Lemon Blueberry Muffin Bread - for Angela!

One of the most brilliant things about summer is the varieties of fruits and vegetables that are bursting all over. I am pretty sure I could eat blueberries all day long, every day, and still not be sick of them (although my body may disagree!). And I know I'll never fall ill with scurvy due to my love of all things citrus, especially lemons and limes. 

A fabulous combination of tastes is blueberry and lemon, and I love making this bread because it's wickedly easy. Honestly, it's more like a cake, because it is extraordinarily moist, but bread-like enough that you can toast it (in a toaster oven anyway) if you like. 

Photo from the PBS Food website, as I didn't take any. Oops.

I found this recipe in an email from PBS Food, as I am a huge PBS nerd (mainly thanks to my dad), and it is really easy to make!

Lemon Blueberry Muffin Bread

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour (I've used gluten free flour before and it turns out well too)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar (I've used refined and demerara sugar - the refined makes for a smoother batter, but the demerara makes for a tastier break in my opinion)
2 eggs, room temperature
2 cups (12 oz.) blueberries, organic is best - rinsed and de-stemmed
2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 cups plain yogurt, room temperature

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and spray a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the blueberries and zest, and toss to combine together.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Add the yogurt, then the dry ingredients, mixing only until incorporated, and being careful not to crush the blueberries.
6. Scoop the batter into your prepared loaf pan, and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, until golden brown.
7. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting gently onto a plate.

Photo from the PBS Food website.

Tips
- Wrap the bread tightly in plastic wrap, so it stays as moist as possible.
- I usually add more than 2 tsp of lemon zest, because I love a palate forward lemon flavor with the blueberry.
- Room temperature really is best for the butter, eggs, and yogurt - makes for an even creamier bread.
- I use my homemade yogurt, of course. 

I've made this as a breakfast accompaniment, as a dessert, and just had it as a snack (toasted with real butter). It's just the right amount of sweetness, without going overboard. 

Had already planned to post this, as I made it for a Fourth of July picnic, and received a special request from my friend, Angela, who is learning the joys of Oregon farmer's markets of late. I can't wait to visit her in Oregon!!! Happy Baking, my friend!

Do you have a go-to bread that you like to make? 

Or a quick bread? Share the recipe!

Lunches This Week (#16 & 17): Back to Business.

Spouse & I had a family wedding the weekend before this past one, and extended it, to take advantage of being near to other family members.....the Adventure update coming.....needless to say, with all of the travel and re-entry into "Real Life", life was a wee bit bollixed last week. 

Lunches last week were a total hodgepodge, enough that I contemplated just not even bringing it up, but....in the interest of the high quality journalism you've come to expect from this blog. <ahem>

Week #16: The Foraging. And we shall leave it at that, eh? 

This week though - Week #17: Back to Business. 

Ennui, and Lunches This Week (#14)

Ennui.
A feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.

Inertia.
The state of being inert; disinclination to move or act. 

I am experiencing states of Ennui and Inertia of late. It sucks. Professionally speaking, these have been my homes for the last few, uh, years, due to leadership changes, etc. I get it, I do. I also get that existentially, "my" job isn't "my" job - it is the position of my employer, and thus, it is up to them what I do, or do not. 

However, at a certain point, no matter how zen, how chipper, how chill with life one is - it gets to you. And this is where I am. 

Where Spouse Gets Fired, By Me. [Lunches This Week (#13)]

I adore my Spouse. No one on the planet can dispute this fact, even after only a few minutes in our general area. We ooze schmoopiness. Not to say that we are gross as far as PDA, but there's hand-holding and such. Light PDA, if you will.

SOOOOOOO.....

When I say, Spouse got FIRED yesterday (Memorial Day, so not from his job or anything super crazy like that), it is not without cause. 

Mediterranean Deliciousness as My Lunches This Week (#12)

First note: I have the hardest time spelling Mediterranean. Every single time, I over-think it and add in an extra syllable. One would *think* I'd come up with some mental clues as to how to do it, but thanks to the miracle of spell-check, I guess and red squiggly line it to get the correct spelling. #FirstWorldProblems

<clears throat>

This week's lunch was inspired by last Friday's lunch, which was eaten at one of my fave local joints, Mazah Mediterranean Eatery, with a particularly lovely colleague, Meg. I love Mazah and discovered them via another particularly lovely friend, Angela, in 2010. The restaurant recently moved to a slightly larger location, basically around the corner from where it's been since it opened and just YUM. 

The food is fresh, homemade in so very many cases, service is friendly and I'm not only supporting a local business, but a locally owned family business. Total score. 

I will say, the new & larger location is awesome and the food was delicious, but I will say, I think they are experiencing some growing pains. The new location is easily twice the size, and so the service on this visit was pretty slow and not that attentive. It was also lunch, although a bit later than rush, and still busy - everyone seemed to be really busy and a touch flustered. 

Also, if you have a sensitive nose to smells - the tables were all made for the restaurant by one of the owners and stained recently. They are gorgeous, but still off-gassing, so either wait or try to snag one of their sidewalk tables. 

Ok, so my favorite thing to get at Mazah is their vegetarian grape leaves. They are simply delicious - flavorful, tender and just delicious. I don't ever see myself undertaking making them because I just don't think I'd ever be able to do them justice. Plus, with Mazah not terribly far away from home or work, why would I? 

A few weeks' ago, I stopped into Trader Joe's to pick up the two things we only buy from them (as opposed to the many items I always impulse buy there). I had quickly picked up the bag of shredded parmesan cheese, and was headed to get their green chilies, when a few shelves below, I noticed Trader Joe's had vegetarian grape leaves in a tin. 

First, I find it odd to buy entree-like-items in cans. It smacks of Spam or beef stew. Second, MAZAH! But curiosity got the better of me, especially after reading the label and not finding anything horrible in it. 

I'll be honest, I've looked at the tins in my pantry the last few weeks.....but gone past them, due to nervousness. 

I am a 

Connecting story to my canned vegetarian grape leaves: Last week was our bi-monthly (as in every two months, not twice a month) work gathering for my floor. Work hasn't exactly been *challenging* of late, so with full disclosure to my bosses, I've started a group dedicated to fun in the workplace. It's maybe 6-ish people and I email them my hare-brained ideas, they say yay or nay, and we go about making stuff happen. I have titled us the Renegade Fun Group. 

We meet in the communal area on our floor, everyone brings in whatever they want to share, we stand around, chat, make up a reason to be gathering, and generally have a fun time with our colleagues. Last week was our third gathering, and the first with a theme, which was Healthy Snacks. 

Another colleague, Leslie, made and shared a delicious concoction of Greek yogurt, cucumber, avocado, tomato with dill, salt and pepper and garlic powder. She had taken part of the avocado and smashed it into the yogurt so that it was the pretty green color of the avocado meat, then chunked the rest of the avocado, as well as the chopping the cukes and maters. It was pretty scrumptious. 

Put all of this stuff together and you basically have my Lunches This Week. 

Had a small head of Bibb lettuce and a larger head of romaine. After washing and spinning it dry, chopped it up and put 2 cups of the lettuces into 3 lunch containers. 

Cracked open the delectable veggie grape leaves and put 6 on top of each container with the lettuces. 

Took my Homemade Greek Yogurt, and did what Leslie did, only in lieu of maters (The Chez was out), added thinly sliced carrots (after I peeled them o'course). I also added some lemon juice, as well as some of the marinade that was in the tins with the grape leaves. It was scrumptious!!!!

 

For my lunches, I'm taking a 1/2 cup of the yogurt/avocado/cuke/carrot mixture to plop on top of the salad, essentially so there's no other dressing. The total calorie count is 311 calories. 

So freaking tasty!!!

Just had today's lunch and I'm already lamenting that tomorrow will be the last. We need to pop over to Trader Joe's in the next few weeks, so their Dolmas tins are now added to the regularly shopped items list I keep. 

Sorry, long-winded, but STORIES!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - 2 cups lettuces, 6 vegetarian grape leaves, 1/2 cup of avocado yogurt dip + 1 cup of homemade Greek yogurt and 6 oz organic blueberries. 

Thursday - a section of my freezer friendly quinoa/wild rice/spinach/kale casserole + 1 cup of homemade Greek yogurt and 6 oz. organic blueberries.

Friday - a section of my freezer friendly quinoa/wild rice/spinach/kale casserole + 1 cup of homemade Greek yogurt and some sort of fruit from the freezer (kiwi? peaches? strawberries?). I really need to do an inventory this weekend. 

Have you discovered an unexpected food in a tin/can/container of late? 

Share your favorite find!!

Lunches This Week - #10

Man, we had a fast weekend. Good thing I've been cooking ahead, otherwise, lunches this week would cause me much sorrow - and potentially coin. 

Monday - today was a defrosted section of my recent casserole hack, 1 cup of homemade whole milk yogurt with 1 cup organic raspberries, and a Slim Cake, which really hits a sweet spot for me. 

Tuesday - serious splurge, as I'm taking myself either to Chipotle or a local joint called Yabo's Tacos. It'll be a game day decision. 

Wednesday - repeat of Monday, except that I'll use defrosted peaches instead of raspberries in my yogurt.

Thursday - Monday's menu but with strawberries, instead of peaches or raspberries.

Friday - unless I get cooking this week, as in a week night, Monday's menu, but with strawberries again. 

Short post but never forget that:

Have a fabulous week!!!

Crafty Nerds, Beer Nerds, Hockey Nerds - and Lunches This Week (#8)

This past weekend was oodles of fun, and jam-packed too. I always feel at the end of the weekend, that I really need just one.more.day, and this weekend was a perfect example of why. 

Saturday dawned with beautiful spring weather: sunny, low humidity, temps in the 70s in the afternoon, light breeze, everything blooming and leafing, and just gorgeous. My trainer & friend was out of town, so I used it as excuse to not work out, and instead go to breakfast and to our favorite crafty show, Craftin' Outlaws. 

Spouse & I spent about 3 hours shopping, and seeing some of our favorite vendors and friends. Had dance time with AmyD and her partner-in-crime, which was fabulous. Saw some new things. Stocked up on soaps (thanks to Cellar Door Soap & Skin and Barmaid Soap Company). Bought some prezzies. Went overbudget (oops) but got this treasure, which invoked much jealousy from The Bratty One:

Spouse named her Goldie for me.
Purchased from Happy Bungalow.

Lunches The Last Two Weeks - Oops

Bad Yennifer. I have excellent reasons for my tardiness though, I swear! 

Last week, I had an event (honestly, the very best part of my job), so there was the mad rush to get it all together, then the event, then the mad rush to clean up, thank, collate, etc. 

I'm going to gush a bit about it, so bear with me, I will get to the recipes, etc. I promise! There was a luncheon and then also a panel, in which I partnered with The Office of Military and Veterans Services at my university. The events last week were actually the second time in seven months in which we've partnered with them, so I think part of my enjoyment of the planning portion was, we recreated certain elements from an event in September, and with most of the same people on board, there wasn't a lot of rushing before hand. 

Anyhoo, our special guest speaker is one of the most amazing young women I've ever met (and brag, I've met some really incredible young people in my time in Higher Education....). Captain Jenna Grassbaugh is finishing her Juris Doctorate, and will join JAG after she graduates next month. She is also a Captain in the U.S. Army, and sadly, for being so young, a Gold Star wife. 

Here's the kicker: Jenna took the insurance money she received from her husband's death, and started an endowment fund, which provides legal assistance to veterans. They don't have to be affiliated with my university in any way to receive the assistance and/or don't have to be combat veterans - simply have served their country in any possible way, and need help. And the law school here is working to match her original endowment amount. 

WOW. Talk about impact. Talk about a perspective moment.
And holy flarking follow-up: she enjoyed it enough to write about it herself. I.am.speechless.

Recipe Hack: Jen's Lunches This Week (#5)

Quick post because I have event in six days (for work), and need to get back to tweaking a PowerPoint, confirming registrations, etc. Or being awesome, however you wish to phrase it. 

Lunches This Week features a recipe hack to my fave casserole: the Spinach and Feta Casserole with Quinoa and Wild Rice. The hack was essentially a happy accident, as I had received some baby spinach and lacinato kale in my Green B.E.A.N. Delivery veggie bin, which I had wilted together - but realized that it wasn't quite enough for the recipe. 

So....in the interest of ingenuity, and the fact that I had also received a lovely bunch of fine looking asparagus, I supplemented in order to get to the required 2 cups of veggies for the casserole. 

Turned out to be a pretty good hack as it was a great addition, both in texture and in flavor - if I do say so myself. And amuses me greatly that it was a hack of a hack. 

I followed the recipe from November to the letter except for the veggies:
- chopped the spinach and lacinato kale into decent sized pieces, threw it into a pan with a few inches of water, popped on a lid and let is steam until completely wilted through. Drained it, let it cool, then squeezed all of the liquid out. 
- chopped the stalks of asparagus into bite-sized pieces, created a foil packet with about 1/2 cup of water, sealed the packet, placed it on a tray and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. I drained the water and tried a piece, which was perfectly steamed. 

The spinach and kale mounted to about 1.5 cups, so I supplemented the remaining 1/2 cup needed with the asparagus pieces. 

Baked the casserole in a 9" x 9" pan, and it made 7 servings, of which, I threw 1 in the frig and the rest in the freezer. 

Oh I do lie a little - I added a nice healthy squirt of sriracha, because everything is better with sriracha!

Since I didn't use all of the asparagus, I plan to make another casserole (since it is incredibly freezer friendly), and use 1/2 spinach or kale and 1/2 asparagus this weekend. I'm curious how it will effect the density and hold-together factor of the casserole. 

Jen's Lunches This Week #5

Monday: I had one container of the Marcella Hazan's best pasta sauce ever + polenta, so had that with 1 cup of my homemade Greek yogurt and 1 cup of sliced organic strawberries. 

Tuesday: 1 serving of the spinach-kale-asparagus-quinoa-wild rice-feta casserole, 1 cup of homemade Greek yogurt with 1/8 c. of Love Grown Simply Oats Gluten-Free Granola. (We were totally out of fresh fruit, but veggie bin arrived Tuesday afternoon!)

Wednesday: 1 serving of the spinach-kale-asparagus-quinoa-wild rice-feta casserole, 1 cup of homemade Greek yogurt with 1 cup of sliced organic strawberries.

Thursday and Friday: planning same meal as Wednesday, although Friday may be 1 cup of diced organic pear.  

I gotta jam and get back to being Event Planner Extraordinaire. Have a fabulous week, peeps!

Four Burner plus Oven Kinda Weekend.

Jen's Lunches This Week (#4)
I was a cookin' fiend this weekend, folks. Had all four burners plus the oven going yesterday - WOOT!! Apparently to make up for being an über slacker the last two weeks. Felt really good, to be active in the kitchen and making things. It's cheap-ish therapy - for me, anyway. 

Here's a quick list of what occurred in my kitchen between Saturday and Sunday:
- New batch of Greek yogurt, with whole milk.
- Batch of Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce, which I combined with Food Merchants Organic Polenta, for quick and tasty lunches this week. 
- Cooked 1 lb. of lacinato kale and 1/2 lb. baby spinach, cooled it and squeezed all the water out.
- Steamed a bunch of asparagus (as in one bunch, not like so much that I'm generalizing as "a bunch").
- Cooked up 2 cups of red quinoa and 1 1/2 cups of wild rice.

 

The only things I didn't do, but need to to in short order, were prepare a gorgeous head of leaf lettuce for salads; roast 8 large and lovely brussel sprouts; deal with a large head of broccoli. 

Jen's Lunches This Week (#3)

Man, talk about doing something unwell. C'est la vie!

Monday's lunch was a cup of homemade Greek yogurt, sliced strawberries, whole blueberries and 1/3 cup of Love Grown Simply Oats gluten-free granola. 

Tuesday's lunch was same as Monday's. 

Wednesday's lunch was as Monday's and Tuesday's. 

Thursday's lunch was a cup of Dr. McDougall's Vegan Tortilla Soup (which was really quite tasty), a cup of steamed snow peapods & red peppers in sesame oil and sesame seeds that my friend got but couldn't eat*. Oh and a small handful of my maple oat scone bites. And 2 cups of cinnamon popcorn from this super adorable place in Greenville, South Carolina, that I'd been saving. Even after a month, it was fresh tasting and really delicious. (Also reminds me that I need to write about my super awesome trip there in Feb!)

Sounds like a lot, but only 487 calories (remember lunch is my biggest meal of the day so try and do 400-600 calories). 

Today, I have more homemade Greek yogurt and blueberries, plus some leftover appetizers from our St. Pat's party: cream cheese, horseradish and corned beef on rye cocktail toasts. Not a corned beef fan per se, but these are really tasty. I'll warm them in the microwave here at work, so won't be as yummy as oven warmed. Continuing my celebration of St. Patrick's Day, for as long as I can. 

A Busy Week.

Oh the irony. I start a new feature and the answer to week 2 of said new feature, is, well, winging it all week. I am referring to Jen's Lunch This Week of course. 

We traveled to visit Spouse's mama and step-dad (+ extended fam) this past weekend, and I ran out of steam by Sunday night, between socializing and actual travel. Lots of fun though. I really lucked out on the families into which I married. 

Yesterday's lunch was 1 cup of homemade greek yogurt, 1 cup of organic blueberries and 1/3 cup of Love Grown Simply Oats Gluten Free Oat Clusters + 1 cup organic baby spinach with 1 tablespoon of bleu cheese. 

Today, went out with some sassy work friends to a local Greek joint. YUM!!

Tomorrow, probably a re-do of Monday's yogurt parfait, since:

Thursday, going to lunch with another sassy work friend - she's a Paleo, so won't be too crazy un-healthy I'm sure. 

Friday, <shrug>. 

Best.Blog.Entry.Ever.

In other news, having house guests this weekend as we celebrate our annual St. Patrick's Day Céilidh, so we are super pumped for that. Menu has been prepared, most ingredients purchased, and cooking schedule planned. Should be tasty and mostly healthy. Am busting out some new recipes, and will share those soon. 

I'm hoping with all of the excitement of party planning, cooking, hosting, etc. that I have more energy Sunday night to make next week's installment a little more informative. 

Along with the clock springing forward, our weeks of late have seemed rather full, both on the weekends, and the week nights. Not a bad thing at all - just does crimp one's homesteading style, so to speak. 

Side note: hate springing forward. I don't really like to use the H word, but seriously. It takes me 3-4 days to figure out which clocks are lying to me, and which clocks are accurate. Meh. 

What about you - what are you or did you have for lunch this week? 

Anything yummy? Something springy?

An expensive yogurt batch.

I made a batch of yogurt last night. 

Nothing remarkable about that, really, except that the previous two batches were utter failures, so I felt much relief and joy that *this* batch worked. 

Enter Genius Spouse, who chimed in with, "Sweetie, for your yogurt, do you need consistent temps? Maybe that's the issue, since we turn the furnace down each night". 

Dammit, Beavis. 

He's completely right. I've been wrapping the warmed crock in two thick, nice beach towels, and leaving it to chillax on the kitchen counter, but we like to sleep in a fairly chilly house. Plus even though it's technically not winter until Saturday, it has been winter for a few weeks.

I also suspect my I-have-no-idea-where-I-even-got-it-or-when thermometer may be biting the dust. I was farting around with it while heating the milk on the stove, and it seemed to have differing opinions of temperature at times. I realize I'm imprecise when cooking, but there is a time and place for preciseness. Fermented foods are up there. 

Yep. It's Going to be *that* kind of week.

First, I forget to add ricotta to my roasted veg lasagna. 

Then, new batch of yogurt fails to take. Wah wah. Not sure if the left-over from last batch that I used as starter was bad. Maybe my thermometer was off. The joys of fermented foods. Sometimes, it just.doesn't.take. 

Owel. #FirstWorldProblemsForSure.

The silver lining is, because I ran out of energy last night to make a new batch of Spouse's bfast burritos, I got up early and made his fresh, then emptied dishwasher, reloaded it, started it, put lunches together for both of us (mine without yogurt though, which does make me sad). In short, I was way more productive by 7:30 a.m., than I normally am. 

Here's a panic inducing thought: three weeks to the christmas holiday. Egads.  

Hope everyone else's week is going well.

What's good for Gilgamesh, Pliny the Elder and Charlamagne is good enough for me.

I'm a woman of a certain age, which I can clarify by saying, at this point in my life, the list of fruits and veggies I do *not* like is a lot shorter than the list of fruits and veggies I *do* like. 

When I was a younger lass, I really didn't like cucumber much. The texture is strange, I find it difficult to describe the flavor using words and they are rather watery. 

But as a slightly older lass now, I appreciate all that it brings to the table with it's delicate and subtle flavors and freshness. 

And yet, I still run out of ideas when it comes to the bounty that is the many cylindrical presents in my farm bag shares and gifts from the delightfully verdant gardens of my friends & colleagues. 

So there is Tzatziki.