Chocolate Chip Banana Pistachio Muffins

    In our house Fridays include "breakfast for dinner".  We'll usually have eggs of some sort, maybe bacon, and some kind of carby-goodness.  The past few weeks I've been making muffins, because the leftovers make for a good quick breakfast when we both have to go to work in the mornings (I got a new job!  More on that in another post, hopefully before too long).  I've been wanting to make banana bread for a few weeks, but kept forgetting to buy bananas!  I finally remembered to pick some up while grocery shopping, so this is what I came up with for our breakfast for dinner tonight: Chocolate Chip Banana Pistachio Muffins!   I love everything about banana bread - the smell, the taste, the texture.  These did not disappoint in any of these aspects!

    I always put my muffins in paper liners, if I have them, to simplify clean up.  I made a dozen muffins with this recipe, then poured the rest of the batter into a small (3x7 or something like that) Pyrex baking dish.

    I don't know where I found the original  banana bread recipe, but I made several changes to it, so here's my version:

Chocolate Chip Banana Pistachio Muffins

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 

2 eggs

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup honey

1/3 cup water

1/2 cup shelled pistachios, chopped 

1/3 cup chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the eggs, bananas, butter, honey, and water. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in pistachios and chocolate chips. Spoon  into greased muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until top is firm when pressed with finger.  Makes approximately 1 1/2 dozen muffins

Let me know if you decide to make them and how they turn out, along with any tweaks you make!
-MNM

Lagniappe

    For my non-southern readers:
Lagniappe (pronounced lan-yap) is a word that we use that means "a little bit extra" or "everything thing else".  It's similar to both "a baker's dozen" and "miscellaneous", but kind of encompasses them both.  It's an extremely useful word, and I use it all the time!

That being said, I will be writing a few lagniappe posts - posts that don't have anything to do with infertility, but do have to do with my life! Hope you enjoy them :)

-MNM

Some Days...

"I can't do this anymore!"
"It hurts too much."
"Take it away!"

    Some days all you can do is shed a few tears.  Cry out to God in desperation.  Sob in your husband's arms.  Cry yourself to sleep.

    And you know what?  That's okay. 

    I don't know if crying is a sign of weakness, or a lack of faith or hope, or anything else.  I just know that it's a sign of how painful this whole journey really is.  And sometimes the best temporary pain relief (especially heart pain) is through a shower of tears.
    And you know what else? God doesn't mind if we cry. In fact, He cares about when we cry, as Psalm 56:8 tells us:

"You keep track of all my sorrows.

You have collected all my tears in your bottle.

You have recorded each one in your book."

    So to you, my friend who is on a similar journey, I give you permission to cry.

-MNM

In His Time

      I've heard several times recently about God's timing and how it's perfect.  In my dad's sermon last week he said "God's time is appropriate."  This morning during the testimony time at church two different guys shared about God's timing being perfect in their jobs.

    I know this is true, and honestly have seen it in my own life over and over again.  Sometimes I need a reminder, though.

    This past week has been a rough one emotionally for me.  There's not a specific reason - I think it has to do with the fact that my summer job ended so I have a lot more free time than I did, which lends itself to more time to simply think.  That being said,  anyone want to offer a bit of encouragement and share their story of how God's timing was perfect in their life?  Please leave a comment!

-MNM