biking

Splendid Sunday

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One of my newly-created Sunday rituals is to listen to The Splendid Table podcast while working on a meal or other kitchen project.  After a weekend out of town, a little Sunday ritual was exactly what I needed when we got home yesterday evening.

To the sound of Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s fabulous chuckle (Tate loves to make fun of her), I set to work.

First order of business after being away from home is to check on my ferments and make sure I am not nearing an over-carbonation catastrophe.

The kefir spritzer

and kombucha were right on track.

I ♥ bubbles so I let my brews ferment at room temperature until they are light and fizzy but it’s possible to take it overboard and end up with the shaken-warm-soda-like eruption that ends in a sticky mess on the counter.

But the bubbles are worth it. 🙂

Dinner was combed together from the near-empty fridge and muffins were mixed from the freezer and cabinets.

Apple-Ginger

These babies turned out to be a complete failure in the filling department but otherwise they are awesome.

They were filled with an almond butter and banana combo but I guess the ratio of fat to fruit was off because the filling was totally absorbed into the muffin and I couldn’t even taste a hint of it in the center. 🙁

Delicious and so-quick breakfast

I won’t even bother with the details for the filling since it was non-existent!

The Dry

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup cornmeal
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp ginger powder

Whisk the dry together in a medium bowl.

The Wet

  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 1 very ripe banana
  • 1/4 cup plain yogurt
  • good sized knob peeled fresh ginger
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 egg

Puree all ingredients except egg in a food processor until banana and ginger is fully incorporated, add egg, pulse until mixed.  No food processor?  How do you cook?!  Sorry.  You could mash the banana by hand and grate the ginger.

Add wet to dry, mix until batter forms, add 1 chopped apple.  Fill muffin cups until just full.  Kinda random but this batter made 7 muffins, without filling you could probably do 6 big ones or 12 small.

Bake for 25 minutes in a pre-heated 375* F oven.  Take out, let rest for 5-10 minutes, remove muffins and set on cooling rack.

Each large muffin contains just under 200 calories and is an excellent source of dietary fiber.

Today will be full of fitting in errands and exercise between patients at the clinic.  We got the morning off on the right foot with an active commute

Note Tate’s raised left arm, that would be a cup of coffee.  There’s talk of rigging a cup holder to his bike but I think he prefers to be able to drink it en route. 😉

There’s a lull in patients so I think I’ll head upstairs to the studio and flow through a few Sun Salutations.  If you are in the area, I am subbing a 12pm Vinyasa class tomorrow here at Core, come play with me!

Hope your weekend was fantastic, have a great Monday!

Open

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Thanks for all the congrats and best wishes on the clinic!

Saturday’s Grand Opening was fun.

The muffins and the Grape Kefir Soda were big hits!

There is even some interest around town in me giving a workshop on Kefir Soda!

Yesterday Tate and I stayed out of the office and got into the woods

Sadly it wasn’t long before we came to this

I think they are serious although it’s a little hard to tell from the blue cartoon penguin a…fish?

Oh so that’s razor wire

Yeah, they are serious.  They had surveillance cameras in the trees!

So we turned around

It was great to be on my bike, I’ve been seriously neglecting it since about November.  When I lived in Salt Lake City and Portland I biked many, many miles a week commuting to school than work.  Everything in Charlottesville is so close I usually prefer to walk instead of haul my bike out of the basement.  I do love the feeling of flying down a hill after working to get to the top though!  And it C’ville biking is all about peddle-coast!

Did you like the muffins?  Yeah, me too.  This is why you are going to be seeing a lot more filled muffins around these parts coming up, I’ve got big ideas!

A few of you asked about the coconut butter truffles so here you go.

I started making these babies a few months ago and instantly fell in love.  You can read about the first batch here.

For the first few batches I used Spectrum brand unrefined virgin coconut oil and they turned out amazing.  Then I started making coconut butter at home in an attempt to replicate Artisana’s unbelievable deliciousness.  Then I started adding cocoa and stevia to my coconut butter because…why not?

First of all, making coconut butter at home is as simple as buying unsweetened shredded coconut and throwing it in your food processor.  It will eventually start to soften up and create a ball, keep processing.  At this point you may need to start scrapping the sides every 30 seconds or so.  It’s ready when it’s fully liquidy and drippy but it will still have a tiny bit of texture to it (unless your food processor is miraculous).

I divvy out 1 teaspoon servings into silicon mini muffin cups so it’s easier to deal with once it hardens.

I store the morsels in an empty coconut oil jar and toss a serving on top of my oats for a hit of lauric acid and yummy richness.  And occasionally pop one straight into my mouth.

Back to the chocolate version.  Once it’s drippy and creamy add some non alkalized cocoa, stevia, a pinch of salt, and a splash of vanilla to the processor, mix thoroughly, taste test, adjust with more cocoa/stevia to desired sweetness.  If you don’t have silicon or paper baking cups you could wait just a few minutes for it to start thickening then spoon onto parchment paper to create disks.

These chocolates are so delicious on their own that I haven’t gotten too creative with other flavors but yesterday I left out the vanilla and topped each one with the tiniest pinch of lavender salt.  (Don’t have access to lavender salt?  No worries, tomorrow I’ll show you how to make your own!)

Lately if chocolate doesn’t have a little salt in it than I feel like a flavor layer is missing!  Love the contrast!

This can also be made with honey instead of stevia but it doesn’t harden as much.

I personally like the taste of stevia but it can certainly be a little intense.  My favorite brand is SweetLeaf.

The coconut oil version is more decadent and rich tasting and recommended for special occasions but it’s actually a little easier to make, just melt and mix.

I am a little sore from my Core Four workout yesterday!  It’s a doozy!

P.S I am working on a recipe page!