Grilled Leek

Way back when, when the Mama Bird and I were still getting fresh vegetables from the co-opt every week, we had an influx of leeks. My experience with leeks prior to that was limited entirely to knowing that Farfetch'd carried one in Pokemon. I had never actually seen one before, and I had no idea what they tasted like.

But suddenly, I absolutely had to eat those leeks. I wanted to make a super healthy dinner and I wanted it to involve leeks and I wanted to feel like I was one of those people who tracks their every meal and knows exactly how many carbs they've eaten over the last week, and I wanted to FEEL HEALTHY.

(...on that note, I recommend using LiveStrong if you want to track that kind of stuff. I use it all the time.)

But back to the leeks.

I found a recipe through TasteSpotting and told Mama Bird that I was taking care of dinner that night. And to not touch the leeks. She was amused by my dedication and told me to do whatever I wanted.

This is a super easy recipe. You cut the leeks, cook them with some stock and chickpeas, and then make a lemon-honey-dill dressing and serve it with some feta. Doesn't that sound awesome?



I have no idea why I was so driven to eat those leeks that day, but it was a solid direction. Mama Bird really liked the flavors, but it's definitely not a dish to serve to a meat lover. It would also work really well as a side, since it doesn't serve many. It also sounds really fancy to announce you're serving leeks and feta with a lemon-honey-dill sauce.

On a non-healthy note: Happy Birthday, Mama Bird. I hope you enjoyed that cheesecake, cause it definitely wasn't healthy. <3

Muffin Round-Up

Looking back at all the drafts I've written to be published, it occurs to me that I have far too many muffins.

Well, that's a lie. Far too many muffins that I haven't shared. Even after the insane amount of baking I did for Christmas, I don't think there's such a thing as too many muffins.

Instead of writing full entries for each of them, I'm just gonna share a few quick pictures and my thoughts on them. Maybe that'll motivate me to finally get the rest of my old entries up so I can start sharing new stuff again. Like the buffalo chicken calzones I made recently. Oh god, why did I wait so long to make those?

First up: Coconut Jam Muffins, from Los Angeles Times. They're definitely dessert muffins, since they're pretty darn sweet. Surprisingly, even my friends who didn't like coconut liked these. I think it's probably because they have oatmeal too, because oatmeal does magic things to muffins.


Whole Grain Pumpkin muffins from Other Side of Fifty, which I sadly didn't take a picture of. They didn't look too pretty. I also doubled the batch to use all the pumpkin I had left, and ate these for almost a month and a half. As someone who's always disliked pumpkin pie, I thought that was a pretty big feat.

Morning Glory Muffins from Joy of Baking. I didn't get a picture of these either, but with a much more reasonable excuse. I made these the morning of Run For Your Lives, which is a zombie-themed 5k. We got up super early to drive to the race, and I decided that really nutricious muffins would be great, and someone suggested carrot. So I went all out and made Morning Glory muffins. There are no pictures of these because they were all completely demolished the night I made them, including the extra ones I left at my house. I'd highly recommend trying them.

Raspberry Lemon muffins from Coco Bean. Despite my making these more than six months ago, I remember them extremely well. I really liked the flavor, but I didn't do a great job with the zest, so there were long strands of lemon throughout the muffins that weren't really enjoyable to chew on. If it hadn't been for that, I think they would have been perfect.


Honey Cornbread muffins from A Farmgirl's Dabbles. I made these to pair with jambalaya, so I could watch the Princess and the Frog and have fitting food (never mind that they actually eat jumbo in that movie.), and they were great. Not overly sweet, but sweet enough that I think with a little jam they'd be a perfect dessert. Thinking about them makes me sad I gave the rest away...

Chocolate Cherry muffins from Stolen Moments. I don't think I even need to say much about these. Just look at the name and ingredient list. Chocolate muffins are great, and then add cherries? They were amazing.

Apple Cinnamon muffins from Southern, eh? I have a thing for apple and cinnamon. I love them. Next time I make these I'm going to put a bit more cinnamon in them, but otherwise they were great. They're also surprisingly low calorie.

And now for the Christmas muffins.

White and Purple Amaretto muffins, modified from I Love Muffins. Instead of having any chocolate I just made extra batter and died some of it purple. I wasn't a big fan of these, but I think the texture difference the chocolate would have provided would probably have alleviated most of my complains about them. I also just didn't find them terribly flavorful, since I didn't add anything to compensate.


Strawberry Cinnamon Sugar muffins from Eggs on Sunday. I added some food coloring to make the batter pink, and also put pink sugar sparkles on top, just in case it wasn't sweet enough before. They were quite good, although I wish strawberry flavoring would come through more in baking. Maybe if a large number of strawberries were pureed....


I would actually call these cupcakes, honestly.... and we didn't take a picture of any of them, but they're rainbow muffins! I had a lot of help with these, and they did a bunch better job at making them even than I probably would have.... making the rainbow cake was frustrating enough for me.


Here's a picture of all the muffins (well... half of the muffins. There were five tins in the end):


There are four muffins in there I didn't take pictures of individually: blueberry from Obsessed with Baking (which I've made before and are always a huge hit), another version of Cinnamon Sugar muffins, banana muffins from Melbourne Food Files, and my personal favorite, apple butterscotch from Annie's Eats. I could have easily eaten all of the butterscotch ones on my own, and probably would have if there hadn't been people in the kitchen with me.

Okay, there's one more muffin I didn't share with you guys, because they were special. I also liked the pictures I took of them enough that I think they deserve their own post. So while the world may be almost caught up on my muffin adventures, bear in mind that I just ate the last of the banana muffins, so the time for more is rapidly approaching....

Pitas appear to be beyond me.

Aha, and ya'll thought I forgot about my mission to re-cook everything I ate in England, didn't you? The one I gave the ridiculously British-sounding name to? Well, I didn't forget at all!

I'm just bad at cooking things in a timely manner, it seems.

The original version of this dish came from the Jazz Cafe, and it was one of the things I was most looking forward to. And it turned out deliciously. Everything except the pita, which I attempted to make on my own. The bread tasted fine, but you know how pitas are supposed to have little pockets, for putting food inside...?

Mine were just sad and flat. I didn't even take a picture of it, because it made me so sad.

I did take a picture of the final product, though.



So many colors! If I had not made whole-wheat pitas, then maybe there would have been even more, but I appear to be obsessed with whole-wheat. I think that's a good thing, it makes me feel healthier.

These are really easy to make. Mixing together the tabbouleh and tzatziki can be day the day before, even, and the lamb patties only take minutes to throw together. It takes a while only to chop everything up by hand. I'm a horrendously slow food chopper, so it still took me about half an hour, but Mama Bird could have done it in probably 10. I guess that should be my next goal: improving my chopping skills...

Recipe from All About You
(Makes 8 servings, with 338 calories and $2.02 per serving)
Lamb Patties

18 ounces ground lamb

4 tablespoons breadcrumbs

1 egg

zest of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons oregano

3 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients but olive oil in bowl until well combined.
   
2. Shape into eight patties.
   
3. Place on tray and chill in fridge for at least 15 minutes.
   
4. Heat oil, and fry over medium to high heat for 4 to 5 minutes each side.
   
5. Drain on kitchen towel.
   
6. Serve with tabbouleh, pita, and tzatziki sauce.
   

Tabbouleh

2 ounces couscous

2 ounces fresh parsley

1 ounce fresh mint

1/2 red onion

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Put dry couscous in bowl and pour in 1/2 cup of hot water.
   
2. Stir, then cover and let sit until water is absorbed.
   
3. Fluff with fork, and add remaining ingredients. Chill before serving.
   

Tzatziki Sauce

1 cup greek yogurt

1 cucumber

1 green onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon mint

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1. Peel and dice cucumber.
   
2. Combine all ingredients and stir well.
   
3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.
   

Today's lessons learned:

• I chop things very slowly.
  
• Pitas without pockets are a lot like naan.
  

Parsley smells delicious

I wish I could tell you that tonight's dinner was a well-planned out meal I had been intending on eating for the last few days, but it wasn't. I decided it was going to be my dinner at about... 7 o'clock. Mama Bird, Sister Bird, and I went to the grocery store at 7:30, and we sat down to dinner at 9:30. It was one of the worst meal planning days I've had in a few weeks.

But it was good enough I am writing a post about it only hours after eating it. So at least it was inspiring.



I've been stealing Mama Bird's camera for more and more pictures. I think she's going to notice soon.

Now, as for what this fish actually was... it was very, very easy to make. Perhaps that's why I picked it, because I didn't want to be in the kitchen all night. We had most of the ingredients: we still had fresh parsley from a salad I had made previously, we have an insane amount of lemon juice, and the rest is staples in our house. Except the fish. That we bought fresh.

And really, this is incredibly easy to make. You blend some parsley, lemon juice, garlic, and then marvel at home wonderful your kitchen smells. Maybe you even call your mother into the kitchen to make her smell it too. She'll agree, but be annoyed you aren't finishing cooking everything else.



With some green beans and pierogies, it's a a pretty quick meal. I doubled the amount of garlic in the original recipe, and didn't count the exact amount of parsley I used. Next time I would have used slightly less, because I thought there was a bit too much. Maybe that's just because I wanted to use the rest of the parsley mix as a sauce for my green beans.

And sadly, my family did not enjoy this meal as much as I did. Mama Bird and I liked it, but Sister Bird and Papa Bird didn't. Sister Bird doesn't like fish, and Papa Bird chowed it but said he'd rather eat some 'real meat.' Oh well, I guess not everything can please everyone.

Recipe from Budget Bytes
(Makes 4 servings, with 170 calories and $2.32 per serving)

4 tilapia fillets

1/2 bunch fresh parsley

3 tablespoons lemon juice

4 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 450.
   
2. Rinse parsley and put in food processor with lemon juice, olive oil, pepper, and garlic.
   
3. Put fillets in baking dish and pour parsley mixture over them.
   
4. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
   

Today's lessons learned:

• Sister Bird and Papa Bird don't like fish. That is sad.