Banana Chocolate Chip Lactation Muffins

It has taken me a while, but I have finally come around to sharing recipes on this blog that I make all the time. One of those, in my breastfeeding seasons of life, is this lactation muffin.

This recipe has the big 3 galactagogues: oats, flax, & brewer’s yeast. My issue with other lactation muffin recipes out there is that they try so hard to mask the bitter brewer’s yeast flavor that they barely add any, or add loads of sugar, or sometimes both! This recipe, in my completely biased opinion, is the perfect balance between a sugary, almost-cupcake & a bitter, too-healthy muffin. It is even vegan if you use vegan chocolate! ~~I have not tried it with whole wheat flour, yet. When I do I will update!~~ Update: whole wheat, white whole wheat, or just plain old all purpose flour all work great!

These muffins are sweet but not too sweet. You can taste that there’s something different about them compared to ‘regular’ banana bread muffins – that’s the brewer’s yeast. If you *really* don’t like the taste, dial it back to 2 tbsp instead of 4 (1/4 cup = 4 tbsp). Flax & brewer’s yeast are very nutritious whether you are breastfeeding or not, so this is a great recipe to share with the whole family.

These muffins freeze very well, just individually wrap them. To thaw, unwrap & microwave for 30 seconds from frozen to enjoy warm. My personal favorite way to enjoy these muffins is with a schmear of sweetened cream cheese.

Banana Chocolate Chip Lactation Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

3 very ripe bananas
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup of flour (whole wheat or all-purpose)
1/2 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup brewer’s yeast
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips (use vegan chips for vegan option)

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare your muffin pan with either liners or baking spray.
Microwave bananas for about 30 seconds so they are ultra mushy.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, add bananas, coconut oil, & vanilla. Mix on medium low until well blended. (It’s ok to see small chunks of coconut oil that have solidified.)
Add sugar and mix on medium until combined.
In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, oats, brewer’s yeast, & flax.
Add the dry mixture to the banana mixture & mix on medium until well combined. Then add chocolate chips and mix just until the chips are evenly distributed.
Divide the batter into your prepared muffin pan. You should get 12 muffins.
Bake 25-30 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test.
To freeze: completely cool muffins. Wrap each muffin individually in plastic wrap & then place in a plastic container or plastic bag.

Nutritional info: 262 cal, 35.7 g carbs, 11.5 g fat, 4.5 g protein

Whole Wheat & Flax Cheezy Crackers

8 oz cheddar cheese
4 tbsp salted butter, softened
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax
1 tsp kosher salt
2 – 3 tbsp ice water

Shred the cheddar cheese in a food processor (leave the blade in the processor along with the shredding disk).
Add the butter & pulse together. Then add the flour & flax & pulse together until the mixture is crumbly.
Add 2 tbsp of water & pulse until dough comes together, using the additional tbsp of water if needed.
Divide dough in half & shape into disks. Wrap in plastic wrap & chill for 30-60 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Take one disk of dough out of the plastic wrap & roll between 2 sheets of parchment paper until dough is very thin (but not see-through – you’ve gone too far!) Take off the top parchment sheet & cut the dough into squares with a pizza cutter or pastry wheel. Place parchment sheet with cut dough onto a baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until browned.
While the first disk is baking, repeat step 5 with the second disk. Cool & enjoy.

Soft & Salty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 15-18 cookies

8 tbsp (1 stick) salted butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
6.75 oz of all purpose flour (1 1/2 cups spooned & leveled)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Microwave the butter for about 40 seconds, until it is mostly melted but not hot.
Beat the butter with the sugars until creamy using a stand or electric mixer.
Add the egg & beat until just incorporated. Then add vanilla.
Mix in dry ingredients on low. When fully incorporated, add chocolate chips.
Scoop 15-18 cookies onto parchment paper or silicone mat lined cookie sheets. Bake for 10-11 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets.

I’m trying to remember the words Jesus said & not worry about tomorrow. We will all get through this, Lord willing.

Cream Cheese Buttercream

Recipe will frost about 18 cupcakes, or 1 small cake

8 oz. (one pack) cream cheese, softened
7 tbsp salted butter, softened
4 cups (480 grams) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk or cream

Beat butter & cream cheese using a stand or electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add vanilla extract & mix on low until just combined. Do not over mix the cream cheese.
Slowly add powdered sugar, about 1 cup at a time, beating on low speed for a few seconds between each addition.
Add 1-2 tbsp of milk or cream until desired consistency is reached. Increase mixer speed to medium/high & mix just until smooth.

Adapted from The Kitchen is My Playground

Baby Boy Blueberry is here!

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Baby Boy Blueberry was born one day before his due date a few weeks ago!

I won’t go in to his full birth story, but I will share with you that I had a successful VBAC! Labor was really really long, which makes sense when you think that even though he’s my second baby my body had never done all the things it had to do before. Cupcake was delivered via c-section before I ever dilated or had too many real contraction.

All of the hard work was totally worth it.

My husband was amazing the entire time. He always is, but I got to see a whole new super hero side of him. He was the first to hold our son – he caught the baby! It was an amazing delivery in the end.

I cannot express in words how invaluable my doula was. Even if you have given birth before, I still definitely recommend a doula. It is so wonderful to have a knowledgeable third party looking out for you in the hospital. My husband was able to focus on comforting me while my doula gave him tips, listened out for what the nurses and doctors were telling me, helped me understand what was going on with my body, and ultimately cheered me on and helped me emotionally.

Cupcake is so smitten with her little brother. Of course, she’s being a total toddler with Mami and Daddy, but when it comes to her baby she’s being a total angel.

We are so grateful to God for these blessings ❤

Due Date Cookies

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I am doing everything in my power to get baby boy Blueberry out in a natural way. One of the things I’m doing is eating 6 dates a day. According to studies, women who eat 75 grams of dates (approximately 6 deglet noor dates, or 3-4 medjool dates) a day for the last month of pregnancy have shorter & easier labors. Dates are also packed with nutrients like potassium and magnesium which help with with swelling and blood pressure. You can read all that Mama Natural has to say about them here.

The only problem is that I am not a fan of the taste of a plain date. Therefore I have been finding creative ways to get them in without just forcing myself to eat them. I’ve been putting them in smoothies, eating Larabars, making them into peanut butter balls, and baking these cookies. I found this recipe and tweaked it to make it more date-y and also a little more simple for the 9 months pregnant mama. There’s no waiting or chilling in my recipe – just whip up & bake!

Cupcake loves making these cookies with me, or as she says it “mixa con Mami”. I love toddler speak! She really enjoys eating these cookies, too. My husband said they were ‘good, not great’. He’s more of a chocolate chip guy. I told them they weren’t for him – they were for me and the baby!

Dates and walnuts go really well together, but I have also made these with a mix of walnuts, almonds, and pecans. You can’t go wrong with any or all of those nuts.

This recipe contains 24 dates and makes 24 cookies. Therefore with this recipe you can be saying 6 cookies a day instead of dates!

Please say a prayer for me as I approach delivery day!

Due Date Cookies

24 pitted deglet noor dates (or 12-15 medjool)
1 cup walnuts (or your favorite nut)
1/2 cup room temperature butter (1 stick)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Using a food processor, chop the dates and walnuts together until they are broken up into very small pieces – a little bigger than a coarse meal. Alternatively, chop by hand to desired size. Set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar using stand or electric mixer.
Add the egg & beat until incorporated. Then add vanilla.
Mix in dry ingredients on low. When fully incorporated, add date/walnut mixture.
Scoop 24 cookies onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Bake for 11-12 minutes, until bottoms just start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to cool completely. Enjoy!

Pregnant Chocolate Mousse

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Chocolate mousse is our tradition around here for New Year’s. The only issue for New Year’s 2019 was that I had just found out about baby #2’s existence & my mousse recipe has raw eggs. This does not bother me one bit on a ‘normal’ day, but I do eat more carefully for my little ones. Inspired by my last pregnancy when I made pregnant tiramisu, I knew I could find a way to make this dessert pregnant-friendly, too. Turns out it was pretty easy!

The basic ingredients for my mousse are chocolate, butter, and a basic (French) meringue – just egg whites & sugar whipped together. Thanks to the Great British Bake Off, I have learned there are actually 3 types of meringues: French, Swiss, and Italian. French meringue is the only one where if you don’t bake it the eggs stay raw. Therefore I figured if I used one of the other types of meringue to make my mousse, the results should be similar to the original recipe while being pregnancy safe. I was right!

I chose to use an Italian meringue to make my New Year’s treat. The results were pretty close to my original! The consistency and flavor are about the same – maybe a touch sweeter. I enjoyed it so much that I made it again when my cousin & her family came to visit us for a few days in the spring. It’s one of her favorite desserts.

This was my first experience with Italian meringue. I was initially concerned that I didn’t do it properly because there was a good bit of sugar crusted in the sauce pan, but the meringue did fluff up nicely and was plenty sweet enough. I should probably invest in a candy thermometer instead of using my all purpose food thermometer. I should also mention that’s the only thing about Italian meringue – you really do need a thermometer to tell you when the sugar mixture is at the correct temperature. I haven’t played with it enough to know of any ‘hacks’ that will let you know when it’s ready without one. To be honest, getting burned is one of my biggest fears so I don’t think I’ll be playing around too much with molten sugar!

I am really happy with how this recipe turned out, and will consider making this one when I make mousse to share from now on!

Baby #2 is just a few weeks away from coming out! Cupcake is so looking forward to finally holding her baby brother.

Pregnant Chocolate Mousse

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
4 egg whites
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
12 oz semi sweet chocolate chips (one bag)
1/2 lb butter (one stick)

Combine sugar and water in a sauce pan. Heat over high heat until sugar syrup reaches 240°F on an instant read or candy thermometer. Brush down sides of sauce pan as necessary with a pastry brush dipped in water to minimize crusting.
Combine egg whites and lemon juice in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Set mixer to medium speed and mix until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.
Slowly drizzle hot sugar syrup into mixer bowl while it’s running. Increase speed to high and whip until meringue forms stiff peaks. Add vanilla while mixer is whipping.
Melt chocolate chips & butter in a hot water bath.
Gently fold melted chocolate mixture into meringue until smooth & uniform in color. Let it set in the fridge overnight either in individual servings or one large container. Serve on its own, or with fresh fruit.

Homemade Big Mac Copycat Sauce

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The other day, I was going to make my hubby’s famous salad for dinner when I realized that I did not have any 1,000 island dressing. It had been quite a while since we had fresh salad in this house, to be honest. Baby boy really hasn’t wanted many fresh veggies.

Baby boy Blueberry due in September!

I knew that 1,000 island dressing is basically what we Hispanics call ‘mayokechu’ (mayonnaise + ketchup) plus some other seasonings, so I looked up a homemade recipe. The only thing is that I didn’t exactly have all the ingredients on hand for this recipe, either. So I improvised. I made a dressing & it came out delicious and tasting familiar – and not just because I was going for 1,000 island. When my husband tried it, he pinpointed why.

He said, “this tastes just like Big Mac sauce.”

Aha, yes! Big Macs are something Blueberry definitely does enjoy, so I’ve had more than a couple this pregnancy. The dressing tasted great in the salad, but once we made that Big Mac connection, I knew burgers for dinner were definitely in our near future.

Sure enough, a few days later we put the leftover dressing/sauce on some homemade Big Macs.

I didn’t seek out trying to make a Big Mac copycat sauce, so I don’t know if my recipe is similar to any others out there. I do know that whenever I’ve feeling like adding something more ‘special’ to burgers at home, I will be making this now! And I know it would taste great on cheeseburger lasagna rolls, too!

Homemade Big Mac Copycat Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp ketchup
1 sandwich slice of pickle, or 1 pickle spear, or about 5-6 pickle chips finely diced
1 tablespoon finely diced onion (I use red onion just like the original recipe, but use whatever you have!)
1 small garlic clove minced or pressed.
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tsp brown sugar
salt to taste (a pinch or more)

Dice/mince ingredients if necessary.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Stir & taste for salt.
Use it as a burger sauce, salad dressing, or more!

4 Years Blogging – Where Do We Go From Here?

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Can I be super lame & say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’? Because it sure does. I can clearly remember when I first started this blog as a newlywed on 01/01/2015. 4 years, 4 homes, 2 states, & 2 kids later – here we are.

Did I say 2 kids?

Yes! Baby #2 is cooking as we speak.

When I first started this blog I thought I was going to be a virtual open book. But when it actually comes to sharing details about my family life – I’m not that comfortable with it.

I never shared most of our home improvement projects in our South Florida house – just one or two of the major ones. I purposely didn’t share my daughter’s straight out of Pinterest 1st birthday party. I liked the idea of sharing my art, but then have actually turned out to be pretty private about it here.

If I had to chose a word for 2019 (even though it’s March), it would be private. It’s funny because my word for 2018 was openness, though I don’t think I did a great job at that last year. I have come to realize that when it comes to my virtual footprint, I want to be a little more private.

What does this mean for Mrs. Dessert Monster? In reality, I don’t think anyone is going to feel a difference reading this blog. If I had gone forward without writing this post, I doubt anyone would have noticed much. But I want to use this opportunity as a type of ‘clean slate’.

Going forward, I will still be sharing recipes, crafts, and some religious or pro-life posts. What I won’t be posting: pregnancy updates, details about Cupcake or the new baby’s lives, or posts written for the sake of posting. I’ve never been super regular at writing, and it’s probably going to be even more sporadic going forward.

That being said, I am still an avid blog reader & thoroughly enjoy reading what you guys share!

I guess all this to say: I’m still here, just a little quieter.

Christmas Toddler Craft

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How is it 2 weeks until Christmas already?

How has it been 2 months since I last posted something? More on that another day…

If you’ve seen some of my other toddler crafts, you know that I am a huge fan of minimal parental involvement in said projects. This craft is no different. It’s a very simple painted wooden ornament. It almost sounds too simple to write about, but I haven’t seen this activity posted on any of the homemade gift or toddler Christmas craft posts I’ve come across on Pinterest.

Who wouldn’t want to receive a hand painted ornament, especially when the artist is this cute?

This one is all for Mami!

This craft is very low prep & has minimal supplies. I purchased a blank wooden ornament from Target for $1. There are LOTS of stores that would have something like this currently – all the craft stores, Wal Mart, etc. I chose 3 “wintery” acrylic paint colors for Cupcake to use. Choose your favorite color scheme! Just keep in mind that toddlers like to go over the same spot again & again, so the colors can get muddled. Our icy blue, silver, & gold help up decently to this – though the blue is a little lost!

You could use another medium for this craft – markers or glitter glue sound like fun, too!

Christmas Toddler Craft

blank wooden ornament
paint in 2-3 colors, or another medium such as markers or glitter glue!
adorable toddler

Supervise your toddler while they paint all over the ornament.
When they’re done, allow the ornament to dry. You can add their name, your family name, or a fun Christmas saying to the ornament. I’m turning this into our family ornament for 2018 by using my Cricut & some vinyl – you could do something similar with a marker or a stencil & paint!