Pumpkin Carrot Muffins

Here is another tasty muffin with veggies inside.  No pictures of this yet, but imagine yummy in the shape of a muffin, and you should have a pretty good idea what these looks like.

1/2 C oil
1/3 - 1/2 C brown sugar (to taste)
2 large bananas, mashed
1/2 can pumpkin (so about 1 C, but I never measure, I just eyeball half of the can)
2-4 carrots, grated (as many as you think you can hide in there!)
2 eggs
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C oat flour (grind oats in a blender to make the flour)
1/4 C wheat germ (or substitute with more oat flour)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 tsp salt

Cream together oil and brown sugar.  Mix in the bananas, pumpkin, carrots, and eggs.  Stir in all remaining ingredients until just combined.  Scoop into greased muffin cups.  Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.  Store in fridge.


And now some pictures of our cute, wild things. 

This little guy LOVES his bike.  He gets better at getting some speed and balancing everytime we take the bike out.

Pretty girl on her blessing day.

A teaser from our newborn photos that we just got from our fabulous photographer/friend Andrea.  She did a beautiful job and was ever so patient with both Brooklyn and crazy little Isaac.

Baked Banana Oatmeal

Today I read a blog post from my delightful sister-in-law and instantly thought of a few favorite "muffin" recipes.  And since I've been taking pictures of food for months with the good intention of one day blogging again, I even had a photo of these muffins.

3 mashed bananas, the riper the better
1 C vanilla almond milk (or use normal milk and a few Tbsp brown sugar to sweeten)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 or more grated carrots (I do as many as I think I can get away with)
1 Tbsp oil
3 C oats (I use about 2 1/2 C old-fashioned oats and 1/2 C oat flour)
1 Tbsp baking powder
Chocolate chips (a small handful - I probably end up with about 1/3 C)

Combine bananas, milk, eggs,  vanilla, carrots, and oil.  Add oats and baking powder.  Stir in chocolate chips to taste.  Drop into well greased muffin tins.  Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.  Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on racks.  Enjoy!

Part of my lack of blogging is due to this adorable little girl: 

She was born February 6th, weighing in at a mighty 5 lb 12 oz.  And while Isaac my be indifferent (at best) regarding her, I love her to pieces!

Pancakes with Yogurt and Blueberry Sauce

 I love breakfast.  It's dessert disguised as a meal - what's not to love?  The pancake recipe is from my mother with two changes from Rob and Anna - using butter instead of oil and the addition of a banana.  Quite yummy.

Pancakes:
1 C buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tbsp melted butter (or oil, but it doesn't have as good of a flavor)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 over-ripe banana, well mushed (optional, but delicious)
1/2 C flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine buttermilk, egg, butter, sugar, and banana.  Add dry ingredients, do not over-beat.  Cook pancakes.

Berry Sauce:
1 C berries (I used frozen mixed berries but the original recipe calls for blueberries)
2.5 Tbsp sugar
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla

Combine berries, sugar, lemon juice, and salt.  Bring to a boil in a small saucepan.  Crush berries as they cook.  Boil 1 minute.  Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.

Spread pancakes with a thin layer of vanilla yogurt.  Top with a little bit of berries.  Feel absolutely no guilt for eating something that tastes like dessert for breakfast.  (Eggs, that's nutrition!  Yogurt, fruit.  You can't go wrong.  At least it's not chocolate cake.)

At the beach in Annapolis, MD

Little Boy has two milestones to report:

1st - He ate rice!  The boy has refused rice for the better part of 8 months and today I decided to put the rice in a bowl with a fork.  Figured he might not eat any but he could at least practice playing with utensils.  And he promptly ate mexican rice.  I even gave him seconds!  Amazing.  Granted, the rice was topped with sour cream and cheese.  Who can refuse such a combination?

2nd - He has officially regressed to baby food.  In preparation for a plane flight to Baltimore (more on that in a future post) I was buying an assortment of food to entertain a busy 18 month old.  While at the store I thought, what the heck, and bought one of those Ella's Kitchen pouches of squash and blueberry baby food.  The little wild boy slurped the squash-berry sauce up like he hadn't eaten veggies in months (which is true, though not because they haven't been offered).  So when we got to Maryland, Geoff went and bought a few more pouches, including peas and spinach, and carrots and beets.  He ate them all.  He never ate peas very well even when he was only eating baby food.  The verdict: veggies are veggies.  And if that means I need to puree them, so be it.  So today with dinner I made him pureed raw apples and steamed carrots.  One small step backwards for little boy, one giant leap forwards for veggies everywhere.

Terribly Belated Pi Day Post

I am a blogging slacker.  I had good intentions of blogging right after pi day.  Just as I had good intentions of blogging right after Easter.  Better late than never?

Isaac painting with his slice of blueberry pie.  I'm not sure he's ever been this quiet and content.  I'm going to start giving him slices of pie when I need a break from chasing him around.

Pi day was delicious as usual.  Every year I panic, thinking we won't have enough pies so at the last minute I throw together a third pie, only to have ridiculous amounts of pie left over.   Next year I need to remember to only make two pies.  It would be more than adequate, as so many people bring pies of there own to share. Fortunately, I've learned my lesson from last year and I stubbornly refuse to allow anyone to leave leftover pie that they brought so we didn't have more leftovers than the three of us can eat alone.

This year I made a walnut-brownie pie (um, brownie in a pie?  Yes please!), Creamy White Chocolate Strawberry pie, and in response to my unfounded panic that we wouldn't have enough pie, I threw together the Key Lime pie we have at every occasion that could possibly warrant a pie (the husband's favorite).

Brownie Walnut Pie
1 pie crust, rolled out and in a pie pan, unbaked
1/2 C butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut up
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 C chopped walnuts
Garnish with hot fudge and or strawberries


Melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring frequently.  Cool 20 minutes (this would be a great time to make your pie crust).

Combine eggs, sugar, flour, and vanilla.  Stir in the chocolate mixture and the nuts.  Pour into pie crust.  Cover edges with foil to prevent over-browning (I forgot this step - oops).  Bake for 50-55 minutes at 350, or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool.

We also celebrated pie day with a delicious quiche.  And, in retrospect, I determined that quiche doesn't photograph well (or, I should say, doesn't photograph well for a photographer, we use that term loosely, who just points a camera at something and presses the button).  But, believe me that the quiche was delicious, regardless how the picture looks.

Quiche:
1 pie crust
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 C half-and-half or milk
1/4 C green onion
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
dash ground nutmeg
3/4 C chopped ham
1 1/2 C cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, Swiss, etc)
1 Tbsp flour

Line pie plate with pastry crust.  Do not prick.  Cover with foil and bake fr 8 minutes at 450.  Remove foil and bake for an additional 4-5 minutes.

Stir together eggs, half-and-half, green onions, and spices.  Stir in ham.  In a separate bowl, toss together the cheese and flour.  Add to the egg mixture. Pour egg mixture into hot pastry shell.  Cover edge of crust with foil to prevent over-browning.  Bake at 325 for 40-45 minutes or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.  Let stand 10 minutes before serving.


And as a special bonus for actually checking my blog even though I never post anymore, here is a video of the little boy.  Did I mention that he is adorable?

The diaper box in the background is filled with sand. At the rate he throws sand, we'll need it soon enough.

Sweet Potato Muffins

These were really yummy.  You could make them for yourself even if you don't have a baby to feed.  I, however, made these specifically for my little Bean. Speaking of my little bean, have I mentioned how wild and wiggly he is lately?  An omen of things to come, right?  The other day he was crawling with purpose and rather than go around Tina, he went straight over her.  Just crawled up over her back without skipping a beat.  What a good dog to just sit there and watch him do it.

Our skinny little bean's waist can't quite hold pants up.  We're always a size or two behind in the pant department.

1/2 C all purpose flour

1/2 C wheat flour

1 C old fashioned oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Whisk all the above dry ingredients together.

2 eggs

1/3 C brown sugar

1/2 C milk

1/4 C oil

1 tsp vanilla

Whisk all the above wet ingredients together.

1 C mashed sweet potato*

Add mashed sweet potato to the wet ingredients.  Blend well.  Gently fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just mixed.  Batter may be lumpy.  Scoop into mini muffin tins (for baby) or full sized muffin tins (for you!).  Bake at 350.

Mini muffins - 350 for 15-17 minutes

Full Sized Muffins - I didn't bake any myself, but someone commented on the original recipe that it took 20ish minutes for full sized muffins

* For sweet potato, bake ahead of time at 400 for 1 hr.  Or dice and cook in a pressure cooker with a touch of water for 8 minutes or until done)
 

And in other news, we got a piano.  I think it's fabulous.  Isaac likes it too and pulls himself up to play on a few keys several times a day.

Overnight Blueberry French Toast

Sometimes I get focused on the bad things about living in Houston (the serious lack of mountains, or even hills, for that matter; the ridiculous heat; the snakes; the giant bugs . . .) but there are two amazing things about living in Houston.  The first is that we found our Tina-dog here (which is entirely unrelated to this post, but she's laying next to me while I write this and she got a bath this morning and smells good and she is just so sweet).  The second is blueberry picking.  About twenty minutes away there is this fabulous blueberry farm where you can go pick blueberries to your hearts content for an outrageously cheep price.  We went a few weekends ago with Geoff's parents.  It made for a wonderful morning and delicious eating.  We made this french toast a few weeks ago and it was heavenly in a blueberry sort of way.

1 loaf day-old bread, cut into 1 inch cubes (I used about 3/4 of a loaf of French bread)
1 8 oz packages cream cheese, cut into cubes
1/2 C fresh blueberries (or a bit more becasue they are so tasty)
6 eggs, beaten
1 C milk
1 tsp vanilla
5 Tbsp maple syrup

Grease a 9x9 baking dish.  Place bread cubes in the dish until the bottom is covered.  Top with cream cheese cubes and blueberries.  Top with remaining bread cubes (or as many bread cubes as it takes to fill the pan. 

In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla, and syrup.  Pour over the bread cubes.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the bread cubes from the refrigerated 30 minutes before baking.  Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes at 350.  Uncover and continue baking an additional 25-30 minutes until lightly browned and center is firm.

Blueberry Sauce:

1/2 C sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 C water
1/2 C blueberries
1/2 Tbsp butter

Mix  sugar, cornstarch, and water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.  Mix in the blueberries.  Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Stir in the butter and pour over the baked French toast.  Enjoy!

Isaac tried to help but he mostly just pulled leaves off the bushes and shook blueberries loose to the ground.

Little boy came to pick blueberries with us.  After a little bit, though, he went and sat with his grandpa in the shade next to the fans to cool off a little bit (Houston is hot!).  Once again, though, I am a mean mom and didn't let little boy have any blueberries.  I know there are lots of baby food recipes out there with blueberries but my doctor recommended no berries for 1 year, so that's what we're going with (though, on an odd note, she also said milk is fine after 6 months IF the baby was breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months, which is different from what many pediatricians say).

So the Little Wiggle Boy ate avocado instead.  I mashed it with a spoon but he wasn't terribly impressed, so I added some onion powder and a splash of lime juice and he liked that much better.

Muesli

I think I just had ice cream for breakfast.  And it was amazing.

Muesli:

1/2-3/4 C oats
1 C plain or vanilla yogurt
3/4-1 C frozen fruit

Place oats in blender or food processor and pulse a few times to break up.  Add remaining ingredients.  Blend until well combined and fruit is pureed.  If using plain yogurt you can consider adding 1 Tbsp sweetener (honey, maple syrup, agave, or good old fashioned sugar).

Makes 2 servings

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Maple-Apple Topping

Delicious!  The maple-apple topping was incredible.  Way better than normal pancake syrup.  Also, I was nervous about grinding the whole wheat kernels in my blender, but it worked just fine.

Blender Whole Wheat Pancakes:

Blend the following for 5 minutes:
1 C whole wheat kernels
1 C milk
pinch of salt

Add and blend 1 minute:
2 eggs
1/4 C oil

Add and blend until mixed:
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon

Maple-Apple Topping:
2 Tbsp butter
3 C sliced peeled apples
1/4 C maple syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Melt butter over medium-high heat.  Add apples and saute 8 minutes or until tender.  Stir in maple syrup and cinnamon.  Keep warm until serving.