Blueberry Muffins

I suddenly found myself with some extra time when I found out that my plans for this evening had to be cancelled. What better way to spend the time then baking something delicious in the kitchen? And what better to bake then blueberry muffins.

This recipe is adapted from Nigella Lawson's How To Be a Domestic Goddess based on what I had in my kitchen this evening.

• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt mixed with 7 tbsp soy milk (or 3/4 cup buttermilk)
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 400F. Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl, set aside. In a small bowl or measuring cup beat butter, yogurt, milk, and egg together. Pour wet ingredients over dry and mix gently to combine. Fold in blueberries being careful not to overmix. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden.

When Patients Test Your Patience

Lately I seem to be getting the difficult patients. Usually I like my patients. They are friendly, they don't ask too many questions and they listen well. On the other hand it can be tricky because I counsel everyone from birth to death. Usually it works out just fine . . . usually.

At the end of last week I was presented with a lady who was interested in weight loss. Little did I know she was one of our frequent fliers (read: frequent visitor to the clinic) who comes to the clinic to fulfill her need for human interaction. Not only did she extend her counseling session from a half hour to an hour, but she also asked for every single handout I possibly had. Later I found out she also has compulsive hoarding tendencies. She seemed to just continually be asking questions and even threw in some personal ones such as "where do you live?" "where do you shop?" "what gym do you belong to?" Thankfully I dodged the answers to those, last thing I need is a stalker.

Then there was the devil child today. All seemed okay, he arrived with his mother and sister (who was actually the patient I was seeing) and sat quietly on his chair in my office. For about two minutes. He then proceeded to run around and pull all my sample food items out of my drawers. Usually I'm okay with this because usually the child will then sit there happily and play with the empty cereal containers and measuring cups. Usually. But no, not this child. Instead he stood up and hit me. In shock, I looked to his mother who . . . did . . . absolutely . . . . nothing. Nothing! Not even a "that wasn't nice". Absolutely nothing, as though I had just imagined the whole situation. So I looked at the child and told him to go sit in the chair. From where he proceeded to bang on the walls and chant over and over again "are we done yet, are we done yet, are we done yet?" It took every single fiber in my body not to scream yes. I have to admit though, the session was pretty effective birth control because there's no way I ever want children after that 30 minute interaction. However I doubt my little angels, if I do decide to have them, would ever act like that.

Where Have You Been?

It's nice to know that people are missing my posts. It's not that I've forgotten about posting, nor does it have to do with the fact that I'm doing loads of stuff that is not blog appropriate.

Really, I have no clue why the posts have been lacking. It started with being sick at the beginning of the month and continued because of my increased focus on work related items. But I'm happy to say I just passed the pre-test for my conference on pediatric and adolescent weight management, which means I can now actually attend the conference. Woohoo!

Herbed Ricotta Spread

I'm usually not a fan of cheese but when it comes to ricotta all bets are off! Ricotta is great to spread on a sandwich instead of mayo, tastes delicious stuff inside of pasta shells, and for this dish mixed with a herbs and spread over crostini.

Herbed Ricotta Spread

• 3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 3/4 cup fresh chopped herbs (dill, parsley, chives, mint or a combination of any of these)
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Spread over crostini/crackers or serve as a dip for vegetables. Enjoy!

Sofrito - Pepper Salsa

This recipe is truly a versatile one. Sofrito can be eaten alone as salsa for chips, mixed with black beans and stock for soup, added to steak or chicken, or wrapped up in a tortilla with eggs for a delicious breakfast. I like putting it on top of toasts for a unique bruschetta.

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large onions coarsely chopped (4 cups)
• 2 green bell peppers, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
• 2 red bell peppers, coarsely chopped (about 2 cups)
• 3 tsp minced garlic (or 5 cloves minced)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 4 Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped (2 cups)
• 3 cups cilantro

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook approximately five minutes, stirring frequently. Add bell peppers, garlic, oregano, cumin. Cook approximately ten minutes or until peppers are crisp-tender. Add tomato, cook five minutes. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool.

Transfer mixture to food processor, add cilantro and pulse until slightly chunky. Season with salt and pepper if desired. Eat immediately, store in fridge or freeze up to 3 months.

Chocolate Crispy Cookies

You Absolutely HAVE to Try These Cookies

Part of the hazard of being a dietitian is that I often buy things at the store that my patients tell me they eat so I can have the nutrition facts label to use as demonstration during my counseling sessions. Unfortunatley these items are usualy not items I would buy for myself.

One of the items I tend to buy a lot of is cereal. Luckily I have learned to buy the one serving cereal bowls instead of the large boxes. This week I found myself with a tub of rice krispies sitting on my shelf. I suppose I could have just eaten them for breakfast but I'm not really a big fan of rice krispies. The only recipe I could think of off the top of my head was rice krispie treats. Have you ever made anything else with rice krispies? Lucky for me a brief internet search yielded the following absolutely delicious recipe.


Chocolate Crispy Cookies

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups Rice Krispies®
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla, mix well. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix to form dough. Stir in Rice Krispies and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonful onto baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Enjoy!

On Being Sick

This week I have been battling a cold. It started as a sore throat on Sunday. Turned into a fever on Monday. Tuesday the runny nose and dry cough started. Wednesday my voice fluctuated between raspy, croaky, and non-existant. And finally, today I have what the doctors refer to as a productive cough. Despite the cough, I have to say that today is the day I feel the best, probably because I have gotten ten hours of sleep for the past two nights. I just hope that tomorrow the cough is gone and I am 100% better. A girl can dream, can't she?

Despite my illness I have been a very good girl and have been going to work (I took Monday off) and have been very patient with my neighbors upstairs. The neighbors upstairs have children and despite the constant pounding on my ceiling I have never gone upstairs and asked them to please keep it down. Although I have to admit yesterday I was thisclose to doing it when I realized that the "thump, pound, thump, pound, thump, pound" noises that I was hearing were the sound of the children using a jump rope. What?! Who uses a jump rope on carpet in the house? Oh yeah, that's right, my neighbors.

I'm beginning to reconsider the new one year lease I just signed.