ILLEGALLY HOT

This is a kind of hot I am NOT down with. I don't care what anyone else in town thinks or says about me but I hate the heat. Ironically, with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. It was 28.5C earlier today but felt more like 32 or something like that with the humidity. Tomorrow is going to be 29C but feel like 35C with the humidity--not cool! It makes me angry. It makes my angry. I get heat rashes, my face gets red, my whole body feels like it's burning up, my head starts to hurt and I get grumpy. I get really, really, really grumpy.

I've spent much of the afternoon doing nothing but sitting infront of my laptop streaming past episodes of Top Chef Masters and sipping on water with lemon, lime and cucumber slices. I'm trying to move as little as possible. It doesn't help that my windows are curtain-less, a result of my parents getting our windows redone a few YEARS ago. Yep, you read that right...we had our windows redone years ago but I am still curtain-less.

I still managed to bake earlier this afternoon as I had planned but stuck to one recipe instead of two. Hey, you're lucky I baked at all, what with the oven having to be turned on and having to actually mix things in a bowl instead of using my trusted KitchenAid stand mixer. I followed The Single Dish's for Raspberry Cinnamon muffins but used all-purpose flour (we're out of whole wheat flour and today is a holiday so no non-Asian stores are open) and organic strawberry jam (because that's what I picked up from Walmart). So in essence I followed the original recipe that she followed from MyRecipes.com.

Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins
from MyRecipes.com via The Single Dish

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup vanilla fat-free yogurt (I used organic plain yogurt, although adding 1/4 tsp of vanilla would have been a good idea)
- 1/4 cup butter, melted (I melted my butter and let it cool a little bit)
- 3 tbsp 1% low-fat milk
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten (I didn't beat my egg)
- Cooking spray (I have a can of Pam I have to use up otherwise I'm not a fan of cooking spray)
- 1/4 cup strawberry jam
- Muffin topping: mixture of 1 tbsp of sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Rough directions (aka "my directions, not from MyRecipes.com")

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Prepare muffin tins. You have two options (cue memories of Choose Your Own Adventure books): Option #1: spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Option #2: Line muffin tin with muffin liners and spray those with cooking spray. I just went ahead with Option #3 (fooled ya, didn't I?): spray 6 muffin tins with cooking spray and line the remaining 6 with muffin liners and spray those with cooking spray too. (I actually did this because I wanted to see which method I preferred better, plus I'm getting a little tired of all those used muffin liners. They're actually quite a waste of money.)
3. Mix first five ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt) together. I usually use a whisk but have been known to use a fork if the whisk is already dirty from other cooking/baking. It works just as well in my opinion.
4. Make a "well" in the center and add the next four ingredients (butter, milk, egg and yogurt). Fold wet and dry ingredients together with a spatula. Do NOT overmix!
5. Fill muffin tin (or muffin liners) halfway with batter. Divide the 1/4 cup of jam between the 12 muffin tins, placing a small spoonful in the center of the batter. I did this to keep things neat and tidy.
6. Sprinkle muffin topping evenly over each muffin and then bake for 15 minutes.

When your muffins are done and you've let them cooled--perhaps you've gone out for 90 minutes to get your nails done and pick up groceries at the Asian market (two of the only things you can do on a public holiday)--your muffins will look like this:
I dived into one as soon as I could and it was amazing. Considering it only contained 1/4 of butter, it tasted really rich but still light and airy. The strawberry jam center wasn't too overpowering either. I used organic strawberry jam with no additives so it wasn't as strong or sugary-sweet as one of those regular brands would have been but I liked it that way. Plus the slightly crunchy top from the sugar and cinnamon was a great addition. Sean loved it too. I told him about the organic jam situation but he said he liked it. He actually said it was one of his favourite things that I have baked. Yippee! To make the top even crunchier, next time I would use turbinado sugar with the cinnamon. Mmm...I can't wait until the next batch I make! Ooh and maybe using some wildberry jam instead...mmm.

Rewinding back the day a little bit...lunch consisted of fried vermicelli noodles with pork and some various veggies including green onions (or scallions, if you prefer) and that's pretty much all I can remember. Whoops. The old mind ain't what she used to be!

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

Dinner last night was courtesy of my brother. We were the only two home since my parents and other bro were in Niagara overnight for a soccer tournament. Go Dad's team!

No photos of dinner but it was half a t-bone steak with french fries. Needless to say, with IBS, a swift trip to the bathroom ensued. Ugh. It probably wasn't the best of ideas considering my stomach's still on the mend from the funky chicken but lesson learned. No more beef. Sean came by to hang out and asked if it was worth it and normally my answer would have been an excited "yes!" but tonight, it was a sad "no."

This morning's breakfast was whole wheat flax seed banana pancakes. I know that sounds like a mouthful but the pancakes were actually made from a mix and dead easy. I love this mix. I was on the search for a whole wheat pancake mix for ages, without having to revert to Whole Foods. I finally found one at Longo's (yay, Longo's to the rescue) and love this mix because it contains ground flax seed. Here's a look at the package:
It was $3.99 for the whole thing and one prep's worth makes 10-12 four-inch pancakes. The best part is that you can keep them vegan by using non-dairy milk (almond works well) and omitting the egg. The mixture will thicken on its own due to the combination of ground flax and chosen liquid. I don't have any photos since the pancakes were actually for Sean. I'll take it that they were good though...how could they not be...pancakes with bananas? Who doesn't like those??

My breakfast, since my stomach was still a little bit queasy, was a bowl of egg thread soup with minimal asparagus and a small slice of some multigrain prebiotic bread:I have no idea what the deal is with this bread. I'll have to read the package a little bit more carefully next time. My dad is the one who picked it up at the grocery store and I'm glad he's into checking out the various healthier items on offer.

Lunch was a few hours later. I wanted something that tasty good but wouldn't take too long to cook. I had spent much of the morning reading up on recipes from The Single Dish when I stumbled upon her recipe for beef stroganoff. Her recipe can be found here. Instead of using sour cream (because I didn't have any), I used whipped cream and also subbed beef broth for organic chicken broth since I had a carton already open in the fridge. Here's my gigantic portion that I really should not have eaten all of but the mushrooms were impossible to resist:
I used waaaay more than the six mushrooms her recipe lists but I'm obsessed with mushrooms. I probably used at least double and I still thought it could have used more mushrooms.

3/5 of the family is still not back from Dad's soccer tournament (he's the coach) so I'm guessing that his team is headed for the final match. If his team had lost, they probably would have been home by now or at least will be home within 30 minutes. I'm bored out of my mind. I really want to bake muffins but we don't have any whole wheat flour (that I know of) and we don't have any blueberries or raspberry jam or sliced almonds (for three different recipes I've been eying all weekend).

Well I'm off...the toilet is a callin' but this time, the beef stroganoff was totally worth it--mostly due to the mushrooms so I'm going to have to find some kind of meat substitute next time. Perhaps pork. My stomach seems to deal with that one okay.

Toodles!