Sweet Potato Apple Oat Muffins with Brown Sugar Oat Crumble

One late night, I was thinking up the next evening's dinner, when I saw a lonely sweet potato just calling out to be cooked. But one potato? What on earth could I do with that? Muffins! Yes, that will do nicely. "To the internet!" I said, but I just did not find a recipe that I wanted to tinker with.  After a browse through my pantry, I decided to give it a shot at making my own... and so, the sweet potato apple oat muffin was born.

These are nice for breakfast or even a snack. My 1.5 year old son would eat two of them if I let him (notice his little hand creeping towards the muffin in the picture, haha!), so this is a simple treat that both adults and children will enjoy!

Sweet Potato Apple Oat Muffins
Makes 11-12 muffins
Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup of milk, and an additional 1 tablespoon of milk
• 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
• 1 apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 2.5 tablespoons of maple syrup Sweetener of choice (karo syrup, brown sugar, agave nectar, etc) may be substituted.
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup quick oats
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tsps baking powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1 tbs vanilla

Directions:

• Cook sweet potato. I prefer to steam my potato, but you can also bake or boil it. If boiled, drain well.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Mash sweet potato with 1 tablespoon of milk, 2.5 tablespoons of maple syrup, and 3 tablespoons of butter.
• In medium bowl, beat egg, 3/4 cup milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Beat in 1/2 cup sweet potato mixture.
• Stir in flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, all spice, and apple until moistened. 
• Line muffin pan with muffin liners and fill about 3/4 of the way with batter. Top with brown sugar oat crumble (optional) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Brown Sugar Oat Crumble*
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup firm butter, cut up
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• Pinch of all spice or cinnamon
• 1/2 cup quick oats

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a fork until crumbly.

*This makes a LOT of crumble, enough for two batches (24) of average sized-muffins, but I like to err on the side of caution and have too much than too little.

Green Olive Pesto

To be honest, this is not the prettiest looking or the most appetizingly named recipe, but, yum, it sure is tasty. When I came across this, I was intrigued. I don't know why I felt compelled to give it a try. The directions were terrible and I can not stand olives, yet I found myself in the kitchen making it anyway. Weird, I know, but I am glad that I gave it a shot. After some tweaking here and there, it turned out to be a flavorful pesto, that even my toddler gobbles up.

Green Olive Pesto
Ingredients:

• 1lb of spaghetti*
• 5 peeled and sliced garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup pitted green olives
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 1/2 cup fresh basil
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Up to 1 cup of black olives, pitted and coarsely chopped I usually buy the ones sliced in a can and chop them up to save on time and typically only use about 1/4 cup.
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

*If using a different type of noodle, you should double the recipe to ensure that they will be well coated. I learned this the hard way :-P

Directions:

• Cook spaghetti al dente according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water and then drain and keep to the side.
• Meanwhile, in a food processor (I use a magic bullet, don't judge me) combine garlic, green olives, parsley, and basil, while adding the olive oil, little by little, until it is well-combined. Poof! There you have it, green olive pesto. Simple, no?
• In the pot used to boil the spaghetti, simmer the pesto for about a minute. 
• To the pesto, add spaghetti, reserved 1/2 cup of water, black olives, and salt, stir.
• Continue stirring until water is cooked off.
• Serve and enjoy! Bruschetta or garlic bread accompanies this nicely.

Bruschetta, simple and delicious!

Sometimes, I come across a recipe that I just know I will use over and over again. Thanks to "noahw" at http://www.instructables.com, I found this classic appetizer and with very minor alterations, I now have a bruschetta recipe that never fails to please.

Bruschetta
Ingredients:

• 6-7 roma tomatoes*, diced as small as you can without turning them into a mushy mess 
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 4-6 peeled and chopped cloves of fresh garlic
• 1 peeled whole clove of garlic
• 3-4 leaves (or more to taste) of fresh basil  If you are unable to find fresh basil, 2-3 tablespoons of gourmet garden "herbs in a tube"  or something similar will suffice
• 4-6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• kosher salt to taste
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• sliced baguette or italian bread I cheat and buy a pre-sliced baguette from the grocery baker, shhh
• mozzarella cheese (optional) Can be shredded or thin slices of fresh mozzarella

*Any tomato of preference can be used.

Directions:

• Mix tomatoes, onion, chopped garlic, basil, *4 tablespoons* of olive oil, salt, and pepper together in one bowl, cover, and place in fridge. This can be eaten right away, but is best if given about 30 minutes for all the flavors to really infuse together.
• Line sliced baguette/italian bread on a cookie sheet and pop it in the oven, on broil, to toast it. 
• After bread is toasted, brush the tops of it with the remaining olive oil.
• Take a whole clove of garlic and give the bread a good rubbing with it
• Spoon bruschetta onto toasted bread and top with mozarella and place into the oven on broil just until cheese begins to melts.
• Enjoy!

Ooops...

Well, I've been gone for a while. Life gets in the way sometimes :-P but I am back with a couple of recipes soon to follow. Bruschetta and Green Olive Pesto are on the menu and yes, it is as delicious as it sounds.