Tag Archives: breakfast

Light & Fluffy Blueberry Muffins

This breakfast delight is another recipe from Kelsey Banfield’s book “The Naptime Chef: fitting great food into family life.” I’m not usually inclined to bake, but the indulgence of eating muffins for breakfast (kind of like dessert, in my book) was too powerful a call for me to resist.

And I can never say the word ‘fluffy’ without quoting from one of my favorite sources of funniness. Fluffity puffity sugar delights! Hand-puffed at the factory in Newconsin!

(I hate Marshie. But I love to hate him.)

I thought about calling these Fluffity Puffity Blueberry Muffins.

Or Perschmuffity Muffities.

But then I went for the more standard “light and fluffy.” It’s the Voice of Reason triumphing over silliness, and I can’t decide if the victory went to the right party in this matter.

Now I have recipe namer’s remorse . . . but thankfully I can take that out on my baby by giving her one of what will be many ridiculous nicknames.

Hi there little Pershmuffity Muffity!

You talkin’ to me?

Yes, Alice. You’re a hand-puffed sugar delight.

Noooooooo!

Wait Alice! Wait! That’s a good thing in my book! I love puffed babies! I love rolls and thighs and double chins! Now enough of this crying–can I get a hoo-rah hee-rah hubbah hubbah YAY!?

And can I have permission to squeeze every inch of baby roll I can find?

Okay . . . have at it, lady.

Why thank you. I believe I’ll start with these deliciously fat little feet.

I’ll proceed with kissing those dimples . . .

. . . and we can finish it out by a million kisses under your chinny-chin-chin.

Babies, muffins–they both cry out to be chomped.

So whip up a batch and chomp away, my friends.

Ingredients

(Makes 12 muffins)

2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup + 2 TBS sugar
½ tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
Zest from 1 lemon
4 oz (1 stick) butter, chilled
1 large egg
¾ cup whole milk
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

1. Heat oven to 425 F and prepare a muffin pan by buttering it, spraying it with baking spray, or lining it with paper liners.

2. Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and zest.

3. Cut the butter into small cubes and incorporate it into the dry ingredients using a pastry knife, until the mixture has the consistency of small pebbles.

4. Separately, whisk together the milk and egg; stir them into the dry ingredients. The batter will be very lumpy.

5. Gently fold in the blueberries with a spatula, taking care not to smash them.

6. Distribute the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups.

7. Bake for 15-17 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The muffins are done when the tops are turning golden and have a little spring on top when touched. Serve hot!

And then tear them apart with your bare hands. That fluffiness has no business being anywhere but your mouth. Now.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Light & Fluffy Blueberry Muffins

Juice in the morning, sailor take warning

Recently I’ve renewed my commitment to juicing. And we’re not talking drugs here, people–we’re talking vegetables. (I was only recently informed that juicing can also be a term for imbibing steroids. Or does one inject those things? Anyway.)

Why this fresh zest for juicing? (heh heh–forgive the pun–couldn’t resist) Well, in part because I heard my friend Traci’s inspiring story again about how juicing sent her rheumatoid arthritis into remission, and in part because my friend Sarah decided to do a juice cleanse. And did it. And it was awesome (more on that soon!).

There’s nothing like the honest testimony of a trusted girlfriend to get me in motion. With all this motivation, I really wanted to make juicing part of our routine–so I did. And I’m in week 5 now, going steady, holding the course. In case you’re interested in having some tasty, energizing, veggie juice for breakfast to get your day started out right, here’s how I do it:

1) On Sunday when we grocery shop for the week, I purchase a big bag of veggies, to wit:

-5 lbs carrots
-5 cucumbers
-A large, large knobbly knob of ginger
-The biggest bag of spinach I can locate
-1 bunch of celery

And I should clarify, this is just for me (though I do pour a small glass for my husband). I can hardly believe I go through all that in a week’s time considering it’s just my breakfast, but that’s the miracle of juicing, friends.

2) As soon as I get home from the grocery store, all the veggies destined for liquification get washed, prepped, and put into ziplocs for the week. That way, when I wake up and get my sleepy butt into the kitchen, everything is ready. There’s no horsing around with a knife needed, which is great since all my faculties are not yet present.

I also get pre-washed spinach, which saves a good amount of time.

3) Before going to bed (and while my husband sets the coffee maker), I assemble the juicer and put it on the counter so that it’s ready to go.

I figure any extra fussing about in the morning should be avoided, because that could just be used as an excuse to choose the lazy way out. I need to leave everything set up for myself so that practically no effort in the morning is required.

4) Final trick: lining the juicer’s ‘waste’ bin with a trash bag so that all the vegetable refuse can simply be gathered up and tossed.

Saves some washing time! Straight into the trash with you.

5) In the morning, make the juice! I use a big handful of spinach to start . . .

. . .  followed by a thumbsized piece of ginger, a whole cucumber . . .

. . . a couple stalks of celery, and 6-8 carrots.

With the pre-washed and pre-cut veggies, it’s easy to pop them into the juicer and cococt a greeney-orangey beverage that will start my day on the right foot and load up my body with micronutrients.

And I have to say, I’m not hungry in the least after that big glass of juice. It fills me up, but doesn’t give that bloated feeling that bread products sometimes bring. And I think it tastes great! (the more carrots the better it seems to taste–there’s nothing like that sweet, earthy flavor)

It even takes away almost all of my urge for coffee. I usually sip at a coffee while doing my morning devotional right afterwards (it’s a habit that’s hard to break–a hot beverage is so perfect for helping me enter a contemplative state), but I usually only get halfway through the mug, and have no desire for coffee again until the following morning.

How about you–does that picture of green juice make you salivate, or make your stomach churn and turn?

Tomorrow, my friend Sarah will be guest posting here about her February juice cleanse. Just reading about her experience makes me want to do one too. Come back on by and read about her experience tomorrow morning!