Cranberry Pistachio Muffins #MuffinMonday

Cranberry pistachio muffins are great on their own for breakfast or teatime, or as part of your holiday buffet table. They aren’t just pretty, they are delicious as well!

When I wrote the first post introducing my new Muffin Monday group back in August of 2015, I had already shared 73 muffins, both sweet and savory, in this space. As we reach the end of 2018, you’ll find those plus another 37 muffin recipes here on Food Lust People Love, and links from my friends to many, many more! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow bakers for joining me each month, adding extra value to each of my posts with their beautiful list of recipes. Love you all!

And as this is my final post for 2018, I’d also like to thank you, my readers. This year was a rough one for me, one of personal loss of family and friends that I hold dear, not to mention my wonderful kitchen helper, Beso the Boxer. My kitchen is a place of comfort and relaxation for me, a safe haven that keeps me sane. It gives me joy to create recipes to share with you and that saved me this year. Thank you for reading and commenting! A very special thank you to my email subscribers who get a short introduction in their inboxes whenever I post a new recipe. I appreciate you all! (Want to subscribe? Please click here or use the little box in the righthand column that says, Great Recipes - Free!)

Fun fact: My most viewed recipe of all time is a muffin! I posted these Cheesy Spinach Muffins back in 2013 and they’ve stayed on top ever since. No other recipe even comes close.

By the way, Happy New Year! Do you need some party appetizers perfect for New Year’s Eve or Day? Try my Black-eyed Pea Bacon Cocktail Muffins!

Cranberry Pistachio Muffins

Maybe you’ve got some whole berry cranberry sauce of the jellied kind left over from Christmas. If so, these cranberry pistachio muffins make perfect use of that abundance. If not, buy a can on sale and bake these babies for your New Year’s Day breakfast. I used the one from Ocean Spray.

Baking muffins for breakfast couldn’t be easier! Starting the night before, simply measure out your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and cover with cling film. Whisk together your wet ingredients, cover with cling film and store in the refrigerator. When you wake up in the morning, turn the oven on to preheat and follow the recipe from where you mix your wet and dry ingredients together. Fresh warm muffins in fewer than 30 minutes!

Ingredients for 16 muffins
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml milk
1/2 cup or 120ml whole berry cranberry sauce (140g)
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 60g slivered pistachios, plus extra for decoration, if desired

Also optional to decorate:
12 fresh or frozen cranberries

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper or silicone muffin cups. A few years ago one of my lovely daughters gave me a set of silicone muffin cups from Crate and Barrel so I used those occasionally. They stand up on their own so you don’t even need a muffin pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the cranberry sauce, milk, oil and eggs.

Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.

Fold in the pistachios.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. In the case of these 16, a 1/4 cup each was just about right.

Cut the fresh or frozen cranberries in half.

Sprinkle the muffin tops with more pistachio slivers to decorate. Then distribute the halved cranberries.

Bake your muffins in the preheated oven about 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool on a rack for a few minutes and then remove the muffins from the pan or silicone cups to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Check out the wonderful muffins my talented muffin baking friends are sharing today!

• Bacon Cheddar Corn Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Bacon Scallion Corn Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Blackberry Muffins from Making Miracles
• Cranberry Pistachio Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Mini Donut Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of 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 Cranberry Pistachio Muffins! 

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Cheesy Spinach Muffins #MuffinMonday

A cheesy muffin with cheddar and feta and spinach, topped with thinly sliced tomatoes. There's thyme in there too! These guys are perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch or a snack. 

There are a few staples I keep in my freezer, just in case.  Frozen spinach is one of them.  In a pinch, spinach can be thawed quickly and added into omelets or quiches or cheesy sauces for pasta.  It adds color and nutritional value without an overly strong or objectionable flavor.   It is also beautiful added into muffins.  (See exhibit A, above.)

I've got to tell you that this is my all-time most-visited on this entire blog. I published it originally almost four years ago and have made these muffins countless times since then. It is almost my most-pinned recipe. It give me great joy to know that folks are pinning and saving and making these!

Ingredients - for 12 muffins
3 1/2 oz or 100g frozen spinach
2 2/3 oz or 75g feta
3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp cheddar
2 tomatoes
2 cups or 250g flour
Sea salt flakes
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil
1 cup or 240ml milk
Several sprigs fresh thyme
Black pepper

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and grease your 12-cup muffin pan liberally with non-stick spray or butter.

Thaw your spinach with a few zaps in the microwave.  Or allow to thaw naturally, if you have time.  I never seem to.  Allow to cool, if you zapped it too long.

Buy the spinach that is frozen in cubes.  It's much easier then to thaw just what you need. 

Grate your cheddar cheese and crumble the feta.

Slice the tomatoes fairly thinly and leave to drain on some folded paper towels.  You need 12 slices so if you have any tomato left over, save it for a sandwich or share it with your helper.

Measure your flour, salt, baking powder, grated cheddar and some of the leaves off of your fresh thyme sprigs into a large mixing bowl and mix well.

Measure the milk and olive oil into a smaller bowl and whisk with the eggs and thawed spinach.   Just two eggs, pay no attention to that double yolk behind the curtain.  (Sorry, watched too much of The Wizard of Oz in my youth.)

Here’s something incredible, and I use that in the literal sense.  Hard to believe.  But true!  In the last week, I have opened SEVEN eggs that had double yolks.  I think I may have had one or two in the whole rest of my life!  And they weren’t all from the same batch of eggs, although they were the same brand.   Isn’t that something?!  Have you ever found a double yolked egg?

Fold your wet ingredients into your dry ones until just mixed.

Fold in the crumbled feta.

Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups.

Pat the tomato slices really dry with another paper towel and top each cup of batter with one.

Sprinkle the tomato slices with a little more fresh thyme, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until you can see that the sides are turning golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Remove from the pan, loosening gently with a knife if necessary, and cool further on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

For those who might need a gluten-free version, check out this post.  The author/baker saw this link on Pinterest and modified it for her family's needs.  Thank you, K!

Prawn and Curry Leaf Muffins #MuffinMonday

Aromatic curry leaves, fried till crispy in butter, perfectly complement the butter-fried prawns in these delicious savory muffins. 

I have an editorial calendar where I keep track of upcoming blog posts and what I am planning to cook or bake for different group themes. I penciled in Muffin Monday on the 22nd of February and started thinking about what to bake. If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that the new Muffin Monday doesn’t have a theme or prescribed ingredients. We are free and easy on the last Monday of each month. But then I discovered that this was a leap year so the last Monday of the month is actually February 29th. How did I get all the way to the middle of February and just find that out? Seems like it would have come up at some point in December or January at least, right?

Soooooo, I had an idea: A leap of faith muffin. We’d each use an unusual ingredient, one we’ve never used before, at least not in a muffin. I proposed it to the group and, good sports that they are, they all agreed. Make sure you scroll down and check out the link list of muffins. Some of them may look normal to you, but I can assure you that the Muffin Monday bakers have stretched themselves this month!

One of my favorite dishes when we lived in Malaysia was something called Butter Prawns. I’ve only made them myself once because they are a bit of a faff but, dear me, they are divine! Crispy curry leaves, crispy prawns and lots of bits of buttery crumbs. I didn’t do the crumbly part for these muffins but all the butter, curry leaves and prawns still gave me the right flavor I was looking for.

My one attempt at butter prawns

Ingredients
10 medium-sized prawns or shrimp, already cleaned and shelled (Mine weighed 5oz or 140g.)
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter
Generous handful fresh curry leaves
2 1/2 cups or 315g flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Black pepper
1 cup or 240ml milk
2 eggs

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by generously greasing with butter, oil or non-stick spray.

Chop the prawns into three or four pieces and put them in a bowl handy to your stove or cooktop.

Melt two tablespoons of the butter in a small frying pan and then fry the curry leaves briefly.

Remove them quickly with a slotted spoon when they get crispy and are just starting to brown.

Lower the fire and tip the prawns into the browning butter you've left behind.

Cook them till just pink. Remove the whole pan from the heat, add in the rest of the butter and set aside so the additional butter can melt and the prawns can cool.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl with a few generous grinds of fresh black pepper.

In another bowl, whisk together the milk and eggs.  Once the prawns are cool enough not to cook the eggs, add them along with the melted butter and stir well.

Add all the milk/egg/prawn mixture to flour bowl.

Gently fold a few turns then add in the crispy curry leaves. Continue folding just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

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

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden.

Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before removing muffins from tin.

Enjoy!

Take a leap of faith with us this month – Bake some muffins! Many thanks to all the Muffin Monday bakers for playing along.

• Berry Mango Swirl Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Brown Sugar, Pistachio and Garam Masala Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Carrot Muffins from Kelli's Kitchen
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins with Cardamom Browned Butter from The Spiced Life
• Marmite Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Prawn and Curry Leaf Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Rosewater Banana White Chocolate Muffins from Making Miracles
• Spinach, Bacon and Cheese Breakfast Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of 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.

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Spinach Madeline Stuffed Potatoes

A favorite in southern Louisiana, spinach Madeline is a cheesy casserole or one-pan side dish. For this version, I used it as a filling to make spinach Madeline stuffed potatoes. Y'all, it's so good! 

One of the first cookbooks I ever received was one called River Road Recipes, published as a fundraiser by the Junior League of Baton Rouge. The very first edition, released in 1959, contained a recipe for Spinach Madeline, a thick and creamy spinach dish flavored with garlic and onion plus, the star of the show, jalapeño cheese. 

Spinach Madeline Stuffed Potatoes

In this version, I used my favorite habanero cheese for even more spiciness but any flavorful cheese will do. These stuffed potatoes can be made ahead and baked to heat through before serving. 

Ingredients

4 smallish Russet potatoes (approx. weight about 10.5 oz or 300g each)

2 (12 oz or 340g) packages frozen chopped spinach

3/4 cup or 180ml water

1/3 cup or 75g butter

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup or 80ml milk

1/4 cup or 60ml cream

7 oz or 200g jalapeño (or habanero) cheese, grated

3/4 teaspoon celery salt

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

fine sea salt to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.  

Scrub the potatoes and lightly pierce the skin with a pointy knife. Microwave on high for 6 minutes to get them started, then bake uncovered, directly on the oven rack for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through. If you’d rather not microwave them, cook in the oven for 55-60 minutes or until they are cooked through.

While the potatoes bake, put the frozen spinach and water in a saucepan over high heat; bring to a full boil. 

Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook for 8 minutes. Separate with a fork and cook for 2 more minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup or 120ml of the cooking liquid.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add flour, stirring until blended and smooth, but not brown, 1 to 2 minutes. 

Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft but not brown, 5 to 7 minutes.

Slowly add the milk, cream and the reserved spinach cooking liquid, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. I like to use a whisk for this step.

Cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and thick, 3 to 5 minutes. When you pull the spatula through it, it should be thick enough not to run right back together immediately. 

Add the grated cheese, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper and cayenne.

Cook, stirring frequently until the cheese is melted, about 2 to 3 minutes. 

Stir in the cooked spinach and set the mixture aside. (This is the original spinach Madeline now. It was eaten as is, or baked in a casserole dish.) 

When the potatoes are baked, cut them in half lengthwise. When they are cool enough to handle, scoop the insides out. 

Use a potato masher to mash the parts you scooped out. 

Add half of the mashed potatoes to the spinach mixture and mix well. (Save the rest of the potatoes for another dish like silver dollar potato pancakes or mashed potato muffins.) Taste and add salt as needed for your taste. 

Spoon the mixture into the potato skins and bake for 30 minutes to serve.

Enjoy!

It's Sunday FunDay and today my friends and I are sharing side dish recipes for your barbecue or cookout since that season is upon us! Check them out below: 

• 45 Minute Hamburger Buns from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
• Avocado Salad with Fresh Herb Dressing from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Carrot Apple Salad from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Pressure Cooker Pork Dry from Sneha’s Recipe
• Quinoa Salad with Fennel & Garbanzo Beans from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Spaccatini Rolls from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Spinach Madeline Stuffed Potatoes from Food Lust People Love
• Sweet and Tangy Cucumber Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Sweet Potato and Fennel Fronds Salad from Cook with Renu

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin these Spinach Madeline Stuffed Potatoes!

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