Almond-Strawberry Yogurt Muffins

Strawberry season is ending this week in Illinois, but just getting started elsewhere. It's just the beginning of summer's bounty of fruit, and I've tried to take full advantage. I usually eat strawberries raw or in a sauce, but I decided to try incorporating them into a baked good. This one took a couple of tries, but the end result was something hearty and delicious. Chopped strawberries and slivered almonds, oat flour for a little texture (and source of whole grains!), a mixture of honey and sugar for some subtle sweetness, plus yogurt to make for a moist muffin with just a little tang - put these things together, and you've got a great muffin to celebrate the start of summer!

Note: Allowing the strawberries to drain after chopping is important - my first attempt was pretty soggy, since the strawberries were too moist to allow the bread around them to properly cook. Also, while honey works well as a replacement for sugar, here using just honey led to an off flavor, so a mixture of honey and sugar was best.

Ingredients

1 cup oat flour, sifted*

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup clover honey
1/3 cup sugar

4 Tbsp butter, cold

3/4 cup plain lowfat greek yogurt

1 egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup fresh strawberries, washed, hulled, & chopped

2/3 cup slivered almonds

Directions

1. Once strawberries are chopped, allow them to sit and drain in a colander.

2. Sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar. Add in chunks of butter, and cut together with a fork (or food processor) until butter pieces are smaller than peas.

3. Mix yogurt, egg, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Add flour-butter mixture and stir just until blended.

4. Fold in chopped strawberries and almonds, being careful not to overmix.

5. Spoon mixture into paper-lined muffin cups or a 9x5" bread loaf pan.

6. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 25-30 min (muffins) or ~1 hour (loaf).

7. Allow to cool in pan for 10 min, then transfer to a wire rack. Give in to the urge to bite into a muffin before they've cooled completely. Delayed gratification can be so overrated sometimes.

*Don't go out and buy oat flour; there's no need to overload the pantry. If you have a blender or a food processor, you can easily make your own in about 2 minutes. Take 1 1/4 cup rolled oats (not quick/instant oats), add to blender/processor, and turn on, stopping it to check every 30 sec or so until it's reached a flour-like consistency. Once that's done, just sift it through a sieve to get out the chunks and you've got yourself some fresh flour. This technique will give you whole flour for basically any grain, seed or legume you have lying around.

Egg Muffins with Curried Yogurt Sauce

Everyone knows about egg muffins. They're the ultimate handheld convenience breakfast food. However, you don't have to resort to the rubbery, greasy, tasteless monstrosities at the drive-thru if you want a filling breakfast in a hurry. You can whip up this nutritious high-protein delight in less than 10 min, with fresh ingredients that are full of flavor. You'll never see fresh greens on your typical fast-food egg muffin, but they have loads of vitamins and minerals, and add a wonderful crunch to the sandwich here. Curry-seasoned yogurt ups the flavor ante, so much so that you won't even want to put cheese on an egg muffin again. The yogurt sauce is simple to put together, and you can really mix up whatever flavor combination you desire based on the seasonings or herbs that you have on hand. The meat, of course, is entirely optional, but adds protein; I had bacon around, but deli meats or even seasoned cooked black beans would be an equally delicious (and healthier) alternative. Put all of it together on a whole-wheat english muffin with a hot cooked egg, and you've got yourself a real breakfast. Or, dinner, as was my case. ;)

Ingredients

4 whole wheat english muffins

4 eggs

handful of fresh spinach leaves, washed (or your favorite raw leafy green)

8 slices uncured bacon/turkey bacon, cooked (or 4 slices deli ham)

1/2 cup lowfat plain yogurt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp cumin

pinch salt

pinch cayenne (optional - for extra heat)

Directions

1. Split and toast english muffins. Meanwhile, cook eggs as desired (scrambled, poached, or fried).

2. For sauce: Whisk together yogurt and spices until well-mixed. Adjust amounts as desired (it's always good to start conservatively and add from there). Yogurt sauce can store in the refrigerator for a few days, if you wish to make it ahead of time.

3. Layer cooked egg, meat and spinach leaves on bottom half of english muffin. Spoon sauce onto other half of muffin and sandwich two halves together.

Serves 4

Energy Bars

2011 was pretty horrible for me as far as running goes; with grad school it's easy for things to get in the way, and I was running inconsistently with low mileage. Over the past month or so after recovering from a fall, I've turned over a new leaf, working my way up gradually from a mere 12 miles a week (3 miles/4 days) to some serious mileage, with the hopes of being able to get back to running fast 5Ks again. I'm part of the way there (I'm up to 25-30 miles/week), and I'm starting my first speed workout today with the local running club - the first time I've done that in a good while! With an increase in training intensity, of course, also comes an increase in the need for fuel. For women who are serious competitive endurance athletes, proper fuel is especially important.

One of my favorite books on running is John Parker Jr.'s Once a Runner. However, at one point, as the protagonist digs into a huge pile of greasy food, he proclaims, "if the furnace is hot enough, anything will burn." While it is true that competitive runners can get away with consuming inordinate amounts of food (and I most certainly take advantage on occasion), not all calories are created equal, and putting the right kind of fuel in your body can make a big difference in your ability to train and compete at a high level. You can't drive a car with an empty tank, and neither can you run without any fuel. Also, a number of studies have shown that the first 30 min after a workout are the most important for refueling, and doing it the right way can speed recovery and help complement the effects of your training to make you stronger and faster. Of course, most of us are not likely to be able to whip up a meal within 30 min of working out (even assuming you have the energy after a tough workout!), so it's important to have something that's easily accessible, portable, and readily digestible. Energy bars perfectly fit this bill.

Energy bars come in all shapes, sizes and flavors, and most grocery stores have a daunting variety. However, many of them are loaded with refined sugars and processed ingredients that are difficult for non-chemists to pronounce or are prohibitively expensive for most of us. Luckily, making energy bars at home is super easy, quick, cheap, and healthier than you're likely to find in the store. The recipe that I use is adapted from this one, which I found in Running Times (click for a good explanation of why they're good for you). The recipe specifies these as a pre-run snack, but they're great both before a run and after. The other nice thing about these is that you can whip up a large batch and throw a bunch in the freezer, so that you can keep them fresh for when you need them - just take them out an hour or two before you want to fuel up. When stored in an airtight container, these will last at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Note: These bars are all-natural, but they do have a fair amount of sweetener in the form of honey (if you want them vegan, you can probably switch out the honey 1 for 1 with agave nectar). This is great for runners who are looking for a quick energy boost going into a run, but if you're looking for a healthy, high protein snack to just get you through your day and/or can't consume very much non-fruit sugar, I'd give these bars a try instead. They're also delicious - they just need to be stored in a fridge or freezer, since they go bad sooner (a couple notes: I used soy protein powder, since hemp protein's a bit out of my price range, and you can leave out the maple syrup entirely - the bananas provide plenty of sweetness).

Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup unsweetened coconut

1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped (or raisins or chopped dates)

3/4 cup raw sliced almonds

1/2 cup unsalted pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

2 Tbsp chia seeds

1 1/2 cups tahini (or natural peanut butter)

1 cup REAL clover honey*

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mix together oats, coconut, dried fruit, almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and chia seeds in a large mixing bowl.

2. Stir together tahini, honey, and vanilla and microwave on high for 1 minute.

3. Pout wet ingredients over dry and mix well.

4. Spread mixture onto a greased baking sheet and smooth out the top.

5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for ~15 min, until edges have browned.

6. Allow to cool, then cut into 16 bars.

7. Enjoy, then get running!


*I mean, seriously, use real honey, it makes all the difference in the world nutritionally and flavor-wise. Honey with the pollen in it, not the processed, questionable "honey" in the teddy bear jars. Find your local apiary or farmer's market and load up (our local apiary here sells a large jar for $15). It's one thing even a frugal Dutch person like myself will not skimp on.

Emily Dickinson's "Cocoanut Cake"

53.

GOD gave a loaf to every bird,
But just a crumb to me;
I dare not eat it, though I starve,—
My poignant luxury
To own it, touch it, prove the feat
That made the pellet mine,—
Too happy in my sparrow chance
For ampler coveting.
It might be famine all around,
I could not miss an ear,
Such plenty smiles upon my board,
My garner shows so fair.
I wonder how the rich may feel,—
An Indiaman—an Earl?
I deem that I with but a crumb
Am sovereign of them all.

April is National Poetry Month. Although this post comes at the end of the month, it doesn't hurt to end with a bang. I was inspired by an article that I read in NPR a few months ago about Emily Dickinson. We're all well aware of her poetic prowess, but apparently she was also a proficient baker (actually, although no one knew about her poetry in her lifetime, she was well known in Amherst for her breads and cakes, going so far as to lower baskets of gingerbread from the second-story window in her house to neighborhood children). One of her handwritten recipes - for "cocoanut cake" - was put on display in New York recently. I'm nowhere near there, but thanks to the power of the internet, I can access and share a copy:

In honor of Poetry Month, my goal was to remain as close to Emily Dickinson's original as possible. This meant using simple traditional ingredients and mixing everything by hand, which is well worth the effort - but quite a workout if you're a runner like me with no upper body strength. As long as the butter has had time to soften, this task is definitely doable. Although the recipe itself doesn't call for icing, a simple boiled icing was common for cakes of the era; my only change was to add lime juice and some lime zest for extra flavor (I used granulated sugar, which made delicious icing, but was a little grainy in texture, so I'd recommend powdered sugar instead). The icing made way more than I needed for a single loaf, which sounds like a good reason to make two loaves' worth next time! The cake is deliciously moist and fluffy, although it's also dense (much like a pound cake). The cake itself has a nice subtle sweetness, and the lime icing adds a nice sweet tang to it. Turns out it's not just Emily Dickinson's poetry that I enjoy!

Ingredients

Coconut Cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup grated coconut*

Lime Boiled Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice + 1 Tbsp water

1 egg white

2 tsp freshly grated lime zest

Directions

For Cake:

1.  Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add milk and mix well.

3. Sift together flour and baking powder, then add in portions to the wet ingredients, stirring just until combined.

4. Gently fold coconut into batter, stirring just until mixed.

5. Pour batter into a lightly greased and floured 9x5" loaf pan.

6. Bake at 325 degrees F for 50-60 min, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool for ~10 min, then turn cake out onto a wire rack and let cool for 10-15 min more before applying icing.

For Icing:

1. Stir together sugar and lime juice/water in a small saucepan. Gently boil while stirring frequently (stirring is key - sugar can easily burn!).

2. Meanwhile, beat egg white in a small mixing bowl until soft peaks form.

3. Once sugar mixture has formed a thick syrup, pour over egg white and beat until cool.

4. Stir in lime zest, then use to ice cake.

*This is the one place where I did cheat; if you don't want to take the time to grate a fresh coconut, simply add warm water to unsweetened dried coconut and allow to rehydrate for 15-20 min, then drain excess water before adding coconut to batter.

Journey Brownies

Marriages (and other long-term relationships) require give-and-take in order to last. Sometimes, though, you can get away without having to compromise. Making a fresh batch of homemade brownies happens to be just one of these situations. You may have figured out by this point that I tend to gravitate toward foods and recipes that allow for a lot of variability and room for creativity. Brownies definitely fall into this category. Of course, why limit yourself to trying one variation at a time, and instead accommodate different tastes at once? 


Hence, the Journey brownies. I've based this on a recipe out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (basically a cooking bible!). There's nothing particularly special about this recipe, other than its encouragement to get creative. All it takes is some aluminum foil and maybe 45 min, and you've got yourself a brownie sampler - no need for disagreements about what kind of brownies would be the best. I used aluminum foil to split the batter in half, but with a little extra engineering, I'm sure you could split it further. I opted for some mashed banana, coconut and almonds in my half, while my husband kept things simple. Go ahead, indulge yourself, and have it exactly the way you want it!

Ingredients

5 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar
2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate (optional)

Directions
1. Heat butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan on low heat, just until melted, stirring frequently.
2. Pour chocolate mixture into a medium mixing bowl, then add sugar and mix well.
3. Add eggs one a time, beating after each addition.
4. Beat in flour, salt and vanilla extract (if using).
5. Stir in semisweet chocolate by hand, then split batter into two halves.
6. Add desired add-ins to each half, then pour into an 8"x8" or 9"x9" pan lined with aluminum foil (arranged in such a way as to create a barrier in the middle).
7. Bake brownies in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 20-25 min, or until done. Don't be worried about slightly underbaking; they'll just be extra chewy that way!


Makes 16 brownies (or 8 generously sized brownies)


Add-ins for brownies (remember to reduce size accordingly...the measurements I'm giving are meant for half the brownie batter - although they're approximate, so add as much or as little as you want):

• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1/4 cup unsweetened flaked coconut  (+ banana + macademias = tropical brownies)
• 1/4 cup nuts (sliced almonds, chopped walnuts, or chopped macademia nuts)
• 1/4 cup nut butter (swirl into batter for a nice marbling effect)
• 1/4 cup marshmallows, sprinkled on top in the last 5 min of baking (+ walnuts = rocky road brownies)
• 1/4-1/2 cup chopped white chocolate
• 1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped
• 1/4-1/2 tsp peppermint extract - to replace vanilla (+ chopped white chocolate = mint brownies)
• Anything else you can come up with. The possibilities are endless!

Pasta Bowls

Credit for this recipe goes 100% to my creative husband. He was looking at a flier in our mail for a local pizza place, saw the pasta bowls and thought, "hey, I can make that!" And make it he did. I'm not going to pretend that this is the healthiest thing you've ever eaten, but there's definitely plenty of potential variety here, and I'm willing to bet it's more delicious and still healthier than you'd get at a restaurant. You can fill it with whatever pasta and sauce combination you want, and if I didn't have a picky husband, I'd make the pizza dough with whole wheat. Instead of butter, you could always use olive oil to baste. In the end, of course, it's the taste that counts, and my husband really made a winner here. :)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (or 3/4 cup whole wheat + 1/2 cup all-purpose)

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or one envelope)

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup warm water

6 oz pasta (rotini or penne), cooked

1/2 cup pasta sauce (pick your favorite - I like Newman's Own tomato & basil)

shredded mozzarella cheese

grated parmesan cheese

4 Tbsp butter

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2-1 tsp italian seasoning (basil & oregano)

Directions:

1. Add flour, yeast, salt, and water to a medium mixing bowl. Mix ingredients until well-combined.

2. Stir in additional flour in small portions, adding in as much as you can.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, kneading in additional flour as necessary.

4. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once. Cover and let rise until double (~20 min).

5. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide in half.

6. Shape each half into a ball and place on a pizza stone or baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal (the cornmeal keeps the bottom from sticking or burning).

7. Bake at 400 degrees F for 35 minutes, or until lightly golden.

8. Cut an angled circle out of the top of the bowls, and scoop out bread from the middle (you can use the extra to make bread crumbs or croutons later!).

9. Toss pasta with sauce and spoon into bowls.

10. Sprinkle generously with cheese; if you want it extra cheesy, add cheese in layers with the pasta.

11. Place top back on, then baste bowls with garlic butter mixture using a pastry brush. (To make garlic butter: add butter, garlic, and italian seasoning to a glass measuring cup, then microwave and stir - baste while still hot).

12. Return bowls to oven, and bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, baste a second time, then bake for 5-10 minutes more.

13. Remove from oven, allow to cool for a few minutes, and enjoy!

Makes 2 pasta bowls

Whole Grain Banana Coconut Bread

An Improved Method for the Preparation of Banana Bread Mediated by Whole Grains and Coconut

Banana bread is a classic comfort food, a beloved childhood treat. Whenever we had bananas that were past their prime, this was the perfect way to avoid letting them go to waste. Every Christmas time especially, my mom would whip up a huge batch of banana bread as a special homemade gift for friends and family. Needless to say, I've developed quite a fondness for the stuff, and made sure to copy the precious recipe from my mom's aged and stained 1970s marching band cookbook before moving away from home. 

Nonetheless, part of growing up is making your own mark on things, and so over time I've played around with the recipe. One necessity was adding more nutritious ingredients to make the bread more substantive and healthy, to give a bread that tastes like a treat without the guilt. After significant experimentation, I think I've finally hit the jackpot here. A mixture of whole grains amps up the fiber, and honey replaces the refined sugar to give a more complex flavor (plus antioxidants and minerals!), and equal sweetness while lowering the sugar content. The banana chips also give an extra banana-y taste, adding more sweetness without refined sugars. Coconut flakes give some extra moisture and a nice texture. Biting into a warm slice, you'll forget that the bread's nutritious!

The great thing about quick breads like this, too, is that you can make either a loaf or muffins with equally fantastic results, depending on how hungry you are and how many people you're willing to share it with. I've made it both ways. You can make the muffins and throw half in the freezer (in a sealed bag, of course, it'll keep for 1-2 months), so you can enjoy them later on without additional effort. A whole loaf can go in the freezer, too, but I wouldn't freeze individual slices. As a test to my hypothesis as to the deceptive deliciousness of this bread, I baked a loaf to share with my labmates recently. The loaf was gone within 12 hours of its arrival in the group room (and I did not announce its presence, either). Experimental results support the hypothesis. 

Unoptimized Conditions (a.k.a. original recipe):

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3-4 large bananas, mashed

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Optimized Reaction Conditions (a.k.a. my recipe):

1/2 cup butter, softened (or coconut oil, for vegan bread)

2/3 cup REAL honey (wildflower is the best!)

2 eggs (or 2 Tbsp chia seeds + 9 Tbsp water)

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup golden flaxseed meal (I used Bob's Red Mill brand)

2 Tbsp wheat germ

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3-4 large bananas, mashed

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup dried unsweetened banana chips

1/2 cup walnuts (or almonds or macademia nuts), chopped

Experimental Procedure:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. If using chia seeds in place of eggs, mix chia seeds and water in a small bowl and set aside (after ~15 min, it should form a gel of “gloppy” consistency, at which point it will be ready to add to wet ingredients).
3. In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the butter and honey, then add eggs (or chia gel) and beat mixture. 
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, flaxseed meal, wheat germ, baking soda, and salt.
5. Gradually add flour mixture to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.
6. Mix in mashed bananas.
7. By hand, stir in coconut, banana chips, and walnuts (let banana chips soak in water for a couple of minutes before adding, just to give a little extra moisture - they were a bit chewy without a pre-soak).
8. Pour batter into a greased and lightly floured 9x5” loaf pan or paper-lined muffin cups.
9. Bake for 50-60 minutes (loaf) or 30 minutes (muffins), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out fairly clean.
10. Allow to cool in pan for  about 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.


Makes 1 loaf or ~1 1/2 dozen muffins