Muffin Bread Pudding

So I made some really awful muffins yesterday. I don't know what went wrong, but I suspect my baking powder is the culprit. So what now? Throw away the muffins? I just can't waste them! So I made bread pudding with them. Nice and sweet, and so much better than the muffins were!

8 medium muffins (I used raspberry muffins), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 egg
1 1/2 cups vanilla soymilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup of sugar
2 table spoons of brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, mix the milk, extract, 1/4 cup of sugar and egg. Blend in the muffin cubes. Let it sit for about 20 minutes or so. Sprinkle brown sugar over top. Bake for 45 minutes, or until custard is firm. Knife should come out clean.

Quinoa with Pumpkin & Peas

This would work well with any winter squash. In fact, I suggest it, because it is really hard to cube pumpkin. It is relatively simple, and easy to make your own. Add garlic or feta cheese for more flavor, or sprinkle with sunflower or pumpkin seeds. Very aromatic when cooking.

1 cup quinoa                                              
salt
1 table spoon olive oil

1 small sugar pumpkin, cubed (no skin)
1 medium onion, chopped
thyme
rosemary
salt
pepper

1 cup frozen peas



Cook the quinoa in 2 cups of water with a dash of salt. Cooking quinoa is just like cooking rice. Meanwhile cube the squash/pumpkin. Saute the pumpkin and onion with the herbs (to taste) and salt and pepper. Add a little water and cover to steam the pumpkin, maybe an 1/8 of a cup at a time, just so pumpkin cooks quickly without burning to pan. When quinoa is done, fluff it and add about a tablespoon of olive oil. When the pumpkin is cooked through, turn stove off and add peas. Cover and let sit about 5-10 minutes. Add about 3/4 of the quinoa to the squash mix, more if you want and toss together.

Apricot Almond Pancakes

Once again, this is vegan because I still don't have eggs or milk. I bought the apricots to snack on, but haven't. So I am finding new uses for them. Almond extract would probably be a nice touch, but I don't have any left. These pancakes are very filling, yet surprisingly fluffy, and  great with clementines.
 Tip: make sure to  turn heat down on pan after it is hot, the pancakes have a tendency to stick to the pan.

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup slivered or sliced almonds
5 apricots, diced
1/4 cup shredded coconut

2 tablespoons oil
3 heaping teaspoons of ground flaxseed mixed with 7 teaspoons water
1 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, including the nuts, coconut and apricots. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and blend until just mixed, don't overdo it or pancakes will be tough. Oil a pan or griddle on high, spoon batter on and turn heat down to medium or medium-low. These pancakes don't bubble at the edges, so you have to flip when you see the edge looks brown (underside). Makes about 12 decent 4 inch pancakes.

Vegan Lemon Raspberry Muffins

I am not vegan, but I am out of milk and eggs. So I adapted a muffin recipe. It turned out yummy!

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 to 3/4 cup of the sugar of your choice (I used natural)

1 cup soymilk
1/3 cup oil
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed mixed with 2 tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 1/2 cups frozen rasperries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray/oil/butter a 12 cup muffin tin.

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Blend them together, but don't over mix. Gently fold in the raspberries and spoon into muffin tin immediately (raspberries bleed). Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until knife comes out clean. Makes 12 medium-sized muffins.

The Plan

     Times are tough. Belt-tightening is required. With this in mind, I opened my cabinets and tried to figure out how to use everything in them without buying any more groceries (previously thought to be impossible). You see, I have this bad habit. When I want to make something I go out to buy the ingredients. Maybe you understand. There are things that have been hiding in my cabinet (in plain sight, mind you) that I bought ages ago, yet still have not used (why did I buy arrowroot powder?). So I googled and searched through my recipe books and I figured out that I just might be able to use most of this random food. I will be getting a little experimental with the substitutions. So. We'll see how it goes.