The Author....

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I am a mom to twin boys, full-time employee of a telecommunications company and wife to a professional musician. I work, do yoga, cook and try to squeeze in DIY projects and spending time with friends.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The first post - Banana Bran Muffins

This blog will cover my two lives... technology at work, and food and kids at home. Okay, maybe a bit on marriage and family too.

To start, my New Year's resolution was all about cooking. I love to cook, but don't often have the focus to pick new recipes, shop for them and then find the time to cook. Add to that the stack of recipes I've clipped and printed over the years, things I wanted to try (wow, my tastes have changed a lot through the years, but that's a post for another day). Don't get me wrong- I work from home enough to make this all possible if I focused on it.

My resolution was to try one new recipe a week. After all, my family loves to eat, and they enjoy a variety of foods. I was doing pretty well with it for a time, but I fell off the wagon. And then I got back on the wagon, but forgot to write down what I was cooking. Hence, a blog. My cookbook folders- one paper, one online- include the majority of recipes I've already cooked this year, and those will get added in as time permits. But for now, the muffin recipe I made Monday... Banana Bran Muffins.

An aside about my family... my mother has an unhealthy attachment to wheat germ. Toasted Kretchmer's Wheat Germ, to be exact. My SIL noted once that my mom could add wheat germ to just about any recipe. And Mom's a really good cook, so you'd never even notice all the vitamins coursing through her lasagne compliments of the wheat germ (okay, I made that up... I think). I've inherited that attachment to wheat germ, and much to my husband's dismay, my kids are catching on to it. They won't eat oatmeal without add a few spoonfuls of wheat germ! How does this relate to the recipe, you ask? I used toasted wheat germ instead of the wheat bran the recipe called for. It's nutty and delicious, and even more, always stocked in our fridge. I also skipped the chocolate chips (this time at least) and used a whole cup of chopped walnuts stirred into the batter. One more note- these were done baking in 25 minutes, and were moister than my usual muffins. That might be attributable to the cooking time (usually, I bake muffins for 30 minutes) or it's the moisty yummy goodness of the buttermilk and banana combo. Either way, this one's a hit.

If you don't keep buttermilk in the house, it's easy to make a substitution out of milk and vinegar. Or, buy a quart of buttermilk and store the extra in 1 cup containers in the freezer. Works great!

The recipe is here; use the changes above to have a really fabulous outcome: www.eatingwell.com/recipes/banana_bran_muffins.html

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