I heart scones

In case you were concerned about my eating habits when I showed you the inside of my fridge this past weekend, I made sure to take this picture on Monday after I got home from the grocery store. Don't worry, B won't starve.

And yes, that's Fat Free Vanilla Coffeemate you see. Two bottles, in fact. I tried guys, I really did, but the homemade stuff just wasn't doing it for me. I actually didn't even make coffee for several days last week because I didn't have any Coffeemate. That's serious. I'm ashamed of myself, but I'm also committed to being honest with you, so there you have it. I'm an addict. I have a problem.

---

I promised you scones last night, but then got distracted by watching last Sunday's Dexter. So now I present - SCONES!

 Despite my general aversion to baking (I always screw something up!), baking has become a pretty regular occurrence here at Casa Ellis. See, B loves baked goods We cannot pass a coffee shop without my husband suddenly getting a craving for a cinnamon roll, a donut or, his personal favorite, a SCONE.

So whenever I find a scone recipe that seems relatively Megan-proof, I give it a try. This has resulted in several successful scone endeavors, including those delicious pumpkin spice scones from back in September.

This weekend, I tackled yet another scone - the Maple Oat Nut Scone.

Now, I would not say this is a true "Starbucks Copycat" recipe in the sense that my teeth do not feel like they are rotting out of my skull with every bite, but these are still really freaking good. There are none left as I type this.

I realized about 75% of the way into making these that although I did have maple syrup, I did not have maple extract. I subbed vanilla and did not notice a difference. And the very best part of this recipe? You basically just dump everything in your food processor and give it a whirl. My very favorite kind of baking.

Veggilicious Fall Chili

I'm getting ready to leave for Washington DC for the long weekend and want to leave B with food so he doesn't try to survive on granola and taqueria tacos (not that he would mind).

Last week, I doubled an enchilada recipe and stuck half in the freezer, so all he has to do is let it defrost, then smother it with salsa and cheese and stick it in the oven (are you listening, honey?). Tonight, I made a huge pot of chili - perfect for this blustery fall weather!

Veggilicious Fall Chili
Ingredients

• 1T olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1T chili powder
• 1T cumin
• 1 1/2t oregano
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 yellow squash, diced
• 28oz can crushed or diced tomatoes
• 1T chipotle peppers*
• 13oz can black beans
• 13oz can pinto beans
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 large handful chard, chopped
• Sour cream & cilantro, for garnish

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a nonstick skillet. Add onion and garlic, cook until soft.
2. Add chili powder, cumin, and oregano. Cook for 1 minute.
3. Add bell pepper, zucchini, and yellow squash. Cook for just a few minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, chipotle peppers, beans, corn,  and chard. Stir to combine.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 20-30 minutes.
6. Garnish with sour cream and cilantro. Enjoy!

*I buy those cans of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and run them through my food processor. Then, I freeze them and chip off 1T pieces as I need them (1T equals 1 pepper!). I guess if I were really fancy, I would just freeze them in 1T pieces (maybe in an ice cube tray?), but I'm not that fancy.

I also made my own bread tonight!

I have always been so intimidated by bread, but Jenna's post a week or so ago inspired me.

It was so easy! A lot like making pizza dough, but with more waiting.

I did yoga while the rolls rose.

And after dinner, I cooked up some of those frozen Apricot Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookie dough balls I made a few weeks ago.

Not bad for a Tuesday.

Pumpkin Blueberry Muffins!

Last night I managed to peel myself off the couch (I have been so tired since school started, which is really bizarre - I have usually gotten past this by now) to make a messy egg scramble for dinner and then whip up some pumpkin-blueberry muffins.

I apologize for the poor picture quality. I snapped this at 6:30 this morning before I hit the road for work because I was afraid they would all be gone by the time I came home this afternoon. 


I let these cool for a bit last night before I broke one in half and took it to B as he was working on a lesson plan in the office. He peered at the blueberries then gave me a funny look and said, "It's a blueberry muffin? I thought you were making pump-" *takes a bite* "They're pumpkin-blueberry muffins!"


So yes, they're awesome. I took a dozen out of the oven at 8:30 last night and there were 6 remaining when I left for work this morning. I'm not sure when half of them disappeared, but I have a pretty good idea who is responsible! Fortunately, I did not use all of my can of pumpkin OR all of my frozen blueberries, so you can bet I'll whip up another batch this weekend (or maybe pumpkin-blueberry bread? I hate cleaning out my muffin tins...). 


Basically, these pretty much scream "fall" to me, even though it's supposed to be almost 90 degrees today... 


Global warming, what?

I made quite a few modifications to the original recipe, so here's my take on the perfect fall muffin:


Pumpkin-Blueberry Muffins
adapted from AllRecipes.com


Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour*
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour*
3/4 cup oats
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg*
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2T butter, melted
2T unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen and didn't even bother to thaw them)

• 
  

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
2. Mix the flours, oats, sugars, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a mixing bowl until evenly blended. In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin, milk, egg, butter, and applesauce. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, just until all ingredients are moistened. Fold in the blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling to the top.
3. Bake in preheated oven until tops spring back when lightly pressed, about 20 minutes.

Cooking Notes:

*Next time, I might swap the proportions of white to whole-wheat flour (that is, use 1/2 cup WW and 1/4 cup white). The batter is SUPER moist with the pumpkin and butter and applesauce, it might hold up to a larger amount of WW flour without becoming too dense.

*I also might increase the spices slightly - maybe closer to 2/3t each of cinnamon and nutmeg?

In other news...

B and I are running the Moonlight 10K tonight! The moon has been so bright this week - it's going to be a beautiful full moon for the run! I am excited and a little nervous - I have been pretty lazy about working out in general and haven't run much in the last week or so because of my knee. I'm not looking to place or set a PR or anything, but I'd like to have a good run (since most of my races end up being bad runs!) and not aggravate my knee any more. 

What are your weekend plans?

After our race tonight, B and I are going to Cake Moda's Cupcake Wars at Crush Barrel Wine Market in SF on Saturday night with our friends Lindy and Ryan as part of B's 29th birthday celebration! I think we will take the DSLR and hopefully get some great pictures (and drink some great wine while sampling cupcakes)! It's basically a foodie's dream come true.

Big 100!

This is my 100th post! I had hoped that I would have something really fun planned for the big 100, but basically all you are going to get is a recap of my weekend so far. Sorry! To make it more celebratory, I'll just put in more exclamation points than usual. :)

CSA Photo Shoot!
As I mentioned before, we got our CSA box on Friday. You can tell it's fall - the box seemed more full than usual! Check out the haul:

Cantaloupe, romaine lettuce, beets, swiss chard, fingerling potatoes, one giant heirloom tomato, red peppers, apples, and pears. I can't believe we get all of this for only $25!

And in case you can't tell how gigantic that tomato is:

B thought it was a grapefruit when we opened the box!

And yes, I am wearing a Silly Band on my wrist. If you don't know what Silly Bandz are, you probably don't work with kids! They are a BIG DEAL!

[Source]

My particular Silly Band was a gift from a student who gave it to me because it is in the shape of a penguin and I have penguin things all over my classroom. If I've learned anything in three years of teaching, it's that when a student gives you a gift, you need to use it! Otherwise, they get their feelings hurt. :(

Cookies!
Yesterday afternoon, while B was at a Physics teacher training, I whipped up a batch of Apricot Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies. They are exquisite.

I made just a few modifications:

• 1 cup all purpose flour + 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 3/4 cups oats instead of 2
• reduced butter to 1 1/2 cups
• accidentally used baking powder instead of soda (no ill effects though)

I  had a few after dinner yesterday, then one with my coffee this morning, and maybe another one today after lunch. B originally turned his nose up at the dried apricot, but has definitely changed his tune. I really recommend waiting until they are cool to taste-test though. The dried apricot doesn't have the best flavor when it is hot out of the oven.

The recipe makes a lot of cookies (but I like to make them small-ish), so after baking up two dozen, I still had quite a bit of dough left. So, I made balls of dough, put them on parchment, and froze them...

...then tossed the frozen dough into a ziplock bag and put it back in the freezer. Now it's super easy to have cookies during the week without making a huge batch!

One of my favorite kitchen shortcuts!

Running!
B and I did what felt like a super slow four mile run this morning. In truth, I kept a 8:40min/mi pace throughout, but my legs felt like lead. My knee is still giving me some grief and it is incredibly frustrating. Right around the time my breathing settles down and my body feels ready to really tackle the miles, my knee gives up. I'm currently dealing with some health insurance issues (I signed up for insurance with my school district, but then realized that I would have better coverage if I used B's insurance, so now we are trying to make the swap but of course there is a ton of paperwork involved), but as soon as we get it figured out, I'm heading to the doctor.

Leftovers!
After our run this morning, I parked myself on the couch with leftovers for lunch:

Mexican Veggie Soup (no longer very soupy though!), and Veggie Chickpea Curry (and maybe a cookie or two). Now I'm icing my knee, watching Buffy reruns, and grading papers.

It looks like it might rain today!!

Sweet Saturday Morning

I love Saturday mornings. I sleep in but am still usually up before Brian. While he sleeps, I make coffee, read the paper, and usually play around in the kitchen. This morning I woke up with one thing on my mind - PUMPKIN!

Although I still haven't found any canned pumpkin (but only because I've been too busy this week to look), I remembered that I had about 1 cup of pumpkin puree in the freezer from last fall! I busted it out and defrosted it post-haste with visions of scones dancing in my head!

I took Angela's pumpkin scone recipe, but made some switches with the original recipe so they were sweeter and not vegan, but still healthier. 

They were a hit! Possibly my most successful baked good to date (this is a big deal, I'm a horrible baker)!

Meg's Hybrid Pumpkin Scones

inspired by Oh She Glows and Food.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat  flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• Turbinado sugar, to garnish

Spiced Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1.5-2 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 425F and line a baking sheet with parchment or a non-stick mat.
2. In a large bowl mix the first 9 ingredients.
3. Take the cold butter and cut butter into dry ingredients until crumbly (I use my food processor).
4. In a medium sized bowl, mix the pumpkin, egg, vanilla, and milk.
5. Add wet to dry and mix until a ball forms.
6. Place the ball of dough on a floured surface. Flour your hands lightly and knead a few times..
7. Shape the dough into a circle and then cut into 8 triangles (a pizza wheel works really well for this step!).
8. Beat the egg slightly and, with a pastry brush or a spoon, brush onto each scone.
9. Sprinkle generously with sugar and bake for 12 minutes. Rotate halfway through.
10. While cooling, make the spiced glaze by beating 1 cup powdered sugar with milk and spice until smooth.
11. When scones are cool ice and enjoy! I piped the icing using a ziplock bag, but you could drizzle it with a whisk or just cover the whole scone.

While cooking up a storm, I decided to try some of the Creme Brulee coffee that Caftea sent me this week!

I will be honest, I was a little apprehensive. I don't like flavored coffee very much and this smelled very sweet when I opened the bag. However, once I brewed it up (french press, hooray!) the sweetness was very subtle and the taste was really smooth! 

I was worried that the vanilla and brown sugar flavors, but they were very mellow and really complimented the coffee. I had 2 cups! You can pick up a bag in my OpenSky shop.

We have a FUN weekend planned, so be sure to check back later for all the details!

Each Peach

Have you guys heard about this crazy California heat wave? Normally, I am not one to complain about hot weather, but it seriously sucks when you are stuck in a classroom with 30 sweaty 12-year-olds and no AC from 8 to 3.

Just sayin'.

Despite the record-breaking heat, I decided to bake some muffins Wednesday night. It was only 85 degrees in my kitchen, so I thought it probably wouldn't hurt to crank up the oven to 400 degrees at 9pm.

No biggie.

The real reason I went ahead with the baking, though, was because I had bought all these extra peaches to bake peach muffins with and they were ripening at record speed in the heat. I knew I needed to either cook them or eat them all as soon as possible and I didn't think I could eat that many peaches in one sitting.

Enter the Spiced Peach Muffin.

Spiced Peach Muffins
from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 cups dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 4 peaches, diced (not peeled)
• granulated sugar

 Method

1. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar, allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in eggs, vegetable oil and milk, then gently stir in fruit. 
2. Grease 16 muffin cups, and heap batter into cups; they'll be very full. Sprinkle with granulated sugar. 
3. Bake at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes, or until muffins test done. Makes 16 muffins.

I was short on flour, so I actually halved the recipe, and somehow still ended up with 14 muffins. I know that math doesn't really add up, but it's the truth. Perhaps I didn't heap the batter enough? Anyway, the 14 muffins that I ended up with were a huge hit with the English teachers at my school (and with my husband, of course), so I'll be sure to make these again while peaches are still in season (or, as King Arthur suggests, with blueberries, blackberries, or raspberries. Yum!).

Do you consider yourself a cook or a baker? Do you think there's a difference?
I consider myself a cook who occasionally bakes. I don't really like baked goods much, but B loves them and they are fun to share. I get nervous with the precision of baking though. I'm always afraid I'll "mismeasure" something or end up forgetting a crucial ingredient (like the time I forgot to add sugar to my mom's birthday cake when I was 10.).






PS - As of today, the heat wave has broken! I am a happier camper.

Yoga Puppy

I got back from my 6-miler this evening and got down on the floor to do some yoga. This little goober decided to join me. Talk about downward dog!

Backing up, I enjoyed another relaxing day at my parents' house today. I decided to whip up a batch of Angela's Healthy Carrot Cake Power Scuffins. Brian loves carrot cake, and scones, and muffins and pretty much any baked good, so I thought it might be nice to have a healthier alternative for him to take to work once school starts again.

By the way, here is the kitchen I've been cooking in this week:

Ridiculous, right?

My parents bought this house when I was a freshman in high school and it was a total pit. They basically tore it down completely and rebuilt it from the ground up. The original kitchen was about the size of the guest bathroom in our two bedroom apartment!

I love that fireplace. It's so wonderful and cozy to have a fireplace in the kitchen during the winter. I spent many evenings sitting at that table doing my homework in high school!

On to the "scuffins." I only made a few modifications, mostly because I wasn't cooking in my own kitchen. I thought my Mom had raisins, but she only had currants. I like currants, but I think it would be even better with plump raisins. I also used brown rice flour instead of spelt flour, since that's what we had at the grocery store. I don't think it made a huge difference in the taste, but next time I might do a mix of brown rice and whole wheat flours since it does tend to have a little "nutty" flavor.

In general, these were really great! I had half of one out of the oven and thought they were just a little "meh." I had the other half once they had cooled and thought it was a lot better. I feel the same way about peanut butter desserts too, though. I think they taste way better once they are cooled. Is this just a weird "me thing?"

I am looking forward to trying Angela's pumpkin variety as well as this yummy zucchini alternative as well!

Despite my general laziness this week, I did finally manage to get my 6-mile run in that I was originally supposed to do on Tuesday! I waited until the evening and went out to the track, but took it easy since my joints are pretty sore.

The good news is that cardio/fitness-wise, I'm feeling great! I seriously feel like I could just run forever without getting tired. It's an awesome feeling! However, my right knee is hurting pretty badly and that discourages me. I am worried that in pushing myself to finish my training strong, I might be jeopardizing my chances at being able to actually run my race!

I am just going to continue listening to my body and supplementing some of my shorter runs with spinning if I am hurting too much. Only 23 more days!

Here are my run stats from tonight:

• Total Mileage: 6.01mi
• Total Time: 55:40min
• Average Pace: 9:15min/mi

So now I'm icing my knee with frozen edamame while watching Project Runway.

It's too early to call a winner, but my heart just breaks for adorable little Mondo! Also, I am going to start calling my best friends "hip buddies." Casanova is so crazy!

Tomorrow I have the first of many meetings at the district office for my new job. Hooray for signing up for health insurance!

How do you handle physical setbacks when you are in the middle of training?
It's not like I can just take a few weeks off until my knee feels better... Right?

Sidewalk Surfing

I took yesterday off (from blogging, that is) to spend the day at the beach with my mom. We shopped in Capitola, had lunch at Palapas, and then frolicked near the ocean at Seascape (where Brian proposed!). It was a wonderful, relaxing, beautiful day. I even picked up these cute shoes:

Aren't they adorable?! They are the new Sidewalk Surfers from Sanuk and they are so comfy. They have a rubber, flip-flop sole with a canvas upper and are super lightweight. I am looking forward to wearing them all summer long (and probably buying more...).

The hubs came home yesterday afternoon and we celebrated with iced lattes and leftovers. My sister-in-law and I watched a little Losing it with Jillian (have I mentioned that my SIL is living with us these days? She's actually been here for 6 weeks but is moving out this weekend) and then had a baking party in the kitchen. Carrie whipped up a batch of Camper's Chocolate Chip Cookies and I made some decadent double chocolate brownies (recipe below). I think I am going to try grilling pizza tonight!

I am scheduled for a 4-mile run today, but I've had a little nerve pain in my lower back lately that got pretty intense last night, so I'm going to rest up today and see how I feel this evening. I have 8 miles scheduled tomorrow (my longest run yet!) and I want to be able to do it pain free. Brian thought it might be my sciatic, but the pain is a little too high and centralized (it's just to the left of my coccyx) and doesn't run down the back of my leg. Any ideas?

This morning I made Brian an oatmeal pancake (because I forgot to buy his cereal while he was away - oops!). These were so easy and yummy! Last night I mixed together 1/2 cup of oats, 1 egg white, 1/4 cup of applesauce, 1/2T vanilla, and 1t baking powder. This morning I mixed in 1/2 a mashed banana and poured the mixture out on a hot grill. B ate it with warm maple syrup and said it was better than regular pancakes. Yum!

As promised, here is my brownie recipe. I originally intended to use 1/4c sugar and 1/4c agave nectar, but realized I was running low on agave, so (to celebrate my sweet-tooth husband being home), I just used all sugar. Ashley used sucanat and brown rice syrup in her version of these, which would be great, but would have required an extra trip to the store for me. Using sugar does not bother me as much as using oils and fats (I eat so little sugar to begin with), so I was perfectly happy sugaring these up!

Double Chocolate Brownies
[adapted from Mama Pea & The Edible Perspective]

Ingredients

• 3/4c WW flour
• 1/3c unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2t baking powder
• 1/2t baking soda
• 1c unsweetened applesauce
• 1/2c sugar
• 2t vanilla
• 1/2c chocolate chips
• 1/2 salt

Directions

1.    Preheat oven to 350*

2.    Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder + soda, coffee, and salt together in a large bowl.

3.    In a medium sized bowl combine applesauce, sugar, and vanilla until combined.

4.    Pour the wet into the dry and mix by hand until combined. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl but do not over mix. The batter will be somewhat lumpy.

5.    Let rest for a few minutes and then mix in chocolate chips.

6.    Pour + spread evenly into an 8×8 greased pan.

7.    Bake ~20min until edges pull away from the pan or toothpick test.

8.    Let cool for at least 30min before cutting out of pan.

  

These were just as delicious as I imagined they would be. Sweet and chocolaty and dense... Yum. I might take Ashley's suggestion and add instant coffee to them next time. These might be some of the best brownies I have ever made - you need to make them right now!

Enjoy!