Brown Sugar & Maple Apple Crumb Muffins

Hello everyone! My sister Alena visited yesterday; we hung out & played with the kitties, had a great buffet lunch at SuTao Cafe, took a nice walk, and then made the brown sugar & maple apple crumb muffins from House Vegan! 

These turned out amazing; the crumb topping was perfect & the muffins were so soft & delicious! 

Here are Buttons, Daisy, and Leela enjoying a sleepy Caturday morning... 

And Cringer hanging out next to my cookbook of random recipes... 

Peace. :)

Carrot and Raisin Muffins

Today I made the carrot and raisin muffins from Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food.

My changes were to use 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (instead of ½ all-purpose and ½ whole wheat; I was out of whole wheat), only ¾ cup grated carrot (I got tired of grating, haha, plus this way the carrots were equal to the raisins), and I left out the optional pecans or walnuts. 

Everything mixed together easily, and I actually thought I might have leftover muffin batter, but it ended up fitting just perfectly in the baking cups (so I guess it was good that I didn't use as much grated carrot as I was supposed to).

I then baked them for the recommended 20 minutes, and let them cool before trying one. 

Aside from some chunks of the muffin sticking to the baking cup, it was perfect.

Very tasty, nice and soft, not dry at all, definitely something I will make again.

Here's Leela in the sunshine and Buttons on her favorite napping perch.

Peace. :)

The Quiet Corn's German Muffin

Hello on the 28th day of the Vegan Month of Food, and the seventh (and final) day of my Parks and Recreation theme week!

The Quiet Corn's German Muffin

In "Camping" (season 3, episode 8), having successfully pulled off the harvest festival, the group goes on a camping trip in order to come up with the next big idea. Everyone assumes Leslie will have the best idea, so no one else puts much effort into the brainstorming session. When everyone decides they want to go home for the night instead of camping (or, as Leslie proposes, working through the night), they discover that the van's battery has been drained by all of Tom's electronics and fancy camping equipment. They decide to walk to a nearby bed and breakfast to spend the night there. When they arrive, Elsa Clack welcomes them to The Quiet Corn and informs them of the breakfast menu.

Elsa: We have hardboiled eggs, homemade tomato slices with dry seed and leek jam, and your choice of German muffin.

Ron: The f**k is a German muffin?

I, like Ron, have no idea what a German muffin is, but this is my attempt at one (my recipe is a slightly modified version of the one for "nutritious muffins" on the package of the Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran Cereal).

Ingredients:

--3/4 cup whole wheat flour

--3/4 cup Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran Cereal

--1/2 cup brown sugar

--1 tsp baking powder

--1 tsp cinnamon

--1/2 tsp baking soda

--1/3 cup banana, mashed

--1/4 cup soy milk

--1/3 cup applesauce

--2 T coconut oil

--1/2 tsp vanilla

--1/2 cup carrot, shredded

--1/2 cup raisins

--1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

--salt*

*I used the leftover salt from the bottom of a pretzel bag, a fun trick that I saw with Lymie Eating Coconut's cookies here: Caturday and Cookies.

Directions:

(Preheat oven to 400°F.) Mix together dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another. Then, combine the two and stir well until moistened thoroughly. Add in carrots, raisins, and pumpkin seeds. Line a muffin tray with paper cups; fill the cups about 2/3 full. Lightly sprinkle some salt atop. Bake for 18 minutes. (Makes 12 muffins.)

For as messy as they were when I removed the paper cups, they were so good! I'll definitely be making these muffins again! Yum!

Bonus video clip/quote from the episode:

(Everyone is gathered around the campfire, leaning in and listening intently.)

Ron: And when she looked in the back of her car, she saw that even though it was her own private property, she would be forced to take it in... for a state inspection!

"I know what a German muffin is, but I'm not telling."

Peace. :)