blueberry muffins

I love baking, especially in the winter. It makes the kitchen feel and smell so cozy. I'm a total type-A personality when it comes to recipes, though; I follow them to a T and do not experiment. I've always wished I could be one of those people who thinks up recipes with the inspiration of just one ingredient. My thinking has always been, "If I don't put in exactly what the recipe says, my cake/bread/muffins will be ruined and I'll have gone to all this work for nothing." Until yesterday.

Scrambled eggs is my go-to breakfast and with Jack getting into more of a routine, I'm getting back into my scrambled eggs for breakfast routine. Yay! I always like to have something along side my eggs, usually something like a piece of toast or banana bread. And lately, I've been craving blueberry muffins. I wanted a muffin that was hearty and not too sweet, and ultimately decided on this recipe. But guess what? I didn't follow it exactly. I only had half the amount of wheat flour on hand, so I used all purpose flour as well. I also subbed in unsweetened applesauce for the oil. And guess what? The muffins turned out great! Go figure.

Blueberry Muffins

adapted from this recipe

1 cup mashed bananas

1 egg

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease muffin tin or paper muffin liners. The original recipe makes 18 muffins, but I them a little on the big side and only made 12.

Mix together mashed bananas, egg, water, and applesauce in a large bowl. Mix in flour, baking soda, and baking powder until mostly smooth. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Bake for 15-20 minutes and until the tops are golden.

recipe // sloppy joes

via

I am a total lover of Pinterest. I don't spend hours a day sifting through pins, but I do use it almost everyday. It has honestly made cooking so much easier. Pre-Pinterest, I used to have bookmark tabs with links and links of recipes I'd like to try. It wasn't very practical, but it was all I had. Then along came Pinterest and this type-A organizer was thrilled.

I found this sloppy joe recipe just a few days ago (on Pinterest) and made it last night. Tim claimed it was hands-down the best sloppy joe he'd ever had. Go figure. It's a super easy recipe; there's just a few little surprise ingredients that I think give it that edge - like soy sauce. Have you ever put soy sauce in your sloppy joes?! Not me. So Tim thought it'd be a good idea to share this recipe with the world, just in case you were looking for the best sloppy joe recipe ever.

Sweet & Spicy Sloppy Joes
from Jennifer Hill Pallian of the Foodess blog

2 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
2" piece ginger, minced (I didn't have ginger on hand, but I'm sure this would give it another great dimension of flavor!)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs lean ground beef
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1-2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground cloves
rolls for serving

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven or large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Sauté onion, celery, and carrot until soft, about 5 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about one minute. Add the beef and cook until fully browned, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the ketchup, brown sugar, tomato paste, vinegar, soy sauce, and spices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
Serve with split rolls and enjoy the best sloppy joe ever!

so peachy

I am still unsure of the distinction between crisps and cobblers, but I'm pretty sure this is a crisp. Peaches were on sale this week and knew as I was filling one of those thin plastic bags with several rounds of the fruit I knew I wanted to bake them and cover them with a crumbly, brown sugar topping. I'm learning that baking in our kitchen in the summer = hot hot hot. But I was itching to get flour on my face and pull something homemade out of the oven.

I adapted this recipe from a couple different recipes in my recipe box and cut it down so we wouldn't be eating peach crisp for the next 2 weeks. And turned out exactly as I had imagined - warm, gooey, buttery, and crumbly.

Peach Crisp for 2
Filling:
4 peaches, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup uncooked oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter

• Preheat oven to 375. Grease a small pan. In a bowl, combine the peaches, sugar, flour, lemon juice, and vanilla. Toss and pour into pan.
• For the topping, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Divide the butter into small sections and cut into the dry ingredients. Pour and spread over the peaches. You can also dot the top with butter.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes.

uncharted territory

Last night, I did two things I've never done before:

1. I made gyros.
2. I made gyros with ground chicken, adapted from this recipe.

The result?

1. While cooking and preparing it last night, Tim walked into the kitchen and said, "Woah, it smells like real gyros in here."
2. I didn't even get a photo of the finished product. Translation = we couldn't eat it fast enough.

I was so surprised. I've come to love ground chicken for certain things, but I never thought it would make it's way into a gyro. The secret is in the seasoning - oregano, garlic, and salt are the reason this post is even possible. Oh, and the yogurt cucumber sauce...

sometimes...

sometimes my husband makes the most perfect looking/tasting wings...

his secret? double breading on those bad boys. and super hot oil. buffalo wild wings - you've got competition.