I saw that I had some very ripe bananas lying around as well as an excess of rum. I know the obvious thought would be to just drink the rum, but I’m not much of a heavy drinker these days. My original plan was to make the traditional bananas foster but I didn’t quite feel like dealing with the flambé part of the dish. So I opted for something a bit more simpler and would last longer throughout the week to nom nom on and came up with this. The bars were light and chewy and the rum is very subtle in taste.

- 1/2 cup butter or unsalted margarine softened
- 1 1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (or you can use wheat flour like I did)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar (raw sugar)
- 1 egg (egg substitute)
- 1 tbsp dark rum
- 1/2 tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (if you don’t have this you can use cinnamon and nutmeg)
- pinch of baking powder and baking soda
- pinch of salt

Frosting
- 1 cup plain cream cheese (Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese) at room temperature
- 1/2 tbsp white sugar (raw sugar or agave syrup)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp dark rum

Topping
- Nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray non-stick spray to a 9 inch pan (or if you want the bars to be a little thicker use a smaller pan). Use one bowl to combine all your wet and soft ingredients and a bowl to combine all your dry ingredients. For wet use a mixer cream together butter and sugar. Once you’ve got a creamy consistency add your remaining liquid ingredients: rum and egg. For dry ingredients combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Add to your wet ingredients. Add your mashed bananas and mix to get a batter like consistency. If you don’t mind your bars being a little chunky on the inside don’t worry if there are still chunks of bananas in it.

Pour batter into pan and make sure it’s even on all sides. Place in oven and bake for 22-25 minutes or until passes the toothpick test. Once it’s done remove from oven and allow to cool.

For the frosting, in a bowl combine cream cheese, rum, sugar and vanilla extract. Since I wasn’t handling a lot of cream cheese I just used a spoon to whip all the ingredients together. Once the bars have completely cooled, spread cream cheese frosting over the top. Even though they’ll be tempting to consume right away I put the pan in the fridge for about an hour to allow the frosting to set but it’s really up to you how you want to do it. Remove pan from fridge after about an hour and cut into square bars. I topped each of my bars with a walnut but it’s entirely your choice if you want to top them with anything. Eat and enjoy!

One thing I enjoy making is rainbow cupcakes. It’s just fun to do and the end product looks rad. They’re usually so colorful that you don’t need to put frosting on top (which I did eventually for these plus with red and green sprinkles but I have no picture of that).  I decided to make a batch of Christmas colored cupcakes to take with me to work.  As if we weren’t getting enough sweets sent to us from different companies and what not.  But I figured one last bit of sweetness couldn’t hurt.

– 2 boxes white cake mix
- eggs (egg substitute), oil and water according to cake mix directions
- Red & Green food coloring

Frosting
- 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened (Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Christmas colored sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, mix cake mix, eggs, oil and water to create a smooth batter. Separate the batter into 3 equal bowls. Add Red food color to one bowl and mix with a spoon.  Keep mixing until there is no white batter left in the bowl.  If you know your color wheel and what not you know that red and white obviously make pink.  Keep adding red food coloring until you get an actual red color in the batter.

In the second bowl add green food coloring to the batter and mix until there is no white left.  Leave the third bowl with the white batter.

Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.  Now, you can really do this however way you want; I personally liked layering the different batter colors alternating so i had some that were green on top, then red and so on into each cupcake liner.  Once you are done filling all the liners, using a toothpick, stick into the batter of each liner and slowly swirl them around to get a swirly, paisley effect.  Place them in the oven and bake for about 20-22 minutes or until they pass the toothpick test.

Remove from oven and allow them to cool.

For the frosting, add softened cream cheese to a bowl. Add vanilla extract and mix. Once all cupcakes are cooled frost each one. Sprinkle Christmas colored sprinkles on top.

Makes about 2 dozen

I try not to eat a lot of candy around the holidays but one of my favorite combinations any time of the year is mint and chocolate.  I always look forward to grabbing a bag of Hershey’s Mint Kisses because they’re always available during Christmas-time.  It can get a little dangerous, me, alone with a bag of mint kisses.  So instead of devouring them one by one I figured I would make a bark to share with my family and co-workers so I didn’t hog it all to myself.

- 1/2 bag mint-chocolate chips
- 1/2 bag white chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp Christmas colored sprinkles
- wax paper

Place a layer of wax paper onto a baking sheet. Use a double boiler to melt chocolate. Start with the mint chocolate chips first. Melt them in the double boiler and whisk as its melting. Keep whisking until all chips are melted and you see a nice sheen in the chocolate. You want to keep whisking in order to prevent the chocolate from being too hot and burning or curdling. Once all the chocolate is melted then remove from heat and pour onto wax paper. You want to pour it in the middle and allow itself to spread. Use a spatula to evenly coat the shape of the pan. If your chocolate doesn’t reach the edges that’s fine it doesn’t need to, just make sure it’s even to prevent it from being too thick or thin in certain places. Let it set, clean out your bowl or use another bowl because you will want to make sure it is completely dry.

Repeat process with white chocolate chips. Once all white chocolate chips are melted add sprinkles and continue to whisk. Once white chocolate is done pour over the mint chocolate on the wax paper. Use a spatula to smooth over white chocolate. If you mix the mint chocolate and white chocolate together don’t worry, not only will it make some fun paisley designs I like to say it gives the effect of “snow on the ground.” Set the tray in the fridge to harden for at least one hour, best overnight.

Once the chocolate has hardened, remove wax paper from the underside of the chocolate and begin to break into chunks. It doesn’t really matter how big or small you do it it’s not meant to be perfect shapes. Then eat and enjoy or this also makes a good gift in a tin or bag.

I had a little bit of a debacle with some store bought pie crusts. Namely they started to tear when I was ready to use them. They were no good for pies or cakes with all the tears but I didn’t want them to go to waste.  I decided to rummage around our pantry and see what I could come up with. I threw together a few ingredients and ended up with something quite tasty

- 1 store bought frozen pie crust thawed and rolled out
- Nutella
- handful of butterscotch chips

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. With the pie crust rolled out generously spread Nutella all over crust leaving a little bit of room at the end so it’s easy to roll. Sprinkle butterscotch chips across Nutella covered crust. Just keep away from edges. Take one and of the pie crust and beginning rolling. Once you have a roll place seam side down on a nonstick pan or spray a pan with non-stick spray. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Slice and serve and you’ll have an extra sweet treat.

- 1 box red velvet cake mix
- 3/4 cup melted butter
- 1 egg (egg substitute)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 jar storebought caramel topping

Preheat oven to 325°F. In a baking pan (preferably 9×13 for this), spray non-stick spray. In a bowl combine all wet ingredients (egg, butter, water). Then add cake mix. Using a mixer (or you can stir) combine all ingredients until all lumps are gone and it’s a smooth batter. Pour into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Once brownies are done remove from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Once it’s cooled using a tray or large plate, place on top of pan and flip over. It should come out smoothly. Here’s the easy part. Heat jar of caramel topping (most found in grocery stores come in microwaveable safe jars) for 25 seconds. Remove jar from microwave and pour about half the jar on top of brownies. Use a spatula to spread caramel evenly.

Allow to sit for about 10-15 more minutes to allow caramel to set. Then eat and enjoy.

Note: (I made this some time ago thus the crappy photo ha!) Also, this recipe is non-Vegan due to the boxed cake mix which includes non-fat milk. For the Vegan recipe click here.

Strawberries and lemonade two things that signify the start of summer. What’s more perfect then to combine the balance of sweetness and tartness into cupcakes topped with fresh strawberries? Recipe below:

- 1 box lemon cake mix (Duncan Hines/Betty Crocker whatever is your fix)
- water, vegetable oil, and eggs (egg substitute) according to cake box
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar (or sugar substitute i.e. Splenda — raw sugar for Vegans) (optional) – this is optional because the cake mix already has sugar however depending on how sweet the strawberries you are using are, the cake could lean more on the tart side. this is just for added sweetness
- 1/4 cup strawberries, pureed
- 18-24 slices of fresh strawberry

Frosting
- 1/2 cup cream cheese at room temperature (or 4oz of an 8oz pkge – you can also use light cream cheese here)
- 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind
- 2 tbsp pureed strawberries
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl combine cake mix, water, oil and eggs. Once all ingredients are incorporated add strawberry puree. Fold in puree and taste batter. If it’s too tart add sugar.
Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Pour batter into lined cupcake tins. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until it passes the “”toothpick test”

While cupcakes are baking, put together the frosting. In a bowl combine cream cheese, strawberry puree, rind, and sugar. Fold all ingredients together and set aside.

Once cupcakes are done, remove from oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before frosting. Frost cakes and enjoy!

Makes 18-24 cupcakes.