Piña Colada Muffins!! or, Another Recipe Unearthed from the Bottomless Pit That Is My Drafts Folder

I had the better part of a can of pineapple slices in my fridge. I also had cocoanut milk. This means piña colada muffins NEEDED to happen. (You could also make doughnuts out of these, if you have a doughnut pan.)

I actually wrote this up aeons ago, and it’s been sitting in my drafts folder ever since. I’m pretty sure that these were awesome.

1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c pineapple juice (from the canned pineapple
1/3 c sugar
1/2 c pineapple (chunks or tidbits, your call)
1/2 c cocoanut milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 T cocoanut oil, melted

Option: Top with 1/2 c cocoanut (I used 1/4 c each of sweetened baker’s cocoanut and unsweetened flaked)

Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl, and wet ingredients, including melted oil, in another bowl. Combine them together just until mixed. Drop into greased or papered muffin tin, top with topping if using, and bake at 350 for… I have “X MINUTES” written down, so that means I either forgot to pay attention to my baking time or… or something. Start with 18 minutes and go from there. That’s usually safe for muffins. Toothpick test will tell you when they’re done!

Raspberry Bars

So, whilst I am feeling Completely Uninventive, I’m going to share this recipe that is from my growing-up years. We got it from our friend Ruth because I loved these bars SO much, so I have no idea where the recipe originally came from. The problem was, they were so, SO sweet that I’m pretty sure my mom only made them maybe twice.

They really are rather sickeningly sweet. But, if you’re serving a crowd of normal people, that works out because you can cut them into smaller pieces. (This plan doesn’t work so well if you’re serving a crowd of clones of, oh, ME.)

At any rate, because I do care about my health, here’s what I have started to do. I’m posting the recipe with its original full sugar content, but these are the two things I flip between to reduce the content: I either halve the sugar in the dough, or I use smushed-up fresh berries instead of jam. It’s the sugared dough + sugared fruit that is the lethal sugar wallop with these, so reducing one or the other is the key.

(If you want a super healthified version of these, check out my Breakfast Bars from MoFo last year.)

I used cherry jam in this particular batch.

Ruth’s Raspberry Bars

3/4 c vegan margarine
1 c packed brown sugar
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 c oatmeal
1 10-oz jar of raspberry preserves (or any berry!) (I usually use more than this – 10oz is a pretty thin layer!)

Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add combined dry ingredients. Mix well.

Press half of the crumb mixture into greased 13×9 pan. Spread preserves. Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

Cool. Cut into bars.

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Oh, and HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY. If you’re a linguist nerd like me, or just want to listen to someone speaking prolifically in Irish for around two hours, check out “No Béarla“.

And yes, yes I did schedule this post for 3:17 in the morning.

Beannacht.

Things and stuff.

So, beginning yesterday, I started a temporary social media withdrawal. (This will feed into FB automatically, but I’m not personally on there right now.) I just mention this in case you try to contact me through FB because I’m not likely to see it unless it’s a message to my personal account. I have no idea whether this hiatus will be for a week or three weeks at this point. So. On to other things.

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Life has been a little bumpy lately as I adjust to house life. Don’t get me wrong, I am thoroughly enjoying the space and the generally normal life! But I’ve been completely zapped of any food creativity and most of what I have tried to make has just fallen flat. I forget to salt my beans. I overseason my beans. I burn my rice. That kind of thing. I find it ironic that the minute I actually have room to spread out, my cooking falls like an underbaked cake in a hurricane. So, this is why there have been no food posts lately.

For suppers several times a week I’ve been making loads of raisin-oat scones because those are pretty foolproof. The girls love them. Lou Who thinks they’re cookies. So, what can go wrong there?

I did make a pretty good spinach pesto last week, but it was one of those “bit of this bit of that” concoctions that can never be quite recreated. And if I’m following a recipe, stuff comes out okay. I think I’m getting a little burned out on some things, though. Our church has been doing a weekly after-church meal for a couple months now and while we get all the details worked out for the different rotating menus the biggest chunk of work falls on me and F. It’ll lighten up soon. And I’m cutting back on cookies, partly because I’m sick right now, but also because I just need to cut back on cookies.

Oh, we did have a nonfire! But that deserves a post of its own.

And I made myself a skirt. So, that’s something. And I’ve got myself a little music corner that’s enabling me to actually practise more readily. That is awesome.

Okay, bye.