Sunday, August 27, 2023

(Freeze-Dried) Strawberry muffins

 Original recipe: https://mykitchensdrawer.com/2020/07/28/strawberries-and-cream-muffins/#recipe

We made a half recipe of these (made 9 muffins) and thought they were much too sweet but the strawberry flavor was extreme! We also forgot to correct for the self-rising flour in the recipe which made them not rise and be gummy and weird. So below is what I would try next time to make these better, because these could be great strawberry muffins, especially since Nadia doesn't usually like the texture of cooked fruit (so this gets big strawberry taste without lumps of fruit in the muffin)

  • 60 g freeze Dried Strawberries (2 packages from TJs)
  • 100 g all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 40 g white sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 30 ml vegetable or canola oil
  • 50 ml yoghurt
  • 1 eggs
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 50 g white chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 320 F and line a muffin tray with 9 liners
  • Blitz the freeze dried strawberries in a food processor until you have a strawberry dust
  • In a medium bowl combine the oil, eggs, vanilla and whisk together well
  • In a separate large bowl add the flour, baking powder, sugar, strawberry dust and salt and mix together, then create a well and pour the wet mixture into it, followed by the yoghurt.
  • Fold everything together gently for 3-4 fold, then add the white chocolate and stir together for 2 more until just mixed. some lumps are OK.
  • Scoop the muffin mixture into the prepared tray and bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen and golden.

Saturday, August 19, 2023

Slow cooked lentils

 ... are really really good!

Here's the smitten recipe (from 'keepers').

We've made it with home made chicken broth and boxed broth and it's fine both ways.

I like it with or without the goat cheese at the end.

Sometimes for my taste I'll only do 1 Tbsp of the vinegar at the end.

Instead of Kale it's a lot easier to just add some frozen chopped spinach in the last 5 min.  I also like to add a few fresh-chopped tomatoes.

Friday, August 11, 2023

Smitten exeptional grilled chicken

 Another great summer recipe.

Brine chicken for 1-6 hours.  Grill, then toss in a vinegrette.  Very delicious!

Recipe from smitten.

Panzanella Salad

 This one will enter our "wait for the summer so we can have this recipe" list.

Original recipe from serious eats.

Good tomatoes are critical to the recipe.  We used TJ's "dry farmed early girl" tomatoes.  Extremely delicious!