Thursday, January 7, 2010

sandwich of beauty

This is going on the Greatest Hits list:

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Spelt bread shmeared with white bean, garlic, and rosemary dip. Hard boiled egg. Avocado.

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Bellissima! Enjoyed it for lunch with:

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Trader Joe’s carrot-ginger soup and

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My love! I have missed you, plain yogurt. With chopped apple and cinnamon.

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Apples and cinnamon= heaven.

Now for THE BEST MUFFIN RECIPE I HAVE EVER INVENTED.

Background: The mama has IBS. It means that (this is horrifying) whole grains are rough on her tummy and she is encouraged to AVOID whole grains and eat WHITE BREAD. Yeurgh.

The one exception to the painful whole grains? OATMEAL! SOLUBLE FIBER, YAY! Another reason oatmeal is freaking perfect.

So the base of my muffins is….

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Oats! More specifically, based on a trick my dietitian godmother taught me, give ‘em a spin in the food processor and you have…

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Oat flour!

Combined with the other dry ingredients (this one, for the college kids, is one you want to make at home with your fully stocked pantry!): oat flour, regular flour, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, salt.

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Ze wet: egg, plain yogurt, pineapple juice (!), vegetable oil, water

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Combined:

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Ze mix ins: apricots, almonds, and DATES!

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All together:

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Into ze oven!

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Do other people leave their oven doors open because it makes their house so wonderfully warm? Anyway, ze finished product!

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Date-Nut Muffins

1 1/3 cups oatmeal (measured then ground)

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 T wheat germ

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup pineapple juice

1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt

1/4 cup clear colored oil of your choice

2 T water

1/2 cup almonds (measured then chopped)

1/2 cup dates (ditto)

3 large dried apricots, finely chopped

Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients. Make a well in the dry ingredients, add the wet. Fold in almonds and fruit. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

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SO GOOD! They are SO SWEET despite having hardly ANY sugar! Gotta love natural sweetness :D And the texture? THE TEXTURE?

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Freakin’ gorge. Super moist and tender with nice chunks of sweetness!

I enjoyed my first (of what will be many!) with my afternoon tea:

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Ahh.

10 comments:

katherine said...

Love love love the recipe! Especially the fact that you made it with your mother's stomach issues in mind. So sweet!

Whitney @ Lettuce Love said...

I will have to try this recipe. I have never added dates to muffins -- sounds yummy!

Genesis said...

wow, pineapple juice...really? i will have to try this out. you're so brave to come up with a recipe out of nowhere. i would not even know where to begin...

Jess said...

Those date-nut muffins sound wonderful!! And that sandwich looks amazing! Mmmmm!
<3 jess
xoxo

MelindaRD said...

Nice looking muffins. they sound very tasty. I really like dates and I don't think I eat them as often as I should. Oh, and figs too, yum, ok, now I'm getting hungry.

Veggies, Cake & Cocktails said...

Muffins look really good. I've never thought of making oat flour. I'm going to try it out, but first I have to purchase a food processor!

Tasha - The Clean Eating Mama said...

Looks great!

paula said...

sandwich of beauty is right. I love it! We made practically the same bean dip :D
I adore your muffins. Good job! I learned to make oat-flour after making a muffin recipe out of ED&BV (http://saltandhumor.com/2009/11/24/swing-of-things/).

Ashlei said...

Wow those muffins look delish! And yes I leave the oven door open too to warm up my place ;) lol. yummy looking eats! Avocado is one of my faves.

Michal said...

Oaties! I love love love my oats. Any excuse to use them in a recipe. Your muffins look great :)