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. 

Dining out

Suds and spuds chips with triple dipping sauces (tomato relish, cheddar sour cream, spicy bacon ranch) and steak salad from the James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy. The beer list was great and the food was good. The atmosphere was really cool- loved the exposed brick and arches. They played the oldies soundtrack of my childhood all night upstairs. Definitely worth a return. 

Balsamic chicken from Penn Brewery. I love some good fresh mozzarella and this hit the spot after a long dat on the trails. Always a favorite spot for us. 

Sorta Caprese Chicken

Last week's impulse grocery buy was a ball of smoked mozzarella. It reminded me of the smoked string cheese I buy at the Mars Cheese Castle when I visit my parents, and tip it tastes just as good!  After I opened the package you could smell the smokiness wafting towards you. 

So this isn't a fancy meal or even real recipe. I took a checked breast and cut it into two servings and just pan fried them with a little oil from my misto and salt and pepper to taste.  Meanwhile, I wilted a bunch of spinach for me and sliced some summer garden tomatoes.  Then I just took the spinach and made a little mound on a backing sheet and covered with my sliced tomatoes. My chicken went over this  whole David's went straight onto the baking sheet. Covered with a couple of slices of mozzarella and broiled! We served this with son ricotta stuffed gnocchi from a local place. 

David was so impressed with my fancy food porn he almost posted it on the book!  I think he even liked the simple and tasty food. 

Grilled salmon with fresh rosemary and garlic

So this was an easy salmon find from skinnytaste.com that we made the other day. 

I took a sprig of rosemary from the garden and a couple of cloves of garlic from the farmers market and chopped them up.  I rinsed off a nice sized salmon portion and patted it dry. Salmon was sales and peppered to taste, followed by topping with the fresh herbs. I drizzled with the juice of half a lemon and David grilled to perfection. 

I enjoyed my portion with some steamed fresh great and yellow beans from the farmers market. Yum! Summer eating at its best. 

Grilled pizza - sausage and pepper

Not the most exciting of recipes, but its been a while since I posted. 

We did the grilled pizza thing for gratuitous food Sunday. Mine was delicious - slices of grilled chicken sausage with chopped up farmers market peppers and slices of tomatoes from our garden topped off with a little pizza blend and some ricotta. It was a nice departure from my normal pizza   marguerite (although I've for some delicious smoked mozzarella that I'm looking forward to using later this week).  We enjoyed with some of Pennsylvania's finest table wine :)

I love pizza and I love summer eating.