Creamy Grape Salad w/Marshmallows

Five MILLION, sixty THOUSAND websites showed up when I did a Google search for "Grape Salad"-- some are variations of various grape salad recipes, but a lot of them are quite like this one.  Certainly, there is no serious need for me to add yet "another one just like the other one(s)"...

EXCEPT for the fact that... 

I like to make this 

every now and then.  

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 pounds sweet red seedless grapes.
• 2 pounds sweet green seedless grapes.
• 1 of 8 oz. package of cream cheese, softened.
• 1 cup sour cream.
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar.
• 1 teaspoon vanilla.
• 1/2 of 10 oz. package of miniature marshmallows, optional.

----

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans (can be roasted/toasted, if you prefer), optional.
• Sprinkling of brown sugar, optional.

DIRECTIONS:

• Wash and pat the grape dry (you can use all green, or all red grapes if that's what you have).  Set aside.
• In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese, sour cream and the sugar until VERY smooth.  
• Add the vanilla and stir well.
• Add miniature marshmallows and stir in, optional.  
• Put into bowl and sprinkle the pecans over the top.  Immediately before serving, you can lightly sprinkle some brown sugar over top.

Banana "Surprise" Muffins

Win'r-Win'r, Muff'n-IN'r!

I am happy with how these turned out!

They're like a cross between banana bread and 

banana muffins.   IF these were only for me, 

I'd have added a LOT of chopped walnuts!

Above:  I baked some of these in the little 
'mini' cupcake papers.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup finely ground wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (light, or dark)
• 2 tablespoons milled flax seed (make sure they're 'fresh enough' that they don't have an 'old/rancid' taste).
• --------------------------
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed (not to the 'soupy' stage, though)
• 1 cup mayonnaise (I used Hellmann's brand)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I used regular)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• --------------------------
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, OR a Hershey's Kiss-- totally OPTIONAL!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.
2. Grease/spray 12 regular-sized muffin cups, or use paper cupcake liners.  I used two pans-- one was a large-type 6-holer for making LARGE muffins, and the other pan was for regular-sized muffins.  I put paper cupcake liners in both pans. This recipe filled the "six-holer" and just four of the regular-sized muffin wells.
3. Stir the flour(s), baking soda, baking powder, sugar(s) and the flax seed together until evenly blended.
4. Add the mashed banana, mayonnaise, sour cream and vanilla to the dry ingredients.  Stir only until well combined.
5. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups to about 3/4 full (I used my lever-action cookie scoop for this--the big papers took about two scoopsful.)
6. After the batter was in the liners, you could add some chocolate chips, but,.... I just 'pushed' one regular-sized Hershey's Kiss down into the middle of each, leaving only the very tip of it sticking out.  When the muffins were done, they ended up looking like this on the inside...  the 'chocolate kiss' can be the 'surprise'.
   

• Bake on middle rack in a preheated oven until golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly pressed-- for about 20-25 minutes.  BUT!, the four baking in the smaller muffin tins were done in about 15 minutes (I think!).  
• Because ovens are so 'different', check on their baking progress after the first 15 minutes and even more closely after that.

...it WAS . SO . GOOD with a cold glass of milk!!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

May 10, 2013... today, I made another batch 
a DOUBLE batch and baked them in 
various sized muffin pans/papers...

Into the freezer, they go......... they keep SO well!!!

Jell-O with Cool Whip

Looks like more work than it is-- 
in fact it ISN'T work at all!

I don't use Cool Whip® too often, but... 

every now and then,...  I do.

Ingredients:

• ONE of the 6 oz. size (8 servings) boxes of Jell-O
  ®
   of your choice.
• 3 cups boiling water.
• ONE of 8 oz. container Cool Whip
  ®
  , thawed.*

Directions:

• Dissolve the Jell-O 
  powder in the 3 cups boiling water.  Stir for at least two full minutes to make sure every grain of sugar is dissolved.
• Stir in the thawed Cool Whip  (stir until it is thoroughly dissolved and mixed in).
• Pour into serving cups/dishes.  Refrigerate for a minimum of four hours.  On its own, the Jell-O 
  mixture separates into what looks like two layers.
• Because I planned to leave these in the refrigerator overnight, I covered each with a piece of Saran Wrap after a couple of hours.   If I would have covered them while still warm, I'm sure a lot of condensation (water droplets) would have formed and I didn't want that to happen.

 *  If you haven't let the Cool Whip® thaw ahead of time, you can put it in right from the freezer-- you'll just have to stir it longer while/until it totally dissolves.

This time I used STRAWBERRY 

flavored Jell-O®.   Next time, maybe 

on a HOT Summer day, I will 

use LEMON Jell-O®... and I 
will like that, too!