Honey Banana Oat Muffins

Soaked oat and whole wheat muffins sweetened with honey and a banana.

When I was a kid, my mom would sometimes whip up a last minute dessert that consisted of a bowl of sliced bananas topped with a spoonful of brown sugar and a generous splash of milk. It was fast, sweet, and used stuff she had on hand.

Making something out of nothing is a learned skill in the kitchen. 

I don't mean literally nothing, this is not a Stone Soup type post. No, I'm talking about some of the items I consider kitchen staples:  bananas, oats, and baking powder*. I don't add buttermilk to this list because if you were to run the stats [I've been working on getting my info ready for my wonderful tax preparer so stats are on my mind] buttermilk cannot be found in my fridge as often as bananas, oats, and baking powder can be found in the pantry.

Once you've got buttermilk to use up, though, you can assemble several sets of the base of these muffins and store them in the fridge for up to a week. You could make buttermilk pizza dough or roasted garlic & pesto buttermilk pizza dough and store that in the freezer for a month. You could make a double batch of Butternut Squash Waffles and freeze the extras for weekday breakfasts or waffle sandwich lunches.

These muffins are my version of mom's frugal dessert. They are easy to throw together out of stuff I have on hand, sweet enough for a mid-afternoon snack at work, and healthy enough for me to give my kids for breakfast.

For other recipes using bananas, please see my Banana Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient. For other muffin recipes check out the drop down menu on the right sidebar and let this serve as a kick in the pants to update that, or just tell me to put all the banana muffin recipes that are piled up on the dining room table into an ebook so you can grab that when you're in a muffin mood.

Horned Melon Waffles

Classic buttermilk waffles with a freaky fruit twist--horned melon in the batter. 

Happy Birthday, Dr Seuss!

Horned melon is not a fruit that was grown by the farmers in my community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share. In a G+ food bloggers group Melissa's Produce offered to send cases of FreakyFruits to anyone interested. I said yes. This is my second recipe from that case of fruit. Passionfruit Banana Muffins was the first. I think the next one will be pizza or curry.

When I lifted off the protective bubble wrap I had no clue what I wanted to do with these fruits--but I like that challenge just like I like the challenge to use the kohlrabi in the farm share! Inspiration struck one morning when I realized that those people who live with me remain keen on eating first thing in the morning and all day long. [I need to be up and about for several hours before I feel peckish.] I used one melon in the waffles and had my daughter use another in a smoothie with banana, vanilla yogurt, and ice.

Horned melon looks like something out of a Dr Seuss book. It makes me wonder about the first animal to eat it, because I'm sure the first human to try it did so because she saw a fellow animal chowing down. [I wonder the same about artichokes and several of the other FreakyFruits that Melissa's Produce sent me.]

I don't know what my deal is with Dr Seuss' birthday and breakfast. If you wanted to make a Dr Seuss themed brunch to celebrate his birthday, March 2nd, please consider these waffles with a side of Green Eggs No Ham [a vegetarian eggs Benedict with easy spinach Hollandaise--link]. For other recipes using FreakyFruits, please see my FreakyFruits Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient.

Loaded Miso Soup

Garnished with roasted tofu croutons and stuffed with roasted shiitake, tender kohlrabi and soba noodles, this miso soup is a hearty meal in a bowl.

On my Facebook page and my G+ page, I have been sharing links to food blogger recipes that catch my eye. While all of the recipes I've shared are ones I'd be delighted to eat, some are ones I actually want to make as well as eat. When I shared Easy Miso Soup by Christine of Cook The Story, I had visions of taking some shrimp from the freezer, rolling up a bunch of sushi, and serving the miso soup as a starter with a sushi meal.

Then reality hit, along with a polar vortex, and the idea of sushi wasn't half as appealing as the idea of a big bowl of soup. I veered away from quick and easy into the direction of turning a bowl of miso soup into a full meal. This is not vegan because I used fish sauce, but if you have a fish sauce substitute, this would be a vegan meal.

If you want an easy version of the classic miso soup, please check out Christine's recipe. If you want to pump {clap} it up, read on. I remembered my mom's BBQ tofu (a recipe I took really bad photos of so I've never shared it here) and used half of a container of tofu for that. I had a really fugly looking kohlrabi from the community supported agriculture (CSA) farm share and some soba noodles we never seem to eat and figured they'd go well with the broth. Then I spied some shiitake mushrooms with a magical markdown sticker, and I decided it was time to stop shopping and get into the kitchen.

There are a lot of balls in the air for this one, but the end result was slurped down by the whole family so I'd say it was a win. For other recipes using kohlrabi, please see my Kohlrabi Recipe Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index.