Blueberry Banana Bread Muffins

With my mom and youngest sister coming to town in a few days (YAY!), I decided to make a few things ahead of time.. as we usually keep busy doing things like bike rides, card games & playing with the pups.

I started paroozing for a healthy banana bread recipe, but the last few I've tried have been BAD.. with mushy/gooey insides. YUCK! I found this one through allrecipes.com and only made a couple of small changes that turned out great. Oh and I prefer muffins over bread loaves, so I switched that up too. Next time, I will find a substitution for the brown sugar!

Ingredients:

2 c. of flour (I used 1 cup of whole wheat & 1 cup of gluten free all-purpose)

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt (I used himalayan salt)

1/4 c. butter (I used 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce)

1/8 c. non-fat greek yogurt (I used 0% greek)

2 eggs

2 1/3 c. mashed bananas

2 palmfuls of blueberries (yep, palmfuls)

cinnamon

coconut oil cooking spray

Directions: 

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin tins

-Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon & salt in a large bowl

-Beat butter (or applesauce), yogurt, & brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth

-Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth

-Stir in mashed bananas until well blended

-Pour banana mixture to flour mixture; stir until moist

-fold in blueberries

-pour batter into muffin tins

-bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden & muffins are baked through.. let cool before storing!

*you can opt to make this in a 9x5 bread pan, but you will need to bake it for about an hour*

This recipe was adapted from:: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/healthier-banana-banana-bread/

Try this recipe and let me know what you think.. I accidentally ate 2 already! Time to go burn those carbs off.. Enjoy!

Broken Bread and Poured Out Wine: a life of sacrifice and stewardship

During my quite time of devotion and biblestudy, I have felt the Lord speaking to me overwhelmingly on my life being a reflection of "broken bread and poured out wine."

It seems that no matter what the subject of my study is lately, it all comes back to this concept. So what does broken bread and poured out wine even mean? ...

One of the most celebrated observances in the history of Christian faith is called "Passover." During the Passover, Christians were to partake a meal, not simply out of ceremonial obligation or religious recognition, but out of a desire to acknowledge the ultimate sacrifice of our Savior.

In Matthew 26 or Mark 14, you can read that Jesus actually partook in this meal with His disciples the night of His betrayal, leading ultimately to His death on the cross as documented in scripture. During New Testament times, the Passover commemorated the death of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice and atonement for our sins. The meal consisted of broken bread and poured out wine; these two elements represented Jesus' broken body and His life blood offering as a new covenant.

During Old Testament times, before the coming of Jesus, Christians had to regularly make living sacrifices with their finest live stock as an atonement for their sins [Exodus 12, along with other references]. These sacrificial animals, seen as something being without blemish, were put to death as a offering to the Lord because of sin-filled lives.

When God decided to send Jesus, he sent Him into the world as a perfect lamb.. a blemish-free sacrifice that would take on ALL of the disgusting, shameful sins of men- past, present and future. By Jesus being broken and poured out before the father, He essentially paid the ultimate price that would cleanse us from our sins so we could be reconciled into relationship with our perfect heavenly Father.  A free relationship providing an eternal life of forgiveness and love for ALL who chose to accept it. That was it.. His one-time sacrifice became a new covenant.

Wow, right?

His Body like broken bread for us.

His blood like poured out wine.

Out of no selfish motive. With no cost of repayment. With no strings attached. With no risk of loss. 

Eternal life. That simple. Because Jesus, sent to earth as a man and yet still fully God, was sacrificed on our behalf.. willingly.

This blows my mind. Do we sacrifice anything in our life without an expectation of return? Without strings attached or any selfish/ulterior motives? No. Because we are not perfect. We might be good people, but our hearts are flawed and tainted by sin.

Even though I have requested and accepted God's forgiveness of my short comings and have entered into the development of a personal relationship with my heavenly father, I do NOT always live in reflection of this on a daily basis.

Not our of choice, but imperfect human nature. If I lived a perfect life, what would my need for Jesus be? But boy do I need Jesus. Because of my relationship with Him, I know that my soul will spend eternity in the glorious presence of the Lord.

My job as a Christian though is the concept of "paying it forward" on earth. Using my life as a living sacrifice that bring honor to the one who saved me. To use my daily breath and actions as broken bread and poured out wine to serve God's purpose..

The life I am living is no longer my own.. Although it truly never was mine, it is now surrendered willingly to Him. God allows me to be a steward of the life He has given me to live.. a GOOD steward. Stewardship is the concept of caring for the property of another. Caring for my body, my mind, my spirit.

If God truly is the master and creator of all, then He "owns" so much more than our bodies and has ultimately given us ALL of our blessings. You may work hard for your successes, but you would have never been placed in your current circumstances (body, marriage, etc) if God didn't allow it. Therefore, delight in what He has given you stewardship over, but remember to honor Him through all aspects of your life.

Life your life as broken bread and poured out wine. Make a regular effort to reflect selflessness and submission. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His love for you will endure FOREVER.

More to come later, but let this simmer..

In love and humility,

Linz

[[for more on the passover symbols of bread and wine, check out this link. great read!]]

The Amateur Baker's Artisan Bread

I ENJOY cooking. I LOVE finding new recipes to try on pinterest [follow me HERE]. I love bumping into my honey in the kitchen and being goofy while we food prep or cook together. Despite all of these statements, I am an AMATEUR when it comes to baking. This reason is two fold: 1)Baking requires exact measurements in the beginning- I am and "eye baller" and timer-by-memory type person 2)Baking is WAY too scientific..  I mean, baking soda and baking powder aren't the same thing? That's just ASKING for a recipe mess-up.

So now you know how I feel about basically all pastries. Let me share with you a recipe I can ACTUALLY handle though. I'm sure all of my other no bake wonders will be happy to have this.

I got this recipe for Artisan Bread from my friend Sarah at a recently girls only wine tasting evening. This gal is a NATURAL hostess and thought of EVERYTHING.. from recipe cards to ramekins for take home seasonings to bake our bread later, she was prepared to pass on her skills.

[got the recipe this night!]

I had NO idea that this bread recipe was so versatile! It is a beautiful (& delicious) blank canvas that allows you to be a little creative.. you pick. Maybe you want to mix minced apples into the bread dough and sprinkle with cinnamon. Or maybe you want to infuse the bread dough with garlic and sprinkle rosemary on top! The list goes ON and ON.

Without further adieu, here is Miss Sarah's recipe:

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups lukewarm water

1 tablespoon kosher salt

4 1/2 teaspoons yeast

1 cup 10 grain cereal

2 cups whole wheat flour

3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

Directions:

1) In a large mixing bowl, use a wooden spoon to combine water, salt and yeast. Let the mixture sit a few minutes until it looks "creamy.." although, there will probably be some clumps.

2) Stir in the cereal, whole wheat flour, and unbleached white four. * Mix the ingredients together until the dough is wet and sticky. Do not over mix or knead.

3) Loosely cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 2 hours.

4) Bake at 450 with a pan filled with water below.

~For Ciabatta: Do NOT refrigerate the dough. Form a flat round loaf 1" high and let rise for 40 minutes.  Them brush with water** and bake on a tray lined with parchment paper for 15-25 minutes.

~For normal loaves: refrigerate  for at least 2 hours {dough will keep TWO weeks in the fridge). Delicately shape into a loaf (recommended size is a grapefruit). Let rise for 40 minutes. Rush with water**, slice top 1/2" deep with wet knife and bake on a try lined with parchment paper (I used my pampered cheft stone!!!). Bake 30 minutes for larger loaves; 15 minutes for smaller ones.

*Mix in extra ingredients at this point (herbs, friend fruit, etc).

** Sprinkle desired seasonings now (hers, pumping seeds, etc).

FYI this dough keeps for up to TWO weeks in the fridge:: I baked 4 mini loves tonight after it saw in my fridge for 9 days!!!

Give it a whirl and let me know how it goes-- happy baking!

XO, linz