Grapefruit Honey Bran Muffins

Filled with bright citrus and packed with fiber, these muffins are a sweet way to start the day

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I've got so many muffin recipes piling up I'm thinking about making an ebook of them.  I've got a baker's dozen of banana muffin recipes sitting in a pile of papers right in front of me, all wholesome enough for my kids to eat for breakfast--and easy to make.  Note to self--investigate the genre.  I've seen Lydia's ebooks (like her zucchini recipes and her meatball recipes) and I'm thinking along those lines.  But first--another sunny citrus muffin recipe, right here, free, for you!

When I shared the Candied Grapefruit Peel recipe, I mentioned that it's an acquired taste.  My kids will eat it--in small doses, especially combined with something else.

Isn't it funny how sometimes a picky eater can pick out even the tiniest portion of an undesired food in a melange, and sometimes it's easier to deal with an unwanted food if it's combined with other things?  Oh dear, now I'm talking about undesirable food when I'm supposed to be enticing you. Fail (if I used hashtags, this would have been an appropriate place for one).

Chocolate Cherry Almond Magic Layer Bars

Tooth-crackingly sweet, these rich bars combine chopped almonds, dried cherries, and chocolate chips on a buttery graham cracker crumb base--perfect for you, for your Valentine . . . 

or maybe just because you got your braces off . . . 

or maybe because it's Friday?

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Sometimes, for no reason, you need to treat yourself.  Sometimes you need a reason to treat yourself. Sometimes you need to treat others.  Either way, these bars fit the bill.  They are made with shelf stable pantry ingredients [um, plus butter] so you can whip up a batch whenever the mood, or an occasion, strikes.  I had a couple of reasons to make these (primarily a band concert, but secondarily a desire to use what I've got in the pantry without venturing out into the snow and #3 [tertiarily? thirdly?] just plain having a hankering for them.

I could call these Chocolate Cherry Almond Hello Dolly Bars, because growing up our family called the traditional bar cookie made with sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips, and graham cracker crumbs Hello Dolly Bars.  I think they may be better known, outside of my family, as Magic Cookie Bars or Six Layer Bars.  I'm calling my version Chocolate Cherry Almond Magic Layer Bars to cover a number of bases.

Whenever I see dented cans of sweetened condensed milk I always pick one up, because they can hang out in the pantry until I'm ready to bake. The regular, non-dented, cans work just fine as well.

Because I've become a homemade granola maker, thanks to Meghan, I have giant bags of nuts in my fridge.  I was looking for something Valentine-ish (because, you know, a Valentine's beet crust pizza needs a dessert) and chocolate and dried cherries seemed like a good combination.  And cherries go with almonds [at least in Jergens hand lotion, love that smell] so I decided to try it in these bars.

While these bars are pretty rich, the addition of the dried cherries means that I used half the amount of chocolate chips I'd usually put in a bar cookie, so there's a little fruit & fiber for ya with your chocolate.

Where's my usual Friday Pizza Post?! New rules for 2014--I'm not going to go crazy trying to ensure I've got a pizza post ready to go every Friday. When I've got pizzas to share (and believe you me, I've got some pizzas to share. Take a gander at this Chicken BBQ Peach pizza below) I'll share them on Fridays.  Like I share muffins on Monday.  But I'll be mixing it up with other recipes as well. Need a pizza fix?  Check out my Visual Pizza Recipe Index for ideas--I've broken my recipes down by pizza dough type, vegetarian pizzas, meat pizzas, and even fruit on pizzas--all savory, all good.

Chicken BBQ Peach pizza--made last year during peach season, you can find the recipe here.

Confetti Turkey Enchiladas with Slow Roasted Tomato Sauce

Turkey, carrots, and zucchini make a colorful filling for enchiladas in a hearty dish covered in an easy to make slow-roasted tomato enchilada sauce

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This is a recipe showing how I use put-up summer produce during the winter months when we are not receiving a weekly box from our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share.  If you don't have a package of slow-roasted tomatoes in your freezer (link to Alanna's tutorial), please refer to Andrea's inspiring Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce recipe below which uses canned tomato sauce.  And put this idea in your back pocket--if you get a glut of tomatoes in the early fall (and have some room in the freezer) consider slow-roasting some.  It's ridiculously simple and the end product is nearly as handy to use as the quarts of crushed tomatoes I've got in the pantry.

I was going to share this recipe during the summer, because it calls for tomatoes and zucchini and I'm all about the seasonal eating, but it's here today for a couple of reasons.
I'll list them, just for kicks.

• I've got a backlog of enchilada recipes (technically, 4) that I need to post, and there's no time like the present to start sharing them.
• I made a pan of Creamy Avocado Enchiladas today and it reminded me of these.
• I'm still reeling from the shock of posting a savory appetizer every day last week for #AppetizerWeek, and I realized I didn't have anything scheduled for today.

While my belly is full of Creamy Avocado Enchiladas, I bring you Confetti Turkey Enchiladas.

Other enchilada recipes I've posted:

Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Enchilada Casserole

Fish Taco Enchiladas

Green Pork, Corn, and Zucchini Enchiladas

Zucchini, Refried Bean, and Corn Enchiladas

In fact, I've gone and made a Clickable Collage of Enchiladas. You can see it here.