I'll trade you a muffin for some grapes and cheese? Say hello to mom from me. Don't mention dentist to me!! My worst fear ever since a child. My teeth can prove it. :) It's hot today but not here under an old apple tree in the orchard. I had been deadheading Phlox and trimming ivy for a couple of hours, decided to take my tea break early just after 12noon. I nearly dozed off with the sound of birds and a light breeze blowing. Here is the little bistro table I re-painted. Did lavenderlass ask about the color? It is "Oliver Green", and so called because I bought the spray can at the local RKO and it is a farm machinery paint. Can you guess what the "Oliver" is? I thought this would be a tough paint and work very well for this little table that has sat out from May until October for many years. The matching folding chairs have (or had) seats and backs of wooden slats, this year my big..um..rear broke right through the old slats! I hope to repair them someday, meanwhile I found these bronze metal arm chairs for only $26 each also at RKO several weeks ago. They are surprisingly comfortable. Original intention was to paint them the same green, but the bronze isn't that bad and blends in quite nicely with the trees. My watchful teatime buddy:

I made gluten-free, low-carb. muffins tonight using coconut flour. If you are looking for additional fiber and a smoother texture, coconut flour has over twice as much fiber as wheat bran and nearly 4 times as much as oat bran. Another option for oat bran would be to use High-Maize Resistant Starch (also gluten-free) which contains 6g of non-soluble dietary fiber in about 1-1/2 tablespoons. The recipe I made tonight is for Honey Muffins found in the recipe collection at the link below. You can adapt this basic recipe into many different kinds of muffins with the addition of your favorite add-ins. I make it sugar-free by using low-glycemic agave nectar instead of honey. If you haven't tried coconut flour, it's a wonderful gluten-free alternative for a wide range of baked goods. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Coco Flour Recipes

You could put the cooled, cooked oatmeal in a thin plastic sandwich bag, then either smoosh the bag flat (less defrosting time) or put it in a muffin tin and freeze, then take all the bags filled with oatmeal and put them in a heavy freezer zip bag for storage in the freezer. The bags smooshed flat will take up less space in the freezer than the muffin cup blobs. To prepare, simply peel off the freezer bag from the blob and put the oatmeal in a microwave safe bowl to warm. The flat bags could be put in the fridge to thaw the night before you want the oatmeal for breakfast. Or you can whack the bag on the counter to break up the flat piece of oatmeal, then pour into your bowl.

Oh Jimminy! Must be in the air, the muffin thang. :D PB and Banana muffins? The thought give me the heebie jeebies, but my husband would likely LOVE them. Maybe I'll be nice to him this week and give them a try!This isn't one of the requested recipes, but a very good muffin recipe which I developed as a (relatively) healthy muffin alternative to bran muffins when those were really popular...never found a bran muffin I liked. These contain enough fiber from the veggies & fruit to compete, and filling enough to work as a quick breakfast. Muffin Meals 2 c flour (white or a 2 to 1 mix of white & wheat...I've played with oat flour, millet flour, rice flour and barley flour with mixed results) 1 1/4 c sugar (white, brown or a mix) 1 T cinnamon 2 t baking soda 1/1/2 t grated orange peel 1 t vanilla 1/2 t salt 3 large eggs 1 c vegetable oil 2 c shredded carrots* 1 c shredded zucchini* 1 Golden Delicious apple, chopped* 3/4 c raisins* 3/4 c shredded, sweetened coconut* 1/4 c chopped nuts* Now, the thing about this recipe, is that as long as you keep overall amounts the same, you can play quite a bit. All of the ingredients followed by a * are substitutable or interchangeable. As long as you end up with appx 6 cups of ingredients, you can pick and choose...1 c carrots + 2 c zucchini? 1 c carrots + 1 c zucchini + 2 apples? 3/4 c nuts +1/4 c raisins? See what I mean? You can also sub mashed banana for a cup or so of the carrots, zucchini or apple, if you have an overripe one hanging about. Now, naturally, if you do something like substitute 2 c of nuts for the carrots, you'll probably have trouble, but I think you get the pic. I like using different dried fruits as I'm not really a raisin fan (except for just eating them as a snack). Dried cranberries, mango, pineapple, cherries etc work fine, cut in raisin sized pieces. Sometimes I use cardamom instead of cinnamon (1 1/2 t or so instead of a T, as cardamom is quite pungent), or pumpkin pie seasonings (1 T), once I even used Chinese 5 spice, which was interesting. Likewise, the orange peel can be lemon or lime or even grapefruit. The vanilla can be almond or citrus or whatever. You can substitute unsweetened coconut, if you can find some that is moist. Anyhow... Grease muffin tins & set the oven for 375 degrees F. Mix all the ingredients together except for the eggs, oil & vanilla. In a separate bowl, blend the eggs, oil & vanilla and then fold into the other ingredients. These muffins don't rise very much...too much stuff in them I guess...so fill the muffin cups to only slightly under the top. Bake for 25 minutes, and do the clean toothpick thing to make sure they're done. Cool a bit, and then gently remove them to a rack to cool completely...you might have to sort of pry them up by sliding a fork down one side to the bottom and using it as a lever, they're very tender and break easily if you try to just lift them out.