Muffins of a different sort

I find my food inspiration from all sorts of different places and cultures. Before I culled my cookbooks, there were multiple cookbooks from all different perspectives - Indian food, Paleo, old fashioned, Thai, Vietnamese, and the list could go on forever. When we jumped on the Marie Kondo bandwagon, I took a look at my cookbooks and only kept the ones that gave me joy. Whether that joy came from looking at them, or from using them, it didn't matter. I have one book that I have never cooked from, but I love reading the stories and looking at the recipes. I have others that have food on the pages because we cook from them so often and they're always in the middle of the action where we're mixing and cooking. Two of those cookbooks, and website, is Well Fed 2 and Well Fed Weeknights. They're paleo, and practical, and take a similar attitude to my own on cooking - let's start with a base and jump off from there. Melissa Joulwan (@meljoulwan), the author, has an abbreviation for that process, "You know how you could do that / YKHYCDT." She gives variations on the recipe, usually on the same page.

Cooked and ready to go

One of the recipes that we cook from her templates is spinach muffins. These are muffins made with spinach, eggs, seasonings, and ground meat. I've used tons of different mixes - Italian sausage and added in sundried tomatoes. Ground lamb with Mediterranean spices. Chorizo and diced chiles. The possibilities are endless. Anyway, the last time I went to Western Daughters (@westerndaughters), our local meat market that sources from local farmers and ranchers, I saw a bright pink sausage in the case labeled "Wellness Sausage." I found that funny because I don't associate sausage of any kind with wellness, so I asked what was in it. Turns out it's made from pork, and the wellness part is roasted garlic and beets. I bought it, and it went into the muffins I made today. It was a little weird to see the sausage when it had cooked - it was still hot pink! But it tasted wonderful, full of garlic, bright tasting and actually made me feel healthier just looking at it (hah!).

MUFFINS!

The recipe calls for 3 bags of frozen spinach (http://meljoulwan.com/2008/10/26/eat-your-vegetables-spinach/), but we only had 1.5, and the meat wasn't quite a pound, so the improvisation started. I cut the eggs back to 2, combined the spinach, wellness sausage, salt, pepper, and garlic powder together. Shaped them into little balls, and popped them in the oven. They came out in about 40 minutes, and look pretty good, if I do say so myself. They are a little shaggy because I took them out of the muffin tin before they were completely cooled, and some of them wanted to stay in there. We'll use them as stand alone food, or crumble them up in a pan as a base for a scramble most likely. Any way you slice it, they're a good, quick food to have on hand, or in hand, as the case may be.

Today I'm off to ride my bike - it's 72, sunny, and only slightly breezy here today, which is perfect for getting out and about. I'm grateful that I am able to jump on my bike, and am grateful that I have a home to leave from and come back to. What are you grateful for today? Let me know in the comments if you get a chance. Be well and be safe!