Obamamuffins

In honor of the changes slated to occur tomorrow morning I've made Obamamuffins!  We're having a viewing party at school, and since I'm semi-famous for my "Yes we cake", I needed to prepare something! I present to you, my own special recipe, however the idea was a joint effort (thanks Mel!)

We Want Change Muffins*

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup oil

3 tablespoons vanilla

2 cups grated zucchini

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

8 ounces crushed pineapple

Topping:

1/3 cup flour

3 tbsp butter, melted

4 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease muffin tins.  Beat eggs until fluffy, add sugar, oil, and vanilla.  Blend well.  Add zucchini.  Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Add to batter and mix well.  Stir in pineapple.  Pour into muffin tins, about half to three-quarters full.  For topping, combine all ingredients in a bowl and sprinkle over the top.  Bake about 20 minutes, and brace yourself for a brand new day!

*admittedly, the concept here is a little more discrete than the half chocolate, half vanilla Obama cake I made, so here's the hidden meaning.  The pineapple is a nod to the Hawaiian background, and the zucchini-pineapple flavor is an attempt to make a muffin that perhaps no one has had before, bringing a new flavor to fix the old problems, pushing the muffin-flavor envelope, if you will.  I'm hopeful they will make breakfast a more pleasant experience.

Healthy-ish

I found an interesting book at the library about a week ago. In hopes of eating healthier (and pretty much cutting all processed sugar out of my diet -- day six of that, baby!) I checked it out. Well the book itself is no good, so I won't give you the title. It did however have an intriguing recipe for banana oat muffins that called for no flour and no sugar. I happened to have all of the ingredients (well, except for the blueberries, but I used raisins instead. . . I know, a strange substitute, but hear me out) and they were good! They were naturally sweetened by the bananas, and for twelve muffins, they only had two tablespoons of oil, two eggs, and lots of GOOD stuff. I decided to make them again, and this time make a few changes. I didn't have any more over-ripe bananas, but I did have applesauce. I also ran out of raisins (and still didn't have blueberries. . . who buys blueberries in January in New England?!) but I had my new favorite dried fruit, dates. Well anyway, to make a long story short, they were BETTER than the original version. . . and I wanted to share. Here's what I like to call. . . Applesauce Oat Muffins. Original, no?

2 c. oat bran
1/4 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon -- the original recipe called for 1/4 tsp., and for the applesauce version I used 1/2 but still couldn't taste it that much. . .
dash of ground nutmeg
1 c. unsweetened applesauce (or naturally sweetened would be yummy too)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c. vanilla soy milk -- the original recipe called for plain soy milk and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbs. olive oil -- the original recipe called for EVOO (haha, I couldn't resist) but I thought that would be GROSS if you could taste it
1/2 c. chopped nuts (I used pecans both times)
1 c. dried fruit (raisins or dates)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray or use baking cups. In a large bowl, combine oat bran, rolled oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a small bowl, beat together applesauce, eggs, milk, and oil. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients until just blended (though it probably doesn't matter if you over-beat here since there isn't any flour, right? Maybe consult with Alton Brown on that). Fold in the nuts and dried fruit. Bake 18-23 minutes (for me it was no more than 18 both times) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm or cold.

That was this morning. Later on, I was hungry for something a little more lunch-ish or dinner-ish (it was 3pm?) -- AKA "linner," right Michelle? I had bought stuff to make pizza from Trader Joe's so that's what I did. I'm a big fan of their light shredded cheese blends. The one I used for this pizza was with mozzarella, cheddar, and montery jack I believe. YUM! I didn't take a picture of the finished product, but I thought that what happened during the baking process was a little more amusing. . .

Smashed potatoes anyone?

I was home yesterday because of the weather, so of course I put myself to work in my favorite place: the kitchen! I know we've talked about this before, but it seems like none of us BILF contributors really cook much these days. Well yesterday must've been somewhat inspiring because I made vegetable and bean soup, flour-less and sugar-less banana oat muffins (they're not bad!), and smashed potatoes with peas. Scott liked the smashed potatoes the most, so here's how I made them. . .

I had maybe five small to medium-sized potatoes. I peeled them up, chopped them, and boiled them in salted water until they were ALMOST done. At this point, I added a bunch of frozen peas to the water. A few minutes later, I drained it all, and added it back to the pot they were originally in. I added some sour cream (maybe 1/3 cup?), some left-over shredded cheese (also, maybe 1/3 cup. . . a mix of cheddar, jack, and mozzarella I believe), and lots of salt and pepper. That's right, no milk or butter. They were good! I imagine they'd be a great side dish, but for us, it was dinner (along with a salad).

How easy was that?

Yo Fitzo Fitzo! is totally broccoli worthy

And here's another BifL first - a guest submission, although I suppose she didn't know she was submitting it when she sent it to me!

My friend Maureen has a now one-year-old son, Fitz, and for his birthday she made him this wonderful Yo Gabba Gabba! cupcake cake in the shape of Muno.  She seemed to think it was unworthy of this blog, but I beg to differ.  This cake is awesome, Fitz is one lucky little guy!  Thanks for sharing, Reen - we at BifL love your Muno creation.

ring in the New Year right!

A Broccoli is for Lover's first - we cooked together!  Melanie and I decided to co-host a New Year's party, and what a party it was.  We made food galore, and the drinks were flowing, and at midnight we broke out our surprise New Year's cake.  From my standpoint, this was one of the most fun parties I've ever hosted; planning and prepping with Mel was totally fun, and super easy.  And, I'd say we pulled off a smashing success.  Here's to many more in 2009!

Bonjour. I made a broccoli tart. Doesn't it look good?

But honestly? Not so great tasting. I like to make tarts (I make the dough, too, haters), but I probably won't make one again with broccoli. At least the leftovers make for a good breakfast when you're sick of the usual fare.