Sweet Potato Muffins

    Finding a way to eat healthy food inexpensively is challenging.  I face this obstacle weekly as a plan our menu and make out the grocery list.  Honestly, it can be very frustrating.  Sometimes I have to take a break from menu planning because I can’t get the numbers and the food to line up.  There are so many things I want to make but eggs, butter, and fresh vegetables add up quickly.  Our newest challenge of eating local has stretched the budget even thinner.  Why yes, we would love to have fresh broccoli for supper, but not at $4.00 a pound.  One week I did cave and buy half a pound.  I then proceeded to burn it while it roasted in the oven.  Whoops.  We have been purchasing the majority of our produce from Snow’s Bend, a local farm in Coker that uses organic farming practices.  Although the broccoli I just mentioned sounds expensive, you would pay much more for the same amount of organic broccoli at Publix.  This week we ate swiss chard, bok choy, turnip greens, butter lettuce, romaine lettuce, and onions.  All of which were so fresh and full of flavor - flavor that could never be imitated in grocery store produce.  This sounds silly, but I told J.T. that I feel like Julia Child shopping at the market.  I am currently reading her memoir, My Life in France, (which I picked up on our recent trip to see her kitchen!) and she shopped the markets on the streets of Paris for the freshest fruits, vegetables, meats, and seafood.  I am fascinated by that woman.  

    Onward to the point of this entire blog post: sweet potato muffins.  I will confess that these sweet potatoes were purchased at Publix.  Sweet potatoes are out of season and there were none to be found at the market.  One of the many things I love about sweet potatoes is that they are inexpensive.  Even at full price they are a mere $0.99 a pound and they are classified as one of the clean 15 vegetables.  I made a dozen of these as a gift to my Mama on Mother’s Day.  My mother graciously shared them, so we all had one topped with ice cream for dessert.  Everyone thought they were delicious and I agree.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups whole grain gluten-free flour blend
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ cup pure clover honey
• ½ cup virgin coconut oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups mashed, roasted sweet potatoes, about 1 pound

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with liners.
2. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, kosher salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  
3. In a large glass liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla.  Pour the wet ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed until just combined.  Fold in the sweet potatoes.
4. Divide the batter equally among the prepared muffin tin.  The cups will be fairly full.  Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a pick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Yields 12 muffins. Cool completely.  Refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months.  

* I made my own gluten-free whole grain flour, but you can also substitute whole wheat flour.   The recipe behind my whole grain flour blend came from here.  I used the following ratios:

·         350 grams buckwheat flour

·         350 grams oat flour

·         300 grams arrowroot flour

This flour recipe makes more than what is required for this recipe.  Store any extra in the refrigerator.  

J.T.’s Brownies

     I have been on a brief hiatus from my blog, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things.  It dawned on me earlier today that I don’t have to take a picture of every single step of a recipe.  Editing pictures, styling food, and trying to make your blog look halfway decent for readers (or reader...thanks Mama!) is time consuming.  A picture of the finished product should suffice as a blog post, so that is my new strategy.  

     My latest obsession is the farmers market.  For months I have been talking about doing a new experiment, where we only eat the vegetables that come from the market.  This forces us to eat local, try new things, and live by the seasons.  For example, right now greens are in season - collards, mustard greens, bok choy, swiss chard, and on and on.  J.T. and I are eating vegetables we have never tasted.  I am sick of washing greens, but the summer crops will be in soon.  Vegetables really do have more flavor when they are eaten in season.  We still do our weekly trip to Publix for milk, oats, cereal, bananas, and a few other pantry staples, but meat, pork, eggs, and vegetables are all purchased at the market.  Now, a little bit about these brownies.

     It is no secret that my husband loves desserts - especially anything topped with ice cream.  These brownies have been a regular staple in our freezer over the last year.  I originally stumbled across this recipe while looking for a dessert that required very few ingredients and was inexpensive to make.  Over the years, I have adapted it to better fit our real food diet. I am in no way proclaiming that these brownies are healthy - they do have over a cup of sugar in them.  I was able to swap all-purpose flour for white whole wheat flour, which does qualify for making them a bit more nutritional.  Butter or coconut oil can be used interchangeably in this recipe, so if you do not have coconut oil, use butter.  Once again, I love that these brownies can be frozen.  Simply individually wrap them in saran wrap and place in a freezer safe Ziploc bag.  I like a fully stocked freezer, see...

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder plus 1 ½ tablespoons
• ½ cup coconut oil plus 3 ½ tablespoons
• 1 ⅓ cups pure cane sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ⅔ cup whole white wheat flour

Directions

1. Grease a 9 x 9 inch square baking pan with coconut oil and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  
2. In a medium sized bowl, stir together the cocoa powder and coconut oil.  Stir in the sugar, eggs, kosher salt, and vanilla.  Very slowly stir in the flour until all the ingredients are incorporated together.  The batter will be fairly thick.  Spread the batter into the prepared baking pan.  Bake for 22 to 25 minutes.  I always err on the side of under baked brownies.  Let the brownies cool slightly in the pan before cutting into squares and removing to a wire rack to cool completely.  Yields 9 large brownies or 16 small (for J.T. it makes 9).  These brownies can be individually wrapped and frozen.  Reheat in the microwave for 30 seconds.