Fruit Salad and Muffins!

I have been doing a little cooking and baking lately. I have been trying to make things that only involve a small amount of heat, however, considering the weather and all.

So, over at the Sunday Baker, my dear friend Tanya recently made berry muffins that were flourless.  Now, I have nothing against flour, really, bread type things are a serious weakness of mine!  But these sounded really good, especially considering it has so many wholesome, clean ingredients in them.  The other thing I made was a Quinoa Fruit Salad.  This is prime fruit season and I have recently been on a quinoa kick.  Quinoa is a grain that has a lot of protein in it, and it is different and blends well with a lot of flavors.  And the dressing of lime, honey and mint sounded so refreshing, had to try it out.

Ingredients include applesauce, maple syrup, fruit and oats.  I opted not to use the white chocolate chips that is in the original recipe

I used 2 whole eggs for the extra protein

MY FAVORITE breakfast item in the world!!!

Mix all ingredients except for the fruit

 I found a cool, easy way to skin a single peach or two.  MICROWAVE 3 cups of water until it is boiling, about 4 minutes.  Drop the peach into the water and leave it in there for about 3 minutes.  Remove from water and slip the skin.  I found when I did the second one that you need to reheat the water to boiling again.  2 peaches makes about 1 cup.

Slip the skins form the peaches

Divide the batter into the 12 muffin cups

Bake until golden

Peach Oat Muffins

This recipe has oats, applesauce, yogurt and maple syrup as the main ingredients.  You can change the flavor of the muffins by changing the yogurt and fruit!!  Tanya's muffins --HERE-- are berry, I had peaches and peach yogurt so that was an easy decision!

2-1/2 c. quick or old fashioned oats

1 (6 oz.) container Chobani (or other brand) Greek Yogurt

1/2 c. pure maple syrup

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

2 eggs

1-1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. baking powder

1 c. chopped peaches (or other fruit)

  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners. In a food processor, add all of the ingredients except for the peaches (berries). Pulse until it becomes a thick, malt-like batter. Pour into a mixing bowl.  You can also mix the whole thing in a mix master.

2. Stir in the fruit, reserving a small amount to add to the tops for a pretty touch, if desired. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling almost to the top.

3. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a soft golden color. Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to cooling racks. 

I put these in the refrigerator overnight and they are YUMMO cold with a glass of almond milk for breakfast....

Quinoa Fruit Salad

This fruit salad was originally posted at one of the blogs I follow, called Two Peas and their Pod.  They have some really great food on here, worth a look to see!  I pinned it on Pinterest recently, and there was a lot of people interested in how it turned out.  It was really tasty. 

The dressing for this salad is simple, honey, lime and mint.  SO good, so refreshing.  I used agave syrup as I had no honey- weird but true.  Agave syrup is great too!  It is after all the made from the same  plant as my buddy 1800

Red quinoa- simple to make in the microwave

Dressing with mint and lime

Fresh Fruit-I used peaches strawberries and blueberries

Fruit with quinoa underneath

Lovely with a little mint garnish

 Quinoa and Fresh Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

1 cup of red Quinoa- cooked according to box directions.  Rinse several times first.  Will make 2 - 3 cups of the grain, cooked.

Fresh fruit of your choice- about 3 cups total.  Can add more.

Honey-lime-mint dressing:

3 Tablespoons honey (I used agave syrup)

1 lime, squeezed

2 Tablespoons fresh mint

Stir together dressing ingredients.  Add fruit to quinoa and dress the salad.  Tastes wonderful right away or the next day when the flavors blend a little.  You could halve the recipe for a small family.

2 more great ideas for a vegetarian way of eating- or not!  

2 more joyful things to make!!

Day 7, 8 and 9 of birthday month..... the saga continues!

I'm sorry if this birthday month stuff is bumming you out or anything!  It is a rocking good time, let me tell you!

Let me say that Day 7 was the best of the best so far this month.  It was AWESOME, as I reached my first weight loss goal of 32 pounds on that  day.  Quite unexpectedly, but it was welcome.  I have some wonderful, wonderful friends on the Loseit site, we had quite the celebration!
The next great thing was the shopping trip I went on and was pleasantly surprised to find that I am down not 2, but 3 clothing sizes in some things!!  I have not worn a size 12, ever, I think.

I have been working at this first goal since December.  I had the Loseit app for my iPhone for over a year.  It works great and all, but I discovered I needed a little more and knew that this app had launched a website.  So I went there, visited, joined and that made all the difference in the world.  The support you get from your friends is phenomenal.  Now on to the next goal!

Day 7 was awesome!!

Day 8 was terrific, too, but differently.
My nice thing for myself was visiting some friends and working on my metal hand sculpture.  I have been feeling slightly friend deprived (in my Wisconsin-life) and I needed to touch base with people.  Went to visit my dear friend Luann and then hung out with another dear friend Cat.  So wonderful to reconnect.  In between was a lovely lunch with the Mad- Accountant.... way better than cooking!
Speaking of reconnecting, my lovely pal Annette and I are making bad girl plans!!  hehehe, I'll get back to you on this one!

Day 9 involved photos again!!  w00t!!  I am having a good time with them, and I had help making the decision on which photo processing program to buy.  Whew, it was an agonizing decision, but I'm going to buy and install it - maybe tomorrow!!  Yay.  Now I just have to decide on which HRM I am going to get and it will be all good.
I got a lot of gardening done today and made some wonderful, fresh meals.

Ordinarily during this time of the year I would be making cold salads for lunches and suppers- involving things like pasta, potatoes and mayo- but since I know that there are better choices to be made, I have changed my menu.

Today, I bought some more fresh fruit and made up a lovely mixed fruit bowl.  It was so pretty I decided to photograph it!  I also delved into the garden and found enough goodies out there to make an awesome salad for supper.  Paired with some grilled portobellos and a spicy black bean burger for me and a regular burger for the Mad Accountant, and you  have a great healthy supper.  All I added to the salad that wasn't from the garden were the cherry tomatoes.  Still waiting for those to arrive!

This is sooo good- melon, strawberries, grapes, sweet cherries, nectarines and a little fresh grown spearmint.

Found in the garden: oak leaf lettuce, pea pods, mini Chiogga beets, kale, dill, basil and I added some cherry tomatoes later.  I used balsamic vinegar as a dressing.

And then we went and had ice cream at the Ice Cream place in Butternut!  Lol!  And I have some room to spare yet.

Until next time,  find your joy in every day things!  And don't forget to count your blessings.