Chocolate Banana Muffins

This recipe is from Nigella's new book Recipes from the heart of the home.

Introduction
I'm not the biggest muffin fan i must admitt, i love a nice cupcake or carrot cake. However i just had to have a go at this recipe because i love chocolate and bananas. I'm also having a new years eve party and thought they would be great to put out on the table.

Appearence
They didn't look as brown as i expected they would be but still looked appertising with the hints of yellow banana. I have also seem much nicer looking muffins than these.

Taste
In my opinion these muffins didn't have a rich enough chocolate flavour and the banana was over powering. The lack of chocolate could be down to the cocao powder i used as it was a cheap brand. Again i added my own touch to the recipe by putting in broken up chocolate pieces, which added a nice touch especially when serve warm.

Extra
This recipe was good but i would definately change it a little by putting more cocoa powder (maybe use a better quality one or even dark chocolate) in and use less banana. I would also recommend serving them warm with vanilla ice cream.

Rating - 5/10

Sticky Stir Fried Beef

I found this recipe by Brian Turner on the BBC recipe page.

Introduction
I don't usually cook beef, but as my mum gave me half a beef joint left over from christmas i thought i may aswell use it. However i'm use to cooking stir fries as i love them, i usually use chicken, quorn or just vegetables so it was good to try something different. This recipe was incredibley easily to make and it only took about 30mins to do. I did change the recipe slightly because i served it with egg noodles.

Appearance
Unfortunately i didn't take a picture because i was eager to dig in but it was a sticky, glossy, brown colour which looked very appertising.

Taste
The sauce was very nice with a sweet flavour, it reminded me of a plum sauce you would find in a chinese restaurant. However i would probably add more garlic to the recipe as i'm not to fond of a really sweet sauce. My boyfriend seemed to be very impressed with the sauce and the meat quoting 'I think i prefer beef stir fry to chicken' and he has got a sweet tooth.

Extra
I would definately use this recipe again maybe adding my own touch too it with a few more vegetables and see what it's like with chicken or other meats.