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“clean out the pantry” zucchini muffins

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Hi everyone! Hope your week is off to a fabulous start! Allyn and I are deep in the process of packing up our lives to move to our new house this coming Saturday! Where does the time go??

I have made it my personal mission to clean out our kitchen cupboards by using up as many ingredients as possible in our meals this week. By far, my favorite improvised recipe has been these zucchini-banana muffins, which I have dubbed “clean out the pantry” muffins because they enabled me to polish off a huge container of rolled oats, bags of flour and sugar, AND use up a zucchini and banana that were on their last legs! For some reason, finishing off almost-empty containers of ingredients makes me feel ridiculously satisfied, and doing so right before our move has increased my excitement level by tenfold. Muffins for the WIN!

I’ll definitely be making these babies again, even when I’m not trying to clean out our pantry. 🙂 They are perfectly moist, with a hint of sweetness, and give me a boost of energy to power through the morning. I especially love them topped with peanut butter!

The only thing I neglected to do, in my packing daze, was to snap a photo. You’ll just have to use your imagination. I hope you make these for yourself — and if you do, you can post a photo in the comments and help a girl out!

“clean out the pantry” zucchini-banana muffins

1 cup flour {I used a mixture of spelt & white whole wheat flours}
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 medium ripe banana, mashed {about 1/2 cup}
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup turbinado sugar {you can use more if you would like a sweeter muffin}
1 large egg
1/3 cup melted coconut oil, cooled to room temperature {or canola or vegetable oil}
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup shredded zucchini
optional add-ins: chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper cups or grease well.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour(s), oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and shredded coconut.
3. In a large bowl, combine mashed banana, yogurt, sugar, egg, coconut oil, and vanilla. Stir until well combined.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir gently until incorporated.
5. Squeeze the zucchini in a paper towel to remove excess liquid. Fold the zucchini into the batter.
6. Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full with batter. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

peanut butter coconut flour protein muffins

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Hi everyone! I have another recipe to share with you today, starring another cool flour: coconut flour! One reason I love baking with coconut flour is that it is packed full of fiber: a single serving of 2 tablespoons delivers a whopping 5 grams of fiber! It is also gluten-free, low in carbs, and high in protein. Coconut flour is made by grinding dried, defatted coconut meat.

These muffins are light and airy, while also being filling enough to keep you satisfied all morning. You can easily adapt these by mixing in your own favorite goodies — I think they would be great with nuts or dried cranberries stirred in, or maybe even chocolate chips! I love to amp up their peanut butter flavor even more by topping them with additional peanut butter! {As my brother would say, “Out of control…”} 🙂

I hope you enjoy these as much as Allyn and I did!

coconut-muffins-edited

{recipe adapted from Eat Good 4 Life}

Makes: 12 muffins

    • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
    • 1/2 cup coconut butter
    • 2 organic eggs
    • 1 tbsp ground flax
    • 3 tbsp water
    • 1 banana, mashed {about 1/2 cup}
    • 1/2 cup nonfat greek yogurt
    • 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp coconut flour
    • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
    • 1/4 cup milk, almond milk, soy milk or rice milk
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin baking pan with paper liners and set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix the water and ground flax and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, stir the coconut flour, coconut sugar, baking soda, and cinnamon.

4. In a large bowl, mix the bananas, eggs, vanilla extract, coconut butter and peanut butter. Using a wire whisk or electric mixer works very well! Next, slowly add in the flaxseed-water mixture, yogurt and milk.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently combine.

6. Scoop batter into your muffin pan, filling each muffin cup 3/4 cup of the way.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the baking pan and cool muffins on a wire rack.

8. Store in an air-tight container. These muffins also freeze well!

20161019_123152

if you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like:

banana buckwheat autumn muffins

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Happy Monday, everyone! It has been a rainy weekend here, which is wonderful because 1) we need all the rain we can get here in California! and 2) it actually feels like autumn! I love everything about autumn. The chill in the air, the scarves and boots, the fall leaves, pumpkin spice everything… it always makes me feel the best combination of cozy and energized!

These muffins are the perfect excuse to do some healthy autumn baking. They’re bursting with the flavors of the season — apple, dried cranberries, pumpkin pie spices — and are also way good for you, packed with protein and naturally sweetened with honey and coconut sugar.

I have been exploring different types of flours in my baking recently and was excited to try out buckwheat after reading about its health benefits: it is an excellent source of nutrients and fiber, is great for your cardiovascular system and helps control blood sugar. Buckwheat is actually not a cereal grain, but a fruit seed related to rhubarb and sorrel, so it is often used as a substitute for those with gluten allergies or who are sensitive to wheat. The seed is ground into a flour that is dark in color and has a strong, nutty flavor.

These muffins get sweetened up by the fruit, but they are definitely not cupcake-sweet. I love to eat them smeared with peanut butter or pumpkin butter for an extra kick of flavor! Hope you enjoy them as much as we do around here!

buckwheat-muffins

{recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s sugar-free muffins}

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup coconut sugar {or substitute sugar of your choice}
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
3 tbsp water
3 eggs
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 apple, finely diced
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup dried cranberries

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

2. In a small bowl, combine the ground flaxseed and water; mix together and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix the buckwheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and coconut sugar.

4. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, banana, vanilla and honey. Add the ground flaxseed-water mixture.

5. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, then fold in apple, dried cranberries and walnuts.

6. Pour batter to the tops of lined cups. Batter will be very runny, but that is normal!

7. Bake for 30 minutes, until the muffins turn a deep chocolate brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

buckwheat muffins 2

fabulous friday #52

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Hi friends, and happy Friday! Hope you’re up to something fun! I’m heading into the city as soon as I hit “publish” on this blog post to have lunch with my hubby {I still get a little giggly calling Allyn my husband :)} and then I’m going to have an afternoon “writing retreat” at a coffeeshop. I’m excited to delve into this new novel I’m working on, and also to get in some distraction-free commenting time on the wonderful batch of poems and stories I received from my creative writing students this past week. {News since I last posted an update on here: I’m teaching a weekly creative writing class for high school students in San Jose, and I’m LOVING it!} Speaking of things I’m loving…

Here are 5 things I’m loving right now:

1. One Teen Story! I love this little magazine for so many reasons. The issues come out every month, and each issue is a new story geared for teen audiences {but wise and wonderfully written — I think adults will love them, too!} Some of them are even written by teens, including “A Eulogy for Pretzel” and “Sunrise” in this batch below. I often slip a couple issues into my bag when I am taking public transport somewhere, so I can read without having to lug around a bulky book — I can fit these even into my small purse. I also like to use issues as “prizes” to motivate my writing students.

one teen story

2. Pumpkin Spice Cheerios — I nabbed these when I spotted them at the grocery store because I adore pretty much anything pumpkin spice. I have been eating them for breakfast or as a snack all week long, and I also made these delicious cereal bars from Eating Bird Food.

3. Last weekend, for Allyn’s birthday, I planned a birthday surprise outing for him. I absolutely love birthdays and I had so much fun planning out a fun adventure for us. We went to the pumpkin patch where we were able to conquer a corn maze for the second year in a row and picked out some stellar pumpkins for only $4 each! I have named them Fred & Ginger.

Allyn pumpkin patch

Then we went out to dinner at this neat restaurant called Old City Hall Restaurant that used to actually be the town City Hall — there is so much history in the building, and where the bathrooms are used to be the jail cells! They still have the iron gates and it was definitely the coolest bathroom I have ever seen. I would have taken a picture for you guys but I had left my purse/phone at the table!

I did however take lots of photos of our final stop of the surprise-filled day: the Lumination experience at Gilroy Gardens! This was so cool, you guys! If you live in the Bay Area, I highly recommend it. It is like the Rose Parade meets Christmas lights meets the Chinese lantern festival. We spent a couple hours walking all over the gardens and taking in all the amazing light sculptures. One of my favorites was a ginormous dragon that was entirely built out of china dishes–cups, bowls, plates, etc! It was incredible to behold.

dragon lumination

dragon china plates

4. Something about autumn always makes me bust out my James Taylor albums, especially October Road, and I love his new one Before This World as well. Lately I’ve also been rocking out to this Ben Rector song… impossible to be in a grumpy or tired mood when this song comes on, am I right??

5. I don’t usually get political in this space, but this election feels too perilous not to speak out against hatred, violence, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and a terrifying frenzy of fear. Too much is at stake to stay silent. In these times of uncertainty, I have been particularly inspired by this movement, #DedicateYourNoTrumpVote, started by writers Julianna Baggott and David Scott, who reached out to fellow writers, family, and friends, who reached out to more folks and word spread quickly. The response has been overwhelming — some pieces are heartbreaking and moving, others inspiring, others simply stunning. The line-up of writers include two Pulitzer-prizewinners, New York Times bestselling novelists, a National Book Award-winner, critically acclaimed poets, as well as social workers, teachers, even a retired lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army Special Forces. DedicateYourNoTrumpVote.com is looking for people from various walks of life, a diverse range of experience and points of view. Submit your own piece, or just read the words of others and consider what you want your vote to stand for — what legacy you want to leave to your future children and grandchildren.

Questions for the day:

  • What are you loving right now?
  • What do you have on the agenda for this weekend?

oatmeal jam bars

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I went home to visit my parents for Easter, before heading to L.A. for a writers conference. The timing worked out great because I got to spend a couple extra days with my family before making the short drive to Los Angeles. As always, it was a relaxing time in my hometown… going out for breakfast with Dad, running errands with Mom, watching a few good movies, reading a ton, and catching up on some playtime with Mr. Mur-dog! I also got in some quality baking time, as I always love to do when I am on vacation. Baking is so relaxing and nourishing for me!

Ready to do some baking in my Easter outfit!

Ready to do some baking in my Easter outfit!

One of my favorite things to do is when I’m at my parents’ house is to rifle through their pantry for ingredients that need to be used up, and then find a way to plug these into a recipe. This visit, I made a batch of my beloved three-ingredient cookies, substituting granola for the oats. I also made some lemon bars for Gramps, who joined us for Easter dinner. Then I noticed that Mom had a soon-to-be-expiring jar of jam to use up, along with a ton of oats. So after some online searching, I tweaked a recipe I found to make some healthy oat jam bars using the ingredients at hand. I loved these for dessert… and they are still healthy enough to eat for breakfast, too! I also think these would be a great road trip snack or a healthy snack for kiddos. {You don’t need to tell your kids how healthy these are!} 😉

In my own healthy living journey, I have been trying to eat fewer packaged and processed foods and to make more foods on my own. One thing I love about making my own food is that I know exactly what goes into it… and, in turn, exactly what is going into my belly. Also, baking takes way less time than I would have thought before I started doing it routinely. I typically like to bake on the weekends and enjoy treats most of the week! Baked-from-scratch goodness just feels fancier to me than store-bought treats. Many baked goods can easily be frozen for later, too, and then heated up in the microwave or toaster oven when you’re ready to eat ’em!

Another good thing about making your own snacks and breakfast foods and desserts, rather than buying them from the store? You save a lot of packaging waste, which really adds up over time in our landfills! AND you save money. It’s a win-win!

healthy easy oatmeal jam bars

{This recipe was adapted from this one by Diana at My Humble Kitchen.}

  • 1 & 1/2 cups whole wheat white flour
  • 1 & 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil or butter
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup agave
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup jam {I used raspberry}
  • 1 cup fresh berries
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a small glass baking pan.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, 1 cup of the oats, salt, cinnamon and baking soda.
  3. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the coconut oil or butter.
  4. Stir the melted coconut oil or butter, the honey, and the agave together. Add to the dry mixture.
  5. Transfer about 2/3 of the dough to the prepared baking pan. Pack the mixture down firmly.
  6. With a spoon, spread the jam evenly over the dough.
  7. Sprinkle the fresh berries throughout the jam layer.
  8. Top the berry-jam layer with the remaining 1/3 of the dough.
  9. Spread the remaining 1/2 cup of oats over the top, being careful to cover any bare areas where the jam is peeking through.
  10. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden brown. {Be careful not to over-bake — these burn easily!}

Note: Allow to cool completely before cutting.

oatmeal jam bars

Hope you enjoy! These make a wonderful breakfast, healthy dessert, or after-school snack!

if you liked this recipe you might also enjoy:
– raspberry brown-butter bars
– vegan healthier toffee bars
– quinoa breakfast bars via The Lean Green Bean
– homemade no-bake granola bars via PB Fingers

spinach banana muffins {aka “monster muffins”}

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Hi, guys! I’m just poppin’ in with a little recipe to share with you today. I made these muffins for St. Patrick’s Day and they were a big hit! I promise, you can’t taste the spinach at all! They taste like banana muffins and have an added boost of good-for-you nutrients thanks to the spinach. These muffins would be a great way to get picky kids to eat more greens. Call them “monster muffins” and serve them all year long, not just for St. Patrick’s Day! 🙂

This recipe was adapted from this one by Pamela Salzman.

spinach banana muffins

spinach banana muffins

  •  1 cup white wheat flour
  • 1 and 1/4 cup oats
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 egg
  • ¾ cup maple syrup
  • ¾ cup milk {I used vanilla rice milk}
  • ¼ cup vegetable oil
  • 6-7 ounces of fresh baby spinach leaves
  • 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • optional: 1 cup mini chocolate chips
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
  3. Into a blender, pour in applesauce, maple syrup, milk, oil, and spinach. Process until pureed. {I did in multiple batches in my Nutribullet!}
  4. Add spinach mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until combined, being careful not to over-mix.
  5. Stir in the egg. Fold in the mashed banana and chocolate chips.
  6. Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin. It will be a little runny/thin — that is okay! This means the muffins will turn out moist.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

*Note: these muffins freeze very well… if they last that long in your household! They didn’t in mine. 😉

Hope you enjoy! Happy Wednesday. Have a wonderful rest of the week, my friends!

 

if you liked this recipe, you might also want to try:
– apple oat banana muffins
– carrot cake coconut muffins w/chickpea flour
– berry cream cheese muffins
– coconut zucchini muffins

fabulous friday #52

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Hi friends, and happy Friday! It’s been far too long since I’ve done a Fabulous Friday post… I’m excited to bring this back today! Hope you’re up to something fun this lovely autumn weekend. 🙂

Here are 5 things I’m loving right now:

1. Being in Lake Tahoe! This is my first time traveling to this gorgeous vacation destination that so many people rave about, and I must say it has lived up to my expectations and then some! It is a beautiful time of year to be here, with crisp fall weather and so much greenery. I snagged a postcard for you guys!

Lake Tahoe postcard

I am loving being part of the Tahoe WordWave Festival. There are so many talented, creative writers and artists all around and it has been a privilege and pleasure to attend the workshops and events. Additionally, I am SO excited for the premiere of my one-act play “Woman, Running Late, in a Dress” tomorrow night at the Valhalla Boathouse Theatre! The cast of my play took a selfie for you. {How adorable are they??}

my cast

2. Backing up a little bit, this past Tuesday Dana and I attended the Taste of Walnut Creek, a fundraiser for a variety of local organizations, including my church! Each attendee got a little booklet of coupons and you would walk around downtown and stop at various restaurants to get a sample.

taste of walnut creek booklet

Each sample was quite small, but at the end of the night we were definitely full! {And we didn’t even make it to all of the restaurants offered!} If your town offers something similar, I would for sure recommend attending. Here is a list of the different eats & drinks we enjoyed:

I had an absolute blast strolling around downtown Walnut Creek, eating and chatting with beautiful Dana! I feel so blessed to have such amazing people like her in my life.

me and dana taste of walnut creek

3. I can’t get enough coconut butter lately! Have you guys tried this before? I first had it smeared on my morning bagels at Key West when I was there for the Key West Literary Conference a couple years ago, but I kind of forgot about it because I never see coconut butter in the grocery store, just coconut oil. But coconut butter was on sale at Swanson’s Vitamins last week, so I bought a tub.

coconut butter

You guys, I can’t get enough! My favorite thing of late is to prep a slice of toast with half coconut butter, half almond butter. Mmmmm I could eat this all day.

coconut almond butter toast

Aaaaand I am pretty sure my love for avocado toast will never die. Bring on the healthy fats!

avocado toast

4. I recently discovered Susan Hyatt {thanks to my girl Alex Franzen} and I am loving her short weekly “GO!” podcasts. Susan releases a new episode each Monday, with the goal of helping you get your week off to a great start. Topics range from your finances to your family to your business/career. I love how these are short enough to listen to as I’m getting ready for the day, and they never fail to give me a burst of inspiration. Susan is like that funny, no-nonsense, motivating friend who gives you the honest kick-in-pants you need. I binge-listened to all of her episodes last week, and now I am kinda bummed I have to wait each week for a new one!

5. Allyn and I got our pumpkins! Fingers crossed they last till Halloween; we are planning to have a pumpkin-carving party with Allyn’s sister on Halloween day. Since I like to name EVERYTHING, I of course had to name our pumpkins. Let me introduce you to Harold and Maude! {Have you seen that movie? Such a great one.}

our pumpkins

Questions for the morning:

  • What are you loving right now?
  • What do you have on the agenda for this weekend?

carrot cake coconut muffins w/chickpea flour

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A couple nights ago I posted a photo on Instagram of some evening baking, and multiple people commented asking for the recipe! So of course I had to share it on here. 🙂

This recipe marks my first time ever baking with chickpea flour! I was inspired by Robyn @the real-life rd to order some, because it is packed with veggie protein, iron and fiber, and she swore it is easy to sub into baking recipes. I have to say I was quite impressed with its soft texture and the hint of sweetness it brings to these muffins. To make these gluten-free, I also used rice flour, although you could use whole wheat flour if you would like.

These muffins are moist, soft, and packed with autumn flavors. They have no sugar, just maple syrup. I love them warmed up for breakfast, smeared with peanut butter, and also for dessert! You could even slap some frosting on these bad boys and call them cupcakes.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we did around here! And I will definitely be sharing more recipes with chickpea flour in the future — I’m hooked. 🙂

carrot cake muffins chickpea flour

carrot cake coconut muffins w/chickpea flour

{adapted from this recipe at Wallflower Girl}

– 1/2 cup rice flour {or whole wheat flour}
– 1/2 cup rolled oats
– 3/4 cup chickpea flour
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1/2 tsp baking soda
– 2 tsp cinnamon
– 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– 1/2 cup vegetable oil or coconut oil
– 1 cup water
– 3/4 cup maple syrup
– 1/2 cup grated carrot {I used one large carrot}
– 1 cup shredded coconut
– 3/4 cup raisins
– 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with liners or spray lightly with nonstick spray.

2. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients: rice flour, rolled oats, chickpea flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice.

3. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients: vegetable oil/coconut oil, water, maple syrup, grated carrot, and shredded coconut.

4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until combined. Batter will seem a little thin, but that is okay!

5. Add raisins and chopped walnuts.

6. Fill your muffin tins pretty much to the top. Bake 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

carrot cake muffins

Have you ever baked with chickpea flour? If so, please share your favorite recipes in the comments section!

if you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like:
– coconut zucchini muffins
– apple banana oatmeal muffins
– gluten free apple pie bites

a year of living simply: week 20 + my dad’s new book!

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Happy Tuesday, friends! Hope your morning is off to a wonderful start!

Before I get into this week’s year of living simply challenge, I want to share with you guys some exciting news: my dad is publishing a new book! Titled Strawberries in Wintertime, it is a collection of essays on life, love, and laughter and has already been compared to Robert Fulghum’s heartwarming classic All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten. Topics include hellos and goodbyes; celebrating “lasts” as well as “firsts”; old, new and rekindled friendships; childhood and fatherhood (and motherhood, too); wedding anniversaries and graduations; the magic of a jar filled with marbles and the beauty of a messy garage. Strawberries in Wintertime is scheduled for release on December 1st, right in time for the holidays. Books make terrific gifts! My dad is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to take pre-orders {and he offers some really cool perks as well, like a Skype “Meet the Author” and the opportunity to have your name in print as a sponsor of the book!}… BUT the campaign ends THIS MONDAY, October 5, and this is your only chance to order an exclusive signed First Edition of the book. So don’t delay! It’s hard to beat a signed, personalized new release hard copy book from a national award-winning writer for just $25!

strawberries in wintertime

If you order a copy, let me know and I’ll put your name in a drawing to win a copy of my collection of short stories, 3 a.m.!

Moving along to our year of living simply challenge…

year of living simply

Last week’s challenge was to find a creative way to repurpose or reuse something, instead of throwing it out or recycling it. I tried making granola for the first time {went with this recipe for oatmeal raisin cookie granola, minus the blackstrap molasses and with Justin’s Honey PB because my store didn’t carry the Cinnamon Swirl PB listed in the recipe}…

oatmeal cookie granola

I wanted to make a special treat for my sweetheart because he recently started a new job doing fantastic work and I could not be prouder of him. He is also biking to and from work each day, which means early mornings and the need for a hearty breakfast! So I decided to surprise him with some homemade granola. I upcycled these two metal tea Harney & Sons tea tins to store the granola and keep it nice and fresh.

granola tins

granola tins

Decorated with some twine and handwritten labels, they turned out pretty dang cute!

granola tins with labels

 

This week’s challenge is to wrangle together any gift cards you have lying around, and use at least one of them up! I don’t know about you, but I have at least half a dozen gift cards to various restaurants taking up space in my wallet and glove compartment, some with only a few dollars left on them… but still, a few dollars are a few dollars! It’s time to make a plan and use them up! You could also sell your unused gift cards at websites like Cardpool.

Questions for the day:

  • What did you upcycle this past week?
  • Do you have a tendency to let gift cards sit around unredeemed?

easy, throw-together, can’t-fail fruit cobbler

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Sometimes my grandparents like to shop at Costco.

Which is great! I love Costco! The only problem: there are only three of us in the house. None of us are teenage boys with roaring appetites. And my Grandma likes to buy fruit at Costco.

Which means we sometimes often have a whole bunch of fruit ripening all at once.

So I devised this fruit cobbler recipe out of necessity. I really hate throwing away/wasting food, but a girl can only stir so many strawberries into her morning oatmeal. So one day I chopped up a bunch of strawberries that were on the verge of going bad, added some squishy blueberries and a sad, mealy apple, and topped the whole thing with some stale, also-bought-at-Costco oatmeal cookies that I crushed up with a rolling pin.

I slid the whole thing into the oven and crossed my fingers that when I pulled it out half an hour later, the concoction would have magically transformed into deliciousness.

Well, guess what? IT DID.

costco fruit cobbler

This disappeared from the pan in record time and is a new favorite dessert of my cousin Bianca. {Don’t tell her how easy it is to make… she thinks I’m a superhero every time I bring her some!}

Since then, I’ve made this recipe with a variety of different fruit and topping combinations, and it comes out delectable every single time. So I wanted to share it with you! If you’re looking for an easy, can’t-fail way to use up some past-its-prime fruit — or if you’re just looking for an easy, delicious dessert to make for your family or bring to a party — this is a wonderful recipe!

And {shhhh}… it’s actually healthy! There is no extra sugar added into this dish, unless you use crumbled cookies as the topping — most of the sweetness comes from the baked fruit!

cant fail fruit cobbler

ingredients:
– fruit: strawberries, apples, pears, grapes… whatever is in your fridge! blueberries and raspberries work well, too!
– if you are using less-juicy fruit such as apples or pears, add a little fruit juice {apple, cranberry, orange, whatever you have on hand!}
– topping: stale cookies {I’ve used oatmeal raisin, sugar, even animal crackers} OR granola OR mix up rolled oats with cold butter
– spices to taste {I like cinnamon!}

directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Get out a glass pie pan or a shallow glass dish and set aside.

2. Slice up the fruit until relatively small, even chunks. Mix together. If you are using drier fruit, add about 1/4 cup of fruit juice.

3. Pour the fruit mixture into the glass pan.

fruit in pan

4. Make your topping. If you’re using stale cookies, place them inside a plastic Ziplock baggie and crush them with a rolling pin until they are crumbled. To make a homemade topping, use your fingers to crumble a few small pieces of cold butter through about 1 cup of rolled oats. Add spices to taste, and a bit of brown sugar if you would like. I’m also a fan of sprinkling the cobbler with granola, like I did here:

fruit cobbler with granola topping

5. Bake for 35-45 minutes, until bubbly and golden brown on top. It will make your kitchen smell delicious!

fruit cobbler

I like to eat this fruit cobbler on its own, or serve it warm topped with iced cream, or stir it into yogurt! Hope you enjoy!