Gluten-Free Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
If you’ve tried Betty Crocker’s GF yellow cake mix and were disappointed like I was, do not underestimate how perfectly that mix works for these moist banana cupcakes! The frosting is like a billion calories but it’s SO good. (I decorated each cupcake with a piece of fresh banana too!)
Banana Cupcakes
1 box Betty Crocker gf yellow cake mix
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/3 cup butter, melted
3 eggs, beaten
2 tsp gf vanilla
Combine all ingredients until moistened. Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes. (I did 16—careful not to dry them out!)
Peanut Butter Frosting (the recipe called for regular Jiff peanut butter, but I used Jiff natural creamy peanut butter—I think either one works just fine.)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
4 tbsp margarine (at room temperature)
2 cups confectioners sugar
3-4 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla
Mix peanut butter and margarine on low speed for 30 seconds (until fluffy). Add only 3 tbsp of the milk, the confectioners sugar, vanilla on low for 1 minute, then increase speed to medium and blend for 1 more minute. (Then, add the extra milk if it’s too stiff.)
Spread onto cooled cupcakes with a knife (or, do what I did—which unfortunately caused the frosting to resemble feces—and pour frosting into a ziploc bag and then cut one of the bottom corners and squeeze the frosting out in a circular motion).
Enjoy!
Gluten-free Old-Fashioned Meatloaf (with Mashed Potatoes, corn, and green beans)
This meatloaf is seriously so good. And I love that you don’t need to get any ingredients at a health food store.
I got the recipe from Gluten-Free Made Simple. The mashed potatoes are from scratch, and I make them how we made them at the restaurant where I used to cook. (I’m not going explain how to make corn and green beans—I figure you can make those on your own :)
Get the meatloaf in the oven first:
- 2/3 cup Corn Chex (I use Honey Nut Chex because I always have it on hand, and it adds a great flavor!)
- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 cup cooked white or brown rice (go with brown—you need the whole grains)
- 2 eggs
- 3 TBSP ketchup (Heinz is gf)
- 1 tsp dried parsley (plus, sprinkle more on top before you bake it!)
- 1 tsp finely chopped onion
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 pepper
- Sauce: 1/3 cup ketchup mixed with 2 TBSP brown sugar (Double this! If you don’t, you’ll wish you had more sauce on your portion of meatloaf.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients (after crushing the Chex by placing it in a ziploc bag and using a rolling pin). Start mashing ingredients together with a spoon or spatula, and finish the job by mashing them with your hands. It’s gross, but it works.
Shape meat into two small loaves on a baking sheet (or just use 2/3 of all ingredients in this recipe like I do and use a regular loaf pan.)
Make sauce in a separate bowl and spoon it onto the meat. Add a sprinkle of dried parsley and bake for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile…
Peel a few potatoes and then cut them into equal sized, small pieces.
Throw them in a pot and add water. Boil the potatoes until they are soft enough to be mashed.
Drain potatoes, then add some milk, margarine, salt, and vegetable seasoning.
(This is how we made them at the restaurant I worked at. No measurements, just taste tests. If it needs more of something, just add it! You can’t beat classic homestyle mashed potatoes.)
Don’t worry about gluten-free gravy—these don’t need gravy at all! Just some salt and pepper.
Enjoy!
An easy GF dinner!
chicken + Mango Ginger Habanero Sauce (marinated all afternoon)
rice + Silk Coconut Milk (instead of water)
asparagus + Chopped almonds (baked, with some olive oil and spices)
