Banana Nut Bread and Stuffed Bell Peppers

I'm really adjusting to this not having classes thing! Making legit meals every day, baking; man, I'm on top of my shit! ;)

Yesterday I baked a batch of banana nut muffins (I only have one baby loaf pan) and then made some delicious stuffed peppers for dinner. The muffins are from a recipe I grew up on so that's DEFINITELY going to get shared with you guys and the peppers... Damn, that's a winner. Neither are the BEST budget friendly meals but it's still cheaper than 2 large combos at McDonald's!

On top of stuffing the crap out of myself, I also had an AMAZING day on cam last night. I'm so thankful for the lovely guys in my life! You're all too fun and I couldn't do this without you. :) I'm finally starting to like my hair a bit too, so I can stop whining about it. :P

So, for the recipes. Neither of them are super complicated, they're fairly simple to learn and they aren't exorbitantly expensive to make either! I'll be snacking on these muffins till Sunday at least!

For the muffins...

Banana Nut Bread

$0.13/muffin

20 muffins or one full size loaf

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter - $0.75

1 1/2 cup sugar - $0.25

2 eggs - $0.28

3/4 cup mashed bananas (best to use old mushy brown bananas) - $0.20

1 tsp vanilla - Essentially Free (large bottle of vanilla brought home from Mexico)

2/3 cup buttermilk - $0.50

1 3/4 cup flour - $0.09

1 tsp baking powder - less than a penny

1/2 tsp salt - less than a penny

1 tsp baking soda - less than a penny

1/2 cup nuts (walnuts are great in these) - $0.50

1. Cream together butter and sugar until its a nice pale yellow.
2. Add eggs and beat well.
3. Add in bananas and vanilla, beat again. (Beat, beat, beat! lol)
4. In another bowl mix together the dry ingredients.
5. Add buttermilk and dry ingredients, a little bit at a time, alternating back and forth. Beat after each addition.
6. Fold in nuts. 
7. Pour into greased and floured loaf pans or lined muffin tins. Bake at 350* for 35 minutes (muffins) or 45 minutes (loaf) or until done.
8. Enjoy!  

    

Stuffed Bell Peppers

$1.70/serving

4 servings

Ingredients:

4 green bell peppers - $3

1/2 cup cooked white rice - $0.20

1 lb ground beef - $2.16

1 bunch green onions - $0.69 (I used part of these yesterday so, realistically $0.50 worth)

Cheddar cheese - $0.75

Garlic salt - less than a penny

Pepper - less than a penny

1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. Cut tops off of green peppers, remove seeds and core.
3. Place peppers in a pot and cover with water. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove from water and place in a 9x9 casserole dish.
4. Meanwhile in a pan brown the ground beef, season with garlic salt and pepper. Drain.
5. Dice green onions and shred cheese, however much cheese you'd like. 
6. In a large bowl, combine rice, beef, most of the cheese and green onions.
7. In the bottom of the peppers place a small handful of cheese. 
8. Fill the peppers with the meat and rice mixture till you have a nice mound on top. 
9. Bake in oven for 35 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and lay two slices of cheese over the top of each pepper in an "X" shape. 
11. Return to oven and bake for 10 more minutes or until cheese starts bubbling.
12. Serve and enjoy! They're easiest to eat if you slice them in half, that way you have stuffing on ever bite of pepper. :)

         Note: If you know you won't eat all the peppers that meal, only boil the peppers you need and save the remaining stuffing for the next meal.