Week 2: Corn Muffin Success and Sadness

Last Saturday, I began what will be a year-long process of sorting through my mother’s recipes, selecting one per week, adapting it to a healthier version, and then posting the updated recipe the following week.

In this, my first of 52 weeks, I find myself excited, touched by the support of family and friends, and churned-up with memories, both lovely and uncomfortable. As my tagline says, this is a year “from my heart and kitchen” , which resulted in a VERY long post. I’m now rethinking the process. Should I post the original card on Saturday and the updated recipe during the week?  Trust me, the Editorial Director and Content Marketing Strategist in me has her panties (I hate that word) in a bunch, but apparently it is much easier to create a process for publishing content when it’s not your heart and soul. Please bear with me, as this may change along the way. For now, I’m trying not to overthink things (like that is f-king possible!).

For clarity sake,  the aforementioned “sadness” in the title is not because of my memories…my heart is broken for our country as we say good-bye to President Barack Obama and our incredible First Lady. I’ve been weeping all week while watching speeches, videos….’nuff said about that.

Onto the recipe…

DOUBLE CORN AND GREEN CHILI MUFFINS

Looking at the recipe, I realized it wasn’t that unhealthy, especially when you compare it to cooking with a mix.
Hmmmm, new challenge… how about making it healthier by adding nutrients, instead of a lot of empty carb calories, and removing processed ingredients where possible?
In addition,  I was having my son and his girlfriend (hopefully soon-to-be daughter in law) over for dinner, and they are vegetarian. I took it one step further, making Vegan Double Corn Jalapeno Muffins. 

Process, Research and What I Learned
I usually replace eggs with some sort of fruit purée, but I realized that may not work in this case, because I suspected the egg is for leavening purposes. Onto the Internet… Search for “replacing egg and dairy and a muffin recipe”

I ended up here at thekitchn.com (not a typo) and learned about making flax meal eggs…who knew?

Best guesses for substitutions/replacements are:

• Eggs – Flaxmeal “egg” and vinegar and baking soda for leavening
• Butter – Coconut Oil
• Sour Cream – Silken tofu
• Canned corn – Frozen corn
• Canned chilies – Jalapeno
• Cheese  – Nutritional Yeast for flavor and almond milk for moisture

I have to tell you they didn’t seem appetizing when compared to moist cheesie muffins and
I asked Alex (my son) to grab a loaf of bread to accompany the veggie soup just in case.

RESULT
They were DELICIOUS!!! Moist cheesy and a little nutty flavor and the kids both liked the kick of the pepper.
Sure, I remember the warm, melted-cheese corn muffins my mother made and these were certainly different. But I’m not trying to fool my taste buds or make a dish taste like something it’s not. We all agreed that the first recipe was a success, and the kids were able to take the loaf of bread home along with muffins for their lunch the next day.

This research process left me wondering….feel free to scroll to the recipe as I ponder….
Had the Internet, with the plethora of resources and information, been available when my mom was younger, might she have been healthier? Would she have joined one of the many on-line weight loss support groups that offer anonymity? When she first began struggling with her metabolism, would she have armed herself with information from WebMD in response to her Dr.’s “low-fat diet offerings, and simplified suggestions, coated with judgment to, “eat less” ?  Would she have learned more about the emotional connection to her weight and sought solutions? Would she have found more compassion from others and/or from herself?
I’ll never know, but my mother was a brilliant, resourceful, educated and supremely strong woman….I just wonder.

Now back to the recipe.

VEGAN DOUBLE CORN JALAPENO MUFFINS

I’ve yet to select a recipe tool,  I’m going old school.
INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 C organic yellow cornmeal
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 TB baking powder
1 tsp  baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TB flax meal
5 TB water
1 TB vinegar
1 C silken tofu
1/2 C coconut oil melted
1 C organic frozen corn
1/2 -1 C nutritional yeast
1 jalapeño pepper seeded and sliced
3 tablespoons of puréed pumpkin or apple sauce
1/4 C Almond Milk or Water for moisture as needed

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350°

• Prepare muffin tins with spray, cups or oil. I used coconut oil
• Prepare the “flax egg” by combining the ground flax meal and water in a small bowl and set aside for ~15 minutes.
• Rinse the frozen corn in water to thaw
• Combine and thoroughly mix cornmeal, wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper
• Whisk or use a mixer to mix tofu, melted oil, pumpkin and flax “egg”
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients
• Gently stir in vinegar
• Fold in nutritional yeast and corn. Do not over mix
• The mix should be thick but not dry. You can add more pumpkin, almond milk or water if needed.
• Scoop into muffin tins and top with a sliced jalapeno
• I don’t’ like peppers, so I topped some with the nutritional yeast.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

 

SATURDAY 2 RECIPE PICK

In honor of “Blue Monday”, seriously, the 3rd week of January has a name because of the suicide rate, and my deep sadness to say good-bye to the Obama’s, and the upcoming inauguration of Donald Trump. I’m going to need some serious comfort food this week. Yup, a traditional comfort food with it’s warm creamy carb-filled goodness. As a kid,  it always made feel like things would be okay in the end. Let’s hope it does the trick this year…

until next week……

 

Tags: bread, from the heart, healthier recipe, muffins, thoughts, vegan