recipe: apple-banana-quinoa muffins

I like quinoa. But Tony and I always seem to eat it the same way, and lately I grown bored of it. So there's been a bag of quinoa just sitting in my pantry for months, and I haven't wanted to cook it. 

But I've also been on a kick to clear out food in my pantry, so the other weekend I fired up Pinterest and discovered this treasure: apple-banana-quinoa breakfast muffins.

These muffins are sweet but healthy, and they're Baby L's favorite meal. I froze the muffins, and in the morning I take one out and throw it in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Apple-Banana-Quinoa Muffins

Adapted from Pumps and Iron

• 1/2 cup quinoa
• 1 cup water
• 4 mashed bananas: 3 mashed and 1 cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped fine

Combine quinoa and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Cook 10-15 minutes until water absorbs. 

In a large bowl, mash three bananas. Stir in applesauce, milk, honey and vanilla.  

In a medium bowl, mix oats, cinnamon and cooked quinoa. 

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir in apple and banana pieces.

Scoop the batter into a greased muffin tin. 

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes. 

Makes 12 muffins.

recipe: lentil soup

It's been a year+ since I've stopped by to blog here, and I'm sure my four regular readers (hi, mom!) have long ago stopped checking in for new posts. I became a mom, then started a new job, and figuring out how to balance all of life has been a challenge. So blogging took a backseat. Like, the third row backseat in one of those gigantic SUVs.

I don't think I'm going back to blogging regularly, but I think I'll start posting ... occasionally ... and with a focus limited to new recipes.

Tonight, I found myself wanting to bake a loaf of bread to go with the lentil soup I was making, so I went to this blog to find my recipe for rosemary bread, and it occurred to me that the new recipes I've been trying, like the soup, aren't being captured here.

So here I am, sharing with a recipe for lentil soup. And I didn't take any pictures because, well, since I haven't been blogging, I'm no longer in the practice of taking pictures of the food I make. Sorry. It looked like lentil soup.

Earlier today when I was making a grocery list for the week, I got it into my head that I should base our meals on things that have been sitting in our pantry for a while. Like a bag of lentils. Valerie's made this lentil soup a few times for us, and it's a wonderful thick, spicy soup.

Lentil Soup

Adapted from Scaling Back

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 banana pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeño, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 2 cups almond milk
• 7 cups water
• 1-pound bag of lentils
• 1 can of garbanzo beans
• 3 large carrots, chopped

Heat olive oil in a dutch oven, and add onion. Turn heat to very low and cook 30 minutes until onions begin to caramelize. 

Add banana pepper and jalapeño and cook for 5 minutes. 

Mix in garlic, spices, salt and tomato paste and cook 2 minutes. 

Add almond milk, water, lentils, garbanzo beans and carrots. 

Cook 30 minutes.  

Serves 7.

<3

I intended to serve this with a loaf of whole wheat rosemary bread, based on this recipe. But it's been so long since I've baked anything that my yeast when kaput, and the dough didn't rise. Wah wah. So after brainstorming with my mom, I kneaded 1 tablespoon baking powder into the dough, and dropped spoonfuls of the dough on a baking sheet as biscuits. I baked them for 15 minutes. 

Verdict: good mistake.