PhD-Comps-Muffins

My dearest sister is taking her comprehensive exams today to get one step closer to her PhD! I wanted to do something special for Rebecca because she's been studying her butt off for the past many months. And now that she is living with her hunk-of-a-man and no longer with me, I figured she may be in need of some lovin' from Regina's kitchen.

I got this recipe from my favorite blogging woman, Ree (Pioneer Woman, P-Dub, PW, etc.). Seriously. Ree's blog is out of this world. I believe I have raved about her before, so let's get to the point. Ree's Mom's muffins made a special appearance on her blog last week and caught my eye. Here is the original recipe.  I pretty much followed it to a T except halving the sugar and scraping the raisins (didn't have any) and brought some additional flours to the party.

These were very tasty and cakey! But they came out almost too sweet for me. (Probably next time I'll reduce the brown sugar even more....I know...I'm weird.) And I also did a smaller batch with some blueberries because the Love Of My Life loves blueberries, and I know he'll want to try these, too. :)

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cups oat flour
1/4 cups buckwheat
1/4 cups oat bran
1/4 cup ground flaxseed/flaxseed meal
1 cup Regular Oats
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2+ tsp cinnamon
1/2 cups pecans, chopped and toasted

1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce
1 whole banana, mashed  (Rebecca hide your eyes!!)
1/4 cup molasses

(Rebecca... You don't see the mashed bananas.... you're distracted by the flowers) :)

Directions

1.   Preheat oven to 350F.
2.   Add buttermilk, egg, applesauce, banana, and molasses to a big mixing bowl. Whisk together.
3.   Add all of the dried ingredients and nuts to another mixing bowl and mix.
4.   Pour the dried ingredients into the wet-ingredients bowl and mix together. Let it stand for a couple of minutes. The batter will begin to rise and get fluffy.
4. a)    I added blueberries to half of the batter so I could try out blueberry muffins.
5.   Fill the cupcake pan cups  (well greased or lined with cupcake paper) almost to the top.
6.   Bake for about 18 minutes.
7.   Serve with butter (oh no!) or next to a pile of Greek yogurt and berries! :)

Oh, Sunday . . .

Spent Sunday morning chasing down my man on a road bike and finished it all off with Le Buzz breakfast. :)

                     

 

Quinoa Bites!

I'm alive! And back with a delicious recipe you must try tonight! Quinoa bites! Full of sweet and spicy flavors.

These are some pretty tasty little things. If you need a healthy, savory appetizer or a side to your main dish--these are your ticket! I put these together in no time, and got them out of the oven as the evening sunset was fading away.

I ate these with some homemade chili. They're probably the perfect accompaniment to some delicious minestrone soup! I adapted the recipe from this lovely blog.


Ingredients

2 cups cooked quinoa  = about 1 cup dried quinoa + 2 cups water  (you'll have some extra)
3/4 cups Gruyere cheese, grated  (I used Gouda because that's what Sprout's had and--let's be honest--gouda is delicious)
2 eggs, beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp Siracha sauce
1/2 tsp salt  (I didn't use salt)
1/2 cup breadcrumbs  (I used oat bran instead)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Mix everything together in a bowl.
3. Spoon out mixture into a greased cupcake pan. Fill each cup up to the top and pat down firmly. I barely managed to fill all cups in a 12 muffin-cup pan.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or until nice and browned on top.
5. Let cool for 5 minutes and then serve these nice and warm!

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