Black-and-blue muffins

It's been a while. Things are chugging away. We've been busy in the workplaces and making the most of our weekends, so not so much blogging. I've been wanting to blog these muffins for months. I found them during a random foray onto Pinterest thanks to Keli. The pin was for a banana chocolate chip muffin, but I have played with it a few ways. The latest incarnation is black and blue-berry muffins. 

Pieces 

2.5 cups old fashioned (slow cook) oats. 

3/4 cup sugar

1 6 oz blackberry Greek yogurt

2 eggs

1/2 tsp baking soda

1-1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/2 pint blueberries (about a cup)

Put together 

Start out with the oats in the food processor and grind into oat flour. Grind as much (or little) as you want. I leave some texture on mine, although pickier eaters can be tricked into oatmeal consumption if the oats are super finely ground. 

Next, conbine the oat flour with the remaining ingredients in a bowl (I like using my stand mixer). At this point I should have added some cinnamon (oops). Place in lined muffin tins - I got 15 medium sized, a dozen works well with the mix. 

Bake at 400 for about 20 min. Cool and enjoy. 

I love these muffins. The original recipe called for plain yogurt, but I enjoy using vanilla or some other flavor that compliments my main fruit component (ie strawberry with bananas, coffee with chocolate chips).   Pretty easy and quick stuff, and supremely healthy. :). Way better than a pop tart! Hopefully my coworkers feel the same when I bring these in. 

Baked Potato Soup

A little something for the fall - and a little something for the healthy side. I based this on the baked potato soup from skinnytaste.com. The idea being to extend the soup with cauliflower, making it a little less starchy carb and a little more good vegetable carb. I enjoyed it and really couldn't taste the cauliflower. David felt otherwise. 

Materials

4-5 small Idaho potatoes (600 g)

1 small head cauliflower

1/2-1 cup milk

Beef stock base

2 green onion 

Salt and pepper to taste 

Methods

I started out chopping up the cauliflower and steaming it. I also chopped and boiled the potatoes. Once the produce was done, I took the cauliflower,  3/4 of the potatoes, the green inion, and added the milk and a little water and blended with the immersion blender until everything was nice and smooth. I threw in the remaining chunks of the potatoes, a little stock base, and water to get the consistency I wanted. Heat a little longer and enjoy! We served it with a little cheese and green onion. A little Bacon would have finished it off perfectly. 

Green Enchilada Sauce

Last week's farmers market found me with a bag of tomatillos asking to be made into something tasty.my first foray into the husked tomatoes....  I remember when I first heard of these magical fruits. I had just moved to Texas. At the time knew tacos and were Mexican and may have just begun to enter the beautiful fried world of the chimi a few months before. We grew up pretty sheltered on that front. Tacos were ground beef, hard shells, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese. That was it. So my friend Emily and I went out for Mexican at Chuys. I got to pick my sauce and I was introduced to this amazing thing known as the deluxe tomatillo sauce. Fast forward 12 years and I've still never used a tomatillo. That all changed today. I took the sauce from Our Best Bites and modified it slightly. 

Materials

3/4 lb tomatillos, coarsely chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, minced

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3/4 tsp cumin

1 tbl olive oil

1/4 bunch cilantro

Methods

Started out with the onion and garlic cooking down in the oil in a small pan until translucent to release their fragrance. I added the remaining ingredients and done water and simmered them away. Finally, immersion blend until all texture is gone and it is suitable for consumption. If too liquid, I would have simmered off more water here. 

We used this sauce on chicken and bean enchilladas. It was a little sweet, with no real heat since I didn't put the jalapeño seeds in the sauce.   Still won much approval. We have some leftover to use as salsa later in the week :) I have a feeling I may make a ton more and freeze it!  This could be the gateway to my first canning adventure.