ABC Breakfast Muffins

Sometimes when you hear a certain old song or read a certain book or watch a certain old movie ,doesn't it make you get all nostalgic and literally take you back in time to a certain phase in life.Mostly they rekindle pleasant and fond memories.Watching them or listening to them makes you feel so happy and young.I have books,songs and movies that mark almost every important phase in my life :)Once you have kids the songs and movies are replaced by cartoons and rhymes.I remember every phase of my daughter's life with cartoons,Mary had a little lamb - she's laughing and cruising,Pocoyo - she's running around, Caillou - she's talking ,Peppa Pig - Kindergarten and now Mia and Me - School :) I know I sound like that perfect bad parent who uses cartoons as her baby sitter.As much as you'd condemn the cartoons,I'm indebted to them.They are those angels who help me get at least 30 minutes of break to get something done around the house.Now I'm not talking about those cartoons where the characters speaks Filmy dialogues :) The last time on my India trip I was honestly astonished with the cartoons on certain TV channels.Chinese cartoon characters speaking Tamil movie dialogues,the world is indeed becoming small.Well I did grow up watching Uncle Scrooge (Duck Tales) talking Hindi ,but watching Hattori sing 'Naan aducha thange maate'  is heights of comedy :) I sort of believe that good cartoons do benefit our kids,they do pick up a few good things from them.The only thing I don't like is the way they portray these perfect parents who never raise they voices and keep their calm like a Buddha statue :) Guess cartoons have taken over my life,when everybody else were curious to know who Jon Snow's (GoT) parents were,I was breaking my head over who Charlie and Lola's parents were,don't you think it's spooky,they never ever show them :p

Coming to the recipe,this is a perfect snack box recipe.What I love about it ,is it's ease of preparing,just mix all the ingredients in a bowl and bake.I stumbled across the vegan version of this recipe on 'The Minimalist baker's blog'.She has a wonderful collection of easy vegan recipes. I've changed the recipe a bit and I used very ripe bananas,it kind of gave it a creamy taste.When you have those bananas which are so ripe that their skins are almost fully black,this is is the perfect recipe to use them up.I named them ABC because they have apples,bananas and carrots in them.They taste super yum for breakfast and stay good for a day or two. So off to the recipe !!

Makes about 8 muffins

Recipe adapted from here

You'll Need:

Egg - 1

Olive oil - 4 tbsp

Honey - 4 tbsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp

Milk - 1/2 cup - 125 ml

Carrot -  2 grated - 1 cup

Apple grated(Finely) - 1 or unsweetened Apple sauce -  1/2 cup

Half a big banana - mashed - 1/2 a cup

Spelt Flour/Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup

Oats - 3/4 cup

Almond powder - 3 - 4 tbsp

Brown Sugar - 1/2 a cup

Method:

-Preheat the oven to 150°C/ .Line a muffin tray with 8 muffin cups.

-In a big mixing bowl add the egg,olive oil ,honey ,mashed banana and whisk.Next add the salt,cinnamon powder,sugar and apple and whisk.

-Next add the grated carrot and milk and mix.

-Finally add the spelt flour,oats and almond flower and mix well.

-Divide the batter equally among the 8 muffin cups and bake for 25 - 35 minutes.Keep checking from the 25th minute,mine were done by the 30th minute.I use a small OTG,the baking time and temperature might vary with oven.Use the temperature settings used for cake baking :)

Thanks for stopping by ! Have a nice day!

Aviyal

Have you ever noticed that your food taste changes over the years.I remember being a very picky eater as a kid.I'd rather starve than eat food that I didn't favour,and the list of foods that I didn't like was pretty long.But over the years,call it maturity or ageing, I started eating most of these stuff,partly because I realised the health benefits they offer or I just started liking them.I still don't like certain varieties of Spinach though ,and I still try to swallow them with a cup of water :) Aviyal was probably the last thing on my list as a kid,it was synonymous with my grand mom's place.My mom hails  from a small town in the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala,and everything in the town from the food habits to culture is so similar to Kerala ,that I sometime wonder why the town is still a part of Tamil Nadu. Coconuts,fish and Aviyals are a part of day to day cooking.I started liking Aviyal mainly during my pregnancy,it's such a nutritious dish with so many vegetables and involves absolutely no sauteing.This dish really helps,when your heightened sense of smell and tiredness makes cooking difficult during pregnancy.This is not an authentic version of it,but I tweak it to fit whatever I find in my kitchen :)It pairs up well with rice ,So off to the recipe.....

You'll Need:

Drumstick - 1/2 a long one(cleaned and chopped into 2" pieces)

Carrot - 1 medium(cleaned and chopped)

Potato or yam - a small one(cleaned ,peeled and chopped)

Raw Banana - 1 big(cleaned ,peeled and chopped)
Curd - 2 - 3 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
salt as needed
To Grind:

Green Chilli - 1 to 2

Coconut- 2 tbsp(grated)

Cumin Seeds -  1/2 tsp

Whole Pepper Corns - 1/4 tsp

To temper:

Coconut oil - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - leaves from a sprig

Method:

-In a vessel add the chopped carrot,potato,yam,raw banana and drumstick.

-Add about 1/2 a cup of water,a pinch of turmeric and salt as needed and mix well.

-On a medium flame let it cook until the vegetables are 3/4th cooked,they should hold their shape and not turn mushy.

-Add the ground coconut paste and mix well.Let it cook further for another 4 -5 minutes until it loses its raw flavour.

-Now remove it from the stove and add the curd and mix well.

-In a small pan heat the coconut oil and splutter the curry leaves and mustard.

-Add the tempering to the cooked Aviyal and gently mix.Done !

Thanks for stopping by ! Have a nice day !