March 13th - Come Cook & Eat: Soup & Frittata, Salad & Muffins

Join Burnaby Food First & Red Seal Chef Ilan Wright at Burnaby Neighbourhood House 

(near Metrotown Skytrain Station)

Registration information below:

Mini Sour Cream Bran Muffins

I'm on a mini muffin kick.  First these perfect banana ones, and now these yummy, moist (I know, you hate that word) sour cream bran muffins.  Now, bran muffins probably aren't the first thing you think of when you see the word "yummy" but I, for one, am a fan.  Warmed with a little butter and a drizzle of honey, or smeared with some peanut butter, I've always loved a good bran muffin.  If made properly, it's slightly sweet, slightly spiced and yes, moist.  These are all of those things and most importantly, a good source of fiber for my kids (who desperately need it).     

Recipe HERE.

Perfect Mini Banana Muffins

The other day, my two-year-old came across a package of Little Bites Banana Muffins, and by "came across" I mean I bought them to keep her quiet at Target so I could shop in peace.  Did it work?  Yes.  I bought the few things I actually needed and 13 other things I did not in complete and utter serenity.  Anyway, she LOVED them and would not stop asking for more.  Between the three of my kids, we polished off the box the next day and of course, they were hooked.  However, I felt torn between giving them something they actually enjoy eating and feeding them a snack with ingredients I can't pronounce.  The solution presented itself when we came home from a long weekend away to dark bananas.  I made my own!  I wanted to make them mini, perfectly moist and just sweet enough.  They were fantastic... two-year-old approved.  Best part?  Only took a matter of minutes to prepare the batter IN ONE BOWL and made 50 mini muffins... plenty to eat and plenty to freeze for future snacks.  That's more than one best part, sorry not sorry.       

Perfect Mini Banana Muffins

Makes 50 mini muffins

Printable Recipe

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 small ripe bananas)

2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, add the sugar and vegetable oil and stir until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla and lemon juice and stir again until smooth.  Add the mashed bananas and stir to combine all ingredients.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt and stir until just combined.  Add the milk and stir once more until just combined.  You don't want to over-stir or you'll have dense muffins.  Spray a mini muffin tin with baking spray.  Add a tablespoon or so of batter into each cup (about 3/4 of the way full).  Bake for 10 minutes.  Let cool and then remove onto a wire baking rack.  Enjoy!  

For more breakfast inspiration, check out my segment on the Today Show this morning here.

Bolthouse Farms

I recently partnered up with Bolthouse Farms and attended an event where they premiered a line of new beverages.  The ingredients are fresh and honest and the flavors unique and exciting, such as Mango Pineapple Colada and Banana Honey Almond Butter (my personal favorite).  They sent me a bunch to try and challenged me to come up with four recipes featuring their smoothies, shakes and juices, and they are posted below!  It was so much fun to think outside the box (or bottle - puns are sort of my thing), and I'm really happy with each creation.  My family was my main source of inspiration, particularly my middle child who desperately needs more fruits and vegetables in her life, and I am NOT above sneaking nutrition into her diet in a covert manner.      

First up, these muffins that are a great snack or breakfast on-the-go.  When I tasted the combo of banana, honey and almond butter, I immediately wanted to bake with it.  Adding the shake to the muffins keep them moist, and adding ripe bananas and almond butter make them burst with that perfect flavor combination.  My toddler LOVED these, and I was happy knowing she was getting some extra protein in her diet!     

Banana Honey Almond Butter Muffins

Yields: 12 muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 cup Bolthouse Farms Banana Honey Almond Butter Protein Shake

1/4 cup almond butter

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

Turbinado sugar (cane sugar) for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Whisk first 5 ingredients in a bowl, set aside.  In a separate bowl, whisk together both sugars with protein shake.  Stir in almond butter, egg, vanilla and mashed bananas.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Place into paper-lined muffin tins, about 3/4 of the way full, sprinkle a little cane sugar on top of each muffin, and bake for 18-20 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  

Next, after sipping this sweet and tart Raspberry Blood Orange juice, I thought it would be great as a vinaigrette for salads (and I may or may not have poured some with vodka while I whisked away).  It's particularly delicious over peppery arugula, and would also make a great glaze for chicken or fish.

Raspberry Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Yields: approx 2 cups

1/2 cup Bolthouse Farms Raspberry Blood Orange Juice

1 small shallot, roughly chopped

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 teaspoon honey

3/4 cup olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth.  Taste, and add more salt and pepper if necessary.  Pour over salad or save in a mason jar in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Smoothie bowls have always intimidated me.  They look like masterpieces on Instagram, and too pretty to eat.  But after creating my own bowl, I was pleasantly surprised how easy and quickly it came together.  I added avocado for texture and creaminess, but the options are endless (banana, yogurt, leafy greens, etc).  And don't get me started on the toppings! 

Green Goodness Smoothie Crunch Bowl

Yields: 1 bowl

1 15 oz. Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness Smoothie

1/2 avocado

1/2 cup ice

Suggested Toppings:

Raspberries

Blueberries

Sliced bananas

Shredded raw coconut

Granola

Drizzle of honey

Combine Green Goodness Smoothie in a blender with avocado and ice and puree until smooth.  Pour into bowl, top with desired toppings and drizzle with honey.  

Finally, this cake.  This cake, that I want to make love to.  After one sip of the Mocha Cappuccino beverage, I knew I wanted to make something rich and decadent.  It tasted like such a treat, and I knew it would translate well as a dessert.  While this cake is creamy and indulgent... it's also light and would be a great thing to serve as the weather starts to get warmer! 

Mocha Cappuccino Smoothie Ice Cream Cake

Yields: 1 cake

35 chocolate wafer cookies, divided

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1.5 quarts coffee chip ice cream 

1 cup Bolthouse Farms Mocha Cappuccino Smoothie Beverage

1 cup ice

1 cup whipped cream

Chocolate chips or shavings for topping (optional)

Place 25 cookies in a food processor (or blender) and pulse until crumbs are formed.  Add butter and pulse until combined.  Place mixture in the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan (with approx. 3 inch sides) that is lined with parchment paper, and press with your fingers until crust coats the bottom of the pan.  Freeze for 10 minutes.  During this time, remove ice cream to soften and pulse remaining 10 crackers in the food processor, then set aside.  After the 10 minutes, remove pan from freezer and add ice cream.  Smooth with a spatula to create an even layer, then add cookie crumble on top, and place back in freezer for 10 minutes.  During that time, place ice and coffee beverage in a blender and pulse until a smoothie is formed.  Remove to a bowl, and fold in whipped cream.  Place on top of cake and smooth with a spatula.  Sprinkle chocolate chips or shavings on top, and freeze for 30 minutes or until ready to eat. 

Buttermilk Granola Muffins

Did anyone else experience the longest weekend of their lives??  Blizzard Jonas kept us inside for most of it, and even when I felt ready to bundle up and go play in the fluffy white stuff, I couldn't because our middle child has been fighting a stomach bug that just won't go away.  If I could sum up my weekend in three words it would be: Lysol, Snow and Wine.  That sounds like a song.  Listen, when they practically make it illegal to leave your home, you enjoy an alcoholic beverage or two.  Or 39.  My house is a mess.  There are forts everywhere.  I let everyone walk around in their snowy boots after one, epic tantrum (and then I let go).  I can't stop washing my hands.  I can't stop spraying Lysol.  I've given my girls 18 baths.  Anyway, let's just say I'm happy it's Monday.

Thank god I prepared for the storm and made sure I had every ingredient I would need to bake and cook.  At least for muffins and chili (more on that later).  A week ago we were upstate in Rhinebeck, NY and I bought this incredible granola from the sweet shop Samuel's.  Chunks of dark chocolate, dried fruit, nuts and coconut make it the best granola I've ever had (even if for a split second after purchasing it, the image on the package made me think I had bought dog food).  Carson had the fantastic idea of baking muffins with it, and so I googled "granola muffins" and found this recipe.  

They are delicious!  Just use your favorite granola and you will certainly enjoy these muffins.    

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins with Coconut & Almond Meal

Happy first Friday in October! One of my favorite months� the air is a little a crisper and the trees are all shades of red and orange. And of course October is all about Halloween and everything pumpkin! It�s also the month Evan and I got married! We�re headed up to Vancouver, BC for the weekend to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary, but I wanted to leave you with a pumpkiny fall treat!

These muffins are from the blog Dishing up the Dirt. The blogger, Andrea, runs a vegetable farm near-ish my hometown, and I actually heard about her blog awhile back from my mom. I recently came across her blog again, and aside from all the beautiful farm photography, these pumpkin muffins really caught my eye! I made a few tweaks to suit my tastes and use the ingredients I had on hand, and I love the way they came out. Moist and dense, perfect for a fall weekend breakfast or afternoon snack!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins with Coconut & Almond Meal
Makes 12 muffins
Slightly adapted from this recipe

2 eggs
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned�just make sure you find one without added sugar and spices!)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
4 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1.5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*
2 cups almond flour/ almond meal
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup desiccated (dried shredded, unsweetened) coconut

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners, and preheat oven to 325.

In a large, whisk together eggs, pumpkin, maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla, until well combined. Add spice, flours, baking soda, and salt, and stir to combine. Mix in chocolate chips and coconut.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

*I had a nearly full jar of pumpkin pie spice on hand, but Andrea has a breakout of individual spices in her recipe, if you want to go that route.

Apple Muffins with Crunchy Oat Bottom & Maple Glaze

You know those stupid, fattening, sweet, buttery muffins that parade around as breakfast but are really just dessert? 

Well, sorry. That's what these are. 

I said I'm sorry!

Ok, but really� I'm not all that sorry. For starters, swimsuit season is over, my friends. Time to put on some extra weight to stay warm through the winter, right? And they do have whole wheat and apples, hello�that's healthy-ish. And also, my house smelled so amazing and warm and fall-y when I was making these, which is reason enough to whip up a batch.

Sidenote: have you seen the most obnoxious Gwyneth Paltrow food quotes? OMG. I love it so much. I just want to find ways to incorporate autumnal yum into my daily vocabulary. These muffins are a pretty good excuse�they're chock-full of autumnal yum. 

Do you remember the apple muffins at Costco? I'm not talking about the ones they have now, with the streusel topping� I'm talking about the ones they used to have with the crunchy oat-crumble bottom. You guys, those muffins were awesome, as far as dessert muffins go. That's what I was going for here with the crispy oat bottom, but the muffins themselves are loosely based on the blueberry muffin recipe in the Grand Central Bakery Cookbook. I changed it up quite a bit. I mean, obviously I used apples (big hearty chunks of 'em) instead of berries, but I also used whole wheat flour and oats, and lots of warm fall spices. And butter. There's a good dose of the good stuff in here. You could definitely use coconut oil, but the butter makes these so good. For dessert, I mean. 

Apple Muffins with Crunchy Oat Bottom and Maple Cinnamon Glaze

Makes 24 standard sized muffins

I made some in paper liners and some directly in a greased muffin tin. The crunchy bottom seems to come out of both just fine, but either way, be sure to cool entirely before trying to remove, to avoid leaving behind delicious crumble. 

Crumble bottom:

1.5 cups quick oats

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) melted 

1/2 cup brown sugar

pinch of salt

Muffin batter:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup quick oats

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

2 medium apples, diced (about 3 cups of apple chunks)

4 eggs

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup with 1 tablespoon lemon juice)

Glaze: 

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Juice from half a lemon

Dash of cinnamon 

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 24 muffin tins, or line with paper liners. 

Make the crumble bottom: Stir all ingredients together until combined and set aside.

Make the batter: 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour through allspice, and stir in the apples until coated. Make a well in the center.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter, and pour into the well in the dry ingredients. Evenly pour the buttermilk around the outside ring of the dry ingredients. 

With your hands, mix the dry and wet ingredients together, using big, slow circular scrapes. Be sure to incorporate the dry ingredients on the bottom of the bowl, but stop as soon as everything is incorporated. Don't over mix! 

Bake: Fill each muffin tin with a small scoop of crumble, and pat down with your hands or the back of a spoon. The spoon muffin batter on top of crumble, filling tins about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 35 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean.

Cool completely in the tin, then gently run a knife along the outside edge to release the muffins. 

Mix together glaze ingredients (add more syrup if it's too stiff, or more sugar if it's too runny), and glaze cooled muffins. 

Raspberry Blueberry Muffins

Fall is just around the corner, and I love it and hate it. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to long, sunny, cloudless summer days. To tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes are supposed to taste. To flip flops and tank tops. I actually love fall, a lot� but it's short, and just around the corner from fall, is winter and spring. Seattle winters and springs mean nothing but grey skies and rain.

I'm really excited for fall cooking�chili and pumpkin everything�but I don't want to wish away the sun too soon. Stop it with the candy corn, grocery stores, it's still summer! It's only August! I'm trying to soak up the last of this beautiful summer, and eat as much summer produce as I can. Tomatoes, berries, corn, zucchini, peaches�on everything, all the time. 

Use up your fresh summer raspberries and blueberries in these muffins (ps. they're so ripe and good right now!) but don't let fall or winter stop you�in a few months, you can still make them, but with frozen berries. This is the pretty much the basic muffin recipe from Fannie Farmer, which Mel made (with huckleberries) my entire life. Maybe it's a nostalgia thing, but I've seriously never had a muffin I like more than these, flavor and texture. They taste like my childhood. And like summer. And, they're super duper easy. 

PS. Cut open a hot muffin and slather on some butter� trust me, you won't regret it. There's no other way.

Raspberry Blueberry Muffins

Adapted slightly from Fannie Farmer

Makes 12

2 cups all purpose flour 

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

1/4 cup melted butter

1/2 (overflowing) fresh raspberries

1/2 cup (overflowing) fresh blueberries

Course turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375, and grease 12 muffin tins. 

Reserve 1/4 cup of the flour, and toss with the berries. Whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add egg, milk, and butter. Stir until flour is damp and everything is just combined, but don't over mix. Lumps are ok! Gently stir in the flour coated berries. Fill muffin tins, sprinkle with course sugar, and bake for 20-25 minutes.