Whole Wheat Oatmeal “Pie Plant” Muffins

Sitting on my porch sipping a sparkling lemonade; I adore lazy sunny Sundays.

Surrounded by my mother’s garden I got contemplating to myself about seasonal ingredients.  I love the summer months for the fresh produce that they bring.  Strawberries, nectarines, peaches, corn; I am so excited to eat you in the upcoming months!

We have a huge amount of rhubarb in our garden right now, so I needed to think of some ways to put it to good use while it’s in its prime.

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Last week I made some stewed rhubarb with honey and put it on top of greek yogurt (Yum) and the other day I whipped up some yummy oatmeal rhubarb muffins (recipe to follow) and tonight I am going to bake up a dish of rhubarb crumble.

I love rhubarb.  I love it for it’s tartness and all the things that you can do with it.  I had lots of leftover stewed rhubarb, which was great on top of my morning oats.

If you have some rhubarb  kicking around in your garden (or your Mom’s in my case), nab some up and create something delicious.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal “Pie Plant” Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped, fresh or frozen rhubarb
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 salt

Directions

In a bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, lemon juice, apple sauce and the vegetable oil.

In another, large bowl, with a fork, mix together the whole wheat flour, brown sugar, rolled oats, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Make a “well” in the center of the dry ingredients, and pour the egg mixture in, and stir just until combined.

Gently stir in the chopped rhubarb and let batter rest for about 10 mins.

Spoon the batter into muffin cups or paper lined muffin cups.

Bake in center of oven at 350° F for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool muffins in the pan for about 5 minutes, and then remove to a cooling rack.

Makes about 16-18 muffins

Interestingly enough, rhubarb is actually a vegetable, who knew?!

Eat it up (minus the leaves) as rhubarb provides a good source of vitamin C, fiber, and calcium.  Since rhubarb is primarily used for pie, it is also referred to by it’s nickname the “pie plant,” which I think is a cute nickname

What is your most favorite summer fruit or vegetable??

Hope you are having a marvelous weekend.

Love C

Home

Good Day!

What a beautiful day it is.  Sunny and about 35 degrees Celsius; I think I brought the Thailand warmth home with me.

I have been home in Ontario for about a week now and I am loving it (beside the fact that I have to unpack…I HATE unpacking).  There is something about being in a familiar environment that is so comforting.

I have conquered my jet lag and the flu and am back to my normal self.  I felt like I had been lying/ sitting for a week straight, so it feels amazing to be able to be active again.   My body definitely needed the healing time, but I felt so Bleh having to be so inactive.

None of that anymore, I have whipped out my jumping rope and have been doing lots of hopping around.  If you are bored of your cardio routine, try skipping, it’s super fun!  Makes me feel like a kiddo again.  I like to do different intervals of intensity with my jump rope as well as different jumping styles.  I still trip all over myself, but it’s a great workout!

Once I regained my strength I plowed into the kitchen on a mission to make anything and everything .  I was up for baking, cooking, BBQ-ing; anything that I could make myself..  Traveling is great, but having to eat at restaurants almost three meals a day for 2 months can be trying at times.  I am  not a picky person, but I do like to have some control of my diet, which is tricky with constant restaurant eating.

So being back at home, in my mother’s lovely stocked kitchen, is a dream.

I have gotten back into eating oatmeal for breakie.  It had been a while! Boy how I missed a good bowl of oats.

And Green Monsters of course.

I may have chosen the wrong bowl for this.  I ended up having to sip it from the edges so that it would not volcano onto the table.

Yummy Quinoa salad.

And Cookies!

My first baking endeavor and it was a success.  The recipe I used was inspired by Angela.  Check out her recipe.  The only changes I made were not adding the banana and I added in some chocolate chips.  These cookies are so soft and moist; a winner indeed. As the resident baker in my family, everyone was quite happy to have me back after biting into a couple of these.

I have concocted a bunch of other things as well and have either been too lazy to take a picture or have completely forgot…sorry!  But rest assured  there will be lots more yummy things to come.

I am off to watch The Bachelorette.  I am a little embarrassed to admit that, but a girl has to have her guilty pleasures, right?!  Hopefully you can still love me despite my love for trashy TV.

Take Care,

C