Orange Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

So Sunday is park brunch day.  It rained last night, so I wasn't sure we were going to have it, but I wanted to be prepared.

I wasn't up to anything too difficult. I didn't sleep well last night and woke with a bit of a headache (thanks to 1/2 glass of wine too many at our parents' night out and hormones).  Wow, a night out!  It was fun, and for some reason, the babysitter can get our toddler to bed better than we can.

Pinterest led me to a few interesting recipes, and I picked one because I had a bunch of oranges and lemons from the farm and from friends.  But it called for poppy seeds (I had none) and plain yogurt (didn't have that either).  I didn't figure that banana yogurt would taste right.

So I headed to the store and used 10% of my weekly budget (ouch!) on poppy seeds (no cheap options at the close store) and a small yogurt.  It was worth it!  And now I have plenty of poppy seeds.

I pretty much followed the recipe here exactly, except that I didn't top with coarse sugar, because who has that?  Not me.  Still the hubby and older son loved them and they are almost gone. (No brunch today.) Pardon the crappy photo.  I mean, the photos on the original recipe are awesome.  I'm pretty sure nobody comes here for my photography. Just my witty personality.

The general weekend prep this week, in addition to the muffins, included BBQ chicken in the crockpot (for tacos), spinach balls (actually chard and beet green balls), steamed beets, plus lots of washing lettuce and radishes and hard boiling eggs for lunch time salads.

I also washed and froze dill for the freezer, and probably should do the same with the parsley, but I already have a ton of frozen parsley.  How much more do I need, really?

$1.69

So, I'm looking through the ads this week, and what do I see?

Quaker oats, 42 oz, on sale for $1.69. ($0.64 a pound)

But that's not the crazy thing.  It's says it's on sale from a regular price of $2.69.

Since when?  I JUST paid $3.99 last week at the same store!! ($1.52 a pound)

Grr.

You'd better believe that I'm buying 2 boxes, maybe 3.

Hmmmph.

I'm still here!

My husband is half way through his business trip (outdoors, in Arizona, in August, and on his birthday no less.  Sucks to be him.)  So, I'm here, but I've been trying to hold down the fort of two kids and my MIL, and a head cold.  She's awesome and a huge help.  If only the baby would sleep for longer than 3-3.5 hrs at a stretch.

So mostly we've been eating leftovers.  Sandwiches for lunch and enchiladas for dinner...a friend sold a family dinner to raise money for her daughter's school.  A lasagna pan of chicken enchiladas, a lasagna pan of rice, a half pan of beans, and cookies.  So, we still have a ton left.  After 3 meals, I put the rest in the freezer.

The only interesting thing I've added to my repertoire is yogurt - the local store had Choibani yogurt for sale (I got the 2% 32 oz tub), so I've added blueberries, strawberries, and toasted almonds.  Yum.  I'm channeling biz here.  I am finding that I need much more protein now that I'm nursing (which I remember from last time around too).  And when I eat the protein, I don't spend the entire day starving.  Now that I remembered that and have added it back in, I've lost a couple of pounds.  Yay!

Banana bread muffins

I love banana bread.  I have worked on perfecting a healthy banana bread.  I like it, my husband likes it, my kid - not so much.

I buy bananas every week, and then at least one or two end up mushy and in the freezer.  But then the next thing you know, you have 15 bananas in the freezer.  I wish I were exaggerating.  I decided to look for a new muffin recipe that maybe my kid would like, and I found this recipe.

So, when I adjust recipes to healthify them, I do a few things:
1.  cut the sugar
2.  substitute some whole wheat flour for regular
3.  cut the fat by subbing applesauce

On this recipe, I decided to only cut the sugar in the main recipe from 3/4 c to 1/3 c.  I mean, really, the recipe says that it makes 10 muffins.  I got 12.  But 3/4 c sugar is 12 Tbsp (not even counting the streusel topping), so that's 1 Tbsp sugar per muffin, which is a lot.  And bananas are sweet.

In any event, these were awesome.  I have to say that using the full amount of butter and using all regular flour made them moist and fluffy compared to my usual muffins.  Maybe next time I'll try a teeny bit of whole wheat flour.  I also added 1/2 cup of peanut butter chips.  And the topping - I didn't pack my brown sugar, just loosely scooped.

Now if I could only get rid of the fruit flies that seem to love my bananas.

Breakfast

Okay, the apricot-blueberry jam was delicious!  One of my breakfasts this week:

Whole grain English muffin: half with butter and jam, half with butter and egg.
And a banana sliced in half with local farmer's market crunchy almond butter (sooooo good).

Random food photos

Sometimes, the only energy I have is to snap a photo and talk about it.  That's what it's gonna be today.  This was probably my roughest, most stressful work week ever.  Followed up by acupuncture and a good night's sleep. 

Breakfast: bread with egg, banana with sunflower seed butter

Dinner: bread and salad and black bean soup.

Kindergarten graduation: banana muffins

Dinner: the last of the pork and vegetable hash - potatoes, broccoli, carrots, squash

Lack of Meal Plan and some pics

Well, after all that cooking for the week, I didn't really make much of a meal plan more than a couple of days out.  But then - surprise - I got one day's notice of spouse's trip to El Paso. So, I didn't really need a meal plan.  There are enough leftovers of the beef and frittata to last me the week.  Last night I made Trader Joe's turkey burgers with steamed artichokes and stir fried baby bok choy.  It was awesome.  My camera battery was dead.  Sorry!

Since it's the "get on the scale" week, I am going with a few days of low carb.  Helps make sure I'm not retaining a lot of water.  Breakfast today was cottage cheese, strawberries, and breakfast cookies (almond butter, eggs, coconut, dried fruit, nuts).

Lunch was a little bit of quinoa/rice, topped with beef and a LOT of mushrooms and zucchini.  I'm a big snacker too, mostly fruit, nuts, cheese, yogurt.  Today was apple with cheese, and nuts with a piece of dark chocolate.

Dinner was frittata and raw vegetables with the peanut lime dip.  YUM!

Boy the baby's been moving like crazy today.  I hope he lets me sleep.  It's funny to watch the belly move.

I'm sad that I'm missing out on 3 workouts this week because of the travel (2 swims and an elliptical/lifting day).  But tomorrow is walk to school day, so I'll get in 1.5 miles of a walk over a BIG hill at least.  Friday I may try to swim in the evening instead of in the morning.  Thursday...probably out of luck unless I squeeze in a lunch time walk.

Cinnamon rolls

I love cinnamon rolls.  My mom used to make them all the time, and I helped her on occasion.  They were pretty labor intensive.  I don't know that I have her recipe, but I'm guessing that she used her regular bread dough recipe for the base.  The fillings varied.  She usually didn't frost them.  Instead, she made "sticky buns".  She would put butter, sugar, cinnamon in the bottom of the pan when she put in the rolls.  Sometimes she'd add raisins or walnuts in the filling too.  I was a big walnut fan, but I think my stepdad liked the raisins.

Anyway, I've never made them before.  Several years ago, some friends from up north were visiting (we just visited them on spring break) and they gave me an America's Test Kitchen cookbook.  I have never made anything from it, but I mentally bookmarked the "quick" cinnamon roll recipe.  This must have been close to 10 years ago. 

Today, I finally made them.  The "quick" part of them is that they are made with a biscuit-type dough, not a yeast dough.  Boy, Paula Deen would be proud...lots of butter.  They took me about an hour or so to make (I had help from my 6 year old).  They are labor intensive, as all cinnamon rolls are, but not very difficult.

Step 1 is to grease the pan and make the filling.
Step 2 is to make the dough, and the liquid is buttermilk and melted butter, so that was pretty easy.
Step 3 is to pat out the dough into a rectangle, no rolling.
Step 4 is to fill and roll.
Step 5 is to cut and put in pan.
Step 6 is to frost.

I didn't much care for the frosting, which also had buttermilk in it.  Too much tang.  Next time I won't use buttermilk in the frosting.

One disadvantage is that they say they are only good for about 2 hours because they are made of biscuit dough.  We'll be testing that out for sure.  Reheating can do wonders I think. 

Last night we had folks over for an Easter Ham Dinner.  Boy, we haven't had people over in forever.  I was too busy cooking, talking, and eating to take pictures.  We had spiral ham, aloo gobi, salad with olives, oranges, and cucumbers.  We snacked on strawberries, crackers, cheese, and hummus before dinner (the couple with the 1.5 year old were WAY late, but that's what happens - you cannot predict naptime).  We had ice cream cones after.  We bought beer for the boys (one of the other women was pregnant too), but not a single beer was drank (drunk?)  Anyway, I think the spouse is going to take the beer with him on this business trip.  We already had 3 beers in the fridge from 6 months ago.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner: Oatmeal, Salad, and Pizza

Okay, the oatmeal was from yesterday, but the salad and pizza were from today.

I sauteed 1/2 an apple with a tsp of sugar and some cinnamon, and put it on top of a leftover instant oatmeal packet.  Good for my sore throat yesterday.

I have this great cookbook called "Eat Drink & Weigh Less" by Mollie Katzen and Walter Willett, MD.  One of my favorite recipes is for marinated white beans.  It's pretty simple: white beans, olive oil, vinegar, basil, oregano, garlic, with some optional veggies.  I made it today and tossed it with spicy salad mix from the CSA.  I added some tiny tomatoes from my still producing 2011 tomato plants, and some olives.

And tonight was pizza night.  I am starting to fear what it will be like having two boys in the house.  Though my son only had 1 slice of pizza, this afternoon he ate an ear of corn (from the lady at the park), a banana, applesauce, carrots, a few slices of homemade focaccia, romanesco, milk, 3 girl scout cookies, more bread, and I'm sure I'm forgetting at least one thing.  Now, I'm eating for two, so I'm showing my third piece of pizza prominently on my plate (and I had a couple of slices of focaccia also).  Hopefully by the time we have a 6 year old and a 12 year old, we'll be close enough to 50 that spouse and I will have slowed down our eating.

Oh, and last night I stir-fried some bok choy, carrots, and kohlrabi, and we ate it with Annie Chun's teriyaki noodles, leftover from our vacation trip.  Those things aren't the healthiest, but they are easy to prepare if all you have is hot water.

Vacation Eats

It's no secret that I don't like to eat out much on vacation.  When I go, I try to balance staying in places with kitchens (like family's houses, condos) or places where I can to SOME cooking (like a hotel room with a fridge/microwave, or camping).  This vacation was very similar.  We did eat out some here and there (definitely a lot towards the end of the trip because I got sick as a dog - my throat is so sore that I want to cry).

We visited with friends in the Bay Area (SF Bay Area, that is).  There was a little bit of eating out/take out, and some cooking dinner - our friends in Mountain View built their own wood burning pizza oven...okay, that makes good stuff.  Then it was offf to Yosemite and we rented a house, and we cooked.  I have to say, though it was challenging and I was tired, I very carefully planned our meals before I left (for Yosemite specifically, since there are no nearby grocery stores), and it was worth it.  I took a minimal amount of food and brought home very little.  Usually, I pack WAY too much.

Broccoli from the CSA, mac and cheese

Pancakes (from a mix that does not require eggs) with strawberries (from the Mtn View farmer's mkt) and bananas.

Sunflower seed butter and jam sandwiches (with apples and carrots!)

Rice, canned chili, cheese, avo (brought from home), and more CSA broccoli

More pancakes, and I took a page from Biz's book and sauteed the fruit to sweeten it a bit

Well, I'm sick and it's 3 am and I have insomnia, so that's all you get from me right now.  Maybe I'll share my vacationing philosophy more at a later date.  Going to try to read a bit and maybe sleep some more.

Whole Foods Apple Berry Baked Oatmeal

I have been baking a lot lately. I'm not quite sure why.  For sure, I love fresh-baked goodness for breakfast, and it's nice to control your ingredients.  For example: my bread machine (Panasonic) has a sunflower cracked wheat bread recipe.  The recipe calls for 100% whole wheat flour, but I've always subbed about half bread flour, figuring that I wouldn't like the taste/consistency of the 100% whole wheat.  That has always been my experience.  But recently, we were out of bread flour, so I made it as intended, and it was DELICIOUS!  Score!

In any event, since I have energy to bake now, I've been trying lots of new things. One of my friends posted a link to this recipe on her facebook page, and I thought it sounded yummy enough to try.  And it was!  It's great warm with some Greek yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Here's to hoping my energy level stays for the rest of the pregnancy.  I'm hoping to have enough energy to fill my freezer with meals before I go out on mat leave.  First I have to get rid of this cold.

Banana Muffins

I searched this blog for this recipe this morning (my banana bread recipe), and couldn't find it.  Kinda crazy!!  How did I go 4  years without posting it?  It's basically a recipe from one of my cookbooks that I healthified.

I generally healthify a dish by cutting the sugar to 1/3 to 1/2 of the original recipe, replacing some of the fat, and subbing whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour.

My kid complains about nuts, so I left them out.  Usually I make bread, but I was feeling like muffins today, and they bake in less than half the time.

Banana Muffins
1.5 c. all purpose flour: 0.31
1 c. whole wheat flour: 0.20
1 tsp baking soda: 0.05
1 tsp salt: 0.01
1 c chopped walnuts (optional).  Other options: chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, coconut: 0.50
1/2 c. sugar: 0.09
3 T canola oil: 0.15
2 eggs: 0.63
3 mashed ripe bananas: 0.57
1/3 c. milk: 0.14
1 tsp vanilla: 0.15
1/4 c. organic natural applesauce (unsweetened): 0.37

Total: $3.17 for 20 muffins, or $0.16 per muffin.  Two for a nice breakfast, one for a snack, yummy!

I made one pan with a few chocolate and peanut butter chips, and the other pan with coconut and chopped macadamia nuts.

A brief week in pictures

The blog has been winding down lately, as I'm sure you've noticed.  There are a few reasons for this: work craziness (I now have four people working for me, and it's crunch time), husband traveling, and bronchitis.  Yay for me.  I find myself passing out between 8 and 8:30 in the evening (many times before my child), waking up at 1 am with insomnia for a couple of hours, and then awaking again at 4 or 5 in the morning.  Lovely.
So my energy level isn't that great, and the whole family is ready for the bronchitis to be over.  Here's a bit of what's been going on:

Last weekend a really great friend of ours came by for a visit.  He was in our wedding, and my hubby was his best man.  He's from Santa Fe, and he was on a business trip in San Francisco, so he swung by for a weekend.  His wife wasn't able to make it.  We had such a great time.  You know how you've got old friends (we've known him for...19 and 21 years I think) who, no matter how long you've been apart, you go back seamlessly into a great fun relationship?  Yeah, it's one of those.  He's a vegetarian, so we did a combo of cooking and eating out while he was here.
Friday night (I had the day off): homemade pizza
Saturday morning: eggs and toast
Saturday lunch: farmer's market, went wine tasting, ate sandwiches at a great deli
Sunday dinner: made black bean burritos and kale chips
Sunday breakfast: out (we love breakfast out).  Tried a new place.  It was "meh".
Sunday lunch: veggie burgers
Sunday dinner: skillet spaghetti and salad
Monday breakfast: scones.  See below...

Overnight Oats

I have to thank Kalli for reminding me of how much I like these. With the new diet, I am always looking for simple, easy, and healthy breakfasts. Ones that I can eat day after day, knowing exactly how many points they will set me back (8).
I’ve eaten them so much the last two weeks, I think I may turn into a chia banana. Ooh. I am almost out of chia seeds.

Overnight oats: (for one). In a bowl, mix:
1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats: $0.08
1 Tbsp chia seeds: 0.10 (I don’t actually remember what I paid for these)
1 banana, diced: 0.19
1/3 cup plain yogurt: 0.26
½ cup plain milk: 0.21
Sprinkle of cinnamon: 0.05
Pinch salt
Let sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning, stir in
1 Tbsp sunflower seed butter (or other nut butter): 0.12 for sunflower seed butter, the others in my fridge are cheaper
Total: $1.01 for a nice big bowl.

Weekend Eats Plus Around the Homestead

I had some nice open-faced sandwiches for lunch yesterday with fruit (yes, those are organic CSA tomatoes, the first of the season...so delicous!)

I made granola for the family...spouse and child have been eating a LOT of yogurt and granola for breakfast.  Like Kalli, I have been concerned about the amount of sugar found in everything.  My son really likes the vanilla yogurt.  I used to buy the plain, and I'm not quite sure how he got onto the vanilla.  It's organic, no HFCS, but still sweet.  So my spouse and I - at the same time and unbeknowst to each other - starting stirring half and half plain and vanilla yogurt (maybe even more plain).  And he hasn't noticed the difference. 

Usually, we crumble on a Nature Valley oats and honey granola bar (spouse's snack of choice).  Made from real ingredients, but it's still...sweet.
I make my own granola.  I usually put a little bit of sugar in there - much less than most recipes call for.  I found a recipe years ago for granola with NO added sugar in The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs.  I've always wanted to try it.  Well, today was the day.  I edited it a bit...granola is one of those things that you can heavily adjust.

Granola:
4 cups oats
1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup wheat germ
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Wet stuff:  Put in food processor until smooth
2 bananas - either frozen and defrosted, or fresh
1/3 to 1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup hot water
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp olive oil
The dates and bananas add just enough sweetness to the granola.  I'm not sure you can even taste the maple syrup.  I mostly put it in there in case my spouse asked if there was anything sugar-like in there (in case it wasn't sweet enough).  Anyway, I just gave the bowl to my son and it's empty.

Around the homestead:
We have bluebirds!

On Gardening:  Last year, we built a self watering container and planted squash (butternut, delicata).  It was a dismal failure.  We only got a few squash and they were tiny.  We ended up composting them.  We really need to turn our compost.  But we can't.  See why:

Yep, a delicata plant started growing from our compost and has given us a single delicata squash.

This year, we decided to go with tomatoes in the self-watering container.  They are MUCH more successful.  The plants are taller than me (there are 3 in there) and almost taller than my husband.  And I'm not sure how to hold up that front plant.

Buttermilk Rosemary Cheese Scones

So, remember that buttermilk?  Yeah, I had extra.  So I googled to find a recipe that was easy to make that hopefully would freeze well, as my spouse is out of town.  I found a basic scone recipe, and adjusted it (basically, added cheese and rosemary).

It was another good task that I could do with my boy.  I have to say, though, I must not have shaken the buttermilk enough, because the bottom was really really thick. No wonder it seemed runny when I made the muffins.

Mother's Day

Not a big post today, just some pics:  Breakfast (made by my honey) pancakes with strawberries.

Dinner: we made together: roasted chicken (Ina Garten's recipe) in a bed of root vegetables (that soak up all the chicken flavor), steamed green beans.

Breakfast Rice-Crust Mini-Quiches

I had leftover rice and quinoa that needed to be used FAST. So I googled "what to do with leftover rice". A few clicks later and I found what I wanted: rice crust quiche, made in muffin tins.

Quiche here, but it originated with The Complete Tightwad Gazette. Of course I had to use google to find a recipe that I already own.

Mini-quiche
crust
2 c. cooked brown rice and quinoa: 0.40
1 egg: 0.38 (local, organic, free range)
1.5 oz cheddar: 0.19

Filling:
1/4 onion: 0.15
1/4 16-oz bag frozen chopped spinach: 0.30
2 eggs: 0.75
3 oz shredded cheddar: 0.38
1 c. milk: 0.50
8 kalamata olives: 0.40
herbs (nutmeg, basil)
cooking spray

Total: $3.45 for 12 muffins. $0.29 each, but two makes a decent serving for me.

And a smoothie...soy milk, frozen banana, frozen berries, Amazing Grass, an orange, and some ice.

Breakfast

So, here I am on Sunday morning. My hubby's not playing tennis today, so it would be the perfect opportunity for yoga. But not today. Today, I am supporting my friends.

Little tidbit about me: I have done 3 Breast Cancer 3-day walks. 2001, 2003, 2005. That last one, I was pregnant, so I only walked about 51 of the 60 miles. Nowadays, you have two long-distance choices: the Avon 2-day walk and the Susan G. Komen 3-day walk.

The Avon, ironically, is here this weekend. They walked past our house (which is rare, but I guess when you are walking 26.2 miles, you have to weave in and out all over town). I wasn't here but we put up balloons, my husband and son cheered them on, and they let one lady use our bathroom. My hubby knows, especially from the one where I was pregnant, how important bathroom stops are.

The group of people that I did the 3-days with continues to ebb and flow, and walk. Mary Anne is our leader, and has walked one walk every year since the start in 1998. They are walking in San Francisco this year, and this is the big back-to-back weekend. They are walking 18-20 miles Saturday AND Sunday, to get used to that before the big weekend.

So today, as I've done before, I am meeting them at their big beach turnaround, with snacks and drinks. I made raisin bread in the bread machine. I have electrolyte water, cheese sticks, and I'll probably pick up some gatorade on the way. We've got the balloons from yesterday.

So where does breakfast come in here? Well, there's a nice restaurant at the beach. I was thinking that it would be nice to go early, eat, then cheer them on. I looked up the menu, and some reviews. The reviews said that it wasn't good for children (though I figured breakfast would be okay). And it's pricey. But I do like a good breakfast.

As I looked at the average price ($12.95) and the cost of a breakfast burrito ($8.95), I got to thinking. That breakfast would cost us about $36-37 for the three of us. My husband was still asleep (he's been working late and on weekends). My son was watching TV (the only way I could get him to let my husband sleep). So I started cooking.

Even with the local, organic, free range eggs from the farmer's market ($4.50/dozen), the Niman Ranch bacon ($4.49 for 12 slices), etc., I managed to make breakfast for three for under 5 bucks.

Breakfast burritos:
1 lb organic potatoes: 1.00
1 Tbsp canola oil: 0.05
chopped green onion and small pepper: 0.25
3 eggs: 1.13
3 slices bacon: 1.12
3 large tortillas: 0.90
1 slice American cheese: 0.13
1 teabag for iced tea: 0.15

Total: $4.73 for 3 burritos, plus extra potatoes on the side

Steam the potatoes and fry up in the oil with peppers and onion.

Microwave bacon until crispy.

Scramble the eggs and top with the cheese.

Wrap in tortillas and enjoy!

Granola and Pasta Bake

No recipes today...I've made this stuff before, and I'm a "throw in whatever you've got" kinda person.

So the granola has oats, almonds, wheat germ, sesame seeds, coconut, cinnamon. The wet ingredients this time were a mixture of canola oil, maple syrup (out of brown sugar), and orange juice (no ripe bananas).

Breakfast today was yummy:

yogurt and strawberries:



meet my homemade granola:
together = perfection!


The kiddo had something similar (applesauce instead of strawberries). He was a bit disappointed in the granola at first "I want regular oatmeal", but that ended as soon as he had a bite. I look forward to the day that my work schedule returns to normal and I can actually eat breakfast at home, instead of in the car on the way to work. (This, I ate at home...tomorrow, I will be eating in the car or at my desk.)



The pasta bake was
1 lb pasta
1 large bell pepper
1/2 large onion
a bunch of tomatoes from the garden
some parsley (from the garden)
2 small summer squash
1 medium carrot
1/2 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 small can tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
basil, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, S&P

All the veggies went into a sauce, the pasta got cooked, it all went into an oiled pan, and topped with mozzarella and a little bit of parmesan.