Saturday, October 8, 2011

Saturday morning hearty pancakes


Ahhhh....Saturday morning. 

Open the windows. Let the cool, desert air in. 

Turn on a pot of coffee.... 

 
Fresh blackberries
Fresh blueberries
Dark chocolate chips



If you want more to your pancakes than the simple "out-of-the-box" flavor, try these! They're filling and full of the good stuff :)

Makes about 15 or so medium sized pancakes


Ingredients


1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/3 cup oat bran
1/3 (heaping) cup oats

1/4 toasted pecans

1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp olive oil

Any fruit you want to thrown in



Directions


0. If you don't have buttermilk (like me), use the following to make your own!
        -  1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
        -  1 cup of milk

        0.a Stir both the vinegar and milk together
        0.b Let it sit for about 5 minutes to let it turn to "buttermilk"

1. In a big bowl combine all of the dry ingredients with a fork.
2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and break in the egg. Give the egg a little stir.
3. Pour in the buttermilk and add the vanilla and oil.
4. Stir all together and then let the batter sit for 5 minutes.
5. Spoon batter out onto a hot, oiled griddle.
6. Add the fruit or chocolate before flipping.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Wake up legs, wake up lungs!

At 11am this morning I put on my spandex and hopped on my bike. I knew this beautiful day could not be spent inside. I turned on the new OneRepublic CD and started to ride. The road was smooth and the cool breeze hit me like a refreshing wave. As I listened to the music I focused on the road, the muscles in my legs telling me they were working, and how magnificent the fall air felt flowing around me.



I pushed it down Swan and made a right onto the River Path.

After that, the miles flew by. Steady strokes...pull and push. Breathe.



Saturday, October 1, 2011

Happy Wonderful October


The most beautiful month in Arizona has come. Finally. The 100 degree days are over and the 90's never felt so good. Today, October kicked off with a drop in temperature, a breeze that smelled of rain, and small monsoon.




I love fall in the desert.
The evenings are cooler and the mornings are crisp.
It's a time for afternoon picnics and patio dinners.
Pumpkins and decorative gourds start popping up in grocery stores and on kitchen tables.
The ocotillo leaves turn a beautiful yellow-orange before dropping to the dirt below.
The sun hangs lower in the sky and casts its "fall glow" on Tucson.

You can just feel the desert give a sigh of relief.

I decided to celebrate the first day of October by baking molasses-cranberry muffins. Usually I bake this as a bread, but recently I've been on a muffin-kick, and I think everything just tastes better and is more fun to eat in muffin form.

*Baker be warned. These are pretty freakin healthy muffins. I try to use as little sugar, butter and oil as possible when I bake (cue *gasps* from real cooks and bakers everywhere). But that just means I get to eat more of what I cook because it's healthier ;)

This recipe makes 2 dozen muffins. Let's hope I can restrict myself to one muffin a day.




Ingredients


1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat bran
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 (heaping) cup oats

1 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk
1/2 cup yogurt (Greek yogurt is the best!)
1/2 cup olive oil  (I have used apple sauce in the past and it is definitely dryer this way, but still tastes great)
1/3 cup molasses

1 bag dried cranberries
Pecans/walnuts to sprinkle on top

Directions


1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
2. Mix all of the wet ingredients together in a big bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir together.
4. Dump in the bag of cranberries (and eat a few) and mix in.
5. Spoon out the batter into the oiled muffin pans.
6. Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.