Sweet Potato Sprouted Spelt Muffins #MuffinMonday

Sweet potato sprouted spelt muffins are made with brown sugar and lots of sweet golden raisins. They make a delicious tea time snack or tasty breakfast. Like most muffins, they freeze well and can be thawed and ready to eat with a quick zap in the microwave.

It’s Muffin Monday again, folks, the last Monday of every month when I share my own muffin recipe and several delectable others from my Muffin Monday group friends.

As I imagine you all are, right round the world, we are baking with what’s left in our kitchens. I could easily have called these sprouted sweet potato muffins because my taters are seriously sending out shoots. The one I used here had tiny sprouts that I trimmed off but another one is a candidate for cutting up and planting. If only I had good soil!

If you don’t have a sweet potato, substitute carrots in the same approximate amount.

Sweet Potato Sprouted Spelt Muffins

My sweet potato was about 9 1/3 oz or 265g in weight before peeling and cutting off the rough ends. If yours is a little bigger or smaller, no worries.

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
2 cups or 240g sprouted spelt flour
3/4 cup, firmly packed, or 150g light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 cup or 240ml milk (I use 2% fat)
1 cup or 150g golden raisins, optional

Method
Peel your sweet potato and cut it into chunks. Discard the fibrous ends. Boil until tender.

Put the golden raisins in a heatproof bowl.

When you drain the hot water off of the sweet potato chunks, pour it into the bowl with the raisins. Leave them to plump up then drain when the water is cool.

Mash the sweet potato with a fork or potato masher until fairly smooth. Set aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your sprouted spelt flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, cooled mashed sweet potato, oil and milk.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined.

Fold in the golden raisins.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups in your prepared pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven leave to cool for a few minutes in the pan. Remove from the pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other lovely muffins we are sharing today!

• Celebratory Gluten-Free Strawberry Muffins from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Chocolate Coconut Banana Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Mocha Muffins from Making Miracles
• Coffee Cake Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Cornbread Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sweet Potato Sprouted Spelt Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Toffee Mocha Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tomato Basil Muffins from Palatable Pastime 
• Wild Violet Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page<

Pin these Sweet Potato Sprouted Spelt Muffins!

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Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta - Instant Pot

This easy beef stroganoff pasta is a tasty one-pot meal, beefy and creamy with lots of mushrooms. It’s cooked in an Instant Pot so it’s on the table quickly without even firing up your stove.

I was craving beef stroganoff during my kitchen renovation so initially I planned to cook it on my one little electric burner in the laundry room, like many of our meals. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I could boil pasta in the Instant Pot. After all, one can use it to cook rice. Why not pasta?

I found various instructional posts online, especially one on Tidbits for Tasty Living. The challenge was on! I have to tell you, we could not have been more pleased with how it turned out.

Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta

Since the pasta is going to be cooked in the Instant Pot, if you don’t have bowties, make sure to choose another small wide variety. Long thin noodles are not recommended in case they work their way out of the float valve. Feel free to substitute your favorite mushrooms or whichever ones you have on hand for the baby Portobellos.

Ingredients
4 lbs or 1820g lean beef, cut into thin pieces
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon Ajinomoto (MSG)- optional
1/3 cup or 41g flour
2 tablespoons or 30g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons beef drippings (or sub more olive oil)
3 medium onions
200g or 7 oz baby Portabella mushrooms
1 cup or 240ml dry white wine
4 cups or 946ml beef stock
1 lb or 450g small dried bowtie pasta or other small pasta
2 cups or 490g sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Sea salt
Black pepper

Optional to garnish:
Parsley

Method
Sprinkle the beef with the white vinegar, salt and the Ajinomoto, if using. This helps to tenderize the meat. Refrigerate the beef for at least an hour but you can even do this step the night before.

When you are ready to cook the beef, drain any liquid that has collected and toss the pieces with the flour in a large bowl.

With the Instant pot on low sauté, melt the butter, adding a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet. While the butter is melting, chop your onions.

Sauté the onions for about five minutes or until they are softened and translucent. Remove them from the Instant Pot and put them in a bowl that is large enough to hold the meat after you’ve browned it as well.

Turn the sauté function up to high and brown the meat a handful or two at a time, adding a little more olive oil if necessary. As the beef browns, remove the browned pieces to a bowl and add more to the Instant Pot, until all the beef is browned and in the bowl.

Meanwhile, trim any hard stem ends off of the mushrooms and slice them.

Turn the sauté function to low once more and add the white wine to the pot and gently loosen any browned bits on the Instant Pot pan. Cook on the low heat until the wine is almost completely reduced.

Add the meat back in with the onions and set your Instant Pot to pressure cook for 20 minutes.

When the time is up, turn it off but leave it to depressurize naturally.

Add in the beef stock, pasta and sliced mushrooms. Stir well.

Cook for 5 minutes on high and release the steam manually when done. When releasing the pressure, cover the release valve with a kitchen towel and pulse it a few times to release the pressure a little at a time until fully releasing.

Stir in the sour cream and lemon juice. Check for salt, adding more if necessary, along with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Garnish with a little parsley, if desired. Enjoy!

It's Multicooker Monday again, friends! Check out all the great recipes we are sharing using various small appliances. Many thanks to the group creator and host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Instant Pot Corned Beef with a BBQ Whiskey Glaze from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Instant Pot Beef Tacos from Palatable Pastime
• Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta (Instant Pot) from Food Lust People Love
• Instant Pot Creamy Broccoli Mac N Cheese from Making Miracles
• Badshahi Chicken Legs - Air Fryer from Sneha's Recipe
• Slow Cooker Chicken Marbella from Karen's KItchen Stories

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group.

Pin this Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta! 

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Baked Salmon and Veggie Parcels #FishFridayFoodies

Baked salmon and veggie parcels are an easy delicious meal that comes together quickly and, as a bonus, there are no pots or pans to wash up!



This month my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing recipes inspired by our travels. For my contribution, I reached way back to my backpacking days when my fellow Girl Scouts and I would cook whole meals wrapped in foil over a campfire.

We never did anything as fancy as salmon with asparagus, of course! But we did enjoy some fabulous meals under the stars. There is no more delicious meal than one that follows an all-day hike in the piney woods of East Texas, or really, anywhere outdoors.

The salmon and asparagus idea came from a dish I ate many moons ago in a seaside restaurant in Sydney. They look so pretty on a plate together, don’t you think? Especially if you add a slice of lemon. For my rendition, I also love the way the yellow squash peeks out, adding a little extra pop of color to echo the yellow of the lemon slice.

Baked Salmon and Veggie Parcels

These little dinner packets are easily customizable to use whatever seafood and vegetables you have on hand. Just make sure than any raw vegetables are thin or thinly sliced so they can cook quickly. Vegetables that take longer to cook, like potatoes, should be cooked ahead.

Ingredients
For the parcels:
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 small yellow squash
4-5 small cooked red potatoes
1/4 purple onion, sliced very thinly
4 wild salmon fillets
4 teaspoons butter
12 fresh asparagus stalks
4 slices lemon
salt
freshly ground black pepper
ground cayenne pepper

To garnish:
chopped parsley

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°C or 200°F.

Cut the ends off of the yellow squash and slice it thinly. Cut the cooked potatoes in 1/4 in or 6mm slices. Trim the hard ends off of the asparagus and then cut them into lengths about the same size as your salmon fillets.

Salt and pepper the salmon fillets.

Lay your foil out and drizzle the middle of the sheet with one teaspoon of olive oil about the size of your salmon fillet. Top the olive oil with one quarter of the slices of yellow squash and then potato. Salt and pepper the potatoes.

Top the potatoes with one of the salmon fillets then add 1 teaspoon of butter in two pieces.

Press a few slices of onion into the butter along with one quarter of the asparagus pieces. The butter helps hold them all neatly on top.

Top the whole pile with a lemon slice.

Pull the foil edges together and fold them over to seal the parcel. Repeat the process to create the other three salmon and veggie parcels.

Place all four parcels onto a baking tray and bake in the hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through.

Wild salmon takes less time to cook since the fillets are generally thinner and less fatty than farmed salmon. I find that 15 minutes is enough time for wild salmon to be done to our liking. Farmed salmon may take that extra five minutes. If you are unsure, by all means, check for doneness by cutting into one of the fillets before plating.

When time’s up on the salmon, remove the baking pan from the oven and leave to stand for 1 minute.

Carefully open each parcel so you don't burn yourself with the steam that will pour out. Use a wide spatula to slide the pile onto a plate. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley, if desired.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other great seafood recipes my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing today that have been inspired by their travels. Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for this great theme!

• Baked Salmon and Veggie Parcels by Food Lust People Love
• Foiled Fish with Mango by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Fried Bombils and Bombay Ducks with Temprado Masala by Sneha's Recipe
• Irish Fish Cakes by Karen's Kitchen Stores
• Pickled Fish, A Plethora of Textures, and Memories of a Holiday Trip to Denmark by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Senegalese Fish and Rice (Thiéboudienne) by Making Miracles

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

Pin these Baked Salmon and Veggie Parcels!

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Bacon Broccoli Mac and Cheese Bundt #BundtBakers

This bacon broccoli mac and cheese Bundt is a delicious main course made with a wonderful cheesy sauce that includes heavy cream, extra sharp cheddar and five whole eggs.

I’m not sure why I did but when I decided to host this month’s Bundt Bakers event, I chose cheese as the main ingredient. Cheese means that both sweet and savory bakes are an option! This could not have come at a better time.

Like the rest of the world, we’ve been self isolating for several weeks because of the novel coronavirus. We don’t eat a lot of sweets so I really wanted to make something we would eat for a main course, rather than a dessert. Thank God for cheese.

Bacon Broccoli Mac and Cheese Bundt

This Bundt is much more than just baking your usual mac and cheese in a Bundt pan. The bacon, broccoli and eggs make this a full meal. Leftovers, if you should be so fortunate as to have any, are just as delicious the next day.

Ingredients
12 oz or 340g large elbow macaroni
5 1/3 oz or 150g small broccoli florets (no stems –about 1/2 small crown)
12 oz or 340g (7-8 slices) thick cut bacon
1/4 cup or 56g unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the Bundt pan
1/3 cup or 41g flour, plus more for flouring the Bundt pan
1 medium onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups or 360ml milk (I used 2 percent fat)
1/2 cup or 120ml heavy cream
12 oz or 340g extra sharp cheddar cheese (or a combo of your favorite cheeses), grated
1 teaspoon mustard powder (I use Colman’s)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
5 eggs
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Bacon Broccoli Mac and Cheese Bundt

While this recipe calls for only broccoli florets, don’t discard the stems after you’ve cut off the little florets. They are not only edible once you trim the hard outer stalk, they are delicious in a salad.

Method
Thoroughly grease and flour your 12-cup Bundt pan. I suggest using a classic design since we are baking with cheese, which can tend to stick. Bundt pans with too many nooks and crannies would be asking for trouble.

Cook your elbow macaroni in salted boiling water, according to the package instructions. Add in the broccoli florets for the last 3 minutes of cooking time. Drain the macaroni and broccoli florets and rinse with cool water. Set aside in the colander to drain completely.

Meanwhile, cut the bacon into pieces and fry them in a skillet until crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on some paper towels.

Remove all but 1/4 cup or 60ml of the bacon fat and save in a clean jar for future recipes.

Add the butter to the skillet and once it has melted, Add in the flour and stir to create a light roux without any lumps.

Add in the onion and garlic and sauté till they are softened and translucent.

Turn the heat under your skillet right down to simmer and whisk the milk and cream into the roux.

Raise the flame a little and cook, whisking all the while, until the sauce thickens. This takes just a few minutes. You know you have the right thickness when a spatula pulled through it leaves a brief show of pan, then the sauce flows right back in.

Toss the mustard powder, smoked paprika and cayenne with the grated cheese then add it to the white sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir until the cheese is melted. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the 5 eggs with salt.

Whisk your cooling cheese sauce into the eggs a tablespoon or two at a time, until it’s all mixed in.
You don’t want to add all of the warm cheese sauce at once since the heat will cook the eggs and you’ll end up with eggy lumps. No one wants that.

Sprinkle the bottom of the prepared Bundt pan with some of the bacon bits.

Stir the cooled macaroni, broccoli and the rest of the bacon into the egg/cheese sauce mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the Bundt pan and bake for 50 minutes in your preheated oven.

Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes and then loosen the sides and around the center hole with a wooden skewer. Invert on a plate to serve.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other lovely Bundts with cheese!

• Bacon Broccoli Mac and Cheese Bundt from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Cream Cheese Bundt Cake from Making Miracles
• Cream Cheese Bundt Cake from Sneha's Recipe
• Cream Cheese Swirl Coffee Cake from Patyco Candybar
• Easy Peasy Cheesy Pull Apart Bread from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mascarpone Lemon Cud Bundt Cake from Nunca es Demasiado Dulce
• Sausage Egg and Cheese Breakfast Bundtlettes from Palatable Pastime
• Strawberry Cream Cheese Bundt from Sweet Sensations

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our home page. c

Pin this Bacon Broccoli Mac and Cheese Bundt!

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Russian Kulich - Easter Bread #BreadBakers

The traditional Russian kulich is baked in multiplies for family gatherings to celebrate Easter and is often eaten on Easter Monday as picnic fare. It's a lovely sweet bread made with either raisins or chocolate chips.

This month our Bread Bakers host is Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla and she chose international Easter breads for our theme. I must confess that I really didn’t pay attention to whether the second Tuesday fell before or after Easter because I loved the theme so much.

Turns out that it is after Easter for those of us who follow the Gregorian (new) calendar, which is much of the western world. For those who follow the Julian (old) calendar, we are right on time with Easter bread recipes, as they will celebrate next Sunday.

That said, as Camilla rightly pointed out, most of us all over the world are still staying home to stay safe so many family Easter celebrations have been postponed until we can all be together. If that’s you, dear reader, please bookmark or pin your favorite recipes from our list, found below my recipe.

Russian Kulich - Easter Bread

This recipe is adapted from several I found online. Traditionally, Russian kulich would be baked with raisins instead of chocolate chips, but I did find one recipe by an actual baker with a Russian grandma who added chocolate, so I am feeling pretty good about my choice. I’ll be honest. My daughter is home and she is not a fan of raisins. I wanted to bake sweet bread that she would eat!

Ingredients
For the kulich:
1/2 cup or 120ml warm milk (I used 2% milk)
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 whole egg, room temp
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup or 56g butter, melted and cooled
good pinch salt
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups or 281g all-purpose flour
3/4 cup or 140g raisins or for a less traditional bread, substitute chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet chocolate.)

To bake the kulich:
2 1-lb coffee cans
parchment paper
butter

For the glaze:
1/2 cup or g 62 icing sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon or orange juice

Optional to decorate: colored sprinkles

Method
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the warm milk, sugar and yeast. Set aside to prove. The yeast should start to get a little foamy on top.

Whisk in the egg and egg yolk, melted butter, sour cream, salt and vanilla.

Whisk in half of the flour. Your batter will be very thick, mounding briefly when you let it drip off the whisk back into the bowl.

Cover the bowl with cling film and let it rise in a warm place, ideally 100°F or 39°C for about an hour. I achieve this by filling a larger bowl with hot water from the sink and set the batter bowl in it. Occasionally check the temperature and add more hot water as needed.

Using a wooden spoon or a stiff spatula, add the rest of the flour a little at a time.

The dough will be quite soft. Stir in the raisins or chocolate chips. Cover and let dough rise another hour in a warm place, again ideally at 100˚F or 38°C. Use the hot water bowl trick again for best results.

Butter your clean coffee cans then line them with baking parchment.

Spoon the dough into the two prepared coffee cans, trying not to mix it too much. We want to keep as many of the bubbles in the dough as possible. Mine were filled about halfway, which is hard to see in this photo. Trust me.

Again, leave the dough to rise uncovered in a warm place for an additional hour or until the coffee cans are almost full. I put my two cans back in the big bowl and added more hot tap water then covered the bowl with cling film and a folded towel.

If you do this, do be careful getting them out of the bowl when you are ready to bake. One of mine tipped over a bit as I tried to get them out and I lost some height on the rise.

Towards the end of the hour rising time, preheat your oven to 350˚F or 180°C.

Bake the kulich for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown. If they start browning too quickly, you can cover the tops with foil.

Cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack then gently loosen the edges with a knife and turn the kulich out of the coffee cans. Leave them to cool completely, bottom side down on the wire rack.

To make the glaze, stir just enough of the lemon or orange juice into the powdered sugar to get a drizzling consistency. Pour the glaze over each cooled kulich. Top with sprinkles, if desired.

Enjoy!



Check all the lovely Easter breads from around the world! If you don't bake one this month, you'll be glad to have the recipes for another special occasion. Many thanks to Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for hosting this month!

• Choereg (Armenian Easter Bread) by Making Miracles
• Easy Glazed Baked Donuts by Shockingly Delicious
• Folar da Páscoa, a Less-Than-Traditional Version by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• German Osterbrot Easter Bread by Ambrosia
• Hot Cross Buns by Sneha's Recipe
• Polish Babka by A Messy Kitchen
• Kalach (Hungarian Easter Bread) by Passion Kneaded
• Kozunak (Bulgarian Easter Bread) by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Russian Kulich - Easter Bread by Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Hot Cross Buns by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sourdough Ukrainian Paska by Zesty South Indian Kitchen

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the Bread Bakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Russian Kulich Easter Bread!

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