Whole Wheat Apple Banana Muffins

Lately when I've made muffins, I've used this recipe I found on the blog 100 Days of Real Food. But today, I wanted to try something new. So, I used this recipe I found on weelicious.com. 

Here are the changes I made to the recipe:

·   Instead of 1½ cups of all-purpose flour, I used 1 cup of whole-wheat flour and ½ cup of all-purpose flour.

·   I only had 1 banana so instead of 2 bananas and 1 medium apple, I used 1 banana and 1 large Crispin apple. The apple was really juicy so I added the juice to the wet ingredients.

·   I don't have a pan for mini muffins so I used a pan for regular-sized muffins.  The recipe yielded 12 regular-sized muffins and a small loaf of bread.

·   I cooked the muffins for around 23 minutes. 

The muffins were delicious! I think adding in the apple juice made the muffins extra moist.

And did my teeny tiny foodie like them? Oh, yeah. The muffins were a major hit with Eliana. 

Can I get the whole thing into my mouth at once? You can bet I'm gonna try!

She loved them so much that when I had the nerve to try to give her a few spoonfuls of yogurt with cinnamon (which she loves) in between bites of her muffin, she had a MAJOR tantrum. She was so loud that I kept expecting my next door neighbor to come running over to make sure we were okay. Really.

But I want MORE OF THAT MUFFIN!!!!

GIVE ME BACK THAT MUFFIN YOU EVIL WOMAN!

I'm SO putting you into a nursing home when you're old, Lady!

After a brief hiatus from snack, Eliana actually finished all of the yogurt and then scarfed down the rest of the muffin. 

Let me shove this into my mouth super quickly in case she tries to take it away again.

And here are photos of the actual muffins.  

Happy Cooking!

Thirds, please!

Eliana is a pasta loving fool just like her Mommy. If I allowed it, she’d blissfully eat pasta for three meals plus one snack each and every day. (And really, so would I!) Obviously, I don’t serve her pasta all day every day. But I know that when pasta is served, it will be gobbled up with no questions asked. What I didn’t expect was to feed her a third serving of pasta for dinner tonight!

Now that fall is setting in and the weather is cooler, I decided I should use the remaining basil from our garden sooner rather than later. To me a big bunch of basil means one thing: it’s time for pesto. Yum! The recipe I used is below.

Pesto Sauce

·    Fresh basil

·    Pine nuts, toasted (I used walnuts in this batch. See the explanation below.)

·    Garlic clove(s), peeled

·    Shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

·    Olive oil, salt and pepper

·    Reserved cooking liquid from the pasta

**There are no amounts listed on this recipe because it all depends on the amount of basil I use. I like a lot of basil. For all ingredients except the Parmesan, I start by adding smaller amounts and work my way up because it is easier to add more of anything to the food processor than to take away.**

Toast the pine nuts over low heat for a few minutes until they are browned and fragrant. All ingredients go into the food processor. Puree. Taste and adjust levels as needed.

If I’m putting this over pasta, I reserve a mugful of the cooking liquid, drain the pasta and add it back into the pot. I add the pesto, which is kind of a paste consistency, and begin adding the reserved cooking liquid from the pasta. I mix it all up and add more water as needed to help thin out the pesto and avoid adding a lot more oil.

Variations:

- Add organic baby spinach as well as basil

- Add fresh lemon or lime juice to brighten up the flavors

- Substitute the pine nuts with toasted walnuts (I just discovered this by accident. When I opened up the freezer to grab the pine nuts, there were none. Gasp! But, there were walnuts, so toasted walnuts went into this current batch of pesto.)

I used gobbetti-shaped pasta for this batch and served it with fresh grape tomatoes that were quartered.

Now this pasta shape looks fun!

Happy Cooking!

Recipe for Green Mashed Potatoes

On Tuesday afternoons, Eliana and I have a standing play date with our friends Meghan and Miles. This Tuesday, Meghan and I were swapping food stories and she told me that Miles currently loves mashed potatoes. That night I was thinking about new recipes and foods for Eliana. I got to thinking: Has Eliana eaten mashed potatoes? She has certainly had potatoes over the last 16 months. I made her a kale and potato puree when she was newly eating solids and she's had my potato leek soup, too. At restaurants she's had roasted potatoes and tried french fries, but she hasn't necessarily had mashed potatoes. 

Obviously, I had to fix that and introduce my teeny tiny foodie to potatoes in this other form. So, as part of her lunch yesterday she got my newest recipe: Green Mashed Potatoes. 

Green Mashed Potatoes

·    1 potato, chopped (I used a yellow potato and I left the skin on)

·    1 large handful of leafy greens (I used kale)

·    ½ tablespoon chopped scallions, white parts only

·    1-2 tablespoons milk (I used organic whole milk)

·    ½ small clove of garlic, peeled

·    1 tablespoon of butter, cut into little chunks

·    Reserved cooking liquid from steaming the potato, greens and garlic

·    Salt and pepper to taste

Steam the potato, greens and garlic. Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processer along with the scallions, a little bit of the milk, butter, reserved steaming liquid, salt and pepper. Puree it to your desired consistency. Taste and adjust flavors with more milk, butter and seasoning as needed.

Green Mashed Potatoes

With some baked chicken for lunch.

Aaaaahhhhh.

And, here are a few photos of Eliana and Miles from a play date this summer. This past Tuesday, both little people were a blur of "peek-a-boo" activity so none the most recent photos came out well. 

Hi there, Peeps!

Here I am driving them around. Poor Miles is so freaked out he's made Eliana's ear into the "Holy S!@t" handle of their pretend car.

Mommy! Save me from your friend who can't drive!!

O.M.G. She's starting again. Hold on, Eliana!

Happy Cooking!