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Banana Muffins with a Twist

12/17/2014

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The base for this recipe comes from Kath Eats Real Food, a great blog that I stumbled upon a couple of years ago. I loved the recipe, healthier version of a classic baked good and tasted better than the original. But even when something is good, occasionally it is nice to change things up, so I did a little experimenting with the recipe.

Experiment number one was to add just a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed to the original recipe (minus the chocolate chunks). This came out great, but you couldn’t really taste the flax and so I felt it could be tweaked a bit more. Experiment number two was to replace a quarter of the flour with ground flax and to replace the eggs with flax eggs. If you think this was going too far, you are correct. These muffins were almost impossible to get done in the middle, although they did rise the normal amount. Once they were finally cooked they still taste pretty good, but they are very dense for muffins.  So finally, experiment number three was to replace a quarter of the flour with ground flax and keep the rest the same. These came out just the way I wanted, fluffy, but chewy, slight flax taste, but still full of banana flavor.
Banana Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

3 overripe bananas

½ cup honey*

½ cup almond milk

2 eggs

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup ground flax seeds

Banana Muffins with ground flax seed.
Banana Muffins with ground flax seed.
Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F or 180 C.

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.

3. On a plate or in a small bowl mash the banana.

4. In a small bowl beat the eggs.

5. Add the mashed banana, honey, and almond milk to the eggs and mix.

6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

7. Spoon the batter into the muffin tin or individual muffins cups.

8. Bake for 28 minutes**.


Notes:
*If you are going to add chocolate chunks like Kath’s original recipe (it is amazing this way) I would recommend taking the honey down to a 1/3 cup. 
**Watch your baking time, I am currently working with an oven that looks like it is from the 50s and has the temperature settings 1, 2, 3, 4, so I can’t promise that my baking times are exact.
Banana muffins with ground flax seed.
Banana muffins with ground flax seed.
Banana Muffins with ground flax seed.
And of course you could always add things to the muffins like chocolate chips or nuts.
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Banana Muffins with a Twist.
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Healthy Homemade Granola Bars

12/11/2014

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Granola bars are one of my favorite snacks to have on hand for after class, in between rehearsals, or while running errands. They are portable, packed with filling and nutritious ingredients, and delicious. For years I would kill hours standing in the grocery store reading and comparing the labels of granola bars, looking for the ones with the least added sugar and processed ingredients. After a while this got old and I stopped buying them altogether and replaced my favorite snack with nuts and dried fruit. But as tasty as trail mix can be it just wasn't as satisfying as a granola bar, so I started making my own. After a few tries, I settled on a recipe I loved and it has once again become a go to snack for the studio. Now that we are in Russia some of my standard ingredients are a bit harder to find and I had almost resigned myself to drastically altering my recipe. However, thanks to my husband's persistent scouring of store aisles I have everything I need. 

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup natural peanut butter

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds 

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup raisins

2 1/2 tablespoons ground flax seed

1 tablespoon hemp flour

1 teaspoon poppy seeds or chia seeds

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder


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Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the peanut butter and honey until creamy and thoroughly mixed.


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2. Then add the egg and beat it in, now the batter should be easier to stir.

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3. Now add the ground flax, hemp flour, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda and combine thoroughly.

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4. Mix in the coconut flakes, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and raisins.

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5. Fold in the oats, one cup at a time, mixing until they are all wet and evenly distributed.

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6. Grease a baking pan, a 7x9 works well, and pour the mixture in spreading it until it is even.

7. Bake at 350 F or 180 C for 18 minutes. 

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Enjoy as an after workout snack, grab-and-go breakfast, or healthy dessert! This is a very versatile recipe, so feel free to switch the nuts, seeds, and dried fruit to suit your taste. I would just suggest chopping larger nuts like walnuts before adding them.
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Searching for whole foods in Siberia

12/10/2014

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Living in America Andrey and I always tried to be conscious about what we were buying to eat and use in our home. Both because we care about what the process of growing food with pesticides or making chemical laden cleaning products does to the earth, but also because we are very concerned with health. In the past this has meant buying organic food whenever we could afford to, researching to choose companies like The Honest Co. to buy our household cleaning and bath products from. I was concerned that moving to Siberia would mean giving up on this lifestyle and Andrey did not have high hopes for finding health-food stores or environmentally conscious brands. Omsk is a mid-size city, but unlike in America it is unusual for people to have the purchasing power to worry about how their soap was made or if their apple has pesticides on it. We realized that taking the time to care about these things is a luxury that may not have made it to this part of the world yet. However, upon arriving we still decided to explore what options might be out there. 

First we found Товары Востока which translates to Goods from the East, a small store focused on new age self-development. In addition to a large book selection, and eastern and Indian objects, they have a selection of spices and plant oils. We were able to find spirulina, which was a happy surprise and coconut oil. After further exploration Andrey stumbled upon Магазин Настоящей Еды or Health Food Store. While pretty small this store has an excellent range of health foods and environmentally conscious products. They have natural soaps, toothpaste, and hair products as well as laundry detergent and dish soap. They have almost every kind of flour you could think of even some I have never seen before like pumpkin seed flour. They have seeds, nuts, grains, dried legumes, raw cacao, herbal teas, and even hemp protein. They also carry some prepared foods like honey based chocolate from a woman here in Omsk and dehydrated bars from a company in Saint Petersburg. Best of all they are soon going to carry a line of natural nut butters, so far I have found one brand of peanut butter here and it is of course not natural and has added sugar. The store is a very exciting find for us and I am so happy to know we will be able to keep at least some of our customs on this subject unaltered. 

As we move forward building a life in Omsk it will be interesting to see what else we can do to maintain the environmental standards we were so used to in the U.S. For instance there is no recycling program here, so people throw everything into the trash. And after years of careful recycling in America, it is very difficult to just throw paper boxes, plastic containers, and all the other things you know could so easily be recycled into the garbage. I guess we will have to try and think of other ways to reduce our waste production. Let me know if you have any suggestions. 
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On our first trip to Магазин Настоящей Еды we got whole wheat flour, corn flour, dry chickpeas, and tahini.
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The nut butters came in and we got peanut butter, almond butter, and sunflower seed butter.
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Thanksgiving in Russia

12/8/2014

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It is Thanksgiving morning, but here in Siberia I am probably the only person that feels like today is a holiday. When I got up this morning there was a mini blizzard brewing outside the windows, not an unusual sight here, but it did make me feel in solidarity with my family back home, who are experiencing unseasonable snow. But after a few hours the snow and wind just disappeared and I am greeted with an unusual, but very welcome sight, a blue sky.

Part of me is yearning to put on a big Thanksgiving dinner and introduce my husband's family to the holiday, but as we are not yet in our own home I have decided to make do with a few reminders of the holiday. Since I am a vegetarian and have been since childhood, the usual headliners are not what I love about this holiday. I prefer the side dishes like cranberry sauce, roasted vegetables, and anything with pumpkin. 

So, to assuage the slight homesickness I feel today, I have decided to make cranberry sauce and cornbread, both my mother's recipes. I was hoping to make some pumpkin muffins as well, but pumpkin puree has been very difficult to find here. Pumpkin itself is easy to find, but I have cooked with it a couple times and every time I have been surprised at how light the pumpkin taste is. However, I might breakdown and see if I can make a decent pumpkin muffin from it.

Note: We also make this bread when it is not Thanksgiving and it makes a great breakfast with a couple of sunny side up eggs on top.


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Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:
1 orange
2 cups raw cranberries*
1/4 cup sweetener (I use honey)

Directions:
1. Cut orange and juice completely. Then add just enough water to the juice to have 3/4 cup total liquid.

2. Sort and wash your cranberries.

3. Add juice, cranberries, and honey to a medium size pot and put burner on high. 

4. Cook at a high heat, stirring occasionally, until all the cranberries have popped. Then turn down to a simmer and cook for another 10 minutes. 

*This recipe is intended for American cranberries, which are large and have a thick skin. But what I had on hand here in Russia was a different variation of cranberry, they are smaller and have a thin skin. They still worked well, but did not gel quite as nicely as the ones you usually find in the States.


Corn Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
2 tbsp butter or oil (for cooking)
1 1/4 cups cornmeal
1/4 cup corn flour
1/4 cup white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Directions: 
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

2. Mix all the wet ingredients together.

3. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry.

4. Take a medium cast-iron skillet, put it over medium heat and melt the butter.

5. Pour the batter into the buttered skillet and put in the oven at 375 F for 25-30 minutes.

*Cook till the top cracks, but is not yet browned to prevent it from getting too dry.


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