Super Natural Millet Muffins

Okay this is officially the first of my attempts at more frequent posts. I'm hoping to get at least a few posts a week up and capturing more of the everyday. Just quick little snippets of the simple things that keep me busy, thinking and constantly on the move. I've been working on clearing out most of the processed foods from our families pantry and getting rid of boxed anything. I recently purchased the cookbook Super Natural Everyday and love the recipes, they are high on flavor yet easy, healthy and uncomplicated. We have an almost impossibly small kitchen so keeping anything but the essentials for cooking on hand just isn't practical and Heidi Swanson's recipes make the most out of ingredients that I usually have on hand. Here is my go at her Millet Muffins the recipe can be found on her amazing site. Here is the link to the muffins and five others from her beautiful cookbook.

I switched it up a bit and used 1/2 unbleached flour and 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour because that's what I had on hand. I ended up having to put the batter in the refrigerator and run and pick T up from school so they set up some before I spooned them into the muffin tins. They came out having a very scone like texture which look very different from the photos of Heidis in the book but the flavor was amazing. And I loved the denseness of the muffins. She compares the muffins to cornbread muffins but they are so much better.

Sanibel

Things have been hectic to say the least since we got back from vacation. Every year we can justify taking the extended time away from work because we bring the company laptop along and do a bit of work between walks on the beach and playing in the pool. This year the laptop decided it was in need some vacation time as well and stopped working the first day there - not so good for the 4 big projects Dad was juggling but left us without excuses to just enjoy our time together. This year like every year we were looking forward to recharging and reconnecting with family. Matt and his family have been coming to the island for more than 35 years and for me to be apart of that legacy with our family is truly special. This was T' third year coming and T-o's first and the third year that my cousin brought her sweet family of 4 - it was a magical week of friends, family and good times. The best moment of the trip was this late day walk with Matt & the kiddos. The beach there is always pretty deserted this time of year so it felt like we had the ocean all to ourselves. Knee deep in shells the lowtide beach was covered in stuff to explore and the seagulls were chasing sandpipers for small crabs and little coquina. We walked up the beach watching for the sunset and trying to stretch out the last day. I got a few good pictures of Dad with TnT that really capture our slow sweet simple time of Sanibel.

Three

Posting a bit late but wanted to make sure I captured Tess' 3rd birthday. We celebrated her special day in Sanibel with her extended family while at our yearly family reunion. We we under the gun this year with several big book projects and a whole bunch of small client stuff so getting everyone packed and party ready was a bit of a challenge. Next year we plan to do a "best buddy" party at home so she can celebrate with her friends but I think she enjoyed her family birthday just fine. We picked up the ingredients for a simple ice cream cake the night before at the local island grocer and to make it easy on everyone we opted to order in pizza. We lucked out and got a great island breeze and enjoyed the day reuniting with family and meeting a Great Aunt & Uncle for the first time. It was a Happy Day…my girls growing up - said with a big frog in my throat.