Almond Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (Paleo)

   I have another paleo recipe to share with ya'll. I actually made these Tuesday night since we had a big bunch of bananas that were ripe and it would be the last time I wouldn't be able to eat the rest for about 1 week. Wednesday I has another dentist appointment to fill some cavities that were caused by the amount of medications I take and I ended up being there for 3 hour since my dentist is also the only "main" dentist in the office so she goes between patients. Last time I got work done, I couldn't eat solid food for about a week and now that I have a temporary crown I may go longer since I don't want to mess anything up.

My Weekend & Cornbread Muffins

This past weekend was a busy...

• I finally set up my Keurig single cup coffee maker, which I has been sitting in its box for over a year and I have had 4 cups of coffee and 1 cup of tea. Tigger thinks it's a monster since it makes weird noises.
• Tigger played with some goldfish (the food snack, not the fish, of course) when I discovered that they don't appeal to me anymore. I've noticed that a lot of packaged foods that I use to like now just taste too much like the chemicals in them. We also got a big mouse toy/scratch post/ cat nip holder thing for Tigger and he LOVES it. 
• I found a few new blogs that peak my interest; some involve food while others are of quotes and photography.
•  I'm really into vegan recipes right now (I don't know if I will try gluten-free baking, though). And I want to try to bake using grams since I have a lot of recipes bookmarked that are from other countries and cultures.
• Moonshine, our chicken died :( We were down to 2 chickens from our original 5 when Red started acting sick and we got her back to health and she started to lay eggs again, but then suddenly Moonshine just died. My dad said that Red was pecking her to get up, but when he noticed she wasn't moving and went to check he discovered that she had passed away and buried her.
• My mom and I went to World Market :) and I finally got a jar of Biscoff spread to try since I see a lot of recipes for it and people raving of how good it is.
• I changed my blog header. That is tiny fluff ball with ears is Cowboy when he was a tiny bunny in a itty-bitty saddle at the feed store at which we purchased him. 

• Also I decided that I would post a recipe that I made last week. I actually have a good amount of recipes that I want to test out in the next few weeks like Overnight Oatmeal, No Bake Energy Bites, a Baked Mushroom Risotto, Apple Bran Muffins (vegan), a Honey cake (french) and a few other things. I also will be having either a dinner or dessert recipe for next week since this weekend the family is coming out for dinner.

Sunday Morning Muffins, Doctor visits, and Tigger the chirping cat

An updated picture from 10-21-12. I used raw sugar instead of the streusel. 

>This post has a few different topics because I decided instead of posting 2 different posts, to just combine them and make it a big post. So sorry in advance for my rambling.

Its 11 pm Saturday night as I'm writing this and I just finished making 3 dozen muffins.
3 dozen pumpkin, cream cheese filled and streusel topped muffins.
Our house smells amazing right now.
Why did I make 3 dozen muffins?
Well this Sunday it was my mom's turn to bring breakfast for her class and I agreed to make it. Plus, some of those muffins are for my class. I didn't know if I wanted to make pumpkin muffins or if i wanted to try something else, but it being last minute I didn't want to try out a new recipe especially on a church full of people.So I went with the pumpkin muffins I posted a while back, but I added some things.
I didn't add nuts to the streusel this time because I don't know if anyone has nut allergies and I really do not not want someone to turn purple and their throat and tongue swelling on a Sunday morning because of me. I would never be able to live it down and I would feel horrible. So no nuts this time. The cream cheese filling is sweet, but not overly sweet and stills has that tang that only cream cheese has.
The cream cheese filling and the streusel topping make enough to fill & top 2-3 batches of  muffins. Extra streusel can be stored in your fridge for at least 4 days.

Practice makes perfect. This was the first time I made muffins with a filling.
The 1st batch I made looked like something you would make for a Halloween party (they looked creepy but tasted yummy), luckily the next two turned out looking a lot better.

Sunday Morning Muffins  (pumpkin muffins with cream cheese and a streusel topping)

Adapted: A Cozy Kitchen (muffin recipe)

Yields: 12 muffins, but enough filling & streusel for 2 1/2- 3 dozen

Muffins:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup canned solid packed pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tsp pumpkin or apple pie spice
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream Cheese Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp pumpkin or apple pie spice

Streusel:
4 tbsp. butter, softened
1/2 cup a.p flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 nuts, chopped (optional)
1/2 tsp. pumpkin spice or cinnamon


For Cream Cheese Filling: Makes enough to fill 2 1/2- 3 dozen muffins
1. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla, spice/cinnamon, and cream cheese and mix until well combined and smooth.
2. Using a teaspoon, I added about 1/2 tsp. of the cream cheese mix on the batter per muffin.




For the streusel topping: Makes enough for 2 1/2- 3 dozen muffins
1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, nuts, pie spice (or cinnamon), and butter.
2. I use a tablespoon measure to distribute the streusel on each muffin.


Muffins:  yields 12 muffins
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 12 muffin tin with liners.
2. Combine the flour and baking powder.
3. Combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs, pie spice, sugar, baking soda, and salt until smooth.
4. Slowly whisk the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Fill each muffin cup 1/2 full (I use a ice cream scoop), add 1/2 tsp of cream cheese mixture, and then cover that with some more batter so it is 3/4 full. Sprinkle streusel over each muffin.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.
6. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer the muffins from the pan to rack and cool completely.

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Then I have doctors appointments both Monday and Tuesday. One is a hematologist (blood doctor) and then Tuesdays its down to Children's Medical to see my Rheumatologist. So depending how this week goes, depends on what and how often I post. Maybe I'll make french onion soup(one of my mom's favorite) and I might even try out some cookie recipes that I'll will be making for holiday gifts.

    I might regret this, but I'm going to be baking like a crazy person this holiday. I am making the desserts for our "late" Thanksgiving dinner along with all the side dishes, Christmas cookies with icing (all from scratch) for our church's holiday dinner (and maybe some other desserts), pumpkin granola bars among other things for some friends coming into town,  and different cookies and goodies to give as gifts for family and friends. I think this will be a very big test for me. I like baking, but I don't always have the patience for it, especially after having disasters -Once I had 3 baking disasters right after each other and I didn't bake again for 2 weeks; so hopefully all goes well- And I want to bake like a lunatic because its something I've never done before. In our family we don't bake and decorate Christmas cookies or having dessert exchanges during the holidays (or ever) so this will be my time to make up for that. I have a feeling that my dad won't be complaining about the high amount of sweet treats that will be made in our house either.
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Here are some pictures of my cat Tigger. Our neighbor found Tigger in their tree when he was only a few weeks old. Since we only have 1 neighbor and both theirs and our cats were fixed and our dogs would have treed a stray cat, we didn't know where he came from.
Tigger isn't your ordinary cat .

see # 10

Tigger playing with a chicken  that I bought @ World Market

  Facts About Tigger:
1. He is terrified of strangers- the only people to see him is my mom, my dad, and I. No one else-we aren't real sure why because we did get him when he was young and he was exposed to many different people and animals, but he is a big scary cat and hides as soon as he hears other people in the house.
2. He hates dogs- he gets all puffed up and looks like a raccoon.
3. He used to be a great bird hunter, but after loosing some cats to coyotes that live in the back of our property my mom made him and Chex (our other cat) exclusive indoor cats. So now he sits on my couch cushion and watches the birds fly around.
4. Since he is an indoor only cat now, he has become an avid t.v watcher. One of his favorite channels to watch the national geographic channel. He sits on the couch and will watch until he falls asleep or I turn off the t.v.
5. He is a very vocal cat! He chirps like a bird when he gets excited and will talk to me through the day.
6. He is very needy and if he doesn't get attention he will bite or put his paw on my face to get my attention.
7. He is very jealous and whenever I have to become "mom" to orphan baby animals, he will not come into my room (which is where most of them stay if I have to raise them) or let me pet him until that animal is either old enough to not need me anymore or is gone to a new home.
8. He hates being brushed out so I have to use a lint roller to when he sheds.
9. His favorite thing to play with are pipe cleaners and my socks.
10. He has cheek bones that women would die for. And when he sleeps, he looks like a chipmunk.
11. He doesn't like "regular" human food like chicken, but he will gladly eat the ends of toast, apple sauce, and leftover soy milk from my cereal bowl. I can honestly say that out of all the animals we have owned and I've known- Tigger is truly one of a kind.

Lupus. Writing. Baking. And Pumpkin Muffins with Streusel Topping

  A lot has been going on latley.

             I've sat in more waiting rooms, had more blood drawn, and seen so many doctors in the last 4 months alone than I think I have in the last year combined. It turns out that I have lupus, but the doctors are still running more tests to see if there is anything else going on because my blood is showing abnormalities. So needless to say, it has been a rough few months.
            I know to a degree what is happening to my body, but at the same time I am absolutly clueless.I've had  the symptoms like the swelling and the butterfly rash for years, but we never put 2 and 2 together. One thing I have noticed though is that I have been writing more. I told my mom that she may be right. She always said that I was a good writer and that I may even make a career out of it, but I never saw it. I usually dread writing essays for school, and yet I find myself writing at 2am because my brain won't shut off. I never really know what im going to write about at the time, I just have this urge.  I guess writing is how I vent. How I let go. You could say that Im a very private person, sure I have a blog and all, but at the same time I hate having attention on me. I don't like to talk about whats really going on, I usually just change the subject to something safe, like cooking or animals.

 

Sweet Potato Banana Muffins

I got a recipe for yall as promised.

I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen after needing to use up 2 2lb. sweet potatoes that we got from the Farmers Market.These muffins are light and moist. They are so good and the orange specs of sweet potato through out the muffin let you know whats in there. The crunch of the nuts gives the muffin extra texture.I think though, next time I make them, I will lower the amount of banana and increase the amount of sweet potato. Just so you can really know that there is sweet potato in there.

The mini choclate chips add some extra sweetness (semi-sweet chips make sure it isnt too sweet) and some extra creaminess.

Sweet Potato Banana Muffins

Recipes Adapted from: Noshings @ TastyKitchen

yeilds: about 20 regular muffins

• 1 cp. Sweet Potato, mashed (I used fresh, but you could use canned yams, drained and mashed),
• 3 whole Bananas,ripe and mashed
• 1 cp. sugar
• 2/3 cp. veg oil
• 2 whole large eggs
• 2 cps. A.P flour
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cp. pecans, waltnuts, chopped
• 1/2 cp. chocolate chips (optional)
• I added/changed:
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 cp. slivered almonds instead of pecans
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 tsp. mini chocolate chips

1. Mix together the mashed sweet potatoes, bananas, sugar, oil and eggs.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Into the sweeet potato mixture add the dry ingredients; fold batter carefully until flour is incorporated.
>> As for the nuts, I reserve these and toss them on top so that they toast as the bread bakes.
4. Line a 12 muffin tin with liners, fill,top with the nuts, and bake for about 16-19 minutes.
5. Once the muffins come out, transfer them to a cooling rack.

Since, I have only 1- 12 muffin pan I had to make the muffins in 2 batches. The 1st batch was regular with the almonds and the 2nd I added 3 tbsp. mini chocolate chips.
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