Whole Wheat Banana Applesauce Muffins

It may be a mouthful to say, but they are very easy to make!

It was a long and not always tasty (read: hockey pucks) journey to create a whole wheat muffin recipe that tastes this good!

Save yourself time and don't bother sifting or lugging out the stand mixer. You won't need to do either for this one!

Robert & I love to have these for breakfast - they take the guesswork out of getting the day started. Pop 'em in the microwave for 20 seconds and they are good to go!

Step One: Assemble Your Ingredients

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and gather the following:

A few notes on the ingredients:
- Applesauce: I keep the little applesauce containers in my fridge at all times. They are the perfect 1/2 cup portion and stay fresh a lot longer than a large open jar. Wholefoods sells unsweetened all natural applesauce in these containers.
- Yogurt: I prefer 2% plain greek yogurt in all things.
- Vanilla Extract: Make your own; it's inexpensive and easy! In a mason jar, add 3 vanilla beans sliced in half lengthwise. Top with vodka. Cap and give a good shake. Keep in a cool, dark place (a cupboard will do) and give a shake every day or so. In a few weeks once it's turned deep brown, you're extract is ready to go! The best part is that once it gets low, you can simply top with more vodka and shake! It's a neverending supply as long as you have vodka... and who doesn't? :)
- The nuts and spices are up to you. Add as little or as much as you'd like.

Let's bake!

Step two: Wet and Dry

In a large bowl, add your dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, add your wet ingredients, as pictured below.

Note that the sugar counts as a wet ingredients (this is almost always true in baking). I also added the spices into the wet ingredients. They go either way, really. Also note, I have not added the pecans yet.

Step Three: Wet into Dry

Add the wet intgredients into the dry bowl and stir until just mixed and consistency looks like this:

Scoop into your prelined muffin tins. You can fill 2/3 of the way up and make about 18 muffins, OR do what I did and make 12 mega muffins. Whole wheat flour does not rise as well as white flour, so you can fill your muffin tins to the top!

Top with chopped pecan pieces. Other nuts are acceptable, but I'm a good Georgia pecan girl. Bake for 20 - 35 minutes (depending on your oven and how big you made your muffins). Check on them after 15 minutes and rotate the pan.

Store these in a sealed container in the fridge and they will last for about a week. Or if you're like me, they'll last about 2 days.

Enjoy!

Cabernet Marinara

This versatile dish should be a staple in your repertoire.

I am pulling out all the stops here and showing you the whole shebang. That way you can make adjustments to any of the details you'd like. For example, you could omit the chicken and have a wonderful vegetarian version or use the breading technique for fish.  

Step One: Breadcrumbs and weeping eggplant

Here's what you'll need:

I used Japanese eggplant, but really any aubergine will work here. I also used whole wheat bread ends to make the breadcrumbs. It's cheaper than store bought and no one eats those ends anyway.

Let's make the breadcrumbs. Tear 2 - 3 slices of bread into pieces and add to blender with basil leaves and 1/4 cu Parmesan cheese.

Blend until it looks like this...

... and smells like Parmesan basil heaven. Trust me, you'll never buy store bought again.

Weeping eggplant pulls out the eggplant's excess moisture, allowing it to become crispy in the oven. It's simple to do. Just slice your eggplant (leave the skin on to reap it's many nutrition benefits), set on a drying rack (over a towel or cutting board to catch the moisture and excess salt), and sprinkle with salt. Allow to sit for 30 minutes until it goes from this...

to this:

 See the tears? It should also be softer and easy to bend. Lightly rinse the eggplant before breading.

Step Two: Breading Station

Once your eggplant has wept. It's time to bread and bake! Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and place in oven to preheat. Starting with a hot sheet pan will allow your chicken and eggplant to get crispier!

Your assembly station should include a container with two lightly beaten eggs, another container with the breadcrumbs, and of course the chicken and eggplant. Notice that we did not season the breadcrumbs. The salt in the Parmesan will suffice, but if you simply must, season the chicken and eggplant itself, not the breadcrumbs. Seasonings on the inside add flavor; seasonings on the outside burn.  

Dip each piece in the egg mixture and then coat with breadcrumbs. 

Place into the oven and bake for 20 - 30 minutes until chicken is firm and reaches 165 degrees in the thickest point . Rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through cooking.

Step Three: Cabernet Marinara

Here's what you'll need:

In a hot skillet, add olive oil, garlic, and basil.

Heat just until garlic starts to turn golden brown. Caution here, if you get any black bits or burning you will have to start over. There's no resurrecting garlic.

Add red wine, sugar, and red pepper flakes and reduce for 5 minutes. All of these ingredients are optional, but then again, flavor is optional too.

Add tomato paste and diced tomatoes and stir to incorporate.

Cover and simmer about 20 minutes until it comes together like this:

 

While the marinara simmers, cook your noodles. I made whole wheat capellini, but again, do what you feel!

Step Four: Assembly

You could go all fancy and assemble your ingredients in a baking dish, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake for an additional 10 minutes to create a near classic Parmesian. But I was hungry. So I just assembled like this:



Enjoy!

Divine Salad with Herbal Dressing

Divine is a strong word. But the deliciousness of this salad may just have you shouting "hallelujah."

Step One: Make the Herbal Dressing
Here's what you'll need:

Blend ingredients together in blender.

Waitaminute. You wanted an exact recipe? Where's the fun in that? Oh alright, I'll do you one better. Let's learn to speak Vinaigrette.

Now, unless we're talking baking, measurements (and ingredients for that matter) are a question of taste. Here are some guidelines to help you not only perfect this dressing, but become a dressing master.

First, I would suggest equal parts citrus juice and champagne vinegar (feel free to substitute with any light colored vinegar you like - apple cider or white wine vinegar work very well). A good vinaigrette typically follows a three parts oil to one part acid rule. So, if you total the amount of vinegar and citrus juice together and multiply it by 3 you will have the amount of oil you should add. For example, if you add 2 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 tablespoon each of lemon and lime juice, you have 4 tablespoons total acidity. Multiply it by 3 and you have 12 tablespoons oil (in other words 6 ounces or 3/4 cup).

Garlic, herbs, S&P, and sweetener amounts I leave to your liking. I like demerara sugar because it's regional and my brand claims to be carbon free; however, you can use any sweetener you like. Honey or agave nectar work nicely. Likewise, feel free to change up the herbs - you can even used dried in a pinch. (Get it?)

Then blend ingredients together in blender. This stuff is great on chicken, shrimp, or little toasted French bread rounds. But we're making salad.

Step Two: For efficiency's sake, start by toasting your pine nuts. It doesn't take long over medium heat in a cast iron (or any kind really) skillet, but you can chop the veggies while they toast. Just give the pan the occasional shake until they look like this:

Step Three: Build your bowl.

Chopped romaine lettuce.

Tomatoes. I used grape tomatoes cut in half. I have a strong conviction that slicing grape tomatoes in half is the best way to serve them in salads because the inner flavor is immediately delivered to the taste buds on arrival. But that's just me.

Hearts of Palm. This is where divinity comes in.

Finish the salad with the toasted pine nuts, creamy goat cheese crumbles, and the herbal dressing.

So good.

By the way, while collecting the parsley and basil from my garden, I also gathered these goodies:

The strawberry was dessert! But what to do with the Kentucky pole beans? But then that's another blog.