A Chinese New Year Party at School

Last week, I received a notice from my daughter's school that they will be having a small party today (January 27) and that parents could contribute food for the kids' snacks. However, there were rules to be followed. For one, the snacks should not contain any pork or beef as most of the kids are Indians and they usually don't eat these. Also, it should not be sweets, jellies or fish balls because these might have animal gelatin in it and could also cause choking for the kiddos.

Because of these rules, I thought of contributing Choco Chip Banana Muffins since this is something kids love and of course, so I can use my new lovely muffin cups. :) I found my guide on Allrecipes.com. I love that it has yogurt and banana because I want the kids to have a healthy snack for the party today :)

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp banana essence (optional)
• 1 1/4 cup mashed banana
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the muffin cups or line them with paper baking molds. 
2. Combine all the dry ingredients into a bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt)
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg. Add vegetable oil, yogurt, vanilla and the banana essence.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the mixture carefully. Fold in the mashed banana and chocolate chips.
5. Fill the muffin cup about 2/3 full. Bake about 25 minutes.
6. Cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing them off the cups and transfer to cooling rack.

I love how the smell of the banana muffin fill our entire kitchen. I was like in banana heaven! Haha I guess the banana essence really worked. :) You can try to add walnuts if you want variety to your muffin. I hope the kids will like this.

Smells good, tastes even better! :D