There was a short-lived restaurant in Manhattan called Burgers & Cupcakes. It sounded genius to me, but guess it didn’t work out. Maybe they should’ve gone for muffins.

Last weekend, I had a rare burst of cooking energy. The burgers are an old favorite— I make a big double batch and freeze the patties so we have quick homemade veggie burgers at the ready. One big beet was plenty for a double batch. I pretty much follow the recipe except I had cashew butter instead of almond butter. For the beet-haters, I don’t find them too beet-y, so you may be ok. I took Isa’s advice and cooked them before cooling/freezing and that’s been much better. Another tip for busy folks— I cook the rice and lentils ahead of time, and then putting it all together is a snap on another day. This time day one was cooking rice and lentils, day 2 was shredding beets and assembling mixture, and day 3 (which was actually day 5 or something) was frying ’em up, cooling, freezing. Drawn out, but that’s the only way I get anything done anymore. Here’s the recipe for Isa Chandra’s beet burgers, and here’s a video of her making some, too! The recipe is also found in Isa Does It, which I highly recommend.

The muffins were new for us, but Jonah especially was an instant addict and I’ve already made a second batch. I followed the recipe almost exactly, but I reduced the oil and sugar from the original and it worked out great. I like to use the mini-muffin tins since it feels like you get so much more and it’s easy to grab one as a little snack.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

adapted from the classic The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 4 medium sized ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup non-dairy semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease muffin tins.
2. In medium size bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, mash up the bananas. Beat in the sugar and oil. Stir in the water and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Mix in the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips, and nuts if using.
4. Fill muffin tins about 2/3 full (or evenly between them) with the batter. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Yields 12 muffins, or 24 mini-muffins, or one 9″ cake or bread.