Mexican chocolate berry oatmeal muffins

I cook easy meals. My prerequisites are: simple food, whole food. Here, there is no cooking anything takes more than 10 minutes of prep. No chopping things into tiny pieces, or using a flame thrower to glaze stuff.

And on this sunny morning I woke up wanting something baked for my slow Saturday breakfast. For a hot minute I considered walking down to the tiny neighborhood grocery for a can of cinnamon rolls (whaa?) but decided I would use my hands, whatever ingredients I had, and create my own oven-made experiment.

The muffin army that easily conquered the canned cinnamon rolls.

Grab your leftover summer berries, the last of your butter, look for some kind of chocolate powder (I used some Mexican hot chocolate mix) whatever milk you have and prepare to create the easiest muffins that were ever eaten, that I have just made up vaguely inspired by this recipe.

HOW TO

// Preheat oven to 400 F.

// Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl

• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• I used 1 cup white and a quarter cup wheat
• 1/4 cup sugar or honey
• 1/3 cup Mexican hot chocolate mix or cocoa powder
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 cup oats

// Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk of any kind (I used almond)
• 1/2 cup melted butter

// Pour the mixed wet ingredients into the mixed dry ingredients and fold until all is moist.

• Stir in berries (I used raspberries and blueberries)

// Prep a 12 count muffin pan with coconut oil. I used a brush to paint the muffin cups.

// Using a 1/4 cup, glump the muffin mix into pan

// Bake 15 minutes

// Poke muffins with toothpick, if it's clean they're ready!

// These are not too sweet. Eat with honey and butter. And coffee.

HAPPY WEEKEND!!

Global eats: Chilequiles

Hola! I've been wanting to share our version of this Mexican dish ever since we had it on our honeymoon in sunny Cancun, where I searched for it each morning in the outdoor breakfast buffet.

To get you in the mood for this dish, here is one of my favorites pics from our Mexican adventure, the stunning cathedral in Valladolid, a serene 500-year-old Spanish town we toured on our last day. 

Cathedral of San Gervasio, taken by Ann Claire Green

Chilequilas are a simple, flavor-bursting baked dish - wonderful for a beach brunch, or just in your kitchen :) I use my great grandmother's cast iron skillet for oven-baked dishes, and this one has been seasoned from nearly 100 years cooking. Sunday fried chicken was her specialty in this pan, but I've never even attempted to try it since near-boiling oil makes me a little nervous. This is truly one of my new favorites, I'm always tweaking it with new add-ins.

ingredients //

bag of tortilla chips

red enchilada sauce

3 eggs

1 small potato

1 small sweet onion

1/2 cup arugala or spinach

small can Hatch green chiles

1/3 cup shredded cheese of your choice

handful of cilantro

avocado for garnish

steps //

• Heat oven to 350
• Get out a heavy cast iron skillet or shallow oven proof dish
• Slice a small onion and sauté in 1 tsp olive oil
• Slice small potato in thin rounds, cut those in half and sauté with onions
• Pour in red enchilada sauce and half a bag of tortilla chips and coat
• Stir in a 1/2 cup spinach or arugala
• 1/3 cup Hatch Green salsa or green chiles
• Toss together to throughly coat, simmer for 5 minutes
• Crack 3-4 eggs on top
• Sprinkle on cheese
• Bake 12 minutes or until whites set but yolks are runny
• Top with avocado and cilantro

EAT! If the eggs seem too runny they will set from the heat of the pan, no worries. Try not to leave it in too long or the dish can get a little dry.

P.S. This would be great with screwdriver or mimosa...and I added some honeymoon pics below of our sweet trip last November to the Yucatan and Riviera Maya!

We had Chilequiles at this table most mornings, it was glory.

View from our room in the evening, or maybe this was sunrise? It was always beautiful.

Touring Chichen-Itza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world!

Eat: Roasted Buffalo Wing Cauliflower Bites

Cody and I swooned over this snack/side dish at a Christmas party we went to last year - as in we almost ate all of them and no one else got any. It was embarrassing, but they were soooo intoxicatingly good! 

We immediately added them to our list of food to make often after that day. These bites are full of flavor, not too hard to make, and you get to eat cauliflower - that pasty veggie that's never been on my grocery list, until now. 

I've adapted this recipe from here.

You will need:

• 1 large head cauliflower chopped into small bites
• 2/3 cup of buffalo wing sauce, we use the Trader Joe's stuff
• 1/2 cup of any flour
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp garlic powder (I like to use 2 tsp, love garlic)
• 1/2 tsp salt

Heat the oven up to 400 F. Spray an oven-safe pan for the bites. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl that can handle being filled up with the cauliflower bites. Pour the bites into the bowl of sauce mix and coat the bites well by gently stirring and tossing. Once the oven is ready, spread the bites onto the pan and roast for 20 minutes. 

Some recipes say you should remove the bites half way and retoss in more sauce, but I prefer simplicity. Besides, I have no wish to remove and handle 400 degree-cauliflower pieces unless I'm about to eat them.

The buffalo sauce mix and cauliflower prepare to meet...

bite-sized pieces

Coat bites well

After: Roasted buffalo cauliflower bites! NOM!

Savory Butternut Squash Soup

I love simple food that packs big taste.
Maybe it's my southern flavor palette influenced from years of salty biscuits, spicy potatoes and deep-fried-you-name-it, but I adore food with flavor even more when it's h-e-a-l-t-h-y (SHHHH don't let the state fair funnel cake know!)

This post is on a simple, delicious, flavorful miracle food called Butternut Squash Soup - a nutritious and filling winter staple for us every year :). It's actually based on a baby food recipe I found years ago when trying to figure out how to cut this some what awkward gourd in half safely, and figure out how to cook it in general.  

One of the nice things here is that measurements aren't too important - the end result is always good, but here are some anyway:

You will need:

1 organic butternut squash, medium in size

1-2 cups organic apple sauce

2-3 cups of chicken or vegetable broth depending on your diet (either works great)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Pinch of curry powder (optional)

Baking pan large enough for 2 squash halves to fit in

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Sit the gourd up right and begin to cut the gourd in half with a strong sturdy knife. Those good chef knives give you great leverage to power through it. Start at the top and split down the middle. The glorious orange color tells you this plant is packed with good-for-you nutrients!

Scoop out the seeds and save for planting later if you want an endless supply for the next several years (they can grow prolifically).

Place gourds face down in a baking pan filled with 1-2 inches of water.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a fork pierces the skin easily and the water is bubbling around the sides of the gourd. The skin may be a little browned in places too.

Now comes the other gnarly part besides cutting the gourd - scooping out the flesh. I'm impatient and just go for it moments after removing from the oven, but be warned, that squash flesh is 400 degrees when it comes out of the oven.  I use an ice cream scoop and wear an oven kit on the hand that steadies the squash, or you can let it cool for 30 minutes or so.

Drop scoops into a deep and heavy pot on medium heat. Add apple sauce, and around 2-3 cups of broth depending on the consistency of soup you like.

Using an immersion blender, blend the squash chunks into a smooth soup. Add pinch of curry, salt and pepper to taste.

This is great main dish served with a side salad of arugala and baby spinach. Pop a piece of toast in  and grate some asiago over your soup, and finish with some pepper. ENJOY!

broccoli bits and beef ribbons stir-fry

We don't eat red meat too often due to the cost and health "un-benefits", but I found the most interesting one pound package of it at Trader Joe's this week called, "shaved beef steak." As thin as wet newspaper, it gave me a visceral reaction - a vision almost - of how glorious it might be in a stir-fry. Especially with the bouquets of broccoli I've had in the crisper for a while :/

I loosely based it on this recipe since it makes me more comfortable to have a template to interpret. It was a wonderful, quick, healthy-ish dinner that was full of flavor. That's my only requirement usually! (All pictures are from my iPhone)

Here is what happened next:

1. Gather beef into bowl and soak for 20 minutes in a mixture of 2 tbs cornstarch and 1/3 cup soy sauce. 

  I also added sesame seeds for some "drama and interest" to the meat mixture. 

 2. While beef marinates, slice up broccoli INCLUDING THE STEM, IT'S ALSO GOOD FOR YOU. I peeled the stems first to get any woody bits off. 

3. Toss meat [gently] into 2 tbs of heating sesame oil and stir around until almost done. Remove onto plate and cover.

 4. Mix up 2 tbs chopped garlic and 1 tbs ginger powder. Mine is watery since I had to use some to get the last of the garlic out. But you'll need water later anyway. 

(By this point your stove should be very greasy from frying the meat, as shown). 

Toss in broccoli into empty meat pan with 3 tbs water and steam 2 minutes. Toss in garlic ginger mixture and stir. Steam 1 minute. Toss in beef and a dramatic dash of sesame seeds if you want to. 

5. Eat with steamed rice. Apologies for not having a beautiful "after" picture of beef and broccoli. I slightly overcooked the broccoli (so it lost it's nice green) and was embarrassed to show them here :)

the first thanksgiving

we spent our first married thanksgiving home alone, and it was delightful. i am a thankful woman this year. thankful for my new husband who is also an old friend; thankful for a beautiful wedding that happened only three weeks ago (!); and thankful to have family to shoot a few well-meant texts.

by making a full thanksgiving dinner for the two of us (my favorite holiday meal) we've ensured ourselves roughly a week and half of leftovers and all the delicious side recipes that come along with a large, roasted turkey on hand.

at the crack of dawn, i rolled out of bed and slapped the turkey on the  counter to acclimatize to room temperature, and then promptly returned to bed. when we arose a few hours later we got to work and turned a pile of trader joe's groceries into cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, turnip and sweet potato au gratin (another of my favorites) and a hefty box of cornbread stuffing.

i found our meal's color pallet to be strong and rich, and truly enjoyed having a kitchen of wedding presents that made the meal a success.

no, we aren't always out-of-the-box dinner makers, but this thanksgiving, we wanted to rest and after all, it was just us :)

we watched snow fall on our porch and had a few sips of cider and gin, and just enjoyed the life we've been blessed with.

the day ended with renting Les Miserables on Amazon, Cody's idea. In a world of injustices and those who die every day dreaming of a better life for their children, it was a powerful way to end our first thanksgiving.

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