Pumpkin Nutella Muffins <3

 

Attention foodlovers! This is delicious. I previously posted a pumpkin-spired recipe and admitted that it wasn’t exactly a success. Now I come back to you all with pure joy that not only did I get to use up the other half of the giant can of pumpkin puree that I purchased, but it was well worth it! This recipe is easier, quicker and way tastier.

This kind of recipe is what my blog is all about! Great food, made easy for friends and family. I mixed the batter with a hand mixer to ensure everything came together, but only briefly and on a low setting.

Sidenote: have only recently discovered Nutella and it works perfectly with this recipe (and solo with some strawberries!).

I found this recipe through a Pinterest link. Always Pin-spired.

http://www.simplyhappenstance.com/pumpkin-nutella-muffins/

Ingredients

1 cup {canned} pumpkin puree

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil {or melted butter, cooled}

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice {optional} (I am pretty sure this is what make them amazing- please don’t neglect this!

1/3 cup Nutella (I did about a tsp. dollop in each muffin and swirled it around with the tip of  knife)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-count standard muffin pan with baking cups or grease.
2. In a mixing bowl, blend together the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, oil, water, and vanilla until combined. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Slowly add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing until smooth {make sure not to overmix}. Pour batter into the baking cups, until approximately 2/3 full.
3. Put the Nutella into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 20-30 seconds or until it thins out just enough to swirl. Using a spoon, drop a small spoonful or two of Nutella onto the top of each muffin and swirl using the tip of a knife.
4. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Yummy! Happy baking!

Glazed Pumpkin Muffins

With friends coming in from out of town, I thought that it was time to participate in the Pinterest pumpkin craze. So many options but, for the ease of making lunches, muffins seemed like a good choice.

Overall, they were pretty good. They turned out a little dense for me, without a ton of flavour so I was a tad disappointed. The icing sugar glaze though, I could’ve drank with a straw. De-licious.

Not sure if it was because they’re very moist or what but they didn’t keep long! In fact, unlike anything I’d ever seen in baking before, after 7 days they were mouldy. Mind you, it was specks of mould. And there’s a very real possibility I ate a couple before noticing this and still I lived.

I welcome anyone to give this recipe a try and see if they can produce better results! Keep in mind, as usual, it’s more than likely that I didn’t adhere to this recipe 100%, so it’s probably not its fault. 🙂

Original recipe: http://www.tasteloveandnourish.com/2014/09/18/maple-spice-glazed-pumpkin-muffins/

Ingredients:

1 cup white whole wheat flour (used whole wheat- what is ‘white whole wheat’?)
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (didn’t have this, didn’t know what it was)
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk *
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Maple Spice Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons Silk Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch each of ground nutmeg and ground clove

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.

Combine and whisk together all of the dry ingredients up to and including the spices. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs a bit, then add the rest of the wet ingredients. Whisk to combine.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry. Stir to combine, making sure there are no large clumps of flour, but do not over-mix.

Divide the batter between the 12 muffin tins. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

* Now have a big carton of this Unsweetened almond milk in my fridge. What do I do with this?!

For an ever BETTER pumpkin recipe! Keep reading this blog.

The Could-eat-it-everyday Quiche

Over the summer, I happened to be invited to dinner at my mom’s friend’s house. My food tastes are pretty traditional, and like many people who aspire to be healthy but haven’t quite got there I feared being served mounds of vegetables. I like to think I have come a long way over the years in acquiring more of an adult pallet that is accustomed to eating real food, but when I saw quiche I was nervous. Eggs for dinner?… Is there anything else?

Instead what I discovered was something so delicious I didn’t want to stop eating it! That night she’d made two different quiches, one spicy which I avoided, and the other a broccoli concoction. My mind was blown and I felt my horizons broaden. When she described how easy it was, I decided it was time to make one myself!

Picture this: It’s a Monday at night, home cooking for one, prepared to make a yummy quiche and settle in with a movie. Onion and turkey bacon cooking in the frying pan, pie crust defrosting and oven preheating. Everything was going as planned. My kitchen has always been pretty well-equipped, and I’ve always made lists and been organized to ensure that everything is perfectly in order. Thus, imagine my horror when I discovered well into the quiche process that I hadn’t remembered to buy eggs! I hadn’t remembered the main ingredient! The horror. Worse… this was the holiday Monday. The kind of holiday that everyone takes off, everything is simply closed. Including grocery stores.

Boy, was I lucky to find that the local variety had one carton left! And, as luck would have it the rest of the quiche process went flawlessly and made for a great dinner and many meals after.

This blog has evidently already become about my kitchen mishaps. But I guess that’s half the fun of cooking.

I will provide to you all, my newly loyal follows, the recipe as I made it. Get creative though! Add whatever veggies, meats or cheeses that you like but be cautious of your quantities, I will admit there was quite a lot of spill over in mine (line the baking sheet with foil for minimal mess- and expect to have half a burnt omelet stuck it it after cooking 🙂 )

Quiche

1 ready to use pie crust (no need to pre-cook separately)
½ lb sausage meat (I used turkey bacon chopped up and cooked stove-top ahead of time)
1 t oil
1 onion diced (or 1/2 of large)
6 eggs (this part is pretty important.. just so you know)
½ c milk
¼ c mayonnaise
2 c shredded cheese (marble works nicely but experiment!)
1 c diced mushrooms (didn’t use)
1 t minced garlic (I never have garlic so I substituted with garlic powder)
¼ c shredded cheese

I also added:
1/2 c. finely chopping spinach
1/4 c. chickpeas (I had them lying around and needed to just use them already)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring pie crust to room temperature.

Heat a large skillet over med-high heat. Cook and stir choice meat, and onion until softened, along with other veggies with similar cooking time – about 5 – 10 minutes. Add garlic for last minute.

Whisk egg, milk and mayonnaise together in a bowl until evenly mixed. Stir sausage, onion/garlic, 2 c cheese, diced mushrooms into egg mixture. Pour mixture into pie crust. Top with ¼ c cheese.

Bake in preheated oven until knife inserted into the centre of the quiche comes out clean. About 45 – 50 minutes. (Yes, it takes this long- well worth it though).

Let rest for 10 minutes before serving. And it’s still hot hot even after this time.

Enjoy! Happy cooking.

Chickpea and Potato Hash

 [Photocred- original recipe source]

I had very high hopes for this recipe! From the photos it looked simply easy and delicious. Looking at it now, the photo suggests chopped zucchini and not shredded. Good to keep in mind. I wasn’t able to find shredded hash browns, and I was very nervous to attempt it from scratch so I went with the cubed kind. Needless to say, it didn’t really work out like I wanted or hoped. Somehow, it all took on the green hue of the spinach and zucchini making the colour quite unappealing. It didn’t crisp up at all, as you’d expect with typical hash browns. Then again, I accidentally dumped the contents of my entire bag into the pan. I didn’t put many of the chickpeas in because I was a little nervous that they’d be overpowering.

Had it been shredded hash browns, it would have done as the instructions said, forming a lattice-like bottom crust allowing for the eggs to settle and cook nicely on top. As it was, my mess of a meal didn’t work out as planned. I found that it required a lot more seasoning than suggested. I wouldn’t suggest using curry as the primary taste. I used my favourites, a bit of parsley, dried mustard, paprika and seasoning salt. And my scrambled eggs tasted good but this photo sure does look delicious. Maybe one day I will learn to follow a recipe. But what can I say? I’m a rule breaker.

For recipe and further info, follow the link below:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/menus_meal_plans/one_skillet_5_fast_dinners?page=2&socsrc=ewpin_oneskillet5dinners&crlt_pid=camp.6FAyo6s8cVxe

Zucchini-Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies

 [Photocred- original recipe source]

This weekend I had company over so I wanted to go out of my way, out of the norm, to make them something nice. As it happened I woke up super early, and trying not to disturb them, I got up to make some cookies. Cooookies! I had planned to make them the day before and when over drinks I mentioned that this task hadn’t been completed and may not before their departure, they were definitely disappointed. Thus, early cookie baking by Miss Cookie Monsteress herself.

They taste pretty darn good. They taste healthy but actually pretty yummy. Mind you, I did forget to buy brown sugar, so there’s that. After baking them, and letting them cool on my awesome tiered cooling racks, I stored them in a Rubbermaid container that I bought imagining all the cookies that I would fill it with, however; instead of keeping them fresh, and preventing them from drying out instead it made them so airtight that they turned almost mushy. It’s a bit of a shame, but at least they taste good. They were quite easy, quite delicious and I don’t feel too guilty because they’re made with vegetables! It’s like eating a salad. Or close enough. haha.

For recipe and further details click the link below!

http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/07/zucchini-oat-chocolate-chip-cookies/