Best Banana-Walnut Muffins are Made with Coconut Oil

I was tired of the same old breakfast options this morning, so I decided to see what we had in the cupboards. I had a large, slightly over-ripe banana and lots of walnuts that need to be used up, so voila, banana-walnut muffins.

I just used the basic banana-walnut muffin recipe from The Joy of Cooking and used coconut oil instead of butter or vegetable oil. Coconut oil seems a little less stable than other oils. One time, I made oatmeal cookies with it, and as the hot day progressed, the cookies melted into each other on the plate. Tasted good, but weird texture.

On the other hand, the coconut oil is a great substitution for these muffins, especially since I only had one banana (though quite large) and the recipe calls for 2 or 3. This oil not only adds a nutty taste and fragrance, it also helps keep the muffins moist.

Now, I have to unload these on someone or someones so I don't eat them all!

Thanksgiving Breakfast *UPDATED*

I'm going to my sweetheart's house tomorrow, and HE'S doing the cooking; this time, I'm just doing the helping. We'll see how that goes. He's a great cook, but sometimes he gets a little ambitious and plans too many complicated dishes all at once. Well, I do that too, sometimes.

The pecan sticky buns have been rolled, cut, covered and set to rise. Tomorrow morning, I'll get up, pop 'em in the oven at 350 for 25-30, and we'll have a delicious treat to keep us full while we cook. The recipe comes from Christina Pirello, a vegetarian cook who is sometimes featured on PBS. What's great about this recipe is that it's rather wholesome; it uses whole wheat flour and NO WHITE SUGAR. Brown rice syrup instead. I've tried this one several times, and it's always been just as delicious -- even more delicious -- than the "regular" sticky buns. Because of the rice syrup, the buns have a lower glycemic index than many other breakfast treats, and the whole wheat flour is better for you than white flour, too. The only thing I refuse to do is use soy margarine -- quel horreur -- so I use good, old-fashioned butter. This time, I've used Cabot's farmhouse butter, which is a speciality they only sell at their farm and a few other locations.

Well, it's off to bed for me. I'll let you know how the sticky buns turn out and will try to post some highlights from our meal tomorrow. If I don't hear from any you out there before the end of the day, have a great Thanksgiving!

Busy couple of days: random bits, floating, falling on the virtual page . . .

Sorry, no camera today.

Food for Healing, Food for the Heart . . .

Yesterday, I brought my Food of the Wild Soup to my sweetheart to help him get over his nasty illness (we're not saying it was swine flu, but . . . ). He seemed to like it very much and was able to go to work today. Must have been my curative presence. ;)

Indulgences

You know that feeling you get when you've indulged just a little too much ("extreme chocolate" ice cream from JP Licks on Monday night, a chocolate chip whoopie pie yesterday . . . !) and you just want to clean it out and start over? Well, I learned a good trick from an Ayurvedic practitioner a few weeks ago: in the morning after the indulgence, drink 32 oz. of warm water with 1 tsp. of salt in it. Try to chug it. It won't taste good, and I don't reccommend this if you're already feeling nauseous. Basically, the body can't do anything with the salty water except let it go on through, pushing out any yuck you ate. Obviously, this is for OCCASIONAL use (he suggested no more than once a week, but even that seems often to me), and I almost feel as though I shouldn't write about this lest some anorexic or bulimic person out there reads this and thinks, "Great! A new way to punish myself!" Don't punish yourself. Food is good, and you are beautiful.

BUT, cleansing can be a happy experience, too . . . just a word to the wise.

So, today, I figured I needed to start my day with a good breakfast. I really wanted to finish off the buckwheat I made a few days ago, but I was also craving yogurt. I'm the kind of person who feels that cravings -- unless they are for sugar -- are most of the time to be indulged (I exclude sugar because usually it's just a craving that feeds itself, keeping a person locked in a cycle of gluttony and a lack of control and compassion for oneself). So, I had the leftover buckwheat (I'm not a huge fan, but I don't like to waste food) and a small portion of plain, lowfat yogurt with fresh cherries, toasted almond slivers and a quick drizzle of agave. So simple but so good.

Coffee. I love you. I love you not.

So, while I was cleansing back in April/May, I got off the coffee habit with almost no withdrawl symptoms. I went from coffee to black tea to herbal tea and didn't have any migraines (I had some after I had been cleansing for about a week and a half, well after the caffeine should have been gone). After the cleanse, I didn't start drinking coffee right away, but in the last couple of weeks, I've been drinking it just about everyday. When I try to go a day without out, the migraine demon pays a visit, and I'm forced to take drugs, which contain, of course, caffeine. So, while I love the stuff, I have to try to get back into balance with it. I don't think I can allow myself to drink coffee everyday. 

Maybe I can switch to decaf for a while, then switch to tea? I just hate the headaches so much . . . .

Amaranth

Amaranth

One rule about food is that is should never remind one of infectious disease.

The tiny, innocent-looking grain, amaranth, has the unfortunate resemblance, when cooked, to the chicken pox. Y’know those clear pustules that pop and weep? That’s what I was reminded of when I recently cooked up a batch of Amaranth with Peaches and Bananas.

Quel horreur.

But, I must say that I think part of the problem with amaranth is learning to cook with it. The grain has a tendency to stick to the pot, and it is recommended that it be mixed with another, looser grain, such as quinoa, or cooked in a double-boiler or microwave.[i]

Why bother? Because this tiny grain – the size of a poppy seed – is legendary for its fortifying power. It’s an ancient grain, beloved of the Aztecs, and is now identified as having higher levels of protein, iron, magnesium and phosphorus than some other grains, and has a balance of amino acids that make the proteins more accessible to digestion. In addition, the grain has tremendous taste for its size.[ii]

But the texture part . . . must be dealt with in the kitchen. This is why I think recipes are so important, and in this case, flexibility in the recipe is most preferred. Cooks will need to do their own experimenting to determine the best way to avoid the pox. I found that the recipe I was using called for far too much liquid – a full cup and a half more than is recommended by The Joy of Cooking. Not only do I think that the excess liquid made the porridge too soupy, it took too long to cook. Additionally, the recipe called to use both water and milk (in this case, a nut or soy milk because the recipe was macrobiotic). I tend to hold off on adding milk to my grains until after I’ve finished cooking them – I think they retain their character more and the milk doesn’t have a chance to curdle (which seems to happen more easily with the nut and soy milks).

I am also loathe to add soft fruit until the final minutes of cooking, while the recipe I was following called to add them at the beginning. Big mistake. The result was fruit that turned absolutely snot-like in consistency. Again, I was reminded of the flu-like symptoms that accompanied my own rather intense case of the chicken pox many years ago – not good.

So, did I eat this pile of pox? Yes, yes I did. And it wasn’t horrible. The flavors were good, wholesome, balanced. I like the slightly peppery note of the amaranth alongside the mellow fruit and sweet maple syrup. Almond extract goes well with the peppery-peachiness, too. But, I think a vast improvement could be made by leaving out the milk until the end (instead of cooking it in, I pour it on in my bowl), cutting back on liquid altogether (1 cup of amaranth to 2 cups of liquid) and only adding soft fruits in the final minutes of cooking (peaches, plums, bananas – I might even leave the bananas out until I put the porridge in my bowl. Hard fruits, such as apples and pears, I’d add earlier).

Hopefully, I haven’t inadvertently dissuaded my audience from trying amaranth. If you have an interesting amaranth experience or a recipe, I’d like to hear from you.

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[i] Rombauer, Irma S. The Joy of Cooking. New York: Scribner, 1997. 245.

[ii] Rombauer. 245.