I’m taking a break today from baking and wanted to know what kind of muffin you’d like me to bake next? Something savory or something heart healthy? I’d love to have an actual muffin name so just write in your favorite muffin.
I have tried & true berry muffin recipes but thought ya’ll might want something different than the norm.
Happy Baking,
Jess
I have never been so thrilled or excited to see and taste these muffins. I am not a big lover of banana bread because normally, in my opinion – and its all about me, they are way overpowered with bananas. But these have a hint of banana and also have coconut, applesauce, and molasses for depth of flavor. The coconut makes it sweet and provides an interesting texture, but again, not so much to make it all about one flavor. These simply are scrumptious!
Yum!
Banana Bread Muffins
Yields 24 muffins
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup quick-1 minute oatmeal
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts
2 to 2.5 medium bananas
1 brown egg, lightly beaten, preferably from a local farm
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated cane sugar, preferably organic
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup applesauce
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/8 cup molasses
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.
Mash bananas in small bowl, stirring in vanilla, then set aside. In a food processor chop pecans and set aside. Next, chop oats in processor and then combine, in a large bowl, with flour, baking soda, and salt.
Melt butter in a separate bowl and then stir in sugar until it has completely dissolved.
Next, mix in the applesauce, molasses, beaten egg, and coconut; stirring well.
Thought this picture was neat
Make a well in the bottom of the dry mixture and stir in butter mixture until almost combined but not completely.
Here is what the 'well' should look like before mixing in liquid ingredients
Then mix in the banana mixture and pecans, being careful to not over stir. Fill muffin cups with 1 1/2 to 2 tbsps of batter.
How full my muffin liners were
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes, turning pan halfway through.
Enjoy!
Jessica
Welcome to Muffin Week!!! I have lots of tasty muffins in store for you this week and today’s muffins include one of my favorite ingredients – poppy seed. You’ll find that I went a tad (okay, maybe more than a tad) overboard on the poppy seed, so feel free to use less. I just love their crunch!
I cannot explain how many times I’ve tried creating a lemon poppyseed muffin but I could never figure out the right proportion of ingredients. It is normally too greasy or too spongy and no matter how much I altered butter/oil/milk/egg I could never get them right. Well this one worked perfect! I found a recipe for a poundcake muffin and decided to use half the yogurt, added in milk, and a lot more poppy seed.
So without further adieu….
Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Adapted from Joy of Baking
Yields 12 – 15 muffins
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
3+ tbsp poppyseeds
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 ounces plain yogurt
4 ounces whole milk
4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 large brown egg, preferably from a farm, lightly beaten
grated lemon zest from 1 large lemon
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a muffin pan with paper liners.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, poppy seeds, salt, and baking soda. In another bowl, mix together the yogurt, milk, lemon zest, and vanilla extract.
Using an electric mixer, beat the softened butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Mix in the egg, beating well to ensure it is mixed thoroughly. Now, beat in the liquid milk mixture, scraping down the sides as needed.
Next, make a well in the bottom of your dry mixture bowl. (I forgot to take a picture of this step, but basically you just want there to be an empty spot in the bottom middle of your dry mixture.) Pour the liquid into this well and stir until just combined. BE CAREFUL – the more you stir, the less your muffins will rise and be airy. So do not overmix/overstir, etc.
Fill muffin tins approximately 1/2 to 2/3 full and bake for 15-18 minutes in preheated oven. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!
There are lots of tried & true ways to make your muffins turn out just right – where they look great and taste even better. Click here to view Joy of Baking’s helpful hints for making muffins.
And I’d love to know…What is your favorite type of muffin?
Jess
Here in my house we adore muffins! I love to bake them and my kids love to eat them! So with all that muffin love, I thought I’d declare next week MUFFIN WEEK and share some of my favorite muffin recipes with you. From the classic blueberry to banana bread to lemon poppy seed….these are the visions of my heart. I’ve tried to make them as healthy as possible while still making them taste like a muffin should. They all have fruit in them and are all delicious!
So check in next week for some new takes on tasty muffins!
Have a great weekend ~ Jess
Blueberry muffins made from local blueberries
Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
This meal is nothing fancy, nothing elaborate, but is so good in the simple essence of roasted beef. It is comforting on a cold night and can be served to good friends over for dinner to just catch up & relax. I hope you enjoy!
Budget Note: This grass fed 1.5 pound boneless chuck roast cost me under $12 and fed 4 adults. The portions were a healthy amount combined with a side of brown rice and roasted carrots & onions. The total cost for my entire dinner was $4/person. So maybe next week you can find some locally raised, grass fed beef to include in your weekly menu. And, if you only fed 2 adults this roast, you could put the leftovers into a stir fry to stretch the meat further.
Classic Pot Roast
Ingredients
Marinade
3 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tsp olive or canola oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Worcesteshire or Heinz 57 Sauce
1/4 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1.5 lb boneless chuck roast
Roast
1 small yellow onion, cut into quarters
2 cups fresh baby carrots, sliced in half
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup red wine
Preparation
In a gallon size Ziploc bag mix together all of the marinade ingredients and then add the roast. Allow to marinate for 4-8 hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a dutch oven or oven safe skillet, heat apprx. 2 tsp of olive oil over medium high heat. Remove roast from marinade and discard marinade. Apply kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to roast and then sear on each side for approximately 4-5 minutes. This helps seal in the juices. Once all sides have been seared, remove roast from pan.
Reduce heat to low and add onions, carrots, and garlic. Saute for approximately 1 minute and then add in chicken broth, stirring up the browned bits on bottom of pan. Remove from heat and place 1 bay leaf on the top of carrots & onions.
On top of this, place the roast. Then add the remaining bay leaf on top of the roast.
Lastly, pour the red wine over the bay leaf and roast.
Place pan into preheated oven and allow to cook for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. The time in oven will all depend upon the size of your roast. If your roast is 3 to 4 pounds it will probably require 1.5 to 2 hours roasting time. Use a digital thermometer (LOVE MY HUSBAND….he got me a new (and working one) for Christmas!) to determine when your roast is finished. Medium rare will be 145 degrees; medium will be 160 degrees; and well-done will be 170 degrees.
Remove your roast from pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Resting allows all the juices to settle back down. Enjoy with the carrots & onions. This would also be great served with mashed potatoes. Maybe, blue cheese mashed potatoes? Yummm! Also, the juices in the bottom of the pan make this even juicier!
I’d love to hear if you try the recipe out or if you have another classic pot roast recipe you use.
Cheers to eating locally & humanely raised cattle!
Jess
Happy New Year’s!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas & New Year’s and has made it through day 2 of their New Year’s resolutions.
I’m guessing I am not the only one hoping to eat more healthy this year, so I want to share a tasty fruit salsa we had during our trip to Nebraska over Thanksgiving. This salsa is spicy, sweet, and addictive. Which is perfect when watching yet another, BCS BOWL GAME! Unfortunately, the Huskers lost today but it was a lot of fun to try to cheer them on.
The good news about this recipe is that it is very versatile so feel free to substitute with what is in your crisper. This recipe is actually a variation of the original because my cousins got creative with what was in their kitchen.
NOTE: If you have a garden still going you might have some cilantro fresh on hand and hopefully a local farmer will have onions available. For future reference later this year…You can freeze peppers for 2 to 3 months and they’ll still provide a kick. So this October/November when you experience WAY TOO MANY peppers on hand, put some in a freezer bag for later use. A good way to have herbs always on hand is to harvest continually during the growing season and preserve by placing chopped herbs in ice cube trays and adding water on top. Once frozen, place cubes into Ziploc bags.
Mango Fruit Salsa
Ingredients
1 medium sized mango
1 small can crushed pineapple
1 medium sized apple
1/2 cup diced red onion
2 jalapenos
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
2-3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1-2 tbsp olive oil
dash of kosher salt
Recipe
After peeling the mango, apple, and onion, roughly chop and dice them along with the jalapenos and cilantro. Place all items except for salt in a food processor and chop until desired consistency is reached. This can be as chopped/pureed as you would like. Season with just a dash of kosher salt if desired.
Now, what made this fruit salsa especially great were the cinnamon sugar chips we had with it! I unfortunately do not have a picture but here is a recipe. And beware, you’ll eat a ton of these just as soon as they come out of the oven so definitely buy more tortilla shells than you think you’ll use!
Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Chips
Ingredients
24 ounce bag flour tortillas
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 – 2 tbsp ground cinnamon
Note: The ratio of sugar to cinnamon is a suggestion. Add/Decrease each amount to what suits your taste.
Recipe
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a microwavable bowl and in a separate bowl stir together the cinnamon and sugar.
Brush melted butter over one side of a tortilla and then generously sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cut into 8 pieces and place on an unlined cookie sheet. Continue the above process with additional tortilla shells until cookie sheet is filled. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 15 minutes or until crispy and lightly golden.
Happy Football Watching & Happy New Year’s!
Jessica
PS…And can I just say how lucky & blessed I am to be able to call my husband’s cousins my own and so thankful for how welcoming they’ve been to me through the years. Love ya’ll!
If the Santa and Elves in your household enjoy chocolate then this recipe is for you! Its got semi-sweet grated chocolate plus milk chocolate chips. And, if you love oatmeal in cookies, this recipe delivers on that too! This is one of my favorite cookies…I’ve been known to devour 2 dozen in 2 days, all by myself! So be careful…they are addictive!
Pure Chocolate Delight!
Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you Google this recipe you’ll find lots of different variations and an interesting story of how the recipe came to be. I’ll save the story telling for someone else but this variation came from a friend’s mom a few year’s back. The chocolate has been scaled back and the recipe is halved. Even with halving the recipe it still makes 4-5 dozen cookies. But that’s good right…the more for you to eat?
Ingredients
1 cup, 8 oz, unsalted butter, softened
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 brown eggs, preferably farm raised, slightly beaten
1 to 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups organic all purpose flour
2 1/2 cups quick 1-minute oatmeal
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
12 oz bag milk chocolate chips
4 oz chocolate semi-sweet bars
Notes
To soften butter, leave out at room temperature for 30 – 45 minutes. You don’t want to microwave it as that messes with the make up of the molecules so the cookies don’t have the right texture. Also, organic flour (or at least the brand I use, King Arthur) has a higher protein make up of the flour which limits how much the cookies spread while baking. Also, I’ve found that if you use 1-minute oatmeal versus old fashioned you will have more moist cookies. And if you slightly beat the eggs before hand it ensures you get no shell in your dough and also distributes the egg more evenly into the dough, in my opinion!
Recipe
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat liners.
Grate chocolate bars into a medium size bowl.
Measure oatmeal and blend in food processor.
Next, cream together butter and sugars. When I first started baking a lot, I would wonder “how do I know when it is ‘creamed'”. Well this is what I consider ‘creamed’ to look like and takes 3 to 5 minutes to achieve.
Add beaten eggs and vanilla. Next, add the flour and oatmeal mixture. Then mix in chips and grated chocolate.
Spoon the dough into tablespoon size and place on cookie sheet and bake for 6 minutes at 375 degrees. The few minutes pass quickly so set an oven timer for these cookies! Transfer to baking rack as soon as cookies are set enough. And ENJOY!
Now, the best part…Lick that bowl clean!
I’d love to know, what cookies do you bake at Christmas each year?
Jessica
If you’re anything like me, you are really beginning to feel overwhelmed with the thought that Christmas is only 1 week away! You are asking yourself…why did I sign myself up for so many activities and responsibilities this week?? Note to self for next year…say no to every invitation the week before Christmas!
So in case you are like me, you will probably appreciate an easy and affordable meal that is delicious and quick. The best part is you probably have most of the ingredients on hand so no need for another trip to the grocery store. Serve this with crusty french bread & a spicy Malbec, and you have a nice meal to calm your nerves during this hectic week.
This recipe is a variation of Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe…primarily, I added heirloom tomatoes I had canned this summer and increased the amount of bacon…because really, shouldn’t we all eat more bacon? I think so!!!
Price Note: This recipe serves 4-6 and if using homemade stock and canned tomatoes, the price per serving is less than $1 a person.
Ingredients
2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup chopped onion
6-8 ozs bacon, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups homemade chicken stock
1 pint canned tomatoes or 1 can (14.5 ozs) diced tomatoes with Italian seasonings
2 cans (14.5 ozs) red kidney beans, rinsed and drained well
1 cup small to medium sized macaroni shells
kosher salt
fresh ground black pepper
Recipe
Heat the olive oil & butter in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and saute approximately 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the chopped bacon and saute until pieces begin to crisp up, approximately 7 minutes. (Don’t fret if all the pieces don’t crisp up…only about 1/2 of mine were crisp by the end). Stir in the garlic and saute 1 more minute. Add the chopped rosemary, bay leaf, stock, tomatoes, beans, a dash of salt, and approximately 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
In a blender or food processor, puree 1 1/2 cup of the soup mixture until smooth, then return the puree to the dutch oven. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Add in pasta then reduce heat to medium high. Stir occasionally and allow to boil for approximately 8 minutes, until pasta is tender but still firm to bit.
Season with fresh ground pepper and remove the bay leaf. I doubt you’ll need more salt since this has bacon.
Ladle up & Enjoy!
And good luck this week with your hectic schedule. I hope you make time for refreshing moments with deep breaths.
Jessica
Hello!!! I hope all of you had wonderful Thanksgivings and ate lots of healthy foods! My family and I went on a week long trip to visit extended family in the land of cornfields, pivots, and cows….aka…Nebraska. And oh yes, the land of Huskers!
We had such a fantastic time but I do have to say, eating healthy wasn’t #1 on my priority list. (Imagine at every meal….blueberry pie, pecan pie, cherry pie, not to mention – everyone’s favorite…pumpkin pie! And oh yes, in the land of Husker’s they categorize corn and potatoes as vegetables. Ha!) When I haven’t had greens in a while my body begins to crave them and sometimes that makes me go just a tad overboard. Hence, I now have 4 heads of various greens in my fridge, 10 tangerines on the counter, and a smothering of other fall veggies and fruits in my crisper!
Today’s recipe takes advantage of fall greens, creamy blue cheese grits, and very flavorful pork!
I am definitely not a photo genius but today’s pictures are on the very poor side. The grits came out a little runny when I made the recipe tonight (blaming husband for throwing away the recipe). I also hope that when you sit down to enjoy this meal you’ll have on lovely serenading music in the background. The background noise my husband and I enjoyed was our son yelling that it wasn’t time to eat but time for more FOOTBALL! Obviously, he still wishes to be back in Husker country.
I made the same recipe a few weeks ago with local greens and think the picture is a little better than tonight's.
All of the ingredients, except for the greens (because I was too impatient to wait a day), were local. Here are prices on how to serve up this winter goodness on a budget.
1 lb Local Pork Tenderloin: $10
20 ozs Fresh Spinach: $6
4 ozs Local Blue Cheese: $4
1 cup Local Milk: $1 (way overestimated)
1 1/2 cups Local Grits: $1
2 cups Homemade Chicken Stock: Free
Total Cost: $22/4 servings = $5.50 a person
Recipe
Ingredients for Pork Tenderloin
1 lb local pork tenderloin
1/2 cup lemon juice (2 lemons)
grated lemon zest from 1 to 2 lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp fresh tarragon, chopped
3 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tsp dijon mustard
Recipe for Pork Tenderloin
In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients except for the tenderloin. Pour marinade into a gallon sized Ziploc bag and add tenderloin. Place in refrigerator for 4 – 8 hours.
When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Next, coat a shallow baking dish with olive oil and remove the tenderloin from the marinade. Throw marinade away and place tenderloin in baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees. Remove from oven and place on a rectangle of aluminum foil, folding tightly all around to allow the pork to rest and become really juicy. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. When you cut into the pork, it will still be pink inside but is safe to eat. (Please disregard my pictures of my pork – my meat thermometer needed to be thrown away years ago – so I ended up overcooking mine. But even overcooked, it was still really flavorful. This marinade is my go-to marinade for pork tenderloin. You can really taste the lemon, mustard, and herbs in each bite.)
Ingredients for Grits
1 1/4 cups local grits
1 1/2 – 2 cups homemade chicken stock
1/2 – 1 cup water
1/2 cup local milk or cream
4 ozs local blue cheese
Recipe for Grits
Over medium heat, bring 1 1/2 cups stock and 1/2 cup water to a rapid boil. VERY SLOWLY whisk in the grits while stirring constantly. (This slow process and the constant stir is important to having no lumps in your grits). Lower the heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Add in additional stock and/or water if consistency is not looking creamy enough. After those 20 minutes, you will add in 1/2 cup of the milk/cream and simmer for another 10 – 15 minutes. Once desired consistency is reached, remove from heat and stir in blue cheese. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper as needed. (When cooking grits, don’t be afraid to add in additional liquid if your grits look a little too dry before they are finished cooking).
Ingredients for Greens
20 ozs fresh greens – spinach or arugula (see below)
2 garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
Recipe for Greens
Over medium heat, saute minced garlic in olive oil for 1 minute. Add fresh greens and a few drops of water. Allow to cook for approximately 5 minutes, until almost wilted through. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper as needed.
(I tried this last week with collard greens and even though I sauteed for about 15 minutes they were still not tender enough, in my opinion. However, I think that if I had left out more of the ‘rib’ of the collards they would have been just fine. So you may want to give collard or kale a try in this recipe. If so, let me know how it turns out!)
Now serve up & ENJOY!!!
Jessica
I have an admission I need to make….I can sometimes be a perfectionist…and I am always a procrastinator…so sometimes I have these ideas in my head of how I want my blog pages to be perfect but that takes time and then I get overwhelmed and decide to just ‘work on it tomorrow’ and then finally it’s two weeks later and I’ve barely updated any of the pages. So, its going to take me a while to get the pages and my blog to look like the picture in my head. But I’ve realized, that doesn’t mean I can’t keep posting. So… I’m going to try to add content to the pages each week or so and will try to write a new post each Sunday – Thursday evening. I hope you enjoy these recipes and thoughts in my head.
This next recipe…Shrimp Chowder is so yummy.
Don't I look divine?
The best part is that there is no milk – none – and is still really creamy! (The secret is in pureeing the starchy ingredients!)
NOTE: This recipe does require a bit of chopping veggies. If time allows, I suggest chopping earlier in the day so you don’t feel rushed when making this for dinner. I promise though, it is worth all the chopping!
Ingredients
1 lb local shrimp
1/2 to 1 cup chopped yellow onion
1 cup thinly sliced or chopped carrots
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups frozen corn
2 lbs baby red potatoes
3 cups chicken stock, click here for a homemade stock recipe
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
kosher salt
ground black pepper
crushed red pepper or ground cayenne pepper
Recipe
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel shrimp and devein. Rinse and then dry off with paper towels. Place in small bowl and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. If desired, add some dried spices to them…I used a french herb mix I had on hand. Place shrimp in fridge.
Fresh from the Charleston Harbor
Place chopped potatoes in a small bowl and generously drizzle with both olive oil and kosher salt.
Roast potatoes in preheated oven for 25-40 minutes. While potatoes roast, use a food processor to puree 2 cups of corn with 1 cup chicken broth. Set this aside for later.
Next, heat 1-2 tsp of olive oil over medium heat and saute onion and carrots for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add bell pepper, sprinkle kosher salt over mixture and stir.
Let the mixture cook for a while so everything is very tender.
Cook another 5 more minutes and then stir in minced garlic to the mixture. Saute for 1 more minute, then stir in corn puree, remaining 1 cup of corn kernels, and 1 cup chicken stock. Turn the heat down to low.
At this point your potatoes are probably finished roasting…Here is what mine looked like…
Crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside
So now place 1/2 of those potatoes into a food processor and puree with the remaining 1 cup of chicken stock.
The puree will be very thick!
Pour the puree into the soup with the remaining roasted potatoes. (If desired, cut the remaining roasted potatoes into smaller bite size pieces with kitchen shears.) Add the chopped cilantro and season generously with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Allow to simmer on low heat. If your chowder is too thick, add water or chicken stock to reach desired consistency.
What the chowder will look like before the shrimp is added.
With the chowder slightly simmering, place a saute pan over medium heat and add approximately 2 tsp olive oil. Cook the shrimp in this pan until just cooked through – a few minutes on each side. The shrimp will end up cooking a bit more in the chowder so you don’t want them to get overdone in the saute pan.
Once the shrimp are cooked, transfer to the chowder and allow to simmer on low heat for 5 minutes. Taste soup again and season with salt and pepper as necessary.
Now it’s time to serve it up and enjoy!
I need to learn a new word for "Enjoy"!
I sprinkled cayenne pepper on mine as I love a kick. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do!
Jessica
PS…for budget calculations…this recipe comes out to $15-$20 to make and that includes shrimp at $7/lb. You should get 6 to 8 servings out of this recipe.