Blueberry Banana Muffins

Rarely is baking as easy for me as it was this afternoon. And, rarely do my food photos come out this nicely. So, I must share this simple, delicious recipe with you. The original recipe calls for all purpose flour and shortening instead of butter. It also only calls for one cup of blueberries, but one of the reviews recommended more. I had 2 cups, but Vincent and I ate about a half cup before I added them to the batter. Lastly, the recipe did not call for yogurt. I've seen sour cream added to some banana bread recipes, but didn't have any on hand; I had yogurt, so why not?

2 C whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C butter, room temperature (1 stick)

1 C sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 medium ripe bananas, mashed

1-1/2 C fresh blueberries

3 Tbl nonfat vanilla yogurt**

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Beat in bananas. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating just until combined. **This is where I added the yogurt; it was an after thought, since my batter looked thick. I think it could have been added at the same time as the bananas. Fold in blueberries.

2. Pour into a greased muffin tin (I think mine had 12 spots). Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire rack.

I honestly think that the yogurt was helpful. This recipe may have come out dry if I didn't use it, since I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose.



Bust

Seriously, what kid doesn't like spaghetti with meat sauce? Well, I have the two on earth who don't. Okay, I guess, maybe not all kids eat meat, but mine do. They quite enjoy meat. Tyler even likes meatballs; the ones with spaghetti sauce.

I had a feeling Vincent would be so-so on this meal. He hasn't liked red sauce since he was about 2 years old. He also doesn't care for meatballs. But, I haven't tried to make something like this in ages. The closest I get is chili, and lately he's been okay with it. He's also been eating pizza a lot more, which has red sauce on it. After analyzing my childrens' palates, I decided to take a chance.

WTF. Gosh, I don't even want to go into the details of their behavior over this meal. It'll just make me resent them, and I don't want to. Maybe it was because I didn't make the sauce from scratch? I just threw this together with leftover meatloaf and a jar of store bought sauce. Frankly, I enjoyed it. I guess I could think of it as a compliment to my real cooking, since they usually do a better job of eating the scratch meals I make.

Funky Olive Tart-thingy

I forgot to take pictures of tonight's dinner. Doh! Mainly because of the tart thing I made. I only call it a tart because that's the dough I used. It was more like a crust, or cracker, or cookie. Yeah, maybe an olive cookie.

 

 

Anyway, I had some tart dough that I pulled out of the freezer a couple of days ago. I knew it needed to be used. And, I had some homemade olive tapenade that had been around a few days, too. So, I decided to combine them.

 

 

I rolled out my dough, then spread the tapenade on top, then folded in the edges so that they over lapped. Then, I rolled it out a little more to smooth it. I docked the down with a fork and stuck it in the freezer. Basically, it was a rectangle shape, and about 1/4 inch thick.

 

 

Popped it in a 425F degree oven for 20 minutes, and voila, olive cookie. But, it tasted less of olives and more of buttery tart crust.

We also had grilled flat iron steak, from the late Thundering Hooves Farm, with grilled strips of zucchini. I made a sauce for the steak, which was sauteed red onions pureed with fresh cilantro, extra virgin olive oil, sherry wine vinegar, salt and smoked paprika. Yum. Tyler asked for some and actually ate most of the teaspoon I gave him. This was a delightful meal.

Cabbage and Kielbasa Salad

Cabbage-and-kielbasa salad (warm)

I found this recipe from America's Test Kitchen's 30 Minute Suppers magazine.

2 Tbl Dijon mustard (I only used 1)

2 Tbl honey

2 Tbl cider vinegar (I didn't have it, so I subbed with Banyul wine vinegar)

5 Tbl olive oil

1 pound kielbasa, cut on bias into 1/2-inch slices

1 red onion, halved and sliced thin (Doh! I read the recipe wrong and only used half of the onion)

1/2 tsp caraway seed

1 (16oz) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (I used Great Northern)

salt and pepper

1 head napa cabbage (about 1.5lbs), sliced thin

1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (didn't use it)

1. Whisk together mustard, honey, vinegar and 4 tbl oil in bowl. Cook sausage in large skillet over medium-high heat until well browned, 3-4 minutes per side. Transfer sausage to plate and tent with foil.

2. Add remaining oil, onion, and caraway seed to skillet, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened and browned, about 12 minutes. Add beans and 2 Tbl dressing and cook until warmed through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Reduce heat to low, add remaining dressing and cabbage to skillet, and toss until warmed through and slightly wilted, about 4 minutes. Off heat, stir in dill and season with salt and pepper. Top with kielbasa and onion-bean mixture.*

*I skipped the dill (as mentioned). I cooked the cabbage with the onions-beans, and tossed the kielbasa into the whole pan. Now that I'm typing it all, it seems maybe they meant for the onions-beans to be cooked separately from the cabbage. Nonetheless, it turned out very nicely. I cooked the cabage a bit longer than it calls for, which produced a nice broth. I also roasted some fingerling potatoes, with I topped with this "salad."

Meal Planning

I've sort of been planning our meals out the past two weeks. I needed to do it because I bought proteins at the store without planning. I needed to make sure they get cooked before they expire, so then I planned out our meals based on what I bought. A little backwards, but whatever.

I went to PCC Natural Market last Friday and bought a whole chicken, a chunk of pork loin, and some turkey breakfast sausage. Then, I went to Mutual Fish and picked up some prawns and rockfish. It's a lot of pressure to make sure these things get cooked!

With the prawns, I made a pasta dish Friday night. First, I made a clarified prawn butter with the shells. Then, I used that butter to cook the prawns. Some garlic, red pepper flakes, the prawns, white wine, chopped fresh parsley, all tossed with whole wheat spaghetti. Ooh, and a sprinkling of toasted bread crumbs. Mmmmm.

That same night, I just baked some of the rockfish in the oven, wrapped in foil. Just salt and pepper for a few minutes. That was for the kids. Tyler loved it, Vincent was so-so. I did the same thing, again, last night with the remainder of my fish. After letting the meat cool, I broke it apart and tossed it with cannellini beans, shallots, chopped parsely, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. It was my lunch today.

I roasted the whole chicken for dinner on Sunday night. I served it with mushroom risotto. I used this fancy mix of cultivated mushrooms I found at PCC. They weren't super mushroomy flavored, which was a little disappointing. Nonetheless, this was a delicious meal. The legs and thighs of this organic chicken wasn't as juicy as the non-organic stuff. My chicken skin came out nice and golden crispy. The boys loved the skin.

Tonight, I cooked the pork loin. First, I brined the meat for 2 days. A couple hours before cooking, I took it out of the brine, rinsed it, and patted it dry. I left it out at room temperature until I was ready to cook. All I did was sear it on both sides before popping it into a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. After letting it rest, I sliced the meat thinly, and served it along side balsamic glazed onions, for build-your-own-sandwiches. I put a sliced up loaf of Columbia City Bakery's filone on the table with a bowl of extra virgin olive oil and a pastry brush. We had our friend, Jill, and her kids over for dinner. Each adult would take bread, brush it with olive oil, pile on the onions and sliced pork. The kids ate the pork, too, along with homemade skillet mac and cheese. Tyler actually didn't finish his pasta, and Vincent asked for more. Guess who's he got to finish. Dessert was the bakery's Super Chip cookies.

Tomorrow, I'll be making chili with the turkey breakfast sausage. I don't know, it sounded much easier than adding my own mix of seasonings into chili. We'll see. I think it'll be tasty.