The First Week of "Spring."

Happy Spring! Break out the light jackets! Open the windows! Breath in that fresh, spring air! 

J/k, lol, it's still winter in Canada. Until, like, May. 

We've come up with a couple of coping mechanisms. New recipes, such as....

Blueberry Banana Whole Wheat Muffins from Daily Garnish

These were kind of an impulse baking decision. After I got home from singing for Palm Sunday, I decided a mini-brunch would be nice, so I made these muffins and some scrambled eggs. We had all the ingredients on hand, and muffins are usually simple to put together. These have a really nice texture:  a bit crispy on the outside, but soft inside. They'll be great for breakfast tomorrow, too. 

Forty Clove Chickpeas and Broccoli, from Appetite for Reduction, part of our on-going attempt to cook through this cookbook. 

Just like Isa Chandra says, this recipe ain't pretty. It's not worthy to serve to guests. But it's ridiculously easy (put broccoli, garlic, and chickpeas on a pan and roast), and remarkably flavorful. We'll definitely return to it for weeknights. 

Our friend Katie celebrated a birthday last week while we were in Toronto, so we had her over belatedly for some birthday beer and a little snack assortment on this lovely new (bridal shower present) tray! Everything looks delicious and classy on this tray. 

And finally, we made the roasted tomatoes and cipollini onions from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. Like the broccoli recipe above, this was very simple. Tomatoes and onions roast in the oven for an hour or so. You pour them with their juices over some toasted bread, rubbed with a garlic clove, with some white beans, and then garnish with some slivered basil. Also, bonus, this is vegan! Definitely one of the richest vegan meals I've made.

Y'all, this is crazy good. The onions break down into something like butter, and the tomatoes brown and then just sort of burst. It felt really rich, and it was incredibly filling. Like a lot of the recipes in her book, in my opinion, this is great for a weekend evening. Some of them are fairly indulgent, some (though not all) take slightly more time than I would allow on the average weeknight to make dinner. But they're usually great with some wine, and a nice alternative to eating out.


Second, I coped with the extension of winter by going where few Canadians have gone before: 

Not just a Target (since most people in London, especially, have been to Target in Michigan). 

But a Target in Canada. 

Canadian Target! Finally. 

It seems like a regular Target in a lot of ways, but with one new feature I've never seen in Target: the cart escalator. You put your cart on it, and it takes it upstairs! Maybe this is common in Targets in metropolitan areas? 

                                     

Seeing all the familiar Target brands and layout in Canada was sort of surreal, since it's a place that I so strongly associate with America. It was also crazier than the mall on Christmas Eve. I could barely walk through it. Canadian Target will be more fun to peruse after the novelty wears off and everyone in town isn't inside it.

I snapped a couple of photos of these items in the underwear section. Two things every bride needs. 

I purchased neither, though that tank top would probably work well for our pre-wedding 5K fun run. 

Gym Christmas Day 1

Day 1. 

Work out: 30 minutes of Iron Strength, adjusted to make me less motion sick (no mountain climbers, no sit ups, etc). Includes things like squats, push ups, lunges (I did the physio variety I learned last summer), 5 lb. weights, and stretching.

GYMGO Card: crossed off a "Grab Bag" square in the top left corner. I've studied the card and decided that my strategy will be to get the diagonals first.

Photo and food I've eaten today: cranberry + cottage cheese + sweet potato muffins, from the Lean Green Bean, via Djillian. Shown here with some Christmas items.

Oh man, these are good, and super easy. You want to make these muffins.

Side note: you may have seen on facebook that Sargibso's smart and very funny boyfriend, Aaron, was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. He's started a blog where he can write and make jokes about it. It's definitely worth your time.

Squirrels Gond Wild

I have so much to write about all of the sudden! My good friends' wedding and the half marathon are at the top of the list. But first, a note about fall.


The squirrels that live outside of our house have absolutely lost it.

This picture doesn't convey the drama going on. Every morning, we wake up to the sound of large acorns hitting the side of the house, the metal overhang on our porch, and the wall AC unit. It sounds like the squirrels are hurling the biggest nuts they can find at our house, like they're trying to send a message. When we come outside, I often see several waddling off in terror, their mouths as full as possible. Somehow, in the process of stuffing their faces, they have begun to strip branches off the tree - you can see the scattered limbs in the picture. Why is this happening? Are they gnawing on the branches? Our yard is a dangerous place, since you're in danger of being pelted with either a stick or a nut while trying to get from the car to the house.

Meanwhile, inside, we made our first chili of the season, and washed it down with a pumpkin beer and a cheesey-beer biscuit.

John and I have tried a whole bunch of pumpkin beers, and we're quickly learning why so many of our beer aficionado friends are down on them. They can be kind of terrible. But both the Nightmare on Mill Street and the Mill Street October Fest are fine, autumnal beers. They come in a seasonal sampler pack, and we were glad we tried it. 

This chili calls for some pumpkin beer, and we used another Ontario pumpkin ale that neither of us liked at all, but the chili still tasted good. You can find the recipe for the chili here: Pumpkin Black Bean Chili, from Veggies by Season. 

In a last minute attempt to use up the pumpkin ale that we didn't care for, I did a quick internet search for "Beer cheddar bread" and came up with these biscuits. The only thing I'd change for next time would be to forgo the muffin cups and just butter/flour the pan. They stuck slightly to the paper, but they were light, flakey, and buttery on the inside. John and I tried hard not to inhale these little cheesy bites: Cheddar Beer Bread Muffins, from The Beeroness (a website I think we'll use again). 

Happy Fall! Anyone else have a massive squirrels-gone-wild party in your yard?

Avocado Zucchini Pasta and Blueberry Muffins

Ah, the end of the summer.

I know in the last post I went on about how summer was over, but this time I really mean it.

(Note: this is not our dog. This is a random beach dog.)

Summer is really ending. John and I went to Lake Huron for Labor Day, and everything. We decided to go to Ipperwash Beach, the site of a WWII army base that now features a dog friendly beach with free parking! Everywhere on Lake Huron takes about the same amount of time to get to, and the beach itself was lovely, so we will definitely return.

John and I completely forgot to bring our beach chairs or umbrella, so we sat in the shade beneath some beach vegetation until the sun moved too far to the west. It was still a relaxing and beautiful afternoon. I love Lake Huron. 

Tonight, John and I had what I'd like to call the Last Summer Dinner of the Year. We made two summery recipes that came up on my feed reader this week.
First: Julienned Zucchini Pasta with Avocado Sauce, from Oh She Glows.

(Also featured: random counter items, including the Centennial IPA from Founders that John and I shared while preparing dinner, in a new-to-us Apricot Brandy glass from Talize, part of a mixed group of glasses I bought for a grand total of $2.) 

Angela, who writes Oh She Glows, posted that she bought a julienne peeler. It's like a regular peeler, but with teeth. It easily juliennes things like squash, cucumbers, and carrots. You could use it for salad toppings, but, like Angela, I saw it and thought of veggie "pasta." A spiralizer would do the same thing, but the peeler is much cheaper ($7 for the peeler, vs. $25 for the spiralizer). I took her suggestion and made the easy avocado pasta sauce (avocado + basil + oil + garlic in the food processor) for this raw zucchini pasta, and it was a total success. We each ate an entire zucchini for dinner, along with half an avocado each. Lots of raw vegetables in this meal! 

 I think you could easily heat this very briefly in a pan and top it with basically any pasta sauce. It's perfect for the end of the summer when zucchini is still plentiful.

Since our pasta was really squash, we decided to have "pasta" with a side of carbs, in the form of these Blueberry Corn Muffins from Daily Garnish. These muffins only have a 1/4 cup of sugar and not much oil. Instead, they get moisture and sweetness from the blueberries and corn. I ate three and could have kept going, if it weren't for all that common sense I have.


Now that it's September and there are only a few hours of Labor left, I really am excited for fall! One more post about summer running, once I get around to writing it. After that, I'll start blogging about pumpkin scones, or the 100 sweet potatoes I plan on eating this month, or how cheap acorn squash is. You know, whatever's par for September.

Pumpkin Muffins

This week the smell of fall really got to me and the muffin kick continued. I decided to use the one can of pumpkin puree that I didn't use last year to make some pumpkin muffins.

This recipe was a little harder to find and tweak than I expected, but I was able to come up with something that I liked. I'll note my edits below.
These muffins were fairly spicy and flavorful. Next time I might halve the recipe, since these little guys are rich and moist, and I'm afraid they'll get moldy before they were eaten. I might also adjust the allspice, since it's pretty strong and sometimes a little bitter. But all in all, these muffins are great when spread with almond butter and they made our apartment smell like Thanksgiving.

Note that I made it past September 5th before making a pumpkin baked good this year.





















Pumpkin Spice Muffins
adapted from All Recipes

• 2 cups canned pumpkin
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1 cup wheat flour
  
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp agave nectar
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.

2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together 2 cups pumpkin puree, vegetable oil and eggs. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

As I type this, I'm working on an experiment with the leftover pumpkin from the can I opened to make these muffins. If it works, it will be pumpkin butter. I'll let you know what happens.

Banana Oat Muffins

Sometimes I get on a kick where I just want some baked goods around here, IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?!

John just shrugs, which means, "go ahead and bake something then."



























Last week we had a banana that was going bad quickly, so I searched around for a recipe that was more like a muffin and less like a cupcake. These turned out really well, and I'll definitely make them the next time we have a banana to spare. I used half white, half whole wheat flour to bulk them up somewhat. I'm a big fan of muffins recipes that call for rolled oats, so this recipe meets all my requirements.


Banana Oat Muffins
from All Recipes.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup wheat flour
  
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (or apple sauce)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 bananas, I only used one the second time and it made 11 muffins instead of 12).
  

Instructions

1. Combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg lightly. Stir in the milk, oil, and vanilla. Add the mashed banana, and combine thoroughly. Stir the flour mixture into the banana mixture until just combined. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper bake cups, and divide the batter among them.
3. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 18 to 20 minutes.