Blueberry Muffins with Spinach - Perfect for St. Patrick's Day

Happy Monday to you all!

To get my blog up and going again I decided to spice it up a bit and added a few more sections.  One section that I was really excited about was the holiday recipes.  I have two little boys, 5 and 2 years old, and they love it when a holiday rolls around and they wake up to red and green cereal, or blue and orange pancakes (we are Denver Bronco fans in this house, or at least they are).  I am always trying to figure out ways to incorporate whatever holiday or special occasion it is into my cooking.  With St. Patrick's Day right around the corner I figured it was the best holiday to start my holiday recipe section with.  Now we could make this really easy and just have, say GREEN pancakes

or GREEN waffles

(click on picture for credit)

But then I thought about what kind of mom would I consider myself if all I did was whip up some Bisquick (yes, some mornings I'm too tired to make pancakes or waffles from scratch!) and added green food coloring.  Not that there is anything wrong with doing that, but I blog about food for crying out loud, I need to be a little more creative than that!  So after doing a little research online (and by that I mean looking through Pinterest) I found that I could easily make my food green by adding some pureed spinach.  I know what you are thinking...my kids will never eat anything that has spinach in it!  My advice...DON'T TELL THEM!  Do you hate me now for giving you that advice?  Tell a little while lie if you have to, "no sweetie, it's just a little green food coloring!"  You might feel awful about telling your children this little white lie, but think of how good you'll feel knowing you got your kids to eat spinach instead of artificial food coloring!  Personally, I don't have to do that with my kids.  They have been drinking my green smoothies since they were about 8 months old, they know spinach is what makes them green and they still love drinking them.  Plus, I ate one of these beauties this morning and there is absolutely no taste of spinach in them.  The directions for the recipe are a tiny bit labor intensive, compared to opening a pouch of blueberry muffin mix, adding some milk and eggs and baking.  But it's so worth it.  These will be perfect for your St. Patrick's Day breakfast!

Blueberry-Spinach Muffins

adapted from: Inspired Taste

**Note:  I live in an area that is close to 6,000' above sea level so I altered this recipe slightly.  I have marked these alterations in red.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of All-Purpose flour (I added 2T)
3/4 cup of sugar (I subtracted 1T)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder (I cut this in half, only 1t)
Large handful of fresh spinach
1/3 cup of oil (recipe called for vegetable oil, but I used melted coconut oil instead)
1 large egg, room temperature
1/3 - 1/2 cup of milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not thaw out if using frozen berries)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Prepare muffin cups.
2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl with a whisk.  Make sure baking powder and salt have evenly dispersed throughout the flour and sugar.
2. To puree the spinach, you could either juice it, if you have a juicer.  Or, what I did, was added my melted coconut oil to my blender with my spinach and about a tablespoon of very hot water (because coconut oil hardens up if it gets cold and my spinach was cold).  Once the spinach is pureed either through a juicer or in the blender, use a measuring cup that holds at least 1 cup of liquid, add the pureed spinach, oil, and egg.  Add as much milk as you need to equal 1 cup of liquid total (this should be about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk).  Add vanilla extract and whisk until combined.
3.  Add milk mixture to the bowl with the flour and sugar then use a fork to combine.  Do not over mix, the mixture should be very thick.
4. Add blueberries and use a spatula or spoon to gently fold the blueberries into the muffin batter.
5. Fill the muffin cups FULL.  This is the best way to get the big rounded tops instead of flat tops like cupcakes.
6. Bake muffins at 425 for 4 minutes, after 4 minutes reduce baking temperature to 375 and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. This way of cooking the muffins also helps in getting the big round tops.

Coconut Ginger Granola

So while posting recipes let's catch up a little.  How have you been?  What have you been up to?  Life is, and has been, crazy for me.  We now live in Casper, Wyoming.  We have been here for over a year now.  It's windy here...ALL THE TIME!  I'm not a fan of the wind, in fact we have a hate-hate relationship.  My in-laws are also living with us now.  It's a struggle having more than just my little family living in my house.  How do I deal?  I cook, I eat, I stress out way more than I should, at least my hubby thinks so.  But no matter way, life still goes on, amazingly enough.  I'm also a full-time student online right now.  Only 2 more semester left until I have completed my teaching degree...FINALLY!

So onto the new recipe.  I decided to make a granola as my first recipe back in over a year.  It sounded so good it had to be done.  I have a cookbook called Mom's Big Book of Baking and I was looking through it one morning trying to find something to make for breakfast that hadn't been made in the last two weeks when I came across a section of granola recipes.  Later in the day I looked through all the different types of granola she had listed and parts of some sounded really good so I decided to come up with my own recipe based off of hers in the book.

Coconut Ginger Granola

adapted from: Mom's Big Book of Baking

Ingredients

4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 cup chopped cashews

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

1/3 cup honey

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup chopped dried apricots

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  

2. Mix the oats, ginger, cashews, coconut flakes, coconut oil, honey, and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl.  Spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper.  

3. Spread the granola evenly over the baking sheet and bake, tossing twice, until golden, about 15 minutes.  Check frequently during the last few minutes to make sure that the granola does not burn.

4. Remove the pan from the oven and let the granola cool completely on the baking sheet placed on a wire rack.  Transfer the granola to an airtight container, stir in the apricots and cover.  Store at room temperature.

Orange Walnut Coffee Cake

I love the taste of orange in my sweet foods.  I love the tang and zest it gives to the sweetness of foods. I knew I would love this coffee cake from the moment I saw the recipe.  It's a great way to use up oranges that may be going bad soon.  This particular recipe is so easy and quick that there is no reasonable excuse to not make it on any weekday morning.

Apple Pancakes

Pancakes were never a big favorite in our house until recently.  Now that I have an infant in the house who loves to feed himself, pancakes seem to be popping up more and more.  Every time I make pancakes I make a large batch and freeze the extras.  When my little man wants something for breakfast or a quick snack, and I have no idea what to give him, I pull out one of the pancakes, pop it in the toaster and VOILA! instant, tasty food.

The recipe I adapted this from calls for all purpose flour, however, after much research on the internet I found that to get big fluffy pancakes you should substitute the flour with self-rising flour, so I gave it a try in this recipe.  I thought they turned out pretty darn fluffy!

Mint Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

Alright!  I will admit that the green glaze might be a little much, but I have a good reason!  This is the perfect breakfast to have St Patrick's Day morning!  I think the kids will love to eat green glaze!  Well alright, my 13 year old didn't think it was all that cool, but my 3 year old loved it!  You could just leave out the green food coloring if its a little too weird for you.

Strawberry Oat Smoothie

Sometimes when I'm throwing together a smoothie I think that the more ingredients I add the better it will be.  I'll stand there with my fridge open just searching for more things to add when really it's probably perfect just there way it is.  I'm glad I stopped with only these 5 ingredients for this smoothie because it sure was tasty!  I'm just waiting for summer to come so I can try this with some fresh raspberries instead of frozen strawberries! Yum-e!

Red Velvet Waffles

And it wasn't even Valentine's Day or Christmas morning when I made these!  They are so easy to make you have no excuse not to make them on a Monday!  My suggestion is. . .the next time you are at the store and cake mixes are on sale buy one of every flavor and use them for something OTHER than making cake :)  For this red velvet cake mix I split it into thirds (make sure you cut the additional ingredients into to thirds as well!).  I used the first 1/3 of the cake mix for my Red Velvet Popcorn and the second 1/3 for these waffles.  The last 1/3 is still in my pantry waiting for another recipe...maybe cookies?

Open Faced Egg Sandwich

Sometimes I am completely at a loss when it comes to breakfast.  My first thought is always something sweet; pancakes, french toast, waffles, etc.  So it's even worse when it comes to something savory for breakfast.  There are a few things that I ALWAYS have in my house, mainly because they are things my 3 year old WILL eat without a fight.  One of those things are avocados, even when they aren't in season I buy them because he will eat them like candy.  This particular morning I had an avocado that was in need of eating soon so I thought. . . and I thought. . . and I thought. . .and this is what I came up with.

Coffee Creamer French Toast

I am so darn excited about this recipe, if you can really call it a recipe.  It requires 4 ingredients and one of those ingredients is of course bread!  But first, let me tell you why I'm so excited about it.  Have you been to the coffee creamer isle in your grocery store lately?  There are like a "gazillion" flavors of coffee creamers now-a-days.  Think of all the possibilities this recipe will allow you just by changing one of the ingredients!  SO EXCITED!

Fall Harvest Steel Cut Oats

I know it's not fall, it's the middle of winter!  But this would be tasty anytime of year.  It doesn't take long to prepare, especially if you are like me and prepare oats Sunday night for the whole week.

Cinnamon French Toast Crunch

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  What do you make for Valentine's day when your hubby is working in a different state, it's a school day so your 13 year old son isn't there, and the only other person in the house that is going to eat is a 3 year old little boy who normally doesn't really eat much breakfast?  My answer?  French toast, in the shape of hearts of course!  It's hard to tell in that picture but those pieces are shaped as hearts.  Luckily they were a hit with the 3 year old, and even my 9 month old liked them.

Eggs Poached in Tomatoes

This is a recipe I learned for my step-father, Rocky.  He made it for us when we were visiting him and my mom in Arizona.  I was a little weary about it at first, I'll admit it doesn't look that appetizing when you first see it, but it is so good...just trust me on this!  You'll need some really crusty bread to mop up all the yummy juices, my favorite is sour dough.

Blueberry Honey Almond Pancakes

Can I be perfectly honest with you guys?  I've never really been a breakfast person.  Truth be told I would prefer to skip breakfast, wait until about 11:00am and have an early lunch.  But lately, since I started doing this blog, I've been having hundreds of breakfast ideas running through my head.  I barely get my eyes fully opened before I'm in the kitchen making something new and exciting for breakfast.  These pancakes were one of those ideas that had me tossing and turning in bed the night before.  As I laid my head down on my pillow to drift off to sleep I had visions of . . . NO, not sugarplums . . . blueberry pancakes, but not just any blueberry pancakes, blueberry pancakes with sliced almonds and sweet honey! YUM-E!  Please try them!

Super Foods Green Smoothie

Super foods are all the rage right now.  At least that's the sense I'm getting when I read other food blogs.  And I totally get it!  I've been trying to eat at least 6-8 super foods a day and I've been feeling very energized and healthy.  My favorite way to eat (or drink) them is either in a salad or a smoothie.  So here is a great smoothie to have after a workout, loaded with super foods and protein to help recover.

Cinnamon Roll Waffles

Want a very easy breakfast that is quick and tasty? This is it, especially if you like cinnamon rolls.  But let me warn you, one package of cinnamon rolls won't be enough unless you are making them just for yourself.

Tropical Steel Cut Oats

This little concoction was surprisingly very tasty.  Not that I didn't expect it to be good, but it was better than I had expected, which is always a good thing.  Let's discuss oats for a moment.  Growing up I had a sever dislike for oatmeal.  I couldn't understand why people ate it, it was slimy and just down right tasted like cardboard no matter how much butter and brown sugar I loaded into it.  About 4 or 5 years ago I decided to give it another try, only this time I bought the microwave packets that are already flavored for you (probably loaded with tons of sugar that I don't need).  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.  Honestly, up until about 2 months ago I didn't know the difference between oatmeal and steel cut oats.  I was reading several different blogs that had recipes for either oatmeal or steel cut oats.  After doing a little bit of research on the web I found out that its the way the oats are processed that makes the difference.  I had never tried steel cut oats so I went to the store and bought some.  I have to tell you that I prefer them way more than oatmeal.  If you aren't a big fan of oatmeal you might want to give steel cut oats a try, you might find you love them as much as I do.  And HERE is my secret to preparing them.

Crazy Nut Green Smoothie

Yummmmm, smoothies!  I have a serious addiction to smoothies right now.  I crave them constantly, breakfast, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dessert...yum!  And the best part about this addiction?  I really enjoy them with spinach in them.  You might get 14 different recipes of smoothies at the rate I'm going.  One of my favorite tricks for making my smoothies. . . frozen bananas.  I buy a bunch of bananas every time I go to the grocery store, if we don't eat them before they start to brown I peel them, put them in individual freezer bags and pop them into the freezer.  Give it a try, with a frozen banana you don't need to add a lot of ice to make the smoothie. . . well, smooth. :)

Chai Spiced Steel Cut Oats

I've just recently discovered steel cut oats.  Honestly, I didn't like them at first, but I'd made more than one serving and didn't want to waste them.  I put the leftovers in the fridge and saved them for another morning.  The first morning when I made them they were kind of slimy and I didn't enjoy the texture at all.  Reluctantly, a few mornings later I decided I better eat them before they went bad.  I scooped out a serving, popped them into the microwave to warm them up and added my usual toppings to them.  Imagine how happy I was to find out that after them sitting in the fridge a day they actually changed their texture.  There wasn't anymore sliminess to them and they were wonderful!  So now, when I want steel cut oats I make them the night before and store them in the fridge.  It makes life a lot easier in the morning even if they weren't better after "resting" in the fridge overnight.  Give it a try if you are like me and find oats to be a little slimy after first cooking them.