It’s final paper writing time. Meaning I’ve been procrastinating via baking all weekend.  These muffins are peanut butter chocolate chip and they’re delicious.

Recipe from Annie’s Eats.

These delicious muffins were served to 12 hungry yogis — warm from the oven during our weekend immersion.

1 cup Amaranth Flour

1 ¼ cups Cornmeal

2 tsp Baking Powder (gluten free)

1 tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp Sea Salt

2 eggs

1 cup Milk (buttermilk, almond, soy, rice or hemp milk)

1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

1/4 to 1/3 cup Maple Syrup (or Agave Syrup)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Whisk the eggs, milk, oil and maple syrup together in a larger bowl. Add the dry to the wet and mix just until combined. Spoon in to greased muffin trays or muffin cups and let stand 20 minutes. Bake for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes our clean.

You can also use a 9” pan if you prefer a loaf. Makes 12 muffins.

You can find Amaranth flour at any whole food store with a decent bulk food section.

Be creative – you can add so many tasty things to your cornmeal muffins: chopped jalapenos, green onion, cilantro, red chili flakes, bits of cheese or olives.  You can add cranberries in winter or berries in summer.  Great for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

- Je suis ton père. Tu ne vas pas tuer ton père.

- Ça s´appelle un parricide. Si ça porte un nom, c´est que ça existe.

- Tuer son père pour un journal intime!

- Il n’y a pas de mot pour la violation d’un journal. Ça prouve que c´est plus grave. C´est innommable.

Journal d´Hirondelle. Amélie Nothomb

I told you before about me  baking cookies for teenage girl school friends.  It turns out they were a little bit disappointed that she didn’t bake them herself.  So, last weekend she got in the kitchen and made these ones:

Van TofuParty-bakery

Lucky she made a double batch so we could have some at home too.

She used the recipe from the golden vanilla cupcakes from Vegan cupcakes take over the world. My only help was translating some of  the ingredients.

Happy Monday, I guess! If you’re like me, you’re returning to the work grind after a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving break. My body certainly wasn’t alright with its 6:00AM wake-up call this morning. I only snagged 6 hours last night, but will hopefully get to bed earlier tonight to compensate for last night’s lack of sleep.

Yesterday was the perfect lazy day. My friends and I have this philosophy about Sunday. We’ve dubbed the ultra relaxing day of the week, “Grandma Sunday” due to its delightfully lethargic and laid back nature.

As for yesterday’s eats, I had another lovely bowl of coconut chia oats:

It was a replica of Saturday’s oats, but rather than use Blue Diamond Honey Almond Butter, I went for the Dark Chocolate Dreams. Oh yeah!

I also had a sliced Fuji apple along with it due to an increased appetite from yesterday’s exercise (6 mile power walk + 1 Hour of Power Yoga = Chelsea will be a hungry lady):

For lunch, I knew some protein was in order, so I went for leftover baked tofu, baby carrots, and the last of my Siggi’s stash (topped with Ezekiel Golden Flax Cereal):

It filled me up big time in addition to granting me the energy for a decent workout at the ole’ gymnasium. My workout consisted of the following today:

-15 min. warm up on Stair Master

-(3 sets, 10 reps) Squats, lunges, calf raises, bicep curls, tricep extensions, overhead shoulder presses)

-20 bicycle crunches, 20 obliques (per side), 20 criss cross toe crunches

-Stretch

Later on in the afternoon, I snacked on a handful of these:

Blend of Raisins, Dried Figs, Pecans, Raw Almonds

Got gussied up in my preppiest gear (I do live in the same neighborhood where Gossip Girl is filmed, after all):

Bring Me Home To Your Mothers, Gentlemen! I'm That Type of Girl, At Least, I Can Pass As Such.

And had a nice pick-me-up, which I enjoyed outdoors as I read my book. Yesterday’s weather was fanrific:

Tall Skim Vanilla Latte

I then wandered around my hood lazily and ran errands. It’s worth mentioning that I got a little too excited about the fact that I found a FANTASTIC Mold & Mildew remover from this great discount store down the street from me called “Pricewise.” I love that place. Great customer service, and dirt cheap. I got cotton balls, soap, 2 decorative boxes of Kleenex, Tilex, and Ziploc baggies all for under $14. Move over, Duane Reade. Also, after re-reading that last paragraph it became apparent to me that I sorta, kinda, maybe could use a boyfriend or something to that effect. Oh well, at least my bathtub is spotless and shimmering with sparkly goodness.

After scrubbing my bathroom from head to toe, I gabbed on the phone for quite some time with my old buddy, Eric. We laughed and laughed, as per usual. Namely, about muffins. Long story.

For dinner I was not in cooking mode what-so-ever, so I fashioned the laziest supper ever:

Peanut Butter and Jelly on Whole Grain Bread, Chobani Pineapple Yogurt, Bartlett Pear

It was satisfying though, I must say.

Dessert was a serving of Edy’s peppermint ice cream:

I then read my little mind out until past my bedtime, hence the 6 hours of sleep.

Hope you have a fabulous Monday!

What mundane activities do you take absolute delight in? Grocery shopping and closet organizing. Love it!

Sweet, moist, and entirely too decadent to be called a muffin. We love these delightful treats anytime-not just for breakfast. The first time I made these, I used one can of tart cherries, but they just didn’t have enough cherries, so I added another half of a can.

These muffins actually taste better the next day, if there are any left.

cherry pie muffins

Cherry Almond Muffins

1 1/2 cans red tart cherries in water
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups unbleached white flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons Rumford baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup safflower or canola oil
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Milk
2 eggs

Topping:
Cut 2 tablespoons cold margarine into 1/4 cup chopped almonds, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup flour.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease muffin pan. Mix cherries and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, mix oil, almond milk, almond extract, and eggs; pour into dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Fold in cherries. Scoop into prepared pan; sprinkle with topping. Bake 15 -20 minutes. Makes 12 muffins.

I’ve been busy with exam this week, however, I still manage to bake these muffins. Yup, it’s called procrastibaking, I came across this word on a food blog, I couldn’t exactly remember  where, though. These muffins recipe was modified from And then I do the dishes, with a small modifications. The recipe calls for rinds from 2 lemons, this apparently enough to give a lemony taste and a lovely yellow colour. I glazed the top of the muffins with a thin icing sugar + lemon juice.

Ingredients :

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 egg
1/2 cup  sugar
zest from about two lemons
1/4 cup melted butter (I used less, because I was running out of butter, and add some veg oil to make 1/4 cup)
1 1/4 cups ricotta cheese + 1 tbsp lemon juice, mix
1 tsp vanilla paste

• mix dry ingredients in  a large bowl, except the sugar
• rub sugar and lemon zest until the sugar moist and lemony, add wet ingredients
• mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients
• divide evenly into 12 greased muffins tin.
• bake for 25 – 30 min in 160 – 180 C in the middle rack of the oven.

I was looking at the Better Homes and Gardens Recipes and came across this applesauce cupcake which looked delicious.  Knowing, hubby loves applesauce, I was pretty sure I would not go wrong with this recipe and I did not.  I made some changes to this recipe.  I do not use shortening unless, there is absolutely no option for a substitute.    I will make the changes on the recipe below and if you want the original recipe, please go here. 

These are gluten-free so you know that I substituted my gluten-free baking mix.    I double or triple this and store it in a cannister.  It goes quickly.  If you are making it, judge by your own usage, what you need.

Rather than make cupcakes, I made mini bundts which I think are a lot nicer.  I baked it longer of course and found I had to keep checking it until it was really done. 

*Gluten free baking mix

*3 c. rice flour   (Rice flour comes in white and brown.  We use brown but when I can’t get it, I substitute white so it would appear, they are inter-changeable.)
1 c. potato starch (NOT potato flour)
½ c. tapioca starch
Mix well.

For this recipe, I used two cups of this mixture.

Applesauce Cupcakes                  

 Directions

What other way to start a kitchen blog than with a bit of sweet afternoon tea? I choose this recipe today because I hadn’t tried the combination of berry and coffee before. I was almost tempted to throw in some chocolate pieces, but thought I’d follow the recipe…..THIS time.

Here’s the finished product…

Taste: A little earthy, and not too sweet as all the sweetness is provided by the berries. The coffee offsets the sugar that is in these babies so if you like something sweeter add a bit more sugar (or I’d throw in some choc chunks myself as it would be a nice taste to add to the coffee and berries)The coffee taste needs to be stronger, because if you didn’t know there was coffee in them, you’d be asking what that taste was.  I’m not a huge fan of this recipe and would give it a miss.

Rating: ♥ (out of 5)

Recipe:

2tbl boiling water
2tbl instant coffee
1 tbl milk
110 g butter, melted
400 g SR flour
175g castor sugar
1 tsp bi carb soda
2 beaten eggs
265 ml milk
225g fresh or frozen berries of your choice (I used mixed)

Preheat the oven to 200c

Mix all your dry ingredients together.
Mix the coffee with the boiling water, then add to your melted butter.
Beat the eggs and milk and pour into the dry mix.
Add the buttery mixture.
Mix all together, then add berries at the last minute gently.

Pop in muffin pans and cook for around 20 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes and eat whilst still warm (although I quite like them cold myself)
Makes up to around 15 medium size muffins.

Source: 500 cupcakes & muffins by Fergal Connolly

This is a sweet joyful way to start your day. Loaded with fiber, nuts, and fruits, this grab-and-go treat is perfect for the busy set.

What you need:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup muesli
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chopped ripe banana
• 1/4 cup min chocolate chips

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 375 °F. Line a muffin pan with paper cups.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and sugar in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mix butter, honey, vanilla, eggs and milk.
4. Mix together both dry and wet mixtures. Then fold in the rest of the ingredients.
5. Scoop into lined muffin tins and bake at 375 °F for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and springy when lightly touched.

Makes 9 muffins. Prep Time 10 to 15 minutes. Baking Time 20 to 30 minutes.

Tried and tested! www.yummy.ph

I just realized something. When I finish at my job next weekend, there will be no more weekend breakfast cookies!! *Tear* Perhaps it’s something I will have to keep up on the weekends. Especially since I like to do “weekend breakfasts,” like waffles, mid-week anyways

This morning was my new favourite – a s’muffernutter breakfast cookie.

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• splash water (didn’t have almond milk last night)
• marshmallow fluff
• mini chocolate chips

Snack was another favourite – chopped pear and cottage cheese.

Dude. Bartlett pears are 74 cents a pound at the Atlantic Superstore. Sorry $2.49/lb honeycrisp apples. You’ve been replaced.

“Lunch” was egg white pillows on a whole wheat bagel with laughing cow cheese.

And edamame.

Love these little single-portioned containers. Perfect for lunches!

After a quick stop to the grocery store, I came home and got my bake on. First up, Peanut ButterNut Squash Muffins. Y’all know I have an aversion to pumpkin but peanut butter on butternut squash is one of my favourite things to eat. So why not make them into muffins?

I adapted this recipe from Meghann’s Pumpkin Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins which was apparently adapted from VeggieGirl’s Banana Peanut Butter Bread which was apparently adapted from the Veganomicon Cookbook. Phew! These muffins have been around!

• 1 cup mashed butternut squash (I cooked one in the microwave and just scooped it out)
• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1/8 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, added to the batter as needed

Mix the flour, baking soda and spices together. In a separate bowl, mix the squash, applesauce, oil, sugar and maple syrup. Slowly add wet mixture to the dry, and add almond milk to get it to that “muffin consistency” (hope you know what that is!) Bake in a 350 F oven for 20 minutes (it took mine longer for some reason). This made 12 decent sized muffins.

I of course had one immediately out of the oven slathered in Earth Balance!

Ohmylanta. Uh-mazing. Now, you must understand, my baking expectations for myself are pretty low (you’ll understand when you see my next experiment). But these are the best muffins I’ve ever made!! Both the butternut squash and peanut butter flavours shine through, and are perfectly balanced. The texture is very dense and soft, not sickly moist like when you bake with pumpkin. I also may have quadrupled the cinnamon from the original recipe, which I think helped a lot

Now. My next, uh, experiment. Well, I was not nearly as pleasantly surprised with this. I had a bruised and battered banana that needed to be used, but didn’t want any more muffins in my apartment. So I wracked my brain (and internet) and ended up with chocolate banana protein bars. They’re based on the Strawberry Banana Meal Replacement Bars I found here.

• 1 cup raw oatmeal
• 5 scoops of strawberry protein powder ( 90g of protein) – I used 6 scoops of my chocolate whey protein powder
• 1/4 cup fat free cream cheese – I used 4 laughing cow cheese wedges
• 1/2 cup non fat dry milk powder – Omitted, ran out
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup water – Replaced with 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1 1/2 bananas, mashed – Just used one
• 2 tsp. canola oil

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 9×9 square pan with cooking spray & set aside. In a medium bowl combine oatmeal, protein powder & dry milk. Set aside. In another bowl beat together with an electric hand mixer, cream cheese, egg whites, bananas, water & oil. Add the oat mixture & continue to beat until the two are combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan & bake for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

First and foremost, they are not muffins. But I don’t own a 9×9 baking pan, or anything remotely close. So I made what I thought would be “circular bars.” Except they puffed up!!!

I have no idea how this happened! The mix was super liquidy and I was expecting them to just harden in the oven. Apparently not. They’re a little squishy, but texture-wise not too bad. It’s just the protein powder. I love the taste of protein powder. But it’s too sweet for me in baked goods. At least in chocolate form anyways. I’m still going to eat them though. Anything is edible with nut butter on it

I was going to make hummus after this, but I ran out of garbanzo beans!! I always have a can on hand so I didn’t bother picking any up at the grocery store. Boo

I kept my oven working for dinner, roasting (or baking, whatever) a chicken breast, sweet potato, mushrooms and onions.

I covered the chicken in some Kirkland organic no-salt seasoning then topped the sweet potato with cottage cheese. Wonderful meal, the chicken was SO juicy!! I think I’m starting to get a hang of this poultry thing.

Now I’m stuffed!! I snacked a lot while I was in the kitchen and cleaning today. But alas, tomorrow is a new day. I took a rest day today because my quads are still wrecked from Friday’s spin class. Now they should be good to go for one of my notorious Sunday afternoon gym visits

Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend!

Questions of the Day:

1. What is your favourite kind of muffin? Mine is carrot (no surprise there) but runner ups would be apple oatmeal and banana nut.

2. What is your worst baking FAIL? My first attempt at cupcakes in high school was probably my worst. The pages in my mom’s cookbook stuck together, and I accidentally added three whole eggs to the dozen-sized batter. They turned into little egg cakes

I’m not the kind of baker who wanders into the kitchen, in the mood to bake, and ever, ever settles on muffins.  I don’t even really consider eating muffins.  I suppose they’re okay for brunch or at a breakfast bar, but I would much rather have french toast, a danish, or burrito.  Muffins are just never on my radar.

I had some plums left over from making Plum Oat Crisp and this recipe is the only other one in the MSBH that uses plums, so I figured now is as good a time as ever to make muffins.  If you want my honest opinion, I think the MSBH people really phoned this one in.  It’s alright, but nothing special.  It certainly doesn’t remind me of coffee cake and dropping a spoonful of chopped plums into the middle of each muffin doesn’t seem all that special.

That being said, it’s a fairly quick & easy recipe and the muffins taste just fine.

Wet ingredients (including a fair amount of melted butter) are poured and then folded with the dry.

The batter is spooned into buttered muffin tins and a couple tablespoons of chopped plums are placed on top.

Then another couple spoonfuls are dropped on top of the fruit and cinnamon-sugar is sprinkled on top.

They baked up easily enough, although I didn’t have enough batter to finish all the muffins.

Muffin top!  I know you want to get with this, but I’m just here to dance.

I honestly don’t know why the plum pieces could not just be folded in to the batter.  Spooning them in the middle didn’t really result in anything special.  Am I right?

My darling girl’s favourite.

I have been living it up here in my mother’s kitchen.  Nothing beats having an amazing kitchen to cook in with every ingredient at your disposal.  I acquired my love for baking and cooking from my mother.  When I was a wee one I would sit on the counter and watch my Mom create delicious meals, which inspired a passion in me when I grew up.

I remember at a very early age making my own scrambled eggs, grilled cheese and french toast.  My grandfather always used to say that, whenever he looked after me, I would always ask him if  I could make him french toast.  I don’t really have any recollection of this, but  I guess I thought I was really good at making it and wanted everybody to have some

There is nothing more satisfying then creating good food, especially when you are making it for other people to enjoy. Through the years I have watched my mother and the joy and love she instills in her cooking, and I am so thankful that she has passed this onto me.

Today’s creations in the kitchen consisted of Black Bean Chicken Chili, Whole Wheat Cornbread and Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins.

Chili’s are by far my favorite fall/winter dish.  You can pack them with so many nutritious ingredients  and they are just so comforting on a cold day.  And in my mind, the perfect match to a yummy chili is cornbread.

My chili pot consisted of black beans, red and orange peppers, sweet potatoes, carrots, pulled chicken, a can of diced tomatoes, onion, and garlic.  My seasonings were chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper.  Combined together, this was one big pot of deliciousness!

The cornbread was fabuloso, but I am such a dufus and forget where I got the recipe from.  I will keep searching and post it when I find it.

The blueberry muffins were definitely the star of the day.  They were so moist and super yum. The recipe is so easy and it includes scrumptious things such as blueberries, dried cranberries oatmeal, orange juice and bran.

Blueberry Oat Muffins:

1/2 cup oats

1/4 bran

1/2 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 sugar

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup blueberries

1/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat over to 400 degrees

In a small bowl, mix the oats and the orange juice. Set aside

In a medium bowl mix flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt.  Mix in the egg and oil.  Stir in the oat mixture and fold in the blueberries.  Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups.

Bake for 18-20 mins.  Test with a toothpick to ensure doneness. Enjoy

Have a super Saturday!

I am off to find a dress for my sister’s wedding, wish me luck!

Day 79: FanIce takes highway robbery to the next level

It’s official…all FanMilk products-in-a-bag are now 10p more expensive. I thought I was being cheated last Sunday, but today I saw an ad in the Daily Graphic with the new prices. Katharyn texted me about it RIGHT after I saw said ad, and we commiserated. Damn you, FanMilk! I hope the price of FanGold didn’t go up, cause it’d probably be GhC 1.50 or something. So much for ever eating ice cream in a cup again.

I was feeling uninspired about dinner for most of the day, until I flipped through my pirated recipes from you-know-where and came across Seafood & Cabbage Salad. I made approx. ¼ of this recipe, using the (real!) canned crab my parents sent (thanks Mom & Dad!!). I also substituted cucumber for the broccoli, and didn’t have any Worcestershire sauce. But it was quite good, even despite the mostly-flavorlessness of the crab. But I bet once it sits in the fridge for a night, the flavors will meld and become enhanced. Can’t wait for lunch tomorrow…

Earlier today I tried boiling some of those little seeds that look like a cross between rice and orzo. Didn’t work. Well, they got boiled, but they have a really tough outer shell and even if you only eat the insides they still taste weird. Good thing I only bought 20p worth. Lastly: the Saudi Arabian glucose biscuits have definitely surpassed Vega biscuits (sorry, Asia) on my favorites list. Also SO GOOD.

Day 81: Banana muffins om nom nom

Weekend power outages seem to be the norm here in Chiana. As long as it comes back on before bedtime, I won’t be too mad…but I just made ricotta, and I’d kind of like for it not to spoil. Thanks.

This morning I made my best Eggs&Bread yet, with plenty of olive oil, a tiny red onion, tomato and lots of salt/pepe. Then I fried some brown bread for the outside…mmm. I’m getting better every time at replicating the heavenly stand-bought taste.

The bananas I bought yesterday have a really weird texture, and it’s possible that the lights will not, in fact, come back on, resulting in the bananas currently in cold storage melting/becoming gross. So I made Banana Muffins from the DOC and steamed them in tiny Ideal cans like I did the Brown Bread. They took and hour and a half, and they weren’t QUITE as fully cooked as you would expect from a muffin, but if you use twice as much sugar as it calls for, they’re pretty darn good.  Light and fluffy—4 stars. To utilize a phrase I haven’t used since the end of college, om nom nom.

Day 82: Apple Pie for Breakfast

So I figured out what was wrong with my last attempt at making Sautéed Apples: I left out the butter. I made (sort of) Bubbly Apple Topping this morning, with half the apples/¼ the margarine/half the brown sugar and added ~1tsp cinnamon. After a few minutes of simmering, the sauce had thickened to a very strange consistency; it was almost like mucus (sorry, gross). But it tasted AMAZING, and when I put it on Fried Cornmeal Mush it was like having apple pie for breakfast. I licked the plate.

Day 83: A1 Thick ‘N Hearty: A thicker, richer sauce that makes hamburgers taste like steak burgers. And bean burgers taste like heaven.

So the other night, while the lights were out, I foolishly started boiling about a half cup of formerly dried beans. Some had been soaking for the last two days, and I wanted to use them, but I didn’t eat them that night. Instead, I got carried away and made pesto (love instant sauce packets).  So into the fridge they went. But they came out again tonight, and this bean burger experiment was even more successful than the first. In the mix: 1c cooked beans and ½ heaping cup rice, well mashed together; ½ finely chopped large carrot, a bunch of chopped, raw Alefo leaves; 1 sm onion, 2 cloves raw garlic, and a whole lotta chili powder/Adobo/pepe. Then I added ~2T flour to make them stick together—and they didn’t fall apart aTALL on the stove! Plus they tasted excellent. I didn’t even bother with the bread. But I did notice that ketchup and A1 Thick ‘N Hearty both enhance the bean/veggie burger flavor quite nicely.  Must be the tomato products.

Also: it is possible to make “chocolate ice cream” from FanIce: just mix in a teaspoon of cocoa powder. I tried it, was pleased with results. Now if only I had some Hershey’s syrup…but I bet I could make that too, somehow.

Day 84: Four Cheesy Beans & Rice

Last night wile lying in bed I had a fabulous idea about how to use up the leftover beans & rice from last night. Four Cheese sauce packet. Voila! So I did it, and it was indeed good, although the refrigerated beans & rice cooled off the sauce pretty fast. But it was still delicious. Then I added chili powder and pepe after realizing that what I really wanted was Southwest Four Cheesy Beans & Rice. It was a good idea.

The only problem with these sauce packets is that they make 6 or so servings—too much even for a great lover of condiments, like me, to eat at once.  And I love leftovers, but cold Four Cheese isn’t as good as warm…oh well.

For dinner I made McCormick Potato Steamers…except I used sweet potatoes and Fra-Fra potatoes instead of regular, and cooked them on the stove instead of “steaming” in the enclosed microwavable bag. It was Italian herb, or something…good, but a bit salty and not spectacular. I think From Scratch might be a better choice when it comes to potatoes.

Side note: those “little potatoes” I talked about before? Some of the staff at my school were marveling over a bunch of them that someone had bought today. The headmaster wandered in and said, “Oh, we call those Fra-Fra potatoes!” and went on to explain about all the different potatoes grown here. It was funny.

Also: the Fra-Fra potatoes are good, with a strong potatoey taste, but they take too long to cook.  So to help I took a cue from the “steamers” portion of the package: after they had cooked awhile, I dumped in half a cup of water to try and “steam” them some with a makeshift skillet cover on.  It worked (I think)—they were done enough when the water had evaporated.  Maybe the next Fra-Fra adventure will include boiling them first to reduce pan-frying time.

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No hay nada como levantarte un sábado, desayunar y cocinar muffins!

Esos suculentos bizcochitos… mmmh!

La receta no es de elaboración propia, ni mucho menos! Mi madre encontró hace años esta receta, que se la enseñó a mi hermana (seguro que a mí también, pero nunca pude recordar ni los ingredientes, ni las dosis ni el tiempo…), así que fue mi hermana la que tomó el mando respecto a la realización de bizcochos en casa. Así que antes de iniciar mi aventura por tierras inglesas, me detalló paso a paso, dosis a dosis y el tiempo concreto de la realización de los bizcochos.

Pero para poder hacerlo un poco mío, en lugar de disponer de la masa en forma rectangular, la dispongo en los pequeños recipientes de papel destinados a futuras magdalenas, añadiendo además mi toque más que personal: Chocolate!

Para mentes incrédulas… los muffins alegran el día, y si no, probad!

Ingredientes:

1 yogur

1 dosis del mismo yogur con aceite

1 dosis con azúcar

3 dosis con harina

3 huevos

1 sobre de levadura

Ante todo, es muy importante precalentar el horno, a unos 180º (recomiendo hacerlo des del primer momento, así a medida que tenemos los ingredientes listos, el horno también estará preparado). Y será necesario untar con mantequilla la bandeja que servirá como recipiente para la masa, si se decide hacer un bizcocho en lugar de muffins.

Bien, se colocan los ingredientes en un bol, añadiendo mi ingredientequeledauntoquebuenisssimooo: una dosis del mismo yogur con cacao en polvo (obviaremos marcas) y se bate con la ayuda de una batidora -mejor que a mano-. Cuando tenemos la masa lista añadimos el toquefinalqueledaanuestrobizcochounsaborgenial: pepitas de chocolate. Las pepitas de chocolate se pueden encontrar en tiendas, o bien, una opción muy fácil es coger la tableta de chocolate y cortarla o partirla en trozitos pequeños. Las pepitas se añaden a la masa tal cual, es decir no se vuelve a batir, si no que simplemente con una cuchara de madera ayudamos a que las pepitas se repartan de forma regular por la masa.

Ya estamos preparados para rellenar los recipiente de papel o la bandeja (en ambos estará bueno). Lo disponemos y hacia el horno!

Transcurridos unos 30 minutos tendremos que confirmar que la masa está en su punto; para comprobarlo cogemos algun objeto punzante y lo introducimos en el muffin o en el bizcocho, si el objeto punzante sale limpio, señal de que ya está hecho.

Espero vuestros resultados.

¡Feliz desayuno, feliz merienda, feliz picarentrehoras!

These are fun and easy to make and don’t take a lot of time~get the kids involved!

STUFFIN’ MUFFINS

1 bag Brownberry sage and onion stuffing mix.
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup Craisins (dried cranberries)
1 cup chicken stock
1 egg

*optional ingredients: finely chopped mushrooms, apples, anything you would normally add to your favorite stuffing recipe.

Place all ingredients together in a large bowl. Beat egg and chicken stock together, and pour into bowl. Mix all together thoroughly until evenly moist; add water as needed.

Spray muffin pan with cooking spray. Using a large ice cream scoop, fill muffin cups to top,  pressing down to form dense “muffin”.  Add one pat of butter to top of each “muffin” and bake in a pre-heated 350° oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Zutaten:

• 240g Mehl
• 2 TL Backpulver
• 1/2 TL Salz
• 100g gemahlene Mandeln (alternativ natürlich auch Haselnüsse möglich)
• 1 TL gemahlener Zimt
• 2 Eier
• 100g Zucker
• 125ml Öl
• 100ml Milch
• 1-2 gewürfelte Äpfel

Eier, Öl und Milch mit Salz, Zucker und Zimt schaumig rühren. Mehl und Backpulver vermischen, mit flüssigen Zutaten verrühren. Danach die gemahlenen Mandeln hinzugeben (eventuell geht nur noch unterheben ohne Rührgerät), Äpfel unterrühren.

In Muffinformen füllen (habe ein Muffinblech für 12 Muffins und lege es immer noch mit diesen Papierformen aus, passt) und bei 200°C auf der mittleren Schiene etwa 20-25 Minuten backen bis sie schön braun sind.

Achja – der Teig klebt ähnlich wie der Lebkuchenteig, nicht sehr schön…also beim Einfüllen (in Muffinbleche) etwas vorsichtig sein, lässt sich schlecht wegwischen.

Passt durch den Apfel-Zimt-Geschmack hervorragend in die Weihnachtsszeit

Dal libro della Fata Farina… le ricette per essere Maghi in Cucina!

Utilizzeremo per questa ricetta i nostri prodotti :

Farina per Torte “Magia” de Le farine Magiche Lo Conte,

Cacao Amaro in polvere Decorì, Vanillina Decorì

Per 15 Muffins 30 minuti facile

Ingredienti :

250 g di Farina per Torte “Magia”

200 gr zucchero

100 gr riso soffiato Crokorì

25 gr cacao amaro in polvere

1 bustina di ammoniaca Decorì

120 gr di latte

2 uova

100 gr di olio

1 vasetto di yogurt bianco naturale

Preparazione

In una terrina versa la Farina per Torte “Magia”, lo zucchero, il cacao e la vanillina.
Unisci l’olio, il latte, lo yogurt ed infine le uova.
Amalgama bene il tutto aiutandoti con uno sbattitore, se l’impasto dovesse essere troppo asciutto aggiungi un po’ di latte, se, al contrario, dovesse risultare troppo morbido aggiungi altra farina.
Mescola bene il tutto ed unisci 80 gr di riso soffiato.

Metti l’impasto nei pirottini, ricordandoti di riempirli a metà, e spolvera con il riso soffiato .

Inforna per 20 minuti in forno a 180°.

I Trucchi per Muffins perfetti

Usando l’olio nell’impasto i muffins rimmarranno morbidi per almeno 3 – 4 giorni.

I’ve been spending a lot of my time lately at the hospital with a friend. I feel sort of helpless in situations like this, which always turns into the need to make something for the people involved. Such as muffins. In specific, the banana-strawberry muffins from Annie’s Eats.

They’re amazing, especially eaten with a spoon with some vanilla ice cream.