Blackberry Almond Muffins

I am burned out on granola and I am not always the best morning person, so muffins are my plan b for easy quick breakfasts. I used to bake muffins every week and then I realized I was probably overdoing it on the carbs. (Thanks gestational diabetes.) Now muffins are an every and now and then. Pair with some good coffee, scrambled eggs, fruit or cheese and these will keep you feeling full and happy.

*Mix Ahead* I have a container of flours and flaxseed that I have pre-mixed and ready to throw in breads, muffins, pancakes, etc.  It goes like this: 1 Cup all purpose flour, 1 Cup whole wheat flour, 1/3 Cup milled flaxseed. Shake before using.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
1/4 Cup pre-mixed flour
2/3 Cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1/2 Cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 - 2 Cups fresh blackberries
1/2 Cup sliced almonds

The original recipe is from the tried and true Better Homes and Gardens cook book.  

-I used almond milk because I have it and no one will drink it, so it has to go somewhere, right?And honestly, I didn't measure. I assume it was about 1/2 Cup, add more if your batter is too thick.
-I changed the sugar amount to 2/3 C because blackberries are super tart.
-I tossed in my flour mix, because it's a habit, I can't help myself.
-I ran out of canola oil midway through this recipe and substituted with what I thought was enough butter to fill the liquid requirements.
-I added vanilla and cinnamon because I like the way they smell.
-I tossed in some sliced almonds at the last minute, it was a great decision

Directions
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your muffin pan how you like (with grease or spray or use liners). Mix up the ingredients. I have never followed the directions on the order things should go in what bowl. Just put it together and mix. Spoon the batter into your muffin pan, filling up the cups about 3/4 of the way. Bake for about 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy your mornings!

The philosophy of potatoes

Despite what could be accurately described as a "cautious demeanor," I've learned to accept that there are some risks in this world worth taking. Our kids, for one (or three). Quitting my desk job to start our own business for another. Making hash browns.

Hash browns are one of those things I've never been able to get right because I never bothered to learn how to make them right. I maybe tried twice and, while the results were still tasty (I mean, a fried potato is a fried potato), the resulting mess of starchy mush was in no way a proper "hash brown."

Last night, as I was holding my baby boy and watching some "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," I started thinking about future breakfasts in this hypothetical farm on which we've hung both our hopes and dreams. We've taken some mighty strides away from boxed cereals and other processed breakfast fare, with homemade granola being our lazy-morning meal, so the next step in our goal to gain near-complete control over our diet is growing our own food--we're deadly serious about having egg-laying chickens someday, and our limited success in our little gardens superseded the failures and made us want to grow way more (if not all) of our own fruits and vegetables. Homegrown potatoes fed us for a few weeks this summer, so my thoughts turned to a breakfast of eggs and potatoes...hash browns.

My wife and I are learning how to cook--it wasn't a skill passed down to either of us from our parents, so we're finding our own way. That means we burn some meals, some dishes turn out painfully bland, and we sometimes sit down to happy surprises--you want every meal to delight the palette, but learning curves don't tend to work like that. But a recent experience with omelets, of all things, taught us that one little word in an online recipe--"cover," in the case of omelets--can nullify all previous failures and put a new dish into regular rotation.

I mean, it makes sense that you'd have to get the moisture out of potatoes if you want them to stick together and form a patty. Or does it? I don't know, cooking doesn't make that much sense to me, but when I Googled "hash browns" and read that you have to squeeze that water out--well, I can follow a direction. This morning I popped the shredder attachment onto the mixer (my current obsession with slicing and shredding foodstuffs in that thing also played into the decision to make hash browns, and not just a little bit) and, following directions from the Internet, I squeezed the hell out of those potato shreds before tossing them into the pan of oil. And it worked--they surely weren't the best hash browns ever made (and not just because I didn't have any lard on hand), but they were the best hash browns I've ever made.

I'm trying really hard to avoid the metaphor "gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet," but, you know...you do. You have to mess up to appreciate finally getting something right, have to go through lean years to appreciate when times are good, have to know a kid's cry to really cherish his or her laugh. I'm trying to stay really aware of this right now, as we ready ourselves to start a new chapter in our life--turning the page on years of failure and successes, diving into a whole new set of missteps and (hopefully) accomplishments. Broken eggshells, hard-won omelets, and pretty okay hash browns.

Good Bacteria

For my birthday, six months ago, I bought the book Home Dairy by Ashleigh English. I read it cover to cover at least twice but didn't try a single recipe...until yesterday.

Yogurt is so good for you and so easy to make.  I cannot see us buying commercial yogurt ever again. Unless we eat everything up and need a new starter.

Below is exactly what I did as a novice yogurt maker, and our yogurt came out perfect. It was thick, and it balanced the tangy and sweet flavors wonderfully.

On the next go round, I may strain the yogurt in a cheese cloth for an even thicker consistency. I mixed in some peach butter with one serving and it was AMAZING!


Yogurt

ingredients
3 Cups 1% milk
2 Tablespoons honey-flavored Greek yogurt

directions
1. Heat milk in a double boiler until it reaches 180 degrees.
2. Pre-heat slow cooker on low.
3. Remove milk from heat and let cool to 110 - 115 degrees.
4. Stir in yogurt until well mixed.
5. Pour mixture into 3 jelly jars, seat lid and tighten rim.
6. Turn slow cooker off and place jars of yogurt inside and cover with lid.
7. Let sit overnight.
8. Refrigerate and eat. Use for up to two weeks.

One of the best parts of this process was explaining to our 7-year-old daughter the difference between good bacteria and bad bacteria. Her interpretation went something like this: "There are two kinds of bacteria. One is the kind that eats dead birds and one is in yogurt that we eat." I'll take that. If she one day wins a Nobel prize for her work with bacteria, I will look back on our first yogurt making days with a smile. 

I highly recommend giving Ashleigh's book a read.  I hope to try out butter and mozzarella cheese sometime this week!

Few & Cheap

When I look through recipes, I look for two things:

1. Few Ingredients
2. Cheap Ingredients

I have tried so many recipes over the years. Some recipes are fantastic but laborious. The ones that stick with me--the ones that become a part of our lives--are the ones that I can remember and that I can afford. So in an effort to keep our lives and meals simple, we collect and adjust recipes to fit our tastes, patience, and budgets.

Here is my favorite recipe, adapted from the back of a flour bag. I make this once or twice a week and it is unbelievably good.

Honey-Wheat Bread

Ingredients
2 packages regular active dry yeast
1/4 Cup Warm Water
3/4 Cup Honey
2 T Butter
2 teaspoons Salt
1 Cup Oats
3/4 Cup Flaxseed Meal
2 1/2 Cup Warm Water
4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
2 to 3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1 T Cooking Oil

Directions
1. Dissolve yeast in 1/4 Cup Warm Water.
2. Mix honey, butter & salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add 2 1/2 Cups warm water.
3. Beat in wheat flour, oats & flaxseed until moistened. Add in dissolved yeast, and stir with spoon.
4. Add all-purpose flour until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and your dough is no longer sticking to your fingers. Knead dough 5 to 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface.
5. Cover dough with a towel and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Set in a warm spot *see tip below* to rise for about an hour.
6. After the dough has doubled in size, cut it in half. Grease two loaf pans and place dough in bread pans.
7. Cover dough with a towel and set in a warm spot for about 30-45 minutes.
8. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when you tap on them. Let cool and enjoy.

Makes 2 beautiful loaves.

Tip *Heat 1 Cup of Water in Microwave for 60 seconds. Then place dough in microwave alongside your warm water. It's a perfect warm, moist place for your dough to rise and no little hands will come back and poke at it.*

Blueberry Almond Struesel

There is an evil temptress in the grocery store... well there are many, actually. But lately, it has been anything made by Entemanns. Every time I walk by one of those blue and white boxes my mouth waters and I stare into the plastic window and pine after the fat sweetness that sleeps inside. Here is my own version of something sweet and beautiful.

 

I started with a simple Muffin Recipe.   Added 1 1/2 Cups frozen blueberries, thawed and 1 Cup of crushed almonds. I used almond milk in place of milk.   Then, I poured the (thick) batter in a greased 9" cake pan and topped with a small version of an adapted fruit crisp recipe:

1/2 Cup Oats

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon sugar

2 Tablespoons butter

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes. Check insides with toothpick to make sure it's fully cooked all the way through.  After the giant muffin was cooled I topped with yummy icing.

1 Cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
2 - 3 Tablespoons vanilla almond milk

Mix together. Adding more milk to make thinner. Drizzle.  Enjoy!

Granola

 

Since I started contributing to this blog there has been one glaring habit that I realize about my cooking... I do not measure anything. I just add ingredients until it looks right. So I'm going to post a recipe for granola that was the inspiration for the granola that I made over the weekend.

From the book: Recipes for a Small Planet

1/2 Cup honey
1/2 Cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup sesame seeds
1 Cup soy grits
1 Cup wheat germ
2 C unsweetened coconut, grated
7 C rolled oats

This recipe calls for heating up the oil, honey and vanilla in a large saucepan or dutch oven then baking at 350 for 15 minutes. I don't do that. I did something like this:

6 Cups oats
about 1/3 Cup sesame seeds
about 1/3 Cup sunflower seeds
about 1 Cup raisins
about 1/3 Cup milled flaxseed
about 1/3 Cup honey
about 1/2 Cup brown sugar (I ran out of honey in the middle of this recipe)
about 1/3 Cup grated coconut
about 1 Cup of chopped walnuts
a bunch of vanilla (maybe 6 or 7 Tablespoons? that's totally a guess)
and enough olive oil to lightly coat the batch

I baked my granola in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes or so, stopping to stir the mixture every 7 to 10 minutes. This makes a huge batch. I fill up a one gallon container with a nice tight lid and we munch on it for breakfast, as a snack or use as toppings for desserts and muffins. I'll try to do a better job of making notes and keeping track of what I'm actually throwing in there in the future. I said try. No promises.

Carrot Oat Muffins

When I look up recipes for carrot muffins I find a lot of recipes for carrot cake..... What I'm looking for is a healthy yummy crunchy recipe that tastes likes carrots, because I happen to like carrots a lot. I haven't found one that I really like yet... so I made one up.

When I make up recipes from scratch I try to make them as simple as possible so that I can remember them without having to look them up again. I try to keep the measurements to something I will remember and that looks like the right proportion when I throw it in the batter. Sometimes this works out, sometimes it doesn't. This combination worked out extremely well for the first round.

If you want to try them out below is the recipe... but I warn you they do not taste like carrot cake. As much as I love pineapple and cream cheese I omitted them for something more breakfast-y. They taste like crunchy carrot granola bars in muffin form.... my sweet toothed kids loved them.

 (this particular batch of muffins are heart shaped)

Recipe:

2 Cups shredded carrots

1/2 Cup chopped walnuts

1/2 Cup ground up oats (I toss mine in the food processor first)

1 Cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 teaspoons vanilla

1 stick of butter, softened

1 Cup of wheat flour

1 Cup of all purpose flour

1/3 Cup flaked coconuts, chopped up

1/3 Cup milled flaxseed

1/3 Cup raisins

1/3 Cup of applesauce

Bake 350 for 20-25 minutes

Eggs

Eggs are perfect in my opinion. I can eat them everyday without getting tired of them. I have only been cooking for 10 years, but in that time I have never once made an omelet to perfection.... until this week.

In the book Raising Chickens by Ashleigh English there is a recipe for omelets in the back and something caught my eye that I had never read before. A lid. Put a lid on the pan while the eggs set up.... Low and behold it made an amazing difference. My eggs set up perfectly and I enjoyed one of the best egg dishes I have ever had.

Here is my adapted recipe:
2 eggs
habanero chile sauce (to taste)
1/2 carrot, shredded
few slices of onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 roma tomato, chopped
fresh herbs (we currently have thyme, oregano & basil in our garden so that's what I used)
cheese (I used cheddar. Although if we had gouda I suspect it would be the perfect companion to this omelet)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
salt & pepper

* Whisk together eggs and chile sauce in small bowl.
* Heat a medium size skillet on medium-low heat. Melt 1 Tablespoon butter. Saute veggies first. Remove from pan.
* Melt the other Tablespoon of butter in same pan. Add egg mixture. Cover with a lid for a few minutes until eggs set up and you can run a spatula all around the edge without the eggs sticking or breaking.
*Top half of the omelet with veggies, cheese and fresh herbs. Fold omelet in half covering veggies. Cover with lid again for another minute or so.
* Slide beautiful omelet on plate. You can add salt & pepper if you like or salsa or sour cream or more chile sauce (yes please!)

Breakfast

Mornings are blurry around here. Our little one still isn't sleeping in her own bed through the night which leaves one of us with a waking imprint of an elbow in our back at the beginning of each day. I try to make muffins at least once a week to help get us started without too much fuss. If things are going really well we might even get 2 batches. This recipe was originally my mother-in-laws tried and true base muffin recipe... and I added my own flavors and goodness to make it our own.

Apple Walnut Muffins

Recipe:
1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 Cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons vanilla
1 C all-purpose flour
1 C whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 C chopped walnuts
1/4 C milled flaxseed
2 medium size apples peeled and grated
dash of cinnamon
dash of cloves

I'm not a stickler for method. So for me I toss things in the mixing bowl as I pull them from the cupboard or the refrigerator and I mix it all together. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

Sweet Coconut Banana Smoothie

We usually make this with Chocolate Almond Milk, but I accidentally bought Vanilla Coconut Milk from Silk this week. While everyone agrees on its yumminess, I haven't found much to use it for besides smoothies and with cooked oats.

Recipe for 2 adults, 2 children:


3 C Vanilla Coconut Milk by Silk (not the thai food canned coconut milk stuff)
2 T home-made chocolate sauce (we had some leftover from last weeks ice-cream)
1 frozen banana, sliced
2 spoon fulls of creamy peanut butter

Blend. Don't forget to lick the peanut butter spoon for good luck.