apple-cranberry mmmmuffins

i wanted to make apple muffins from scratch so i started with the base used for my kickass banana muffins. worked out rrrrrreally good, the kids keep requesting more!  :)

7 apples
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil (of your choice, i use olive)
± 1/2 cup dried cranberries (i use the apple juice sweetened ones)
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup oat flakes
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

preheat oven at 350. 
prepare dry mix and set aside. (you can add a bit of ground cinnamon to the dry mix too)
peel 6 apples. in a large bowl, grate them to the core with a cheese grater (yep, you read right). add lemon juice and stir. mix syrup, eggs and oil together. add to the apples once blended. 
incorporate dry mix being careful not to over stir (ie stop when no more dry mix is visible). add cranberries and fold through (did i mention not to over stir? it's what makes the difference between rock-hard-muffins and fluffy-yummy-muffins).
scoop into muffin pan [i like to use x-large wax paper liners instead of butter, less clean-up + prettier].

now it's time for the 7th apple. peel and core, then cut into 12 pieces (one per muffin). cut each of the 12 pieces into smaller chunks (not too small, 4-5 makes a good size) and push them into the top of each muffin. for extra "mmmmm", sprinkle some oat flakes and ground cinnamon over the apple chunks. bake for 30-35 minutes.

NOTE: this recipe actually makes a little more than 12 muffins (14-ish). i've tried to cut it down but to no avail. one less apple: the muffins are too dry. i tried changing the dry mix: it's never as good as this one! your best bet would be to make a half recipe (or use the extra mix to make a galette style cookie, or bake in two batches of 7).

crispy almond butter chews

these are sooooo yummy!! again, we modified the original version a teeeeeny bit and made two versions of 'em: cranberry and chocolate. (though i don't see why combining them would be a bad thing, lol)

3 tbsp smooth almond butter
3 tbsp brown rice syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rice crisp cereal (we used the brown rice stuff, ie gluten-free, just cuz)
1 tbsp sliced almonds (chopped, could use ground almonds instead)
1 tbsp ground flax seed1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp of semi-sweet dark chocolate chips OR cranberries (chopped)

see link above for directions (cuz i'm too lazy to type it all and they did such a great job anyway, héhéhé). we didn't heat-up the mix in the microwave as suggested in the instructions, it sorta defeats the purpose of using all natural ingredients, i find.


* don't bother trying to mold these into anything but balls, we tried and failed.
** i'm not totally convinced about the sesame seeds yet, will try with 1tsp instead of 1tbsp.

kickass banana muffins/bread

i started with a basic recipe a long, long time ago but wasn't really happy with the result. it was "ok" (as in "a good way to use over-ripe bananas") but didn't have that "mmm-mmmmmm oh yeah baby", y'know??

over the years, i've tried every possible ingredient combination imaginable (different kinds of flour in varying quantities, sweeteners, etc). well, i'm done: i found the BEST banana bread/muffins recipe EVER. honest. it's got just the right amount of crunch on top and spongy/chewy inside with the perfect balance of tasty/sweet while staying totally healthy. go ahead, try it and tell me if i'm wrong.  :)

4 ripe bananas (and i mean RIPE)
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
1 tbsp oil (of your choice, i use olive)
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
± 1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips

crush bananas to a gooey pulp (not too lumpy). add maple syrup, eggs and oil. mix well. in a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients together, then incorporate into the wet mix. don't over stir, just enough to blend it all together. add chocolate chips and pour into buttered muffin pan. makes 12 x-large muffins [i like to use paper liners instead of butter, less clean-up + prettier]
bake @ 350 for 35-40 minutes
bread: 50-60 minutes depending on the depth of your pan. old coffee tins work really well  :D 

*i'm not going to say this for every recipe i post but i use organic ingredients... most of the time. they taste better!

no-bake energy bites

i found this great little recipe and had to try it with the kids. we made them this weekend. omg, sooooo good!  <:)

we changed the original recipe a tiny bit (someone in the house can't eat p-butter or coconut). since they were advertised as not being the prettiest bites, we used fun shaped ice trays to mold them (from ikea).

1 cup oatmeal 
1/2 cup almond butter 
1/3 cup brown rice syrup 
1/2 cup cranberries (chopped-up)
1/2 cup sliced almonds (ditto)
1/2 cup ground flaxseed 
1/2 cup mini dark chocolate chips 
1 tsp vanilla 

mix and mold! voilà! store in an airtight container for up to a week (if they last that long... we had approx 30 bites. pictured here is all that was left... 24 hours later!)

testing one, two... is this thing on?

lookit me! ima bloggin'!

people have been bugging me to start a blog for a while. huh?... but why?? i was all over facebook already, why bother? my "friends" already had their fill of my kind o'whacky, no need to force feed them *more*. and then i discovered pinterest (ok no, my mom sent me, lol)... ouuuuuuuu nifty! basic, simple, i likey! not only did i realize i wasn't the only wacko out there, but it helped me limit how i was using facebook altogether (a good thing, really)... and it got me thinking that a blog would probably be better suited for my general madness.

so here i am... yyyyyep. *a-hem*
now what?....


*be warned: i like bugs. and i like taking macro photos of bugs. and i enjoy posting them in all their creepy crawly beauty. not for the squeamish  ;)