muffins just help me deal.

I haven’t posted anything in 10 months. Let’s not make it a thing, ok?

I had a big year, I guess. Things happened. And then other stuff happened. Work is also a thing I do full-time… so basically: Excuses, There they are. They’re not very good. ha!

Life is always changing and I’m trying to deal with stuff and so what do I do? Make muffins. This has been exhibited twice before. Here & here. Muffins are the answer to: what the hell do I do now? Muffins. I do muffins.

I became a wife about two months ago! It was incredible, we did it in Toronto, our stay was only two weeks and an absolute whirlwind.

Usually when I go home my plan is to sit and eat and drink. I plan to play with the dog and maybe go to the cottage but also re-explore Toronto and figure out whats new since I’ve been gone.

This almost never happens properly because when I visit home it’s to see people. Family & friends. I LOVE love love seeing those people cause I miss them SO MUCH when I am away. But quickly, my trips becomes a juggling act of who can I see at what time and where and how can I see everyone more than once and – whats that? I’m leaving in four days. Well, sheeeeeeiiit.

This trip was the same but different. It was quicker and more amazing but also left zero time for me to sit and do nothing or play with the puppy or just HANG OUT with my parents. I got a husband on this trip which is awesome (!), but I also feel like I didn’t get what I needed from being at home.

So, we came back to Sydney (after our amazing adventurous honeymoon) and I just feel a bit off. On one hand, we came back to Spring – the weather here at the moment is really showing off. It’s basically summer. And I came back to the ocean, which is just how I left it; Huge and scary and salty and humbling.

On the other hand, we came back and I feel like I barely saw my parents, I didn’t get to play with the doggy enough and I’m just all around massively homesick.

These are the two parts of my brain. They are having it out at the moment and I’m trying not to get in the middle of things but ultimately, here I am. In the middle.

Muffins, anyone?

Gluten-Free Carrot Muffins
Based on the Recipe from Minimalist Baker

Ingredients

1.5 flax eggs
1/4 c. olive oil
1 mashed banana
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 sweet apple, finely grated
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup oat milk
1 c. (packed) grated carrot
2/3 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. almond meal
1 c. + 2 tbsp gluten-free flour blend
1/4 c. raw walnuts chopped – extra for topping

This recipe was made as a one-bowl recipe which is AMAZING. So, begin with the flax eggs in a large bowl and preheat the oven to 375*F. Add the mashed banana, maple syrup, olive oil and combine.
Next add the grated apple, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & combine.
Add in the oat milk, stir. Add the grated carrot and stir.
Lastly, add the oats, almond meal, gluten-free flour and stir. I also mix in the walnuts here but don’t over mix. Gently fold them in and then scoop the mixture into 12 muffin liners.
Fill them each to the top and top with a whole or chopped walnuts. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted, comes out clean. I haven’t done a lot of gluten-free baking, but apparently gluten-free takes longer to bake!
Let cool completely before unwrapping or else the wrappers may stick.

Eat. Think about life. Be happy.

xxx

banana bread muffins

I’ve been in kind of a creative rut. And when I say creative rut, I mean more of a life style rut.

Since I arrived home from my travels about a month and a half ago, life has been a little upside down. House guests (which were actually the best), new jobs, semi-new homes, lots of dining out and not a lot of time for thinking or baking. I’m not exactly complaining… I’m just sayin’. It’s been crazy.

Even now, a week after my house guests departed, I still can’t seem to find a rhythm. I guess this might take a while.In the meantime, I’ll make muffins. It seems to be what I do when I’m having trouble re-adjusting.

Chocolate Banana Bread
Adapted from Daily Garnish

1/2 c brown sugar (loosely packed)
1/4 c maple syrup
1/4 c coconut oil
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 c oat milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp vanilla
2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 c chocolate chips
1/4 c walnuts

Add sugar, syrup, and coconut oil to bowl and beat until well combined. You can do this manually, or with a mixer.

In a separate bowl, combine oat milk with the apple cider vinegar. Add this mixture as well as the mashed banana and vanilla to the sugar/syrup/oil bowl and combine.

In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients and slowly combine them into the wet. Fold in the walnuts & chocolate but don’t over mix.

Spoon the mixture into muffins cups and bake for 20ish minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean.

xxx

strawberry muffins and ohmygod it’s august.

woah.

Where did I go?

Where did time go? Is it august? Is it MID-august? Holy moly, you guys. I can’t even.

Things are happening behind the scenes over here and it seems I haven’t baked in like… 67 549 years. That is an exact estimate.

Let’s not dwell on excuses as I have none. STRAWBERRY MUFFIN TIME!

I feel like strawberries aren’t put into muffins enough. Blueberries, for sure. But strawberries? And I don’t know why NOT, cause these are delicious. Crazy yummy. And I like to over stuff the muffins liners so you have ginormous cafe-like muffins. oh yes.

Strawberry Muffins
Adapted from my blueberry muffins.

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. all purpose flour

1/4 c. oats

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 c. raw sugar

1 c. oat milk (or any non-dairy)

3 tbsp mushed banana

1 lemon, zested

1 c. fresh or frozen strawberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line a 12 inch muffin pan with liners. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugars, baking powder and salt. Create a well and add the milk 1/2 cup at a time. Mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Mix in lemon zest, vanilla and banana and stir until fully combined. Gently fold in strawberries, try not to over mix muffin batter.

Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake muffins for 22 – 25 minutes until fully baked. OR fill the liners all the way full, bake as normal or maybe a few minutes more and enjoy huge muffins.

Check back next week! I promise to post more than once a month. 🙂 I have more things to share! Exciting things!

xxx

yo momma.

You know last year when I went on and on about how my mom was the most awesome?

Yeah… well she still is. And it’s Mother’s day again! So big shout-oot to my Momma in Canada. LOVE YOU!

I also miss you. Like a-lot.

I was looking for an excuse to bake something pretty over the weekend and so I dedicate these muffins to my Maj and my Grandma. Even though my Grandma does not like chocolate in cake form. I know this. So she can have some of rice pudding I would make. 🙂 Even though I’m pretty sure I could convince her that these are AWESOME!

I call them muffins because they are mostly healthy and I cut down on the sugar. These are the prefect Mother’s Day morning muffin. Cheeky, but not too cheeky. Chocolatey, but not too chocolatey. Healthy, but not TOO healthy.

You get the picture. These are delicious. My dad makes mean chocolate zucchini cake, so here is a vegan and super delicious version of that, in muffin form. I wonder what he’s gunna bake for mother’s day? Maybe the cheesecake? 🙂

Make these for yo momma. She’s gunna loveeeeeeeeee them.

Chocolate – Zucchini Muffins
recipe adapted from here

1 1/4 c. flour (3/4 c. all purpose – 1/2 c. spelt is what I used)
1/4 c. high quality cocoa (it makes a difference. yummm)
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 banana, mushed
1/4 c. raw sugar
1/2 c. homemade applesauce
1/2 c. oat milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. shredded zucchini (as with most zucchini baking endevours, I strain some of the liquid out of the zucchini before I add it in.)

With an oven pre-heated to 350* line or grease a muffin tin. I actually lightly greased the muffin liners since this recipe doesn’t have any oil or butter in it.

Now mix the flour, cinnamon, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside and mix the banana, apple sauce, sugar and oat milk together. Add the vanilla and zucchini and mix until combined. Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and combine together but do not over mix.

Spoon the batter into the muffin liners/tray to about 3/4 of the way full and bake for 20-25 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when ready. Allow them to cool and then enjoy! They are seriously so yummy. I was really impressed with the chocolatey-ness.

xxx

ps. HEY MOM. let’s hang out soon, m’k? 😉

razzleberry muffins

So, its official. Summer is over. March 1st was the first day of Autumn. Traditionally my favourite season! It’s just… I wasn’t done with summer yet.

I didn’t get to the beach enough… I didn’t see ONE jelly fish… I didn’t even make boozy popsicles.

Well… it’s a good thing I live in Australia and I can still do those things for a while longer without feeling foolish. Anyway, I did drink a lot of coconuts… and I did go camping… and I did wear a dress to a wedding in such heat that I thought I was going to have bum shaped sweat marks. Gross? no. just a reality.

I’ll get on with it though, I’ll celebrate fall even though I feel its a tad too early. I will make soup and bake sweet potatoes. And I will make delicious muffins.

Gluten-free isn’t something I really think about that often. I really enjoy my gluten… but every now and then I wonder about this gluten-free baking that is so popular these days and I try my hand at it. It does NOT always work out… let me tell you. But these muffins were quite a nice surprise.

Now… buckwheat flour isn’t for everyone, it has a very distinct taste… but after I asked Sean-no less than 5 times-what he thought of these muffins (Really? I mean really though…? But did they taste weird? But really? You liked them?) He assured me they were really good. SO without further ado!

Raspberry Gluten-Free Muffins
Adapted from Edible Perspective

1 c. buckwheat flour
3/4 c. gluten-free oat flour
1/2 c. almond meal
3 tbsp rapadura sugar
2 1/2 tbsps ground flax meal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 chia eggs (2 tbsp + 6 tsbp water)
1/2 c. + 1 tbsp mashed banana
6 tbsp oat milk
1/3 c. maple syrup
1 vanilla bean
1/4 c. unrefined coconut oil, melted
1 1/4  c. frozen raspberries

First preheat your oven to 350* F and line a muffin tin with pretty liners. Mix up your chia eggs and set aside. Mix all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk the banana, milk, maple syrup, chia eggs, coconut oil and vanilla until fully combined. Add the wet to the dry and mix until only just combined, but do not overmix! fold in the raspberries very gently and then spoon the mixture into the muffins liners. Fill each liner about 2/3 full. If you like, you can top with a cinnamin crumble. (1/4 c. rolled oats, 1/4 c. rapadura sugar, 3 tbsp oat flour, 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, salt) Mix together and then sprinkle on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Try to resist until the muffins are cool as they do not stay together that well when warm!

Enjoy!

xxx

 

blueberry muffin segue

How does someone make the transition from a solid month of total regression back into being a teenager (waking up after ten, staying in pyjamas all day and doing nothing, eating other people’s groceries) to re-entering the real world. A world which is literally (and figuratively) one entire globe away from teenager regression. A world that involves work and buying groceries, doing laundry and checking flour for moths.

Where is the instruction booklet for that transition? Because I am having a bit of trouble with it.

I think I read somewhere that you should start by making muffins. Well, no. Actually, that is a lie. But it would have make a great segue into this muffin recipe I’m about to post.

Muffins help somewhere along the way. I’m sure of that.

Blueberry Muffins
Adapted from this beautiful blog I just discovered.

1 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 c. raw sugar

1 c. oat milk (or any non-dairy)

3 tbsp mushed banana

1 lemon, zested

1 c. fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease or line a 12 inch muffin pan with liners. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugars, baking powder and salt. Create a well and add the milk 1/2 cup at a time. Mix with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Mix in lemon zest, vanilla and banana and stir until fully combined. Gently fold in blueberries, try not to over mix muffin batter.

Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling about 3/4 full. Bake muffins for 22 – 25 minutes until fully baked.

Eat. Feel better.

xxx

carrot fingers

Do you know what my all-time favourite vegetable is?

I think if you had a look at my palms and the soles of my feet you might be able to guess. You see… I eat a lot of this vegetable. Quite a lot. And it has a tendency to give my skin an orangey glow. It seems that this vegetable is quite high beta-carotene, and since I eat so much, my body has an overload of it and so I store that extra beta-carotene in my skin! And thus it turns yellowy-orange.

Funny Story: I was meeting a friend a couple months ago and as I was walking up to her to with open arms she started laughing. She grabbed my hands and exclaimed: ‘You used fake tan and forgot to wash your hands after… DIDN’T YOU!?’

Awkward.

Have you figured it out yet? My favourite veggie? That contains lots of CAROT-ene?
Carrots!
Yum. Raw, with hummus, roasted. It doesn’t matter! I’ll take them anyway. anytime.

So let’s talk breakfast…

Maybe you’d fancy some Carrot muffins? Perfect.

Carrot Muffins
Adapted from this recipe

2 c. spelt flour
3 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp all spice
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 c. raisins

2 tbsp chia seeds
1/2 c. non-dairy milk
1 c. shredded carrot
1.5 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. maple syrup
1 c. unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c. coconut oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F. Mix together dry ingredients. Mix together wet ingredients. Add the wet to the dry and mix until combined.

Bake at for 25-27 in a lined muffin tin!

Serve with a some tofu-cream cheese (cause then its more like carrot cake. aka the best dessert ever.)

Enjoy a year round tan! With NO skin cancer! YAY!

ps. Did you ever see that youtube video called ‘salad fingers?’ Jeeez. if not, don’t look it up. Salad fingers haunts me.

xxx

And just for fun, a sneak peek at some of the hotness I’ve been photographing lately.

boom!

more to come…

x

all the answers to life in one small serving of flour and sugar

Life is weird. Obviously.

Have you even had those moments where your brain stops for a second… and it says ‘Wait a tick… what the hell is this?’

And ‘this’ is not referring to any specific activity, or event. It’s not an object, or a feeling… it’s just life. What the hell is it? Honestly.

I have those moments. Riding the subway to school, walking along a street in the sunshine, sitting on my couch writing a blog.

I look at my hands and I think they look so weird.

Everything looks weird.

What’s the point of all… this?

I think about my stress and it seems so inconsequential.

What is it? What does it alllllll mean… why am I worried about my job? Why is it necessary for me to do the laundry right now? Why do I have these extremities? How did I get on a piece of machinery that somehow propelled itself into the air and carried me across the planet? Why do I sometimes scratch an itch… and then feel it in another part of my body? And for the love of god, why does scratching an itch feel sooo good?

It just makes no sense to me. Why?

I don’t mean to get deep and philosophical. I have no intentions of figuring it all out… but it makes ya wonder. It’s makes ya wonder and then in makes you feel a bit queasy.

So that’s when I make scones. When I feel like there is nothing else to do, cause honestly, what’s better than making scones?

Another deep and philosophical question. The difference here is that I know the answer to this one. Nothing. There is nothing better than making scones. And when you think about it, in the GRAND scheme of this ridiculous ‘life’ caper we have going on… aren’t scones just about as important as anything else?

so so delish

And just to clarify, making scones implies you eat them also.

Boom.

cranberries!

Lemon-cranberry Scones

My usual is date scones, but sometimes life (or my mom) just begs for a little something lighter. And tangier.

3 c. flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. -1/2 c. raw sugar

1/3 c. coconut oil

1 1/4 c. non-dairy milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 c. frozen cranberries

zest of 1 lemon

lemon sugar

Mix the lemon zest with the raw sugar to infuse it with lemony goodness. I think this helps to spread the lemon flavour.

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Create a well for the wet ingredients and pour them in. mix gently until just combined and fold in the cranberries. Scoop 1/4 c. of batter onto a baking sheet per scone.

Bake for 15ish minutes on 400*C.

Eat them and then forget about all of life’s unanswered questions. And stop looking at your hands, because apart from all those hangnails… they are perfectly un-weird.

xxx

perfection

apple muffins and life

What happened to my second Tasmania post? Oh that’s right. I got sick of editing pictures. Woops. OK well… SURPRISE POST… at some point in the next year! Get ready. brace yourselves. it could come at any moment.

But for now, I’m organizing life. Filling in forms, photocopying every piece of identification that I have and cleaning my apartment like a woman possessed.

I’m also making bowls of cereal and pouring in vegetable stock instead of oat milk. it’s my life ya know? unedited.

I made things last week! I made pie! Apple pie! but I made it with butter as it was my boyfriends birthday and a crust made of vegan margarine is really nothing to brag about. Also Australia seems to be against vegetable shortening. Where is my CRISCO!?

I also made muffins! Apple ones. Kinda like mini apple cakes. I think I’m on an apple kick.

Apples, cinnamon, brown sugar. what could be better?

Apple Crisp Muffins!
a recipe adapted from Happy Herbivore

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. rolled oats

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 c. raw sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar (not packed)

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

sprinkle of salt

1 c. homemade apple sauce!* (the best kind)

1 c. of diced apple

1/4 c. maple syrup

*To make the apple sauce, peel and chop two apples. Place apple in a saucepan with a tiny bit of water on the bottom of the pan. Cover and let the water boil and steam the apples. When the apple are good and tender (can be smushed with a spoon or fork) Drain any remaining liquid and add a dash of cinnamon. Blend the mixture in a food processor or with a stick blender until smooth. Taste and add more cinnamon if desired.

Mix the dry ingredients and preheat the oven to 350*F. Line a muffin tin with papers, or lightly grease with margarine.

Add applesauce, sugars, and maple syrup to dry mixture and mix until almost combined. Then add the diced apple and mix until everything is just combined. Spoon mixture into muffin liners, about 3/4 way full. Sprinkle some oats on top.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

Eat warm!

 

Enjoy muffins! Organize your life! Pour Vegetable stock on your cereal!

x