much larger messes in record time. I was lying down on the couch with a heating pad trying to make my pain go away. Landon took all of his Pooh figures and cars over to the stairs to play. He lines his favorite little toys up on the bottom step daily so I figured he was doing the same thing again today. I wasn't checking in on him because I was in a lot of pain and needed to rest on the couch. About 10 minutes go by when I realized that I wasn't hearing him "talk" to his toys like he normally does. I went to go check on him and was in for a surprise. Landon somehow pulled a jar of peanut butter out from the pantry, opened it, and then proceeded to stick his arm into the jar to eat it. He then decided to paint the stairs and my sister's dog. I couldn't believe it. It was the first time that he has ever done anything like this. Up until today his messes have consisted of dumping q-tips all over the floor and re-arranging the DVDs. he has never pulled a stunt like this. I am now officially the mother of a toddler! The best part of this is that my discharged papers state to "rest in bed and avoid exertion". Doctors are funny people. The doctor who filled out my discharge form definitely was not a mother to a child. I am Landon's sole care giver day in and day out. There is no bed rest and avoidance of exertion. What there is, is my carrying a very happy boy covered in peanut butter up the stairs to the bathtub and then turning around and having to carry a 40 lb dog up the stairs to the tub. I couldn't even get mad at Landon. I was the one who chose to lay down and rest, allowing Landon to play by himself. In a way I was asking for some sort of trouble. When I saw him covered in peanut butter I couldn't help but to smile because Landon had the biggest grin on his face. I had to get a picture of him before I cleaned him up.