Foodie Friday! Muffin Mania

Hello Readers, welcome to the weekend!  

How was my Saturday? Well, I was deep in a pile of nutraceutical research, thanks for asking, and you? Yes, I was working. Luckily, being up to my eyes in this type of work makes me as happy as a pig in mud. Oink.

The discoveries du jour centred on the not-very-novel idea that plants contain lots of ultra-healthy stuff.







Sterols, stanols, polymethoxylated flavones, epicatechin, flavinoids, proanthocyanidins: these things and many others with equally complicated names have impressive potential to prevent and cure those pesky 'lifestyle diseases' like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity.

Conclusion: eat lots of plants. It really is the best thing you can do for your health and doesn't require anything more radical than.. eating plants.  Everyone can do that.

Last night was a Foodie Friday, the night I lax off my usual eating habits. I had a bunch of almost-expired apples, but wasn't in the mood for yet another fruit crumble (apparently, even a crumblephile like myself has a crumble limit).


Therefore, in the spirit of nomming on plants, I threw those semi-wrinkly apples through the grater attachment of my Kenwood (such a timesaver) and then added various baking ingredients until the mix resembled muffin batter.

While spooning the mix into the muffin pans, there may have been some chocolate and nut butter layered into the middle. Allegedly.

For a highly experimental, recipe-less attempt, it was surprisingly successful. I made another, veganised, batch today and will get the recipe up in the next few days. 

What's with all the veganising?  

I really can't explain it. I like the challenge, but also my nutrition studies are subtly but steadily forcing a romantic relationship with plant foods and healthy fats.  I've certainly had a rethink about my dodgy high-cholesterol genes + blase attitude toward saturated fat consumption. Artherosclerosis is not on my 'to do' list.

My thoughts are trending in the direction of thinking that the best diet is a cheatin' vegan. Mostly plant foods (primarily vegetables and fruit), but with some animal foods to provide vitamins that are deficient in a vegan diet (most notably iron, D3 and B12). You would only need to meat-cheat a few times a month (maybe only once if you ate a decent amount of liver) to stay stocked up on B12. 

Back to this week's Foodie Friday, which was definitely not vegan. I asked The Programmer to pick up some ice cream to go with my apple creation. He came home with the most expensive ice cream I've ever encountered.

Kohu Road.  It's an award winner.

Worth it?  Hell yes.  Even before I'd scraped the ice off the ingredient list, I knew this was going to be good. The flavour is a million miles from Tip Top Budget Vanilla&Fillers.  Sitting in the supermarket freezer, the Kohu Road icecream must feel like a guy wearing a tuxedo in a dive bar.

Six ingredients, all recognisable. That's my type of ice cream.

I'll be back tomorrow with the muffin recipe. They are a bit squishy, but I like them that way.  Maybe I'll call them mushy muffins? mooshy muffins?  mooshins?