Nutella peanut butter chip mini muffins

A super-simple recipe for Nutella peanut butter chip mini muffins: I almost feel that I don't need to post anything else other than those words to get you to try this recipe, right?

I have posted before about how I get snack cravings -- like many of you, I'm sure -- in the late afternoon. Since we eat very little processed food around Casa de Ninj, this means that if I want a treat, I have to make it.

This is good in many ways because, if I'm feeling lazy, I just go without said treat. Which is better for my waistline.

However, there are times when the siren call of Nutella is just too great.

(And yes, I realize that Nutella counts as a processed food. Which is why I often make my own Nutella, but I don't expect you to go to those extremes. It's totally fine by me if you have a big ol' jar of Nutella in your pantry at all times. I'm not judgy like that.)

Nutella banana bread

Since I made my own Nutella, I've been looking for new, creative ways to use it -- other than eating it straight from the jar with a new, creative spoon each time.

That, coupled with having three past-their-prime bananas on the kitchen counter, gave rise to this bread.

(And why do overripe bananas always seem to hang out in recipe-perfect groups of three?)

Regular readers know I like my sweet stuff a little on the less sweet side (I'm more of a savory gal, frankly), which is why I'm happy happy HAPPY about this bread. It's a great afternoon snack and, if you don't mind a little chocolate in the morning (Mind? Who am I kidding...), it's a lovely breakfast bread.

Especially toasted and topped with a little schmear of strawberry jam. Yowza.

Homemade Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

Make your own homemade Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)!

After all the falderall this week about World Nutella Day, I almost didn't include the word "Nutella" in my post title.

But since I doubt that a multinational corporation will be coming after The Ninj for brand infringement, I'm throwing caution to the wind, as a good ninja would.

I made my own Nutella!

I know, based on my Pinterest traffic and site statistics, that y'all are Nutella junkies. I think I could make anything with Nutella and it would get 47,000 pins. Clump of Dirt with Nutella Frosting? Old Leather Shoe with Nutella Sauce? Each would still get at least 40,000 pins onto pinboards titled "OMG, YUM!" or "Sweet Awesomeness".

I love Nutella as much as you do, but I'm not a big fan of processed foods: I feel like I let myself down a little bit with each jar I buy (but notice I didn't say I stopped buying it). Yet I've never considered making it myself because I just assumed it would be too much of a pain in the ass.

I was wrong.

(You should re-read that sentence because I don't say it very often. Just ask Mr. Ninj.)

Nutella toffee biscotti

Nutella toffee biscotti

Today is World Nutella Day.

Lately, there seems to be a celebration day for nearly everything. Not that I don't think fluffernuttters (October 8) and scarecrows (July 7) deserve celebrity and recognition, I do; think of the value-add. But National Umbrella Day? Or National Toothache Day? Really? Coincidentally, today is also National Weatherman's Day. In addition to having a sexist name, this day offers me nothing to eat, so I scoff. Sorry, Al Roker.

I think we can all agree, however, that Nutella deserves to be revered on a daily basis. It's nutty, chocolately deliciousness is equally as good smeared on your morning toast as it is baked into a gooey cookie. And speaking of cookies, I have a pretty wicked Nutella cookie recipe on this site and, apparently, over 80,000 of you agree with me.

Yep, 80,000. Crazypants.

So I'm happy to be worshipping at the Nutella altar today.

I toyed with the idea of trying to create something offbeat, perhaps something savory for this World Nutella Day, but I just kept coming back to what Nutella does best: dessert.

So you're getting a hopefully-equal-to-the-almighty-cookies biscotti recipe!

Nutella toaster pastries

Nutella toaster pastries

Regular readers will know that I've had some fun taking on cooking challenges this year.

For example, I've been cooking along each month with Grow It Cook It Can It's Cook It 2012 challenge, in which each month we're challenged to create a pantry staple and then use it in a recipe.

Additionally, I recently joined the Secret Recipe Club, which means I get to pick and cook a recipe from another blogger each month.

So when the From Scratch Club announced that its revamped virtual book club would be not only reading and discussing but also cooking from Alana Chernila's Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making, I knew I was up for it.

This book is cleverly divided into chapters based on supermarket aisles: dairy, cereals and snacks, canned items, condiments, soups, baking needs, frozen foods, pasta, breads and crackers, drinks and candy and sweets. Each chapter includes a few recipes for making your own version of things normally found in those aisles. Every two weeks, the FSC book clubbers read two chapters and are encouraged to test out one of the recipes (member's choice).

This is the first "meeting", so we are focusing on dairy and cereal and snacks.

For me, I found quite a few of the same (or similar) recipes that we've been tackling in the Cook It 2012 challenge in these first chapters (ricotta cheese, butter and buttermilk) or that I've already made on my own (cereal bars).

But I haven't made toaster pastries.

(Which I guess we can't call pop tarts without some kind of trademark infringement, right?)

And certainly not Nutella-filled toaster pastries!

Nutella cookies: a recipe

Chewy yet crunchy Nutella cookies will quickly become your family's favorite.

Nutella cookies

I use the expression "comfort food" a lot, as I'm sure you do, too.

Usually when I say it, I mean food that is delicious and filling, is probably not very good for you and evokes some sort of safe-as-houses feeling inside. Food that offers comfort to you.

But, over the past year or so, I think I understand its other meaning -- perhaps its primary meaning.

Food can be a way of offering comfort to others, of saying what we don't quite have the words to say.

There's a reason why, in a time of crisis or sadness, the standard response is to whip up a casserole for the family in need. We want to show we care, to offer comfort, and we do so with our favorite recipes.

It's definitely what I do. I've experienced the loss of two loved ones recently and both times, for lack of knowing quite what else to do, I baked a batch of my salted oatmeal cookies. In fact, one of my friends has started calling them my "funeral cookies."

Similarly, since my dad passed away nearly a year ago, every time I visit my mom I bring her a whole load of individually frozen homemade meals, to try to make things a little easier for her.

In my way, I'm offering what comfort I can by offering food made from the heart.

Detox January, Week 2: Nutella-banana popsicles

Nutella-banana pops

Yes, you read that correctly.

Nutella-banana popsicles.

Yes, for our Detox January.

Because each pop is only about 145 calories and 5 grams of fat (based on my getting 14 pops out of the recipe).

And they are loaded with fruit, which we all know is good for you and very Detoxy.

It's partially a size thing but also an ingredient thing; that is, the size is smallish and the ingredients are just two: yep, Nutella and bananas.

Making these pops really couldn't be easier. In fact, I'm not even going to both to write out a "recipe" because it's ludicrously simple.

Biscoff cake: a recipe

Biscoff cake

In case you haven't been able to hear me screaming with joy about it here in Vermont, Biscoff cookies are now available in a spread.

Nutella, you may have just met your match.

I love these cookies. Seriously love. Before they were readily available in grocery stores in the United States, I used to try purposely to book my flights on Delta Airlines because it meant I could get two little Biscoffs with my cup of water.

And I'm not alone in my obsession. I have a friend and former co-worker who, on a flight we shared from Seattle back to North Carolina, went out of her way to befriend the flight attendant solely for the purpose of scoring extra Biscoff.

I think she may have broken some kind of world record for Biscoff Snarfed in One Sitting.

If you've never tasted them before (and my heart breaks for you, really, it does), they have a unique vanilla cinnamon sugar kind of thing going on, with just a hint of spice to keep it interesting. So now imagine that in a spread that is the consistency of peanut butter.

Those Belgians, they are freakin' geniuses.

Nutella cheesecake brownies: a recipe

Nutella cheesecake brownies

As is evident just by the name, these brownies were wicked awesome.

But this is less a post about the recipe itself than it is about how I found it. Behold, the power of the internet.

I know, I know, this is not news.

I'm fully aware that my food blog is one of about 8 gazillion others out there, with all of us hoping that something may come from it but odds being that nothing ever will, other than our having a good time cooking, writing about it and meeting other folks who like to do the same.

The twist here is that I did not find this recipe via the usual round of link-to's from other food blogs. I found it on a relatively new site called Pinterest (thanks to Kim Chang for introducing me).