No Crumb Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

My kids love muffins, particularly my toddler. If it's in muffin form she'll eat it. I love my kids but I don't love the disastrous crumb graveyards they leave everywhere after eating muffins. Enter my no crumb muffin. Yes, it's a bold statement to make but these muffins bind together so well I've even been known to hand my son one to eat in the car. These muffins are heavier than a normal muffin and have none of the "fluff" of a traditional muffin. That heaviness fills little bellies up and keeps them satisfied for hours.

See, no crumbs- even after gnawing thru one side. Chocolate face on the other hand is another matter.

No Crumb Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

makes 12 large muffins or 18 medium ones

4 ripe bananas

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup Stonyfield Farm Lowfat Banilla Yogurt (you can substitute your favorite flavor)

2 3/4 cup flour

6 oz chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.

Mash bananas (I was lazy and just whisked them in the mixer. Add in all other ingredients except chocolate chips. Mix until all ingredients are blended. Add chocolate chips and blend until incorporated. Scoop into muffin tins. Fill all the way for 12 muffins. If you fill 2/3 full it will make 18 muffins. They puff up quite a bit.

Bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy the easiest banana muffins ever, you can thank me for the lack of crumbs later :) 

Variation: Just made these with blueberry yogurt, cinnamon, and blueberries instead of chocolate chips- still used the banana. They are awesome but turned out a creepy gray color. May use this for Halloween!

Homemade Seeded Energy Bread

We make bread 3 times a week. My son, who is here for the summer, started talking about a 21 grain bread by Killer Dave's that he has at his other house. We looked online and I determined that it was a mix of seeds and flours. I don't sweeten my bread so I was unsure of how popular the end result would be with an 8 year old if I omitted the cane syrup and molasses but I decided to give it a go. I raided our cupboards for seeds and grains and the end result was amazing if I do say so myself. It even uses chia seeds which are a great source of energy and very filling. This bread is the perfect start to my day spread with Pineapple Basil Preserves (recipe coming soon).

I asked my son what he would do if he liked this bread better than Killer Dave's. His response? "I'll ask for more." (And he did- it apparently is "Way better" and "Awesome").

We took a family poll and have deemed this bread Robust Rabbit Loaf. We have a robust (rotund) rabbit so we thought we would honor him with his own loaf.

A favorite nap spot- the bottom shelf of my desk. 

Robust Rabbit Loaf
Makes 2 loaves
3 cups hot water
1 1/2 TBS salt
1 1/2 TBS yeast
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup soy flour
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/8 cup flax seeds
1/8 cup poppy seeds
3 TBS fennel seeds

1. In the bowl of a mixer with a dough hook attachment mix the water, salt, and yeast. Add the flours 2 cups at a time. This recipe makes a fairly heavy loaf- to lighten it a little reduce the amount of flour and up the soy flour. The soy flour yields a little extra lightness.

2. Once all flours have been added and the dough is mixed up add all the seeds in and mix until they are incorporated. Let the dough rise for 1-2 hours. (The warmer your kitchen is the faster it will rise.)

3. Preheat your oven to 450. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Spray the inside of two loaf pans with cooking spray. Split the batter between the two pans by pouring it in. Use a spatula to scrape any excess off the bowl. No punching or forming necessary.Set the loaf pans near the stove. The heat as it preheats will help the dough rise a little more. Bake for 25 minutes. Enjoy warm slathered with butter or jam!

How to Make Absorbent Breast Pads

As a soon-to-be third time mother I'm in the depths of baby prep. With a 20 month old running around we have many of the items on hand that I need but I've been making a little list of "things to do" and make before baby comes. Breast pads were one of them. They also make great homemade baby shower gifts for expectant mothers. I made some for a friend as well and I thought they looked quite cute all packaged up in a little drawstring bag.

If you read my blog regularly you may have figured out by now that I like finding multiple ways to use things and ways to do things the cheapest. I made a baby quilt for a friend's baby shower (tutorial coming soon!) and lucked out on some queen size cotton batting sheets for 19.99 at Joann Fabrics (regularly 39.99). Plus I had a 20% off coupon. They contained roughly 6 yards of batting which broke down the cost to 3.33 a yard (2.67/yd including the 20% off) versus the normal by the yard cost of 10.99. They were also all-natural which was great. I grabbed two figuring they'd be great to have on hand and they also fit another project I was working on - doublers for cloth diapers. After finishing the baby quilt I had stacks of 4" squares left that I had cut (mental note- you only need half as many quilt squares as patterned squares :) ). They were the perfect size to make reusable breast pads that would fit into a bra for nursing mothers. Cotton tends to be the choice for reusable pads that you can buy in the store as well. I prefer the reusable pads over the disposable one because the plastic lining in the disposable pads is sometimes thought to contribute to excess moisture leading to chapping and thrush. 

Each set of pads probably took me less than ten minutes. Here's how I did it:

1. Cut 2-3 squares of quilting batting (100% cotton) or use leftover squares. You'll be stacking the batting squares to form the soaking pad so it is a matter of personal preference on how many to use. I used two layers since the batting was nice and thick. 

Square of batting

Find something circular to trace for the pad (or steal your kids compass). I used a Chinet plastic cup. The top had a diameter that took up almost the whole 4" square. Keep in mind that these will shrink a little bit when you wash them the first time so make them a bit bigger than you think you'll need.

Trace around the circular object. I've got two squares under this cup.

I traced with a sharpie. It washed off the first time I washed it since most of the color stays on the fuzzy surface of the batting.

2. On your sewing machine sew with a thin stitching around the circle. You want a total of two "laps" so I just go around the circle twice without stopping. Be sure to do a reverse stitch at the beginning and end which will help strengthen your seams. Sewing in a circle shape can be a bit tricky for beginners so go slowly. The nice added benefit of sewing a circle is that it helps the fabric form a little cup which makes them sit in your bra really smoothly.

Make sure that you have however many squares you'll be using stacked together when you sew. If you seam them individually you'll have to sew them all together later which is a pain. 

Use scissors to cut around the seaming and remove all the excess square fabric.

You'll be left with a nice circular pad.

3. To prevent bunching when you machine wash them you'll want to sew a big "X" on the pad to hold the layers of batting together. I just ran a quick seam horizontally and one vertically. Tie of the threads at the end and snip excess.

Voila! A stash of soaker pads. Each set of two took less than 10 minutes to make so you could churn out a bunch fairly quickly. I washed these with my daughter's clothes and they "compacted" a tiny bit but didn't shrink significantly. 

Two sets of breast pads. Package them in a cute drawstring bag for a great baby shower gift. 

I estimate the cost of two sets to be under a dollar to make, as it used far less than a yard of batting ($3.33/yd). The final cost will vary based on the batting that you purchase. I strongly suggest checking out full quilt batting at this time of year as they usually go on sale at the start of warmer seasons. You can also pretty these up a bit if you want by including a layer of printed or colored flannel on the outside. It will wick moisture away and provide a little "personality".

Happy Sewing! 

(Please link back to my blog to share the tutorial- or contact me at ramblingstump (at) gmail.com for permission to post the full tutorial on your blog with a link back.)

Make Your Own Crackers

If you have never made your own crackers you have no idea what you're missing! The recipe is easy, the procedures are straightforward, you just need the time to roll out the dough and bake the batches. The end result is delicious. I first made crackers for my husband to bring to an office Christmas party and now they're a favorite snack in our house and tend to disappear quickly.

Homemade Crackers
(Makes 20 dozen-ish, it's hard to get an accurate count as my husband was eating them off the cooling rack. Yield will also depend on size of cracker you make.)

6 cups flour
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Any additional add on ingredients you'd like (I split my dough into three batches- the 1st batch were plain or had mixed seeds-fennel, poppy, and sesame- on top, the second batch had 1 tsp thyme & 1/2 tsp ground rosemary, and the third batch were spicy with 2 tsp of hot pepper flakes.)

1. In a mixer with the dough hook attachment measure out olive oil and add salt. Add warm water and add flour a few cups at a time mixing in between.

It will yield a large ball of slightly sticky dough. It won't look like a lot but it rolls out nicely.

2. Turn out a manageable ball onto a flour covered surface. The great thing about working with olive oil dough is that as it absorbs the extra flour from the counter it becomes very easy to work with. Flip it a few times to get flour on all sides. You want to roll it out thinly with a rolling pin. It will feel elastic-y almost like a pizza dough so you'll have to push hard. I'm short so I stand on a step stool to get a little leverage to push down. To prevent your crackers from sticking flip the dough one last time before you cut out the shapes. I use a biscuit cutter that is a 1" square to make roughly Triscuit sized crackers, I also have a slightly smaller square that I use sometimes to make Wheat Thin sized crackers. 

Make sure to have plenty of flour on your counter!

Push down really hard when you roll out the dough. The crackers puff a bit in the oven so you wan them thin. 

Cut squares. (or the shape of your desire)

Once your squares are cut out, transfer them to a foil lined cookie sheet sprayed with a tiny bit of cooking oil. You want to use a fork to poke at least a few holes in each cracker, otherwise they puff up in the oven while cooking. They still taste delicious when they puff it's just easier to put cheese on them if they're flat :) Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes per batch. I can usually fit 30 on each tray. When they come out you can either cool them on a cookie rack or just dump them into a large mixing bowl to cool and to store. Repeat multiple times until all crackers are baked. 

See the tiny little poked holes? Very important detail!

My 8  month pregnant belly became a flour covered disaster during this cooking project!

Cooling plain crackers.

Varieties: Your flavor options are only limited by your imagination. One of the reasons that I do different flavors is that the dough is easier to work with when it is freshly mixed so as I add spices and remix the dough it becomes easier to work with. If you're going to make all plain ones I recommend keeping the extra dough in the bowl and mixing it occasionally to maintain it's workability. 

A mix of fennel, poppy, and sesame seeds.

Sprinkle a bit on each cracker and give each surface a light press with your fingers to make sure the seeds stay on the cracker. 

Another option is to mix add ins directly into the dough. This is how I make my rosemary-thyme crackers and my hot pepper crackers. 

Enjoy! This recipe offers a great opportunity for kids to help out and you can certainly make all kinds of fun shapes for them.

Homemade Dishwasher Powder & Homemade Laundry Detergent

If you read my blog regularly you've probably figured out that I'm cheap and that I don't think cheap is a dirty word. I'm proud to be cheap. I cut corners where I can so that we can put money in our savings account and take vacations. Also, having a bicoastal shared custody 8 year old becomes expensive. Plane tickets go up every day and the reality is that every flight is $200 more roundtrip if you have to pay an unaccompanied minor fee. Also, in general I like knowing what goes into all of my cleaning products. No mystery gels with "super power blaster beads" for me.
Awhile ago I started making my own laundry detergent. I realized soon after that most of the ingredients could also be used to make dishwasher powder and since I already planned on buying some citric acid for bath fizzies it was a double win. I'm putting these in the same post because I tend to try to make both at the same time so that I can determine whether ingredients need to be restocked.

Homemade Laundry Detergent  (batch costs 1.38= .05/load)
(makes roughly 30 oz)

You will need:
A container for the finished detergent
A box grater

1 cup borax 76 oz box is $4 at my grocery store, .05/oz, 8 oz used= .40
1 cup washing soda 55 oz box is $3.50 at my grocery store, .06/oz, 8 oz used= .48
1 bar Ivory soap (I buy 10/pks when they're on sale for $5 or less- .50/bar) .50

1. Gather ingredients.

2. Find a bored 8 year old to grate your soap. 

Fluffy grated soap. It comes out to about a cup and a half.

3. Add your other ingredients.

1 cup borax & 1 cup washing soda

Use a spoon to squash all the clumps out.

Transfer to your container. Mine is an old Charlies Soap Powder Container.

Shake it up to mix, or find a willing kid. 

Label & store. 

I have a scoop in mine that is a .5oz scoop- so one scoop per load. 

Homemade Dishwasher Powder (cost per batch $3.14- 4.50 depending on water hardness)
(makes roughly 28 oz)

You will need:
A quart size glass jar with a rubber seal - washed out and completely 100% dry
1 cup borax 76 oz box is $4 at my grocery store, .05/oz, 8 oz used= .40
1 cup washing soda 55 oz box is $3.50 at my grocery store, .06/oz, 8 oz used= .48
1/2- 1 c citric acid (use 1 c for hard water) 5 lb tub is $27.14/80oz=  recipe uses 4-8oz-  $1.36-$2.72
1/2 cup kosher salt $3.50 for a 16 oz box- 4 oz used= .90
A container to measure into
A measuring cup
A plastic spoon

1. Gather your ingredients.

2. In your tupperware container mix all of the ingredients- 1/2 cup- 1 cup citric acid (depending on water hardness), 1 cup borax, 1 cup washing soda, and 1/2 cup kosher salt.  It's fairly easy to find borax, washing soda and salt at the grocery store. I purchased my citric acid online. You can find it in stores in small quantities but it's far more cost effective to purchase it in larger quantities through Amazon. 

I use a plastic cup to measure everything. It's a 9oz glass so I fill it close to the top. 

Adding the kosher salt.

After I add all the ingredients into the tupperware I use a plastic spoon to squash any lumps in the powder. Sometimes the borax clumps in the box a bit and I want to make sure that everything mixes evenly. 

3. Transfer the powder to an airtight jar. It is super important that the jar is completely dry. Citric acid clumps if the least little bit of moisture is introduced- your powder will then harden and you will be using a butter knife to chip it out bit by bit (and then if you're me your husband will question whether it is really worth it to make your own dish powder). One trick I have found that works is to put a packet of silica gel (it comes in new shoes) into the container. If you use a needle and thread you can thread through the packet and twist the thread around the hinge on the jar so that the silica hangs above the powder and there's no chance you accidentally dose it into your dishwasher!

The scoop I use is a .5 oz scoop (tablespoon). This means that each load I run costs me .16 (it will be less if you don't have hard water). I also put a bit of vinegar into the rinse aid section of the dishwasher. A tablespoon or so per batch helps make sure the dishes don't cloud. Happy washing!

Make a Giant Fabric Softener Sheet

The pretty lavender towel is really a giant fabric softener sheet I made , and it makes the diapers smell nice :)

I make most of my own cleaners. I make a new batch of laundry detergent every couple of months, dishwasher detergent every month or so and some oven cleaner on occasion. I plan to felt some wool balls for my dryer but I haven't gotten around to it yet. In the meantime, I'm left with an assortment of laundry "accessory products" such as fabric softener and scented tablets that I don't use. Our laundry shares the front hall closet with our coats so minimizing items that need to be stored is at the top of my list as I reorganize that space.


I had seen posts flying around in cyberspace saying that you could create your own fabric softener sheets so I decided to give it a whirl. I was skeptical, I mean how long could it possibly last? Since I had extra fabric softener and was almost out of dryer sheets I decided I had nothing to lose.

You will need:
One spare hand towel or several washcloths (I chose to do a large hand towel as we have a dog and frequently wash large items like comforters and blankets)
Fabric Softener of your choice
A tupperware container that is missing it's lid (It's a good way to use up those lonely containers- I used my laundry detergent mixing container.)
A chopstick, or a poking tool of some kind
Plastic Gloves
Something large, plastic and flat to lay the towel on to dry (I used the lid to a rubbermaid storage tote)

1. Pour about 2-3 inches of fabric softener into your plastic container. I used a Target brand lavender scented one. I love lavender. Fold up your towel and shove it in on top of the softener.

Pour another inch or so on top.

Using a chopstick (we always seem to have some laying around) or another poking object push the towel down into the softener until the entire thing is saturated. Let it sit for about an hour occasionally poking it down into the softer to cover it.

Ok, at this point I stopped taking pictures. I was home by myself with the toddler and hadn't really thought through the fact that I would need two hands and not want to get my phone covered in lavender goo.

Put on gloves if you want, fabric softener can be really hard to fully rinse off your hands. Bring the tupperware container over to wherever your flat plastic drying surface is. Make sure that surface is out of the reach of little hands. Now you want to squeeze out the excess liquid without wringing it out. The idea is to leave some liquid to dry into the towel but not have it sitting in a puddle. The towel will take 1-2 days to fully dry depending on what kind of climate you live in. Mine ended up a pale shade of purple which is great. My husband knows we don't own any purple towels so he always puts it back in the dryer if he's the one to take the laundry out. One month later it is super soft and still smells fabulous, so the verdict is that it was worth it! Not only did I eliminate a bottle that I had been storing but my laundry smells awesome. 

Lime Coconut Sugar Cookies

I love treats. I do not claim this to be a healthful post, the cookies are sinfully delicious emphasis on the sin. Butter, sugar, coconut- they marry into a melt in your mouth cookie and the addition of lime zest and lime juice drive them over the top into magical territory. For years when I lived down in Boston one of my favorite treats was Dancing Deer Lime cookies. I had no self control. They came in 6 packs and they'd be gone in two days. These cookies remind me of them a little.

Lime Coconut Sugar Cookies (2.09/batch)
(makes 3 dozen)

1 stick of butter, softened a bit (1/2 cup) (2.99 for 4 sticks) .75
1 cup of sugar (3.99 for a 5 lb bag- 11 1/4 cups/bag) .35
1 egg (2.95/18 pack= .16/egg) .16
1 lime- you will use all the zest and all the juice .33
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt (reduce to 1/4 tsp if using table salt)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour (I buy 25lbs at a time for 11.99- it breaks down to 13 cents/cup) .20
1/2 cup coconut (14 oz bag is 2.69= .19/oz) .30

1. Preheat oven to 350. Put the butter in the mixer (if you're using one). If the butter isn't softened make sure you lock the top of the mixer otherwise it will "bounce" around as it mixes the cold butter. While the butter is creaming zest the lime and juice it.

I put the zest & juice in the same bowl since they're going to the same place.

2. Add 1 cup of sugar and beat until fluffy. 

Fluffy creamed butter and sugar.

Add the egg, lime juice & zest. Whip it until well mixed, then scrape the sides of the bowl to grab any missed bits and push them into the batter.

My father-in-law got me this cool finger scraper spatula thingie.

Start whipping the batter again and it will get to look like this:

3. Now it's time to add the dry ingredients. I add the baking powder, baking soda & salt first and mix it a bit to make sure they blend in properly with no clumps. Then the flour, and the coconut is added last. 

4. In a little bowl put a few tablespoons of sugar- in my experience it takes about a TBS per dozen. You want to use a spoon to scoop little pats of dough. Then gently roll them into a ball shape- it doesn't have to be perfect and spin them around in the bowl of sugar to coat. They will cook 1 dozen at a time on a sprayed cookie sheet. 

Make sure to keep the scoops small. They expand a bit when cooked.

Roll in sugar.

Space out on cookie sheet- I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't have parchment paper to cover my loved cookie sheet. 

The cookies will cook at 350 for 9 minutes. You can put the dough in the fridge between batches so that it doesn't get too soft but I do not recommend refrigerating the dough for any longer than 10 minutes. Because the dough is butter-heavy refrigerating for too long makes the cookies "melt" when they're cooking in the oven. When the cookies come out let them sit on the pan for a minute. Make sure when removing them from the sheet that you slide the spatula all the way underneath. If you press too high up on the side they can crumble. After removing them from the pan let them cool on a cookie rack. 

Enjoy! One of the things I love about these cookies is even though they aren't "healthy" they're perfect because I only want one or two with a cup of tea, whereas some other cookies I want to eat a dozen in a sitting.