Classic Blueberry Muffins

My mom doesn’t understand why I keep buying cookbooks when I already have so many. She doesn’t cook or bake much. It just isn’t her passion like it is mine so I can never make her understand that buying cookbooks for me is the same as her buying fabric for her quilting when she already has more then she will use in her lifetime. There is something about the cookbook that inspires me to want get into my kitchen and try a new recipe just like the way fabrics inspire her to get to her sewing room and sew.

Yesterday I had to be out my apartment for awhile, so I headed out to my favorite used book store, Books At A Fifth. I found a “New” muffin cookbook from 1989, called The Joy Of Muffins that featured muffins based on flavors from all over the world. You all know how much I love to make muffins so it isn’t often I find muffin recipes that I haven’t tried before. The Joy of Muffins is not only filled with muffin recipes I haven’t tried before, its filled with recipes I actually want to try. The recipes use, for the most part, Ingredients I already have at home or have easy access to. Best of all, the cookbook was only a a dollar. How could I resist?

Blueberry Muffins

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted From The Joy Of Muffins Cookbook

1 cup flour

2 TBS sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg

6 TBS milk

2 TBS canola oil

1/2 cup blue berries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 6 cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix well to combine. In another small bowl, combine the egg, milk, and canola oil. Mix well. Combine wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Gently fold in the blueberries.

Fill the muffin cups 2/3’s full. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Crockpot Blueberry Oatmeal

This week, in effort to get out of my house a little more often, I went for a walk.  About 6 blocks from my house I discovered there is a new branch of the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch thrift store.  This excited me to no  end, I love thrift stores because you never know what treasures you are going to find.

I certainly found some treasures.  The first thing I saw when I came in the door was a beautiful McCoy brown drip pitcher. 

I have collected brown drip dinnerware and cookware  for a few years because it is sturdy and beautiful. It was a big thing in the 60’s and 70’s.  You would collect stamps when ever you spent money at a participating merchant and whenever you had enough stamps to fill a little booklet you could redeem it for a piece of dinner or cookware.  I can remember licking those stamps and putting them in the booklet for my mom.

The pitcher wasn’t the biggest treasure I found. The biggest treasure I found was two McCoy brown drip coffee cups.

Brown drip coffee cups are hard to find and when you find them they are often more expensive then I can afford.  I got both of the coffee cups for 6 dollars. It almost felt like I was stealing from the store when I knew how much those coffee cups are worth.

l also found a third coffee cup, a creamer and sugar bowl that are in the style of brown drip.  I think they are replicas not authentic brown drip. That’s okay, they are cute and tie in with a project I am working on so I brought them home any way. 

Today’s recipe is a crockpot recipe.  I don’t  often use my crockpots because I think they do strange things to the texture of food. But after a long talk with a couple of friends who are crockpot fanatics, I have decided to give it ago.  The hard part is finding the perfect cooking time for my adapted recipes.  Since I am cooking smaller amounts of food in my crockpot it’s hard to find the exact time that cooks the food through but doesn’t over cook it but I am working on it.

Blueberry Steel Cut Oatmeal

Adapted from The Family Freezer

1 cup steel cut oats

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

2 TBS brown sugar

3 cups water

Combine all the ingredients in the crockpot and cover.  Cook 2 – 2 1/2 hours on low.  Serve with milk.

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal

Today is a big day. I graduate from training for my new job. We get a ceremony, pizza party and everything. Its nice to work at someplace that celebrates its employees success. But none of that is why today is a big deal for me.

I am so excited about graduating today because three weeks ago I was seriously thinking about quitting and going to ask for my old job back. If you knew how much I hated my old job at the end you would know how low I was feeling. I cried at my desk several times. I was so overwhelmed. On some level, I think I didn’t believe I could do the job.

I am fortunate that I was surrounded by people who believed otherwise and worked with me until I it believed too.

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Adapted From Cookie and Kate

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt1/8 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

2 1/2 TBS honey

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 TBS melted butter

1 1/4 cups blueberries

Preheat the oven to 375. In 1 1/2 quart baking dish, spread 1 cup of the blueberries on the bottom of the dish.

In a small bowl, combine the pecans, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder. Spread the oat mixture over the blueberries in the baking dish.

In the small bowl, combine the milk, honey, egg, vanilla and butter. Pour the milk mixture over the oat mixture. Spread the remaining 1/4 cup blueberries over the top.

Bake 40 – 45 minutes. Serve with milk or yogurt.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins

A few weeks ago my friend, Steph, texted me this message “have you ever made a recipe, and four dozen muffins later you’re like, holy shit this is not what I meant to do.”

Yeah, I can relate. I bought two pints of blueberries on sale yesterday. I ate some on the way home. They were so good I went and bought 4 more pints today. That is 12 cups of blueberries I have to eat before they go bad. This is my “holy shit! This is not what I meant to do” moment.

Of course, the first thing I think of when someone says blueberries, is muffins. I decided to make the whole wheat blueberry muffins from Great Whole Grain Breads cookbook. The muffins are lightly sweet, moist and full of blueberries and way, way better than the muffins you by can buy at the store.

Can I tell you all how much I love the Great Whole Grain Breads cookbook? Every thing I have made out of it has been wonderful. If you have any interest in baking with whole grains, check this book out. Just so you know, I have received no compensation for my opinion on this book. I just wanted you to know it is a great cookbook full of great whole grain recipes.

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Ingredients
6 TBS all-purpose flour
6 TBS whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup well packed brown sugar
3/4-1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter or canola oil
3 TBS lightly beaten eggs

Spray a muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, salt,brown sugar, and blueberries, mix well, being careful not to mash the blueberries. In another bowl, combine the milk, butter or oil, and egg. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, mix until just moistened. Fill the cups 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 15- 25 minutes or until golden. Remove from the tin and allow to cool.

Adapted from the Great Whole Grain Bread Cookbook