LEMON BLUEBERRY LOAF CAKE

I am behind in tax prep so the text will be terse today. All I have on my mind is sheer amazement at how much of our income goes towards food. And Amazon. Being a grownup is scary. I remember playing house when I was little and always wanting to be "the mom." I had a fake checkbook to pay for things in this make believe adult-land I thought was so glorious. Now I am IN adult-land and I don't understand why on earth I was so anxious to be here. Take me back to where I could write my little sister a check for $20,000 just for being my pretend daughter!

But there is loaf cake. I make a lot of these and realize there is a similar one in the recipe archives but they are popular here. Hugh likes a sweet in the morning with coffee and I like cake after dinner so we can polish one these off quite quickly. They gift beautifully too if you're taking food to a friend. It's a snack to be shared no matter how you look at it. 

LEMON BLUEBERRY LOAF CAKE // Makes one 9x4 loaf

Adapted from Food and Wine 

The original calls for 2 cups of all purpose flour which, by all means, go ahead with. This was our wheat-free version and is sort of my standard loaf cake ratio anyway. Change the fruit, maybe replace the yogurt with mashed banana and the berries for chocolate chips. It's a great base to work with.
For the oat flour, I simply blend up rolled oats. The glaze here is optional. I am happy with the loaf as is but Hugh likes it a bit sweeter so the glaze keeps everyone happy. You can mix in some melted and slightly cooled butter if you'd like it to resemble more of a frosting.

3/4 cup coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup natural cane sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. lemon zest
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup plain goat yogurt (or regular)
1/4 cup lemon juice

1 cup superfine brown rice flour
1 cup oat flour
2 Tbsp. flaxmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
 

// glaze //

2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cup powdered sugar

lemon zest, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350'. Grease a 9x4 loaf pan and line it with parchment. 

Wish a hand or electric mixer, combine the coconut oil and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time until well mixed. Add the vanilla, lemon zest, yogurt, lemon juice and mix. 

In another bowl, combine both flours, flaxmeal, baking powder and soda and stir to combine. Gently add the dry to the wet ingredients to mix. Fold in the blueberries and pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake on the middle rack for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes until golden or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove to cool completely. 

In the meantime, whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together to create a glaze. 

Glaze the cooled cake. The loaf with keep covered for three days. 

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OATMEAL SOUFFLE

I am months behind on reading the food magazines but am working my way backwards. I love the content towards the beginning of the year because it's the lighter, vegetable focused stuff that is nowhere to be found in all the holiday issues. I was obsessed with this piece in the March issue of Food + Wine about the "new healthy" kinds of foods - which, surprise, is just real food. It was shot by a favorite food photographer and stylist and if you can grab an issue, it's worth it. I will likely try each of the recipes but this one struck me first as I desperately need some new life in my breakfast routine. With the whipped egg white situation and the 20ish minute baking time, this may be more of a weekend thing, but I love it. The original recipe is written with whole milk but I tried a coconut milk version to keep it dairy free (operation baby gas issues over here, you use what you prefer). The texture is lighter with the souffle element,  making it a perfect dish for a brunch or part of a buffet of other breakfast goods. I also felt like the bit of extra protein made this breakfast stay with me longer, if only in my head, and Curran liked it too, so there's that. Breakfast can become a "short order" meal and I'm not always up for that. In the Southern California area, fresh berries are available, not great ones, but available. You could use some sauteed apples or pears or pomegranate and persimmons if that is what tastes fresh near you. 

OATMEAL SOUFFLE // Serves 4-6

Recipe lightly adapted from Food + Wine magazine

I opted for a dairy free version here which while it works, tastes a little cloudy as coconut milk can. Replace the liquid with 3 cups whole milk if you'd rather. To get ahead, you could do the oat and milk cooking step in advance and loosen that up with a bit more milk when you are ready to complete the recipe. You'll want to enjoy it fairly soon after baking.

1 cup thick cut rolled oats
1 14 oz. can coconut milk
1 cup almond milk
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp. turbinado sugar
seeds of half a vanilla bean
3 large eggs, separated
zest of one lemon
2 cups mixed berries, fresh or frozen, chopped
pure maple syrup, to finish
toasted coconut, hemp seeds, granola etc., for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350' and grease a 2 qt. baking dish (or comprable smaller dishes). 

In a large saucepan, combine the oats, coconut milk, almond milk, salt, sugar and vanilla bean. Bring it to a gentle simmer and cook for about 15 minutes until the oats soften and the mixture begins to thicken. Remove the pot from the heat. 

Separate the eggs. Once the oats have cooled slightly, mix in the yolks completely. With a stand or electric mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites and lemon zest into the oat mixture until incorporated but not over mixed. Fold in a handful of the berries.

Pour the mixture into your prepared pan(s) and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the top is just puffed and golden. 

Pour a bit of maple on top (I liberally brushed some on) and garnish the top with fresh berries, toasted coconut or goodies of choice. 

FEEDING BABIES. PART 3. BREAKFAST EDITION

Thank you all so much for the feedback. That was extremely helpful (and affirming, which I wasn't expecting, but was well needed). We've started quite a few house projects, approximately 8 weeks before having a baby, one of which will put me out of a kitchen for a few weeks, so we may fall a little quite over here. I suppose this gives me time to process everything each of you said while we are out of order over here. A handful of you chimed in who say you never comment and I appreciate that! Just know from the other side, the comments are huge, so big hugs.

So our little guy is almost a year and a half and while I am so excited to have a little baby that cuddles and snuggles, I love love love the boy Curran is right now. He is so curious and observant and active and smart. He doesn't really cuddle at all, but he is so engaged and enamored with Hugh and I that it makes me feel pretty special. I have however found this to be the most draining stage so far because he is constant and nothing keeps his attention for longer than 5 minutes. He gets frustrated when he can't communicate something and has learned the art of a tantrum. He's so much little boy but still has plenty of baby in him. Quite the crossroads. 

As for eating, he is totally over mashed things and prefers to always feed himself. His skills are fair with a fork but a spoon is a complete mess which I believe is pretty standard. The thing about this stage at our table, is that we can all eat a lot of the same things, but there are still a large amount of our stand-bys that he can't eat. I keep trying to give him bites of my salad but he acts like there is a hair in his mouth. I find myself having to think harder about meals that will feed all three of us. I don't have the energy to be a short order cook but I'm still learning what that is going to look like. A few of you mentioned last post that you really liked the extra ideas for kids so a few other items I try to keep ready that, in the right combination, suffice as a meal: tortellini, tofu chunks, cut up bbq'd chicken, string cheese, cooked peas, edamame, pomegranate seeds, grapes, raisins, mandarins, fresh dates. I have found that having food ready is the key to avoiding a meltdown, even if it just buys you ten or fifteen minutes to get something else started. It takes a one and a half year old a long time to get the beans out of an edamame pod and that is helpful. 

Even if you don't have little people, or they are of the age that can eat anything, I would make these recipes. They are just easy, versatile snacks or meals.  

MUESLI BARS // Makes one 8x8 pan

I love the Seven Sundays brand of muesli and they have a few different flavors to choose from that I use for these. I use a combo of butter and coconut oil because I like the flavor and moisture both give, but either exclusively as the fat will work just fine. Because these have no wheat or strong binder in them, they are quite tender. If you can let them sit for a day, they'll settle into themselves even more. 

1/2 cup brown rice syrup
5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, coconut oil or a mix of the two
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup almond butter
1 ripe, medium banana, mashed
3 cups prepared muesli
2 Tbsp. flax meal
pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350'. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment and coat it well with coconut oil. In a small saucepan, warm the brown rice syrup and butter and/or coconut oil together to melt. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, almond butter and banana and stir everything to mix. It'll be a gloopy mess. 

Put the muesli, flaxmeal and a pinch of sea salt in a mixing bowl. Pour the liquid mixture into the muesli and mix well. Press the mixture down firmly into the prepared pan evenly. Bake for 25 minutes until the top is golden but the bars are still fairly tender. Let them cool completely before cutting. These are very tender. Store them in the fridge and cut off pieces as needed.

MINI SWEET POTATO FRITTATAS ("EGG BALLS") // Makes 12

Curran calls them egg balls and I find that fitting. Here is the thing, the three of us can go through a dozen of these in one day no problem. You could easily make two dozen of these by adding two more eggs to the mixture plus a splash of milk to extend the batter. Potato size varies, but I'm confident you could get two dozen. Or add in cooked and crumbled chicken breakfast sausage if that is your sort of thing. 

1 Tbsp. coconut oil
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and finely diced
1 cup tender greens, roughly chopped
1/3 cup grated white cheddar cheese
4 extra large eggs
sea salt and pepper

In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the coconut oil. Once the oil is hot, add the diced sweet potato and a pinch of salt and saute for 8-10 minutes until tender. Add the greens and saute again to just wilt. Turn off the heat.

Preheat the oven to 350' and generously grease a mini muffin tin. Like, really generous. Eggs have a tendency to stick. 

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs well and then stir in the white cheddar. I put a sprinkle of salt, pepper and dried herbs here but this is optional. Tip the potato and green mixture into the eggs and stir to mix. Spoon the egg mixture into the muffin tin up to the top. Bake on the middle rack for 12-14 minutes until just firm but not overcooked. Cool and then remove them from the tin soon as they are cool to the touch. They can be stored in a covered tupperware in the fridge.

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