"Breakfast on the Go" Muffins #2 'Mostly Savory'

I have a large family and work times vary, so breakfasts are hurried and eaten individually, for the most part. Not everyone gets up or leaves at the same times. l have been trying to create some healthier and quick muffins that will fill my guys up and help them to not skip breakfast because of lack of time to fix something. Of course, the girls and I will enjoy them too, but in lesser amounts. :)

My first "Breakfast on the Go" Muffin was a little sweet and my family loved it. You can read about it and find the recipe here:
   "Breakfast on the Go" Muffins 'A Little Sweet'


This muffin isn't sweet, it is savory. It is packed with meat, cheese, seeds, veggies and more. This one passed the family test also. 

For the first "Breakfast on the Go" Muffin, we mixed up a basic muffin batter and added the rest of the ingredients. For this muffin, we put ALL of the ingredients in and mixed it up at the end! Not the normal way to do it, but it worked.... so either way will work.  :) 

I made 4 batches of the recipe I have in this post. Like I said, I have a big family and I like to have some muffins in the freezer, so I made a big amount of them.

I put everything in at the same time and just mixed it that way. It simplified making the muffins. It was a bit challenging to stir in because I made such a large batch, but it worked fine.

The batter is thick and chunky and it is easy to spoon it into the muffin cups.

I feel guilty sharing this, but I will anyway. We sprayed the bottom of the muffin cups to keep them from sticking. I don't like doing that, but it does help the muffin papers to come off the muffin quite easily.

A couple of years ago, I found these brown baking cups at a garage sale. There are 500 muffin cups in a box! They were $2.50 each box. I went ahead and bought 3 of them, joking about it being a lifetime supply for me.

 Well, we went through 101 of them today! What a blessing that special deal has been to me.  :)  Special deals like that come rather seldom, which is why I bought 3 of them. I sure am glad I did now. 

A fork works well to take the hot muffins from the pan to put them on cooling racks.

The cranberries are rather tart in here, but we liked them.

TIP-Buy extra bags of fresh cranberries at the end of the Thanksgiving season and keep them in the freezer. They are easy to pull out for recipes like this. Sometimes, they even mark the price down, although I have found that to be rare.

Like I said, I made 101 muffins today and here are most of them. There were several eaten for "testing purposes" :)   and also for lunch since I didn't make any with all of the other cooking and baking going on today. It was a very busy Saturday.

We are in "birthday season" where we have 4 family birthdays in a little over 2 weeks! I am quite busy with school, birthday cakes and gifts, regular household and family responsibilities and more, and we just didn't get lunch made. Everyone made it until supper though, with a muffin for a snack. :)

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             Gentle Joy Homemaker

 

      "Breakfast on the Go" Muffins #2   'Mostly Savory'


2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced green pepper
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup Chicken Bits   (Recipe here:  How to Make CHICKEN BITS! ) 
                            You can also used cut up chicken... or bacon bits.
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup millet seed
1/8 cup chia seeds
1/4 cup flax seed meal (flax seeds can be ground in a coffee grinder)
1 1/4 cup cranberries (can use frozen or soak dried ones in hot water for 15 min to plump up, drain
                              water and use the berries
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 teaspoon dill seed
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
                  ...........................................Stir all together gently, but thoroughly,  in a large bowl.
                                                            Spoon batter into greased muffin cups. Makes 2 dozen muffins

                                                             Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.
                                                             Remove from muffin pans and cool on wire racks.

                                                 These store well in a zipper freezer bag.

       I know there are a lot of ingredients here... my purpose was to make a healthier and filling muffin that was different from the first "Breakfast on the Go" Muffin. I liked having a lot of veggies and seeds in this. What started as a recipe to make 1 dozen muffins became one that makes 2 dozen!!  :)

Gentle Joy Homemaker                                    www.http://gentlejoyhomemaker.blogspot.com

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I am so glad to have these "Breakfast on the Go" #2 - Mostly Savory' muffins in the freezer... and I need to make more of the Breakfast on the Go Muffins - 'A Little Sweet' to put in there also. I hope to get ahead on some of these, so that breakfasts will be easier for a while.  :)

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have a wonderful week.

The other posts mentioned in this post are:

"Breakfast on the Go" Muffins - 'A Little Sweet'

How to Make CHICKEN BITS!



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5 More Fruit and Herb Waters

 We are sure enjoying the Fruit and Herb Waters we have been making lately. The last post was:







4 Great Fruit and Herb Waters (this is a link)
     

 After trying these 4 fruit and herb waters... and enjoying them... I kept experimenting and came up with 5 more. Here are the five.............








 Peach, Ginger and Basil Water....  We really enjoyed this one and they loved eating the peaches out of the drink after it was done also. 

 Grapefruit, Tumeric and Dill Water............ This one was loved by several in the family. Though I loved the smell of this water, it was a bit strong for one of our daughters and for me, but it was good. My husband LOVED this one. I was glad he did since the tumeric in it (those pieces that look like carrot slices) are great for inflammation and he is needing that for his knee.

I did like the dill.... I love dill and eat it raw.... and love the young seeds raw also, so I plan to try dill in another water mix to find one that I like better.  🙂

 Kiwi, Ginger and Basil.... this one tasted good, but we found it is better not to let this one sit as long. It tastes better when used soon.

 Lemon and Lavender.....  I am not fond of the taste lavender, so was a bit skeptical on this one, but I have fresh lavender and wanted to try it... and it sounded good with lemon. This was really good... such a fresh taste and the lavender was light, not heavy. We all really liked this one. If you love the taste of lavender already, you could add a lot more of it. 

 Cherry and Thyme.... this was a last minute idea.... I had found cherries on sale and they are a pretty color and loved by the family, so I decided to try it. I haven't used thyme yet for the waters, so I put thyme with it. It was good, but next time I would put more cherries in it. My husband loved this one too.

I think he liked most of the waters and loved a lot of them. I am so glad I can make these for him... he has a bit of an aversion to drinking a lot of plain water and he is trying to stay away from sugary drinks.

I really do like the fruit and herb waters. I like that we can have water with flavor sometimes... (this is REALLY big to my husband!)... and that we can get extra nutrition. There is such a variety of possibilities too.  Have you been enjoying such waters? Are you making your own? Have you come up with a combination you really like? I would love to hear from you in the comments. I hope you have a great week.






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4 Great Fruit and Herb Waters

 We are trying hard to increase our fluid intake... and are drinking a lot of plain water. Sometimes, though, it is nice to have something with a little flavor... a little different, so I have been making these Fruit and Herb Waters.

I don't know why I stopped making such drinks... it doesn't take long... and it doesn't take a lot of ingredients... and I have fresh herbs right outside in my garden!





 This one is Lemon, Basil, Sage and Mint Water and it is so refreshing, with a light flavor, but not like a lemonade. It is just a fresh water taste. I used 1 lemon sliced and a few herbs...  to make a gallon of drink... and then I also refilled it with water, so we actually made 2 gallons of drink with this small amount of ingredients. Delicious!

 This next one is Lime, Basil, Lemon Balm and Mint.

There is only one small lime sliced, and some herbs... not a lot.

It gave some flavor and this drink was refreshing also... the herbs add a little taste.. not a lot as I don't want to overpower the taste. I love that we are getting some nutrition in with our fluids, but no sugar or fake additives.

 This drink is Orange-Basil Water. Yes, I have a lot of basil.  :)  This basil isn't as strong as some of them, so if you have the strong basil, you may want to put just a little in to see how much you like.

 I thought I would show this Orange-Basil Water with what we had for supper that night... they went quite well together.

We had meatloaf burgers... and they were WONDERFUL! If you are interested, you can find the recipe here:

 Hearty Meatloaf Burgers

 This is Cucumber Strawberry Water.  I used one small cucumber and 2-3 strawberries.

We have enjoyed all of the Fruit and Herb Waters and I have more to try and will plan to share those in a future post.

I am pleased that my family is enjoying these drinks and we are getting a bit of nutrition from them. I think it is helping us to drink a bit more fluid also.

Yes, I still encourage each one to drink a LOT of plain water also, but 2 or 3 glasses of the fruit waters a day has been a nice addition to our water intake... and we can also eat the fruit that is in the drink. This has been especially helpful with the hot temperatures we have had lately.

By the way, one daughter said that her favorite of these 4 drinks was the first one... the Lemon, Sage, Basil and Mint. Just a reminder...  you don't need a lot of the herbs to add a little flavor... and bruising the leaves can help more flavor to be released into the water, although I didn't do that for most of mine.

I love how fresh and colorful the pitcher of Fruit and Herb Water is...  I hope you enjoy some of these also... or experiment and find some other combinations you enjoy. I have a few more to try. Thank you for visiting. I hope you have a great week.  :)

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HERB LIBRARY- 5 Reasons To Start Your Own

 Herbs are helpful... and they are plentiful in most parts of the world.

In a time when the internet is in great use, WHY do we need to have a "book library" of herb books?

Am I saying that everyone should have one? No, you will have to decide if you want one for your home or not, but in this post, I am giving 5 reasons why it is a good idea to start your own Herb Library.





1.  Identification....

      Herbs can be of great use in our health, but it is important to correctly identify the herb you use. Sometimes there can be plants that look very similar to an herb we want to use, but the other plant can be quite dangerous. Small details can show the difference.

      I like to have a book, or actually several books, that give good illustrations of the herb. A drawing or painting of an herb can be helpful, but I also want actual pictures so that I can compare what they really look like as they grow. I also like to see pictures of the plant, as a whole... and a close up, so that there is no doubt I know what to look for.
 

 I have quite a large library of herb books... is that necessary for everyone?   Of course not!

I use herbs and enjoy them....  I grow them in my garden and I collect them from the garden and from other places.

I keep learning and becoming a better herbalist as I read and use herbs. I do want to be very careful to have correct information, so I like having a variety of books to compare.









2. Learn New Herbs....

There are some herbs that are quite well known and others that can be useful to get to know. Learning a little at a time can help solidify that knowledge.  In this post, I am showing pictures of the herb Echinacea.  It is a well-known herb and in many places, it grows well. I have much of it in my garden and it is great for pictures.

What other herbs are there? What about plantain? Plantain is wonderful to identify and know how to use. It can work well for bee stings and is readily available to apply to the sting, but where do you find it? How do you use it?

There are so many herbs all around and when you start to look at pictures in the herb books, you may realize that you have seen many of them without realizing they were herbs.

We all know of the dandelion, but there are also so many others. You may have seen chicory on the side of the road in the summer and wondered what those purple flowers were.  Some other simple plants are purslane, lambs ear, yarrow, chamomile, and there are so many others. Learning to see these "weeds" as herbs can expand your knowledge... and your ability to use them.

 Do I use ALL of my books often? No, I don't.

Sometimes, I scan them and other times I compare. Sometimes, they sit on the shelf for long periods of time without being used at all.

Sometimes I find that a certain book just doesn't fit what I need, so I remove it from my library. I have been building my Herb Library for many years and it is helpful to me.









3. Know HOW to use an herb

 Some herbs are quite easy to use... like plantain's helpfulness when it is applied to a wound. Other herbs must be used differently. Sometimes there are cautions.... for instance some herbs are not safe for use during pregnancy.  Others may be helpful in small doses.  It is important to know facts about herbs.

If you have read my blog for very long, you know that I like to experiment... and I do it with herbs also.  I make herbal tinctures, salves, teas, infusions and more. I put herbs in our salads and I try new things, BUT I do not want to make foolish mistakes and endanger my family, so it is important to be wise in how I experiment and my library can help me know what herbs are safer to do that with than others.

An important point is to double check your information! Some books or internet information may blacklist a certain herb as toxic and caution to never use it.... when the reality is that a certain part of the plant can be toxic while others are fine to use.

Caution is good, but to just knock out a whole plant for a small portion seems excessive. I want to know the bad... and the good and then make a wise decision.  For example, cherry twigs are toxic, so do we stop eating cherries because of that? No. Tomatoes are from the dangerous nightshade family, so do we stop eating tomatoes? That was done in the past, but we can still enjoy tomatoes. It is important to know and be careful.

Do I need to spend a lot of money for this Herb Library?  NO!

I am quite frugal and it is rare that I would buy a book like this new and for a large price. I have found it helpful to use a book from the library... to see if it would be helpful to me. Then sometimes, I would order it for my own library.

Some places to check for herb books are garage sales, library book sales, ebay, Amazon, etc.











4.  A personal Herb Library can be a place to highlight information.... to mark pages so you can easily find them... to jot notes that will be helpful to you. 

So many times, I have learned great information.... and later when trying to go back to the source, I sometimes wonder, "Where did I read that?" Maybe it was the internet.. or a book... or I heard it from someone. It is more helpful to have a library to collect that learning... so that I can refer back to it. Sometimes I want to double check the information... or sometimes I found the information so helpful that I want to see what else the person says.

I also find it helpful to build on what I learn and having my own books can help that process.

Do I recommend all of these books? NO... some I don't know enough about them to recommend. Others I like some parts, but not others.

There may be some herb books I would love to add to my library, but cost prevents me from doing that.

My library is still a work in progress and I will keep adding to it.














5. If there's no internet....

I know this is the answer for many... just check the internet... just ask the internet.
What if the internet is out? What if you are where there is no internet? Think it can't happen? It does.... especially when there are storms or large problems, like hurricanes, earthquakes, tornado damage, flooding or other disaster situations.  In a time like that, those herb books could be very important as there may not be access to the nearby emergency room or doctor's office.

Another issue is trust. Is everything on the internet true? No, and books are not always true either, which is another reason to double and triple check your information. When I find a book I feel I can trust, I am still careful with the information, but tend to trust it easier than an unknown website.




Maybe you don't like or use herbs and so none of this post applies to you. That's okay, I am not pushing herbal use.... it's an individual choice.  I know what a blessing my herbal library is to me, so I am sharing why it may be helpful to others also.

Do you have an Herb Library? Even one book can count as the start of a library.... and one book may be all you want or need. I would love to hear in the comments if you have a real book library of herb books... or one book. Are you still adding to it? Do you have other reasons it is helpful to have an Herb Library? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have a great week!  🙂

Other herb posts you may enjoy:

Quick Healing With Plantain

Are There Any Uses For Columbine?

Allergy Tea-Homemade Herb Tea

Pinecones... Are They Edible? Hmmm...





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Top 10 Gentle Joy Homemaker 2015

The top 10 posts published in 2015 on the Gentle Joy Homemaker blog are listed here.

Feel free to click on the title of each (it is actually a link) and the post will come up for you.

           Number 10

 Garage Sale Series-Hints and Tips









                                           
                   



                Number 9

   Small Garden-Part 3-More Beds

                Number 8

   Pulled Chicken on Homemade Buns

        Number 7 

Small Garden-Part 4-Companion Planting 

      Number 6

Small Garden-Part 2-Growing UP 

         

                  Number 5 

 Small Garden-Part 1-Crop Rotation 

         Number 4

 Yes, I'm Sleep Deprived, So What??? Part 2 

                 Number 3

                Dress Up A Plain Cabinet 

          Number 2

8 Things To Do When Sickness Strikes 

        
Number 1 for 2015

Trip To The Amish Store 











It's been a challenging year, but it has also been a good year. Thank you for joining me in it. I hope you have a wonderful 2016.  





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