Blueberry coffee cake... muffins!!

I love blueberries and anything made with blueberries (almost as much as I love chocolate and anything chocolate-covered or chocolate-filled ;-)). This morning I felt like having a slice of Blueberry coffee cake for breakfast, but then I looked up the recipe and I found out how time consuming (and messy!) it would have been to make a coffee cake from scratch. You know what's easy, though? Muffins :-) So I thought I'd make some coffee cake-like muffins. I wish I could post pictures of the finished muffins, but they were gone by the time I was done typing this recipe :-)

Since I have been trying to avoid things I am sensitive to, I decided to make this recipe wheat- and dairy-free. But I promise you can't tell! Also, I made a small batch, so feel free to double the ingredients to make a full batch (12 muffins).

Ingredients:
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 cup unbleached spelt flour
- 1/4 cup evaporated cane juice (or brown sugar)
- 1 tsp alluminum-free baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- a pinch of salt
- 2 Tbsp Earth balance dairy-free buttery stick

Preparation:
1. Prepare the blueberry filling (recipe below) and move it to a bowl to let it cool down.

2. Turn on the oven to 375.

3. In a large bowl, mash the buttery stick with a fork until creamy - then add dry ingredients and mix manually with a whisk, pressing any chunks of butter sticks until it's all well mixed into a coarse texture.

4. In a small bowl, beat the egg, then add the almond milk and lemon extract and keep beating until well combined.

5. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and work the mixture with the whisk until well combined. It will be thick and sticky. Divide this mixture more or less evenly into 6 muffin cups.

6. Grab the bowl with the Blueberry filling and divide it also into the muffin cups. With a toothpick, gently stir/swirl the filling into the dough a little.

7. Sprinkle the streusel topping (recipe below) onto the muffins and bake for 20 minutes.Turn off the oven and leave the muffins in for 10 more minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool.

8. If you want to reach breakfast Nirvana, enjoy one with an imitation-London Fog latte (Earl Grey steeped with hot soy milk instead of water, and sweetened).

Blueberry Filling:
1. In a small saucepan, mix the following:
- 1 cup unsweetened frozen blueberries
- 1 Tbsp evaporated cane juice
- 1 Tbsp lime juice (lemon will work too)
- 1 Tbsp water
- 1 Tbsp brown rice flour

2. Stir to combine, and place over medium-low heat. Stir every now and then, and when the blueberries have thawed, take the pan off the heat and mash the blueberries with a fork a bit. Stir again and place back on the stove, stirring every now and then until thickened and bubbly.

3. Pour into a glass or ceramic bowl and let cool to room temperature.


Streusel Topping
1. In a small bowl, mash 2 Tbsp Earth balance dairy-free buttery stick with a fork.

2. Add the following:
- 2 1/2 Tbsp evaporated cane juice
- 2 tsp spelt flour
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp Earth balance dairy-free buttery stick

3. Mix with your hands, then sprinkle on the muffins before placing the tray in the oven.

Recipe: Middle-Eastern Turkey Meatballs

I love turkey. It's tastier than chicken, and for some reason I find it more filling. My husband, on the other hand, does not like turkey. He tolerates turkey at Thanksgiving because it comes with gravy and cranberry sauce (and a pile of mashed potatoes, and a slice of pumpkin pie at the end!) but at any other time of the year, it's no turkey for him. He categorically refused to even taste these, but both my daughters gobbled them up. The 9 year old, who is kind of a picky eater an intolerant to wheat and dairy, ate 8 (!!) and asked me to save the rest for her school lunch. Needless to say, I'll be making these again.


Ingredients:
- a little over 1 pound of lean ground turkey
- 1/3 cup uncooked quinoa
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, minced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp ground mustard seeds*
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4-1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper*
- 1 1/2 tsp freshly ground cumin*
- olive oil spray
- extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth, lightly salted
- 1 cup water
- 2/3 cup white cooking wine

Preparation:
1. In a large bowl, mix the meat and all the spices, while the quinoa cooks in lightly salted water.

2. When cooked, drain the quinoa and mix with the meat and spices. Start shaping your meatballs, using a heaping tablespoon of meat for each.

3. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan then spray the rest of the pan with the olive oil spray. You want it to be well coated, but not dripping with oil.

4. In a pan, mix the broth and water and bring to a boil.

5. Warm up the pan and add 8-10 meatballs to it, without crowding it. Lower the heat to medium and shake the pan back and forth every few minutes, to sear the meatballs on each side. As soon as they star browning on the outside, remove them with a slotted spoon and drop then in the boiling broth to finish cooking (about 8 minutes). With a slotted spoon, drain them and move them to a warm plate, then cover with a lid.

6. Spray the pan again and add 1-2 tsp of olive oil, and keep searing the meatballs then cooking them in the broth, until all meatballs are done.

7. Pour the white wine in the pan and stir with a spoon, removing all the browned bits from the bottom. Then add the meatballs, tossing them in the pan until they are lightly caramelized and there's no wine remaining at the bottom of the pan.

Serves 4-6.

Serving options:
- Serve the meatballs warm, with brown/Jasmine rice on the side. In this case, reduce 1 cup of broth and 1/2 cup of white wine in a pan and pour some over each portion. Accompany them with steamed broccoli sauteed in olive oil and garlic.
- Serve the meatballs over baby spinach or baby arugula, topped with 1-2 Tablespoons of Yogurt sauce (recipe below) and a chunky salad without balsamic vinegar.
- Cut the meatballs in chunks and stuff them into a pita, with cut-up cucumber, tomato slices and sprouts, and top with a 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt sauce.

Yogurt sauce
Mix these ingredients in a small bowl:
- 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt (possibly organic)
- 3 large basil leaves, julienned
- 1 Tbsp lime juice
- 3 Tbsp water
- 1/4 tsp yellow mustard
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste


I chose the second option, and served the meatballs on top of baby arugula, with yogurt sauce drizzled on top and a modified chunky salad on the side, made with cherry tomatoes and smaller chunks of cucumber and slices of red onion. I chose to leave it without dressing, because it was a nice palate cleanser after the spiciness of the meatballs, arugula and yogurt sauce.




*freshly ground spices are SO much tastier than bottled ones. The only ground spices I buy are nutmeg and coriander, the rest I grind while cooking or right before I need them. Keep an extra pepper mill or two for this purpose, or use a mortar and pestle.