Around 3 o’clock yesterday, I had a sudden and intense craving for blueberry muffins. It was like, panicky intense. So bad that I actually looked up a recipe and drove straight to the grocery store to buy what I needed to make them.

Ahhhhhh……blueberry muffin crisis averted…………..

Is that not the most gorgeous thing you’ve seen all day? To me, it’s just not a real blueberry muffin without a crumb topping, so I made a basic brown sugar crumb topping and added it to this recipe to form the perfect muffin!

This one was really interesting because you actually make a blueberry jam to swirl into the batter, yum! We almost ate them for dinner because I wasn’t in the mood to cook.

Sadly, we have an ant problem in our kitchen right now. I thought I’d found what had attracted them and eliminated it but they won’t completely go away. I’m sure having sweets in the house doesn’t help to convince them that there’s nothing for them here.

Anyone have any good DIY ant killer recipes? I’ve found a bunch online for how to kill an anthill outside, but not too much good advice about something to spray directly on them indoors that is non-toxic for food surfaces. I’m hoping they just go away on their own.

For now, we’re hiding the muffins in the oven to keep them from the ants!

Ever have a craving so bad you made it immediately?

July 22, 2011 Alayna Discussion 6 comments

Good morning!

Puffed wheat made an appearance at breakfast again. I’m in love with this stuff, it has the texture of popcorn with the flavor of wheat. I sprinkled it on top of fig yogurt with blueberries and puffed amaranth. Apparently, I really like puffed foods.

Tried something a little different for dinner last night. I make miso-glazed salmon about once every other week. As delicious as it is, it’s getting old. This time I used black bean sauce instead and it was really good!

This is the sauce, it’s very salty and slightly sour, not beany-flavored at all. I just spread a thin layer of the sauce over the salmon and baked it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

And served it with a stir fry of yo choy sum and shiitake mushrooms…

To make this, I heat sesame oil in a wok and first stir fry the chopped yo choy sum stems. Then the mushrooms and scallions go in, followed by some pre-cooked rice. Once the rice is toasted I toss in the yo choy sum leaves and add a splash each of rice vinegar, mirin, and soy sauce. I also threw some seaweed flake and sesame seed in this one for some added flavor.

This whole dinner is done in 20 minutes. It’s one of my favorite meals to make because it takes very little effort for a very nice result. That and I love cooking with my wok, it’s a fun toy!

Today I’m polishing up a few new blog features that I’ve had in the works for a while. I completely overhauled my About page because the story I had there has absolutely nothing to do with what I blog about now. And maybe you noticed that I changed my header image. Well, I don’t like it and I’ll probably change it again soon. The bright block of green is just too jarring.

What types of header images are your favorite?

July 20, 2011 Alayna Discussion 2 comments

Awesome breakfast concoction this morning!

I made my own cereal (which I consider a different thing entirely from muesli, because it’s more light and airy) out of a new product I stumbled upon yesterday at the grocery store.

I was looking all up and down the healthy cereal aisle for a cereal that was low on sugar but had great texture. All of those cereals were too sugary and too expensive though, but I did find this little gem for about $2…

I used to love cereals like Smack’s growing up, so I thought I could recreate something like that by adding a touch of honey to this Arrowhead Mills puffed wheat.

I bulked it up with some puffed amaranth, toasted buckwheat, raw pumpkin seeds, slivered almonds, and a topping of fresh blueberries. With a drizzle of honey and vanilla almond milk, it really did remind me of those sweet cereals of my childhood, but without all the extra sugar.

Puffed wheat cereal

A healthy cereal for a fraction of the cost of the boxed stuff.

Prep Time: 3 minutes

Total Time: 3 minutes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup puffed wheat
• 2 tbsp. puffed amaranth
• 1 tbsp. toasted buckwheat
• sprinkle of slivered almonds
• sprinkle of raw pumpkin seeds
• drizzle of honey

Cooking Directions

1. Combine everything in a bowl, top with your favorite fresh fruit, and serve with your favorite milk or nut milk.

Just look at that honey drizzle!

This made for a light breakfast, perfect for a warm morning when I don’t want anything too heavy. Now if I could only find a way to make Fruity Pebbles healthy….

What was your favorite cereal as a child?

July 19, 2011 Alayna Discussion, Recipes 3 comments