New Semester

I’ve started my 2nd semester of my program. I have more work, but somehow I’m not as stressed, stressed and I will be proposing my prospectus and hopefully getting to teach in the fall.

My Aunt Annie introduced me to these muffins and gave me the original recipe. I love them. Not too sweet, only whole wheat, and they contain veggies, fruit, and protein. One regular sized muffin will keep me going for a good 4 hours. I’ve tweaked it to my own preferences.

Zen Morning Glory Muffins

1 c molasses

5 ½ c Whole Wheat Flour

2 T. Ground Cinnamon

2 T Ground Ginger

4 t. Baking Soda

2 t. Baking Powder

1 t. salt

1 ½ c Raisins/Cranberries

1 lb Peeled & Grated Carrots

2 cups dried Shredded Coconut, unsweetened

1 8 oz can crushed pineapple or 1 c. pineapple (frozen or fresh) blended til chunky

1-2 c nuts (I like raw pepitas/raw pumpkin and sunflower seeds)

1 ¼ cups Vegetable Oil

4 t. Vanilla Extract

1 Cup Almond/Soy/Traditional Milk (if you use almond or soy these are vegan)

6 T Ground Flax seed mixed with 1 Cup Water

If you are using a traditional blender rather than spice blender/coffee grinder to grind the flax seed add the water a little at a time until it reaches the same consistency as pudding then add all the water.

Just mix everything together and baked at 375 for about 20 minutes. If you want you can use cupcake liners if not just quickly spray each cup.

370 degrees F, 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

I frequently only make a half recipe (full recipe is ~ 50 muffins) and freeze the half of the pineapple. You can also freeze the muffins. If you want them first thing in the morning 30 sec in the microwave, depending on the strength of your microwave, and they are ready. I prefer to eat mine midday, and I’ve found that I can carry it around in my satchel and it will defrost to the perfect temperature.

Do you know the muffin man?

Over the past couple years, I’ve started eating bananas. Healthy, cheap, easy, and full of energy. I couldn’t get into the texture and somehow it seemed too sweet. That being said I’ve gotten into bananas, to the extent I eat them almost everyday before the gym. Some days I plan to go to the gym and end up not going because something has changed or I realized I lost track of something. Which means that probably once a month at the end of the week I have an unhappy banana or two or three. These poor unhappy bananas get turned into banana bread or banana nut muffins. I love turning the banana bread into banana bread french toast, and my boyfriend will eat the muffins like they are candy, and with this much sugar they nearly are!

A dozen muffins!

I can’t take credit for the recipe, its been in my family in some variation or another for year. It’s so simple even with my couple additions/variations.

3 overly ripe bananas

1 stick of softened butter

1 c sugar

2 eggs

2 c all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 c chopped nuts – walnuts (mom’s favorite) or pecans (my preference) (optional)

Splash of vanilla (optional)

1/8-1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 325.

Mix bananas, softened butter, and sugar until its combined. Add eggs. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla if you want it. Mix in flour, salt, and baking powder. Make sure you get everything incorporated together. Finally add in the nuts if you want them.

Now there is the choice of turning this lovely batter into muffins or bread. I usually choose muffins because they tend to last longer and I can easily take them into school as one of my many snacks. Either way spray your muffin tins or bread pan with pam or cooking oil, so it doesn’t stick. If you use cupcake liners for your muffins, you don’t need to spray the pan.

Bread pans are good because you can be lazy and just dump the batter in the pan, but if you have a muffin tin there is one more step. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to spoon the batter into the muffin tins. This makes your muffins equally size and helps them to cook evenly.

Now bake for 40-45 minutes if you are making muffins or for 1 hour if making the bread. Check by sticking a butter knife or toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean and they are golden brown on top, they’re ready.

Final trick, when you pull it out and are letting things cool tip them on their side. This will also help everything not stick to the bottom of the pan.

Until later

Life is short, lick the spoon!

Breakfast is tasty all the time

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I took some time off from my research work went hiking, spent time with friends and family, and made way too many holiday cookies and sweets. I was lucky enough to have some lovely friends and family who desperately needed cookies, so I wasn’t completely overwhelmed by sweets.  I also gave some of my strawberry lemon ginger jam, Peach ginger brandy jam, and Indian peach chutney as holiday gifts. I’m going to have to make more of that Strawberry Lemon Ginger jam this spring. I eat it many days for my breakfast.

I love breakfast! It’s an underrated meal that can easily be made as healthy, fresh fruit with yogurt, or unhealthy, covering everything with Hollandaise sauce,  as you want. With as busy as I am, I rarely get to cook an actual good breakfast. Usually I eat yogurt or fruit or occasionally cold oatmeal, but I enjoy cooking sticky buns from scratch, Quiche, or pancakes…

Now every summer I go camping with my family and my Uncle Pete is the king of pancake-making with his own special recipe that he has developed over years. It’s always one of the treats to waking up and eating fresh pancakes with local maple syrup on the deck and watching the boats. So every once in a while I get a hankering for pancakes and attempt my own. They rarely turn out as well, but they fulfill my craving and remind me to look forward to pancakes next summer. So this time I made pancakes for dinner and dressed them up with bananas and pecans.

Look at those Bananas

Whole Wheat Banana Nut Pancakes (based on the Buttermilk Pancakes from the Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer)

• 3/4 c all-purpose flour
• 3/4 c whole wheat flour
• 3 T white sugar
• 1 1/2 T baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 1/2 c buttermilk or soured milk (just add some vinegar or lemon juice to the milk to sour it up a bit, don’t worry if it gets a bit clumpy)
• 3 T melted butter
• 2 eggs
• A healthy shake of cinnamon (1/4-1/2 t)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
• 1/2 c nuts – chose your favorite
• 2 large bananas peeled and sliced into 1/4-1/3 in rounds
• Extra butter or neutral oil for cooking

Mix dry ingredients, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, in large bowl. Start skillet heating on medium-low and add a little oil or butter to grease the bottom of the skillet. Add the wet ingredients, milk, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Stir gently and leave lumps. I realize this sounds counter intuitive, but otherwise you’ll over mix it and the pancakes will be flat and rubbery. You can add the nuts to the batter now or wait to sprinkle on while cooking in case someone doesn’t want nuts. Don’t leave the batter sitting around use a 1/4 or 1/3 cup as a scoop to plop the batter into the hot pan. Quickly place the banana slices and nuts, if you didn’t add them before, on top of the gooey batter and gently press them in. Depending on how many banana slices you use there may or may not be bubbles in the cooking pancakes. If there are bubbles flip the pancakes when the bubbles begin to pop if not you’ll just have to peak under to see when the bottom has begun to brown. After you’ve flipped them you’ll just have to peek under to see if the bottom is browned. It will only take a couple of minutes. Then pull them out of the pan and enjoy with syrup, peanut butter, or maybe powdered cinnamon sugar.

Almost ready!

A couple random notes:

This recipe makes 12-15 pancakes with a 4-5 inch diameter, so I frequently halve the recipe.

Also if you are making these for a group keep them warm by covering with a bowl or placing them in a warm oven.

Remember you’ll probably have to grease the pan after either every pancake or every other pancake.

Until later life is short, lick the spoon.