Blueberry Oat Muffins

Many thanks to Alyssa from Cooking from a SAHM for today's post.  Enjoy!

-Sheri

 



Good Morning Everyone,

I have been slightly delayed in getting new recipes out lately. But in the last week I have made several new recipes. I love blueberry muffins, and decided to make some a few weekends back. I had found a recipe that I liked, so I took it and tweaked it :-) Then out came the best blueberry muffins I have ever had :-) You'll wanna make this recipe I promise :-)  Now that it's fall, I'm leaning more towards baking :-)

 

Blueberry Oat Muffins

Ingredients

1 Egg slightly beaten

1 C. Plain Yogurt

1/3 C of Oil

1 Tsp Vanilla

2 C. Flour

1/2 C Oats

1/2 C Sugar

1 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 Tsp Salt

1 1/2 C Blueberries

Toppings:

1/4 C Brown Sugar

2 T Butter

1/3 Oats

In a bowl mix together your egg, vanilla, oil and yogurt together till its all mixed. In another bowl mix your flour, oats, sugar, baking soda/powder and salt. Mix it up and gradually mix it into your wet ingredients. Then add your blueberries and mix till combined.. Fill up your muffin tins till almost full. In a bowl mix your brown sugar, butter oats till you make a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle on top of each muffin. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes till your toothpick comes out clean. ENJOY!

 

Retreating and reevaluating.

When life gets stressful and out of control, I tend to pull back.  I become a big-time homebody.  Apparently, I stop grocery shopping but enjoy online shopping a bit to excess as well, but that's a subject for another post entirely.  I eat cheese curls and coke zero for lunch.  Yeah, I wish I was making that up but it was my lunch one day this week.  I did make up for it the next day with a huge strawberry and goat cheese salad that was overflowing the dish with greens.  That was much better. And, somewhere, amidst all the non-grocery shopping and junk food lunch, I apparently stopped blogging.  I'm sorry.  It's not you, it's me.  I am stressing and worrying and not sure what else to do because I have no answers. Not yet, anyway.  All I have are plans and thoughts and most of them are insane.  The hubby and I spend time concocting crazy schemes for how our life is going to change.  Now, I don't know if all of those things will happen, but one thing is for certain, our life is going to change.   And, I'm trying to give myself this time to adjust, to be happy, to be sad, to be whatever I want to be, because that's what I need.

I know I sound cryptic, like I'm trying to be all dark and mysterious, but that's not it.  Really.  It's just as a blogger, you never know how much of yourself you really can share because I am not an individual all of the time.  I am married, I have children, I have a business and all of those things are precious to me.  I would like to retain as much of a guard around those things as I can but at the same time, I feel it's important to share as much of me as I can because that's what Homemade Served Here is about.  It's about my life, and all of the homemade parts of it that can't be found in anyone else's life.  I will share that my view of my life has been altered, as we face finally getting a diagnosis for my hubby's vision issues.  Wanting a diagnosis becomes like a crusade...you want to know so badly what is wrong that you'll stop at nothing to get there.  But, now that we know, now what?  I remember praying just to be able to get an answer, a reason, but in reality, that's not what I wanted.  I wanted an answer so it could be fixed, not to get an answer only to find out there is no "fix."  I should have been more specific.

So, as my husband and I face this new challenge, I remember our vows and know that whatever lies ahead of us, those words and the 18 years that have followed them have strengthened us and we will make our way through all of this uncertainty that is surrounding us right now.  We meet with another doctor next month and hopefully get more specific information so we can move forward and figure out what we're doing.  And, as we do this, I'm trying to not focus on this huge thing that is looming over our life.  Ever try to do that?  It's hard.  It's like the constant "but" at the end of thoughts, sentences, and plans.  I alternate between being strong and positive to being scared and sad.  I never quite know how I feel but overall I care more about how he feels right now.  I want to know what he's experiencing, I want to share in his thoughts and feelings and most of all I want to take it all away.  It's frustrating that the one thing I can't do is the thing I want to do most and it is completely out of my reach.

I will work hard at getting back to my photo-taking, recipe-posting self, but wanted to at least share my thoughts and explain my absence in the interim.  I am headed to the beach with friends next week for winefest and I will be making scones and I am sure that the urge will hit to snap pics and post them for all of you. I just ask that you're all patient and know that I'm not going anywhere, but am just taking a breather to regroup over here.  :)

Love,

Sheri

Dutch Apple Baby is THE way to start a morning!

Yesterday, I did a trail run with some friends.  It was a 50K "fat ass" event, which means it's more informal than a regular race.  You're timed, but it's not a set up finish line, and you tell them how many miles you went.  It was two loops of 15.5 miles, and I did one of them.  I only got 15 miles though, so I think they were off on measurement a bit.  My friends did two loops.  They're crazy - but in a good way.  These trails were beautiful but a little more rugged than I'm used to running, so I am way proud of my accomplishment.  Because there was such a lag in finish times with different paces, mileage, etc, my stomach was a bit messed up the rest of the day.  On the way home, I stopped and picked up burritos from my fave, Mexitaly, thinking it would help  It tasted good as usual, but the rest of the evening I just didn't feel well.  I think I'm so used to eating something like that in the first hour or so after running, that my body was completely out of whack.  And there was no real food to be had at the event (only so many cookies, chips, etc, you can eat!) to make up for it. So I just kept drinking water, drank my green smoothie before bed, and hoped I'd wake up feeling better.

So, this morning, I woke up ravenous but feeling better!  I was ready to eat just about everything in sight.  Luckily, I stuck to my plan and made the dutch baby on the menu.  I was soooo ready to scrap it and and just scarf down some toast but this was more than worth the wait and my stomach is happy once again.



Isn't it gorgeous?  I know that if I'd left out the apples, it would have risen higher but the apples add that special something.  I mean, a pancake on it's own is still a delicious pancake, but this is a whole meal.  And I think the moistness of the apples gives the dutch baby a custardy kind of texture.  I love that.  So, the apples stay and I'll give up some height. Here's a glimpse into just how the pancake puffs away from the filling...





And, oh my goodness, this is a sight to see cooling on the stove!  I will confess, I didn't let it cool.  I was so freaking impatient to eat that I practically burned my tongue shoving the first piece into my mouth.  Yes.  I said first piece because there was NO way I was not having seconds.  And, when I'm done writing this, I just *may* head back for thirds.  Can you blame me?  Seriously?



So, get into your kitchen and start making a dutch baby!!  Whether or not you add apples is up to you.  I am thinking next time I might even toss some toasted walnuts in there.  That would be AMAZING!  I love versatile recipes like this.  The mad scientist in me feels free to run rampant and if something doesn't work, oh well, there's always some scones handy in the freezer.  :)

For my dutch baby, I used Alton Brown's  (love him!) Food Network recipe.

Only change was the apples.  Oh, and I used a fluted pie pan.  I do not yet own a cast iron skillet, but it's on the "to get" list.  Along with a new mixer since I gave my KA to my daughter.  That's love.  So, which will be first?  Probably the pans, since I use my Vitamix or food processor so much and the rest I do by hand lately.  We'll see.  Oh my, that was a segue!  Sorry.  Back to the apples.

I used about 2 cups of sliced apples with some cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on them and cooked them down on the stovetop.  Right before I poured the batter onto the heated pan and butter, I added the apples.  Then I poured the batter on top of it all.  I wish I'd snapped a pic of that!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!!

Sheri

 

Bruschetta Pasta Salad Guest Post

It's almost the weekend and Alyssa (Cooking from a SAHM) brought you some more yumminess!!  I hope you enjoy her recipe and can keep yourself from drooling over the pasta salad, cause it sounds delicious!!

-Sheri

 

Good Morning Everyone :-) Today I am bringing you a great recipe for Bruschetta Pasta Salad. It is so easy and fresh. I had been wanting to make a pasta salad. So I came up with this easy Bruschetta Pasta Salad. It was so yummy. Only thing that I didn't put in it was Onion and Garlic. However, that's because I was out of both. This recipe features fresh basil, tomatoes, olives, feta and Olive oil...Its an awesome recipe and great if you have veggies kicking around.



 

Bruschetta Pasta Salad

Half a box or less of Pasta

2 Diced and seeded tomatoes

10 or so chopped Kalmatta Olives( I would add lots)

8 Chopped Basil Leaves

1//2 -1 C of Feta Cheese( depends how much you like it)

1/3 C of Olive oil

 

Homemade Pop Tarts

This morning I decided I was going to make pop tarts for breakfast.  The daycare kids' reaction?  "What's a pop tart?"  Their parents have raised them well.  But, even if they didn't know what a pop tart was, they sure knew how to eat it.  And ask for seconds.  And ask if I was sure they couldn't have seconds about a half hour later.  Apparently this is one of those recipes you just keep on craving.



Aren't they adorable?  And delicious looking??  Even now, I'm wishing I could have another bite.  I found the recipe over at Peas and Thank You and was hooked!  I will confess it has taken me months to actually convince myself I had time in the morning to make them.  Today is a pajama day here at daycare and it just seemed like the right breakfast!



I did try and add some sprinkles onto the poptarts but the icing set so quickly that they just rolled off, but nobody seemed to mind all that much!



So, don't wait months to make these...because it took so little time to make that I know they'll be on my rotation much more frequently.  I used my food processor and it really made the process even quicker and the dough was perfect.  I did have to use a bit more water than called for but that was because I used organic sugar in place of the maple syrup or agave nectar.

I hope you enjoy them too!!

Sheri

Chard-Potato Soup and Cheddar Scones

Fall is here!  Well, not here here but it feels like it!  I'll take that.  My long run yesterday was cool, breezy and comfortable.  I haven't been able to say those words for a long, long time - or at least three months or so.  Our weekend wrapped up one of the craziest weeks we have had around my house - my running schedule suffered, the housework suffered and, needless to say, I'm glad I'm looking at a few empty spots on the calendar over the next two weeks.  In order to properly celebrate the change in the air, I felt soup was the most appropriate meal.  Our weekly menu said fajitas but that can be any night.  On the first weeknight with air this cool it had to be soup!  And my CSA had a huge bunch of chard in it this week.  Not much else but I won't complain.  This chard was beautiful...it had to be about 2 feet long per leaf and at least 20 leaves in the bunch.  I meant it when I said huge!

I am sorry that there's not really a recipe to share with you here.  It's a taste and adapt kind of recipe and I am so frequently putting a dash of this or that in it, I lose track.  But I can share a picture...



It was super easy - veggie broth and cubed potatoes simmered with some savory herbs and spices and onion and then sliced carrots and heaps of chard added to it.  It was thick, hearty and still healthy.  That is until I added a cheddar scone to go with it.  Not nearly as healthy, but what a complement!



I used my basic scone recipe and used less sugar, more salt and no vanilla.  I added in cheddar to the mix and then added a bit on top.  Perfect!

Cheddar Scones

Ingredients:

• 1 c flour


• 3/4 c whole wheat flour


• 2 1/2 t baking powder


• 1 1/2 t salt


• 1 T sugar


• 5-6 T milk or cream


• 1 egg


• 1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese plus a bit more for garnishing if desired


• 1/3 c butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400


2. Mix all dry ingredients into bowl


3. Cut butter in until mixture looks like crumbs


4. Add egg, cheese and milk and either use hands or sturdy spoon to mix well.  Add milk in until mixture comes clean away from bowl sides, but isn't sticky.


5. Form dough into a round and cut into wedges.


6. Put wedges on baking sheet and add cheddar cheese on top if desired


7. Bake for about 12 -14 minutes in preheated oven.


8. Let cool and serve.

Hope you're enjoying beautiful weather wherever you are.  I am going to be thankful for today and the time my hubby and I got to spend enjoying our dinner with the cool breezes blowing.

Enjoy,
Sheri

Raspberry Granola Muffins

On the heels of my crazy-busy week wrapping up last week, a new addition was welcomed into our daycare family, which really is more like our own extended family.  I felt bad I had so little time to pull something together to celebrate the new little boy in their household, but as a quick treat, I decided to make some muffins.  I chose the muffin for a few reasons:  First, their oldest (love saying that!) son loves my muffins - okay, I tell myself it's my muffins, but really I think he just loves muffins. We'll just go with that as is.  Next, muffins are versatile.  They're breakfast, they're dessert, they're a snack.  All in all, they're whatever you need them to be.  I've used a muffin as an anchor to a lunch meal on a crazy day and the kids are thrilled beyond belief to find a muffin on their plate.  Lastly, muffins are easy to put together, cook quicker than most other baked goods and are still reasonably healthy.

With that in mind, I set to work making some muffins.  And I decided that muffins were loved enough by their son I could experiment a bit and he'd still eat them.  I don't think I needed to worry at all because when I dropped them off, he had almost a whole muffin polished off in the few minutes I had to spare cuddling his little brother.  I love kids.



These are the muffins I brought to them. Are they not beautiful??  And, although I was throwing things together, I do have a recipe!  Hurray!

Raspberry Granola Muffins

Makes about 1 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c granola of your choice (I used an organic raspberries and cream blend)


• 3/4 c sugar


• 1 1/4 c flour


• 1/2 T baking soda


• 1/4 c oil (I used a bit less than this but it was close)


• 1/2 c plain yogurt


• 1 beaten egg


• 1/2 c raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and either line or grease muffin tin


2. Mix all dry ingredients together first and then add wet ingredients to them.  Mix well.


3. Add raspberries and gently fold in.


4. Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way full and put in oven.


5. Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly and is slightly browned.


6. Let cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan.

I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as he did!!!

Enjoy,

Sheri

 

 

A Vegan Life...Or not so much :(

Sometimes in life, things just don't work. I know I get frustrated when I want something to happen and I just can't make it work, even when I try - really, really try - hard and so it goes for me and the vegan diet.  Now, I am not saying that I am abandoning the idea completely because I am not.  I want as much of our diet as possible to come from plants, and plants alone and I will keep working on that goal but I will share some of the issues that I have begun to endure after a few months on eating just about 100% vegan.  I will also share how I tried to adjust to deal with these things and I apologize in advance if you came here looking just for a recipe and instead were subjected to my chatter about my body's rejection of being vegan.

First up, mouth sores.  Lots of them.  I had ulcers all the time.  I changed my toothpaste, toothbrush, etc because I couldn't get rid of them.  Then, by chance, I came upon an article about B12 deficiency in vegans and vegetarians leading to mouth ulcers.  I got a B12 supplement and the ulcers were gone in 2 days and haven't returned....problem solved, right?  Well, not exactly because...

My body hates taking vitamins.   I usually just get sick.  But on B12...I became an irritable, grouchy monster with zilch for patience.  It was like the time I couldn't be on estrogen replacement right after my hysterectomy.  Nobody wanted to live with that - I didn't continue to subject my family to that version of me then, and I wasn't interested in doing it now.  And being vegan meant a whole realm of vitamins that needed to be taken to compensate for everything my body wasn't getting via the food. Calcium, iron, and now B12 in addition to my daily estrogen and multivitamin.  I mean, isn't the point of all of this to eat well and let the body work naturally?

The need for processed foods.  Okay, so maybe, just maybe, there is a way to do this without vitamins or processed foods containing the vitamins, but I seriously couldn't find a way to make it work.  I'd love (civil, please) thoughts and ideas on this.  So, if I don't want to take B12, I need to buy soy milk fortified with B12 instead of drinking my homemade almond milk that I love.  Hmm.  Things like that just weren't making sense anymore.  I don't want to use veganaise if I can make my own mayonnaise here and eat something unprocessed.  Or give up a healthy drink like almond milk because I need to get B12 from something that it's been fortified with in a factory.  I think you know what I mean.

So...is there a way to live vegan and eat only whole foods and still be able to keep up a running and biking schedule and have no vitamins or supplements?  For me, at least, the answer is no.  And I have to do what's best for my body.  So I will add an occasional egg or some milk to a recipe and not try to strip everything down to the plant essentials and see how I feel.  Maybe, just maybe I can find that perfect balance. I am still not interested in eating any meat and I've been a vegetarian for so many years that I know my body well enough to know what it needs.

First big step last night...



Quinoa Burgers...and they have egg and cheese in them.

Quinoa Burgers

Makes 6-7 patties

Ingredients

• 2 c cooked quinoa


• 3/4 c bread crumbs


• 2 eggs


• 1/4 c shredded cheddar cheese


• 1/2 t garlic powder


• 1/2 t onion powder


• 1t seasoning salt

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients well until mixture is holding together - it will seem crumbly but will firm up in the pan while cooking


2. Preheat pan lightly coated in oil to medium high and put patties in pan.


3. Cook for about 5 minutes the first side, or until browned, and then flip and cook the other side until browned.


4. Serve alone or on a bun.

These were a nice re-entry into eating non-vegan because they were still whole foods that I made.  I'm looking forward to retaining as much of the vegan recipes as I can but being sure to add in enough sources of iron and b12 to better support my lifestyle.  I am doing this to be healthy, and whatever that means is the direction I'm headed in.  :)

 

Garlic Lemon Rosemary Chicken

Thursday already? I am so behind!  Good thing Alyssa at Cooking from a SAHM is to my rescue with another guest post!

Enjoy,

Sheri

 

Hello Everyone,

I can not believe Thursday is here already. This Thursday I decided to share with you my Rosemary Garlic Lemon Chicken w/ vegetables. It was my first recipe in my new to me Electric Roaster oven. It is such a handy thing to have. We found it at a yard sale for $5 and it has never been used. :-) It is a Rival 16 quart. It is so nice that I can make a whole chicken or even leg quarters without even having to turn the oven on.  This recipe is really good, fresh tasting, and easy.  Now you can use this same recipe and put it in the oven... Since the weather is getting cooler here slowly, I am excited about having my oven on :-) I really hope that you enjoy this recipe.



 

Garlic, Rosemary Lemon Chicken

3 Leg quarters (you can do this same thing on a whole chicken)

1 sprig of Rosemary

Minced Garlic ( enough to spread on chicken, and stuff in skin)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/2 Tsp of Lemon juice on each chicken

1 Vadalia Onion chopped

4 stocks of celery chopped

5 Carrots chopped( I'd cut up more)

 

I started by cutting up all your veggies. Then I stripped all the rosemary off the stems. I chopped them small. Put all those in a bowls. Set them aside. Take your chicken and take a knife. Slit the skin open a bit. Take your finger and stick it in the skin and open the skin up a bit. Then stuff it with garlic. Making sure garlic is spread everywhere in the skin. Take more minced garlic and rub it on the top of the chicken. Sprinkle with the chopped rosemary. Put it in a pan. Salt and pepper to taste.  Take your chopped veggies and put them over the chicken. Pour about 3/4 Cup of water. Pour 1/2 tsp of Lemon juice on each chicken. Cover. Bake 350 until done and skin is browned. Make sure veggies are tender.

Peanut Butter Brownies - Veganized

We love brownies here.  The hubby loves the batter, I just love them.  I am a sweets addict, that's for sure.  I've tried a few recipes since removing eggs and dairy from our diet but haven't been impressed.  Today's effort isn't the best, but it certainly is the best so far.  And the healthiest, so we might just have to learn to adapt a bit.



I mean, it looks pretty yummy, right?

So here's the recipe...

PB Brownies

Ingredients

• 2 c all purpose flour


• 1 c sugar, your choice in what kind, I used organic cane


• 3/4 c of cacao powder, cocoa powder would work also


• 1 t baking powder


• 1 t salt


• 1 c vanilla soymilk


• 1/2 c oil


• 1/2 c applesauce


• flax egg (1 T ground flax mixed with 2 T warm water and let to "set up")


• 1/2 c organic peanut butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350, grease square baking pan.


2. Mix all dry ingredients, set aside


3. In separate bowl, mix remainder of ingredients except peanut butter


4. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until all ingredients are incorporated.


5. Add peanut butter to mix and gently fold in.


6. Pour mixture into prepared pan.


7. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, remove from oven and let cool for about 10-15 minutes

It was a good brownie but was still missing something.  Maybe chocolate chips would help.  I will give that a try next time.  Desserts are certainly something that I've been able to master on our dairy and egg-free diet.  Thankfully!

Enjoy!

Sheri

 

Dinner with Friends is a Great Way to Spend an Evening!

In my life, I am surrounded by some of the best people that I am lucky enough to call my friends.  Life can get a little hectic sometimes, and just when you're feeling sorta off-center, you remember that you're not alone.  We're working on making it a bit of a tradition to work really hard at scheduling time to get together and enjoy some good food, good conversation and just have a chance to relax.  Finally, we were able to make that happen again this week.  And it was just what I needed!!  Settling back into the regular days of the school year and the routine of that has been a bit tiring after such a flexible summer and next week I'm going to be adding homeschooling the boy through his senior year so things are going to get more hectic.  Time out with friends is a necessity.  The hubby was sick :( so I was solo and that was the only down spot of the evening.  My contribution?





A fruited quinoa salad with a honey-lemon vinaigrette!!  It was incredibly easy, and it would work well no matter what kind of summery fruits you had on hand.  I used blueberries, strawberries and kiwi, but whatever you like would probably work.  I tossed the fruit in a dressing I made using 3 T honey, 1 1/2 T lemon juice and a splash of balsamic vinegar to make a bright but not overpowering vinaigrette and it was perfect.  Once the fruit and dressing were tossed together, I added it to my cooked and cooled quinoa.  I used about 4 cups of quinoa.  Then, it just had to sit a bit to marry all the flavors and it was ready to eat.

Our dinner was rounded out by homemade black bean burgers, grilled corn and zucchini, deviled eggs and other delicious tidbits like hummus and avocado.  Something for everyone - well, unless you were looking for meat because this was a sans meat meal.  I am so lucky to have a group of friends who accept each others differences so easily and try and work to make sure there's something for everyone at the table.

I loved the little hostess gift I brought for my friend, Kathleen.  We're both runners and I know the toll that it takes on my feet.  In celebration of her 20 miler race on Sunday (which she did fabulous at!) I made her a homemade foot soak.  It was easy but I enjoyed every minute of creating it!



I mixed 1 cup epsom salt, 1 cup sea salt, 2 T of lemon infused grapeseed oil, a few splashes of lavender (could use peppermint, I just didn't have any on hand) essential oil, and the contents of 1 packet of peppermint tea.  The smell is amazing and I loved how it worked when I tested it out.  I hope she enjoys it!

You remember my brownie cookies that I adore from Post Punk Kitchen???  I redid them.  Into a gluten free cookie for my friend, Jen.  I made the recipe exactly as stated but I substituted rice flour, xanthan gum and potato starch for the flour.  And guess what?  They were completely a different cookie.  They tasted like a devils food snackwells cookie.  Still tasty but no longer like a brownie at all.  Interesting!



All in all, what a fantastic weekend with the exception of a nasty migraine on Saturday.  That I could have done without.  But my run Sunday was awesome, those 10 miles were peaceful and easy.  Next week I go back to big numbers of running and have a busy week, so fingers crossed I can work it all in.  Life is just busy sometimes always so I am just learning to try and roll with it...

Happy Labor Day!

Sheri