What a gorgeous day it has been in Portland. It was 74 today! And sunny! My little plants are all popping up. The lettuce is in the ground outside and I swear it grew visibly larger in the last 24 hours with all that sun. The rhubarb is very nearly ready for go time (HELLO, PIE.) And my tomato starts inside are looking pretty good (knock on wood). I will be hovering over them on a daily basis until I can pick the tomatoes off of them. As usual.

I love having gardening and yard work be back in our weekend routine. Dave cuts the grass, I plant more and more things, and I hover over all of the plants, one after the other. I can’t wait to have summer fruits and vegetables to cook with, but until then, I’ve still got some bananas in my freezer.

If you thought we had exhausted the possibilities of chocolate-banana breakfast combinations, you thought wrong, my friends. Bam:

And I think these chocolate banana swirl muffins might be my favorite of our chocolate banana concoctions thus far. Which is saying something.

Here’s what you need:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups AP flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. sour cream
2 bananas, mashed
3 oz. chocolate chips
2 tsp. cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin with butter or nonstick cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the brown sugar, oil, milk, egg, sour cream and vanilla using a whisk. Smash the bananas and whisk into the liquids.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the solids to the liquids and fold them together with as few strokes as possible.

Remove about a half cup of the batter, and divide the rest between the muffin tins.

In a glass bowl, stir together the chocolate chips and cream. Microwave for 10 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until smooth. Mix this chocolate with the reserved half cup of batter, then divide between the muffin cups and swirl with a spoon or chopstick. Bake for 15-20 minutes.