Sweet Potato Sprouted Spelt Muffins #MuffinMonday

Sweet potato sprouted spelt muffins are made with brown sugar and lots of sweet golden raisins. They make a delicious tea time snack or tasty breakfast. Like most muffins, they freeze well and can be thawed and ready to eat with a quick zap in the microwave.

It’s Muffin Monday again, folks, the last Monday of every month when I share my own muffin recipe and several delectable others from my Muffin Monday group friends.

As I imagine you all are, right round the world, we are baking with what’s left in our kitchens. I could easily have called these sprouted sweet potato muffins because my taters are seriously sending out shoots. The one I used here had tiny sprouts that I trimmed off but another one is a candidate for cutting up and planting. If only I had good soil!

If you don’t have a sweet potato, substitute carrots in the same approximate amount.

Sweet Potato Sprouted Spelt Muffins

My sweet potato was about 9 1/3 oz or 265g in weight before peeling and cutting off the rough ends. If yours is a little bigger or smaller, no worries.

Ingredients
1 large sweet potato
2 cups or 240g sprouted spelt flour
3/4 cup, firmly packed, or 150g light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1 cup or 240ml milk (I use 2% fat)
1 cup or 150g golden raisins, optional

Method
Peel your sweet potato and cut it into chunks. Discard the fibrous ends. Boil until tender.

Put the golden raisins in a heatproof bowl.

When you drain the hot water off of the sweet potato chunks, pour it into the bowl with the raisins. Leave them to plump up then drain when the water is cool.

Mash the sweet potato with a fork or potato masher until fairly smooth. Set aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it or lining it with paper muffin cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your sprouted spelt flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a smaller bowl, whisk the eggs, cooled mashed sweet potato, oil and milk.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined.

Fold in the golden raisins.

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

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove from the oven leave to cool for a few minutes in the pan. Remove from the pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other lovely muffins we are sharing today!

• Celebratory Gluten-Free Strawberry Muffins from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Chocolate Coconut Banana Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Mocha Muffins from Making Miracles
• Coffee Cake Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Cornbread Muffins from Passion Kneaded
• Sweet Potato Sprouted Spelt Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Toffee Mocha Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Tomato Basil Muffins from Palatable Pastime 
• Wild Violet Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our 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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Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta - Instant Pot

This easy beef stroganoff pasta is a tasty one-pot meal, beefy and creamy with lots of mushrooms. It’s cooked in an Instant Pot so it’s on the table quickly without even firing up your stove.

I was craving beef stroganoff during my kitchen renovation so initially I planned to cook it on my one little electric burner in the laundry room, like many of our meals. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I could boil pasta in the Instant Pot. After all, one can use it to cook rice. Why not pasta?

I found various instructional posts online, especially one on Tidbits for Tasty Living. The challenge was on! I have to tell you, we could not have been more pleased with how it turned out.

Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta

Since the pasta is going to be cooked in the Instant Pot, if you don’t have bowties, make sure to choose another small wide variety. Long thin noodles are not recommended in case they work their way out of the float valve. Feel free to substitute your favorite mushrooms or whichever ones you have on hand for the baby Portobellos.

Ingredients
4 lbs or 1820g lean beef, cut into thin pieces
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon Ajinomoto (MSG)- optional
1/3 cup or 41g flour
2 tablespoons or 30g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons beef drippings (or sub more olive oil)
3 medium onions
200g or 7 oz baby Portabella mushrooms
1 cup or 240ml dry white wine
4 cups or 946ml beef stock
1 lb or 450g small dried bowtie pasta or other small pasta
2 cups or 490g sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Sea salt
Black pepper

Optional to garnish:
Parsley

Method
Sprinkle the beef with the white vinegar, salt and the Ajinomoto, if using. This helps to tenderize the meat. Refrigerate the beef for at least an hour but you can even do this step the night before.

When you are ready to cook the beef, drain any liquid that has collected and toss the pieces with the flour in a large bowl.

With the Instant pot on low sauté, melt the butter, adding a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet. While the butter is melting, chop your onions.

Sauté the onions for about five minutes or until they are softened and translucent. Remove them from the Instant Pot and put them in a bowl that is large enough to hold the meat after you’ve browned it as well.

Turn the sauté function up to high and brown the meat a handful or two at a time, adding a little more olive oil if necessary. As the beef browns, remove the browned pieces to a bowl and add more to the Instant Pot, until all the beef is browned and in the bowl.

Meanwhile, trim any hard stem ends off of the mushrooms and slice them.

Turn the sauté function to low once more and add the white wine to the pot and gently loosen any browned bits on the Instant Pot pan. Cook on the low heat until the wine is almost completely reduced.

Add the meat back in with the onions and set your Instant Pot to pressure cook for 20 minutes.

When the time is up, turn it off but leave it to depressurize naturally.

Add in the beef stock, pasta and sliced mushrooms. Stir well.

Cook for 5 minutes on high and release the steam manually when done. When releasing the pressure, cover the release valve with a kitchen towel and pulse it a few times to release the pressure a little at a time until fully releasing.

Stir in the sour cream and lemon juice. Check for salt, adding more if necessary, along with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Garnish with a little parsley, if desired. Enjoy!

It's Multicooker Monday again, friends! Check out all the great recipes we are sharing using various small appliances. Many thanks to the group creator and host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Instant Pot Corned Beef with a BBQ Whiskey Glaze from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Instant Pot Beef Tacos from Palatable Pastime
• Easy Beef Stroganoff Pasta (Instant Pot) from Food Lust People Love
• Instant Pot Creamy Broccoli Mac N Cheese from Making Miracles
• Badshahi Chicken Legs - Air Fryer from Sneha's Recipe
• Slow Cooker Chicken Marbella from Karen's KItchen Stories

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group.

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Baked Salmon and Veggie Parcels #FishFridayFoodies

Baked salmon and veggie parcels are an easy delicious meal that comes together quickly and, as a bonus, there are no pots or pans to wash up!



This month my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing recipes inspired by our travels. For my contribution, I reached way back to my backpacking days when my fellow Girl Scouts and I would cook whole meals wrapped in foil over a campfire.

We never did anything as fancy as salmon with asparagus, of course! But we did enjoy some fabulous meals under the stars. There is no more delicious meal than one that follows an all-day hike in the piney woods of East Texas, or really, anywhere outdoors.

The salmon and asparagus idea came from a dish I ate many moons ago in a seaside restaurant in Sydney. They look so pretty on a plate together, don’t you think? Especially if you add a slice of lemon. For my rendition, I also love the way the yellow squash peeks out, adding a little extra pop of color to echo the yellow of the lemon slice.

Baked Salmon and Veggie Parcels

These little dinner packets are easily customizable to use whatever seafood and vegetables you have on hand. Just make sure than any raw vegetables are thin or thinly sliced so they can cook quickly. Vegetables that take longer to cook, like potatoes, should be cooked ahead.

Ingredients
For the parcels:
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 small yellow squash
4-5 small cooked red potatoes
1/4 purple onion, sliced very thinly
4 wild salmon fillets
4 teaspoons butter
12 fresh asparagus stalks
4 slices lemon
salt
freshly ground black pepper
ground cayenne pepper

To garnish:
chopped parsley

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°C or 200°F.

Cut the ends off of the yellow squash and slice it thinly. Cut the cooked potatoes in 1/4 in or 6mm slices. Trim the hard ends off of the asparagus and then cut them into lengths about the same size as your salmon fillets.

Salt and pepper the salmon fillets.

Lay your foil out and drizzle the middle of the sheet with one teaspoon of olive oil about the size of your salmon fillet. Top the olive oil with one quarter of the slices of yellow squash and then potato. Salt and pepper the potatoes.

Top the potatoes with one of the salmon fillets then add 1 teaspoon of butter in two pieces.

Press a few slices of onion into the butter along with one quarter of the asparagus pieces. The butter helps hold them all neatly on top.

Top the whole pile with a lemon slice.

Pull the foil edges together and fold them over to seal the parcel. Repeat the process to create the other three salmon and veggie parcels.

Place all four parcels onto a baking tray and bake in the hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked through.

Wild salmon takes less time to cook since the fillets are generally thinner and less fatty than farmed salmon. I find that 15 minutes is enough time for wild salmon to be done to our liking. Farmed salmon may take that extra five minutes. If you are unsure, by all means, check for doneness by cutting into one of the fillets before plating.

When time’s up on the salmon, remove the baking pan from the oven and leave to stand for 1 minute.

Carefully open each parcel so you don't burn yourself with the steam that will pour out. Use a wide spatula to slide the pile onto a plate. Sprinkle on a little chopped parsley, if desired.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other great seafood recipes my Fish Friday Foodie friends are sharing today that have been inspired by their travels. Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for this great theme!

• Baked Salmon and Veggie Parcels by Food Lust People Love
• Foiled Fish with Mango by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Fried Bombils and Bombay Ducks with Temprado Masala by Sneha's Recipe
• Irish Fish Cakes by Karen's Kitchen Stores
• Pickled Fish, A Plethora of Textures, and Memories of a Holiday Trip to Denmark by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Senegalese Fish and Rice (Thiéboudienne) by Making Miracles

Would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas.

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