October 2013 – Page 2

Alternate titles: Don’t Call Me Muffin. Money for Muffin. Muffin But a G-Thang. This could go on and on and on…

Muffins for My Muffin - image on https://megactsout.com

I first made this recipe riiiiiight before I returned to school (and started sending Hadley back to his grandma’s house). We hadn’t really dabbled into the world of sending solids along too much beyond baby food-ish stuff before the summer, but he got SO into eating real food, I knew it was time to start sending some along. He’ll eat leftovers, defrosted/heated frozen veggies, cheese sticks…okay, almost everything.

I heard through the grapevine that he really has a thing for these muffins, so I made another batch to freeze-and-pull to keep the little guy happy. It’s good to know he already enjoys “real food.” And hopefully you will, too!

The recipe is pretty much this one, which I made pretty much to the T (two versions, one with applesauce that I admittedly used a tad too much of, and the other with blueberries), adding an extra sprinkling of cinnamon to the top before mixing them in. So, please know that this recipe isn’t one of my “started with this recipe, made it my own” recipes; I’m literally passing along 100 Days of Real Food’s recipe, which I know comes out nummy. 🙂

Fruit, Nut, or Berry (or whatever you want them to be) Whole-Wheat Muffins

Serves: Makes 12 Muffins

Ingredients

1½ cups whole-wheat flour (I used organic white whole-wheat flour)
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup oil (I used coconut oil; melt it in the microwave first, then measure)
¾ cup orange juice or apple juice (I used organic apple juice)
About 1 cup of total filling (berries, fruit, nuts, etc. – see below for details)
Muffin/Cupcake liners (I used silicone muffin trays, so I didn’t need these)

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl with a fork or whisk mix the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Make a well (hole) in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the eggs, honey, vanilla, oil and orange juice. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together – do not overmix.

For those who may not know what coconut oil looks like (melted), here it is…with some flour in it.
Now here is the fun part. If you are in a hurry just add 1 cup of blueberries, mashed up banana & nuts, or other filling of your choice. If you have 5 or 10 minutes extra (and some anxious helpers) do not add anything to the muffin batter before continuing with the next step.
Line a muffin pan with liners and fill ⅔ to ¾ of the way full with batter. If you didn’t already add your filling, sprinkle 1 – 2 teaspoons of whatever you would like (from the list below or from your own creation) onto the top of each raw muffin in the pan. Then gently mix each one with a fork or spoon.
Here are some options to consider for the fillings:
– blueberries
– diced strawberries
– peeled and diced pears
– applesauce
– either diced or mashed up bananas and chopped walnuts
– raisins and chopped pecans (I add an extra pinch of cinnamon to the muffins with this filling)
– grated carrot and chopped walnuts
– orange or lemon zest (only add ¼ to ½ teaspoon of zest per individual muffin)
– a mix of dried fruit bits
– jelly
After the filling has been mixed into each muffin slide the tray into the warm oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature and freeze some for a later date.

Like I said, I used a bit too much applesauce (only use a teaspoon or even less) and I think the fact that the blueberries were frozen this time made them look a bit different (although they’re just as tasty). It could be one of my ingredients, but I’ve found that these do best stored in a freezer bag in the fridge (or freezer) until you need them.

I’m particularly pleased that there are only two tablespoons of sweetener — and a naturally-produced one, at that! (You could also use maple syrup, I’m sure. Mmm. I might have done that the first time, actually.)

Here some eye candy I took after our first batch to end for today…

Side note: Today’s World Animal Day. For some ideas on how to celebrate, check out the Green Child Magazine article I wrote for the occasion.

Monday, I posted a quick survey to see what my readers are thinking (and what they like/dislike/want to see more of on the blog). Here’s the link in case you haven’t had a chance to take it yet — and I promise you, I’m not selling your info or any weird thing like that, it just gives me a better idea of who you are and what you’re into!

Anyhoo, so far I’ve heard some wonderful feedback, especially when it comes to what people would like to see/hear more about. One that sticks out to me is hearing more about our change to a more organic lifestyle; the trials, tribulations, cost effectiveness, recipes, farmers market experiences (and what we bought!); also, DIY pieces with the “why” and ideas behind what we’re doing. And recipes. 🙂

(I’m pretty much paraphrasing the comment that I was happy to read!)

That being said, I thought it’d be a good time for a review and check-in about our decisions, our lifestyle, and even a few words about why I have a blog.

Some of this might be explained by a walk down memory lane (or, as I call it, my Archives page), but for those of you who don’t have the time to waste reading my oh-so-wordy accounts of days gone by, I’ll give you a quicker spiel.

I never had a huge goal when I started writing here. I didn’t want to practice writing more. I didn’t want to follow one set path or topic, since life doesn’t generally follow set structure (and I wouldn’t have stuck with it if I’d boxed myself in, anyway; I guess I’m a free spirit and am not a fan of feeling tied down).

I did think, however, that it would be nice to have a place to share my thoughts and try out some new things, and to be able to look back and say, “Oh, right, we got Beardslee that year! Oh, I forgot about that pumpkin place, what a fun day that was! Right, that was a yummy meal, I need to make that again.” Or, heck, to even be able to go back and remember our wedding a little easier. My memory sucks, by the way.

So, my very first post just so happened to be about something for which I felt uber-passionately in that moment (and still feel passionately about). It also just happened to coincide with Earth Day and related to Food, Inc. (a POWERFUL documentary about the state of the food that we eat…so powerful that we haven’t been able to bring ourselves to watch it since, we cried so hard and were so touched). I guess that laid a foundation for an environmentally-conscious blog!

Which I’m profoundly proud and happy about, please believe me! I love my teensy piece of the blogosphere. And I guess I would consider us to be conscientious greenies, in our own way. But we also live life and eat the occasional ordered-in pizza or doctor with traditional medicines (more-so myself than my hubs) and use traditional diapers (a mix; easier with the sitter). I try not to beat myself up that I’m not baking my own bread and making my own granola and soaking my oats (yes, that’s a thing) and raising my own chickens.

Plus, I have LOTS of interests outside of the green living realm. My favorite blogs to read have always been design/decor-based (namely DIY), and we’re huuuuuuuuge fans of old movies/radio shows and history. I love weird music and books; Dave loves his own weird music and comics. We’re all over the place!

I guess I’m saying that teaching our son (and future kiddies) about environmentally friendly practices, sustainable and healthy eating, and general awareness/kindness towards those around us (animals included) are some of our main priorities in life. If I’m able to build up to being a full-blown homesteader, great. But, odds are that we’re just going to keep working up to being as green as we can be, and be happy with what we can do.

After all, isn’t that really the meaning of life?

So, that being said, I hope to keep blogging about these things. When we get to a farmers market, I’ll remember that a few folks actually like to hear about what we purchased (and what we did with it! Recipes!). When we select a certain meat, I’ll try to remember to explain WHY grassfed is more sustainable and healthy than corn-fed (broken record or not). I’ll explain why we made the choice to eat one thing organic yet another item locally-grown but non-organic. Thanks for jogging my memory — just mentioning something once isn’t always the smartest thing, especially if folks haven’t been reading that long.

But, I hope not to come off sounding like this is what any of you should do. If it gets your wheels turning and considering where your food comes from and how it may give you better health in the long term, WONDERFUL!!!! If you’d just rather read those posts to see how we spent our weekend (and could give two hoots about whether the bacon was treated kindly), that’s great, too! I’m not here to preach. I’m just here to share my thoughts.

I’m proud to be a green blogger and writer, but there’s more (and going to be more) here than an enviro-blog. Since I’m into decor, DIY around the ol’ house and even some crafty stuff, I’ll be doing such. But I’d like to incorporate the Three R’s into as much of it as possible, whenever possible. And, of course, I’m first-and-foremost a mom, so any mommy thoughts will definitely find their way into posts. Again, there’s no right/wrong way to raise a child (unless you’re abusive…that’s unacceptable and I’ll smack you through the computer for that).

This might or might not have explained why the blog looks as it does, or it might just be yet another random-thoughts tangent. (Sorry!) Reading through some of my early, early posts might help describe the journey to where we are, currently, if that helps. And, as always, a HUGE thanks for reading! It makes it way more fun to write when I know folks are reading. Writing for crickets? Not as much fun.

Oh, and I do plan on sharing more of our shopping visits for all the world to see, if I can remember to take more pictures while wrangling a now-active toddler. 😉 Same goes for writing down recipes. I’m just so much of a “eh, throw a handful of this in…then another handful of that…” cook that I need to get better at…um…taking measurements and jotting things down.

Month: October 2013

Muffins for My Muffin

Why We Do What We Do