Valentine’s is one of my favorite days with the kids. It’s a fun, low-key holiday (is it an actual holiday? I don’t think so.) that we can work together on some fun projects for school without the pressure of a big holiday, like Christmas. This year, the kids picked out their valentine cards early, and we got to enjoy putting them together + adding our friends names to them. Usually, it’s last minute and we are rushed, so this was a nice change. Watching their faces light up as they perfectly selected which card was going to be for what friend was really fun.

We also made a new recipe for classroom sharing this year and I wanted to share it here, too. We went for something healthy-ish, Banana Oat Muffins. We tried these in advance to make sure the kids liked them, then made a large batch for 3rd grade. I hope you enjoy them, too.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (we like to use King Arthur, 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat flour)
• 1 cup rolled oats – Quaker oats
• 1/2 cup white sugar 
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Penzey’s vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• You could also add in 1 tbsp flax, and 1/2 mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees + prepare your muffin tins, either lined with wrappers, or sprayed with Pam.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt.
3. In another bowl, beat the egg lightly. Stir in the milk, oil, and vanilla. Add the mashed banana, and combine thoroughly. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
4. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 18 to 20 minutes.