Thankfulness Day 14 - Thankful for Creativity and Talents (Bonus: Muffin Recipe!)

Today I am thankful for creativity and talents. Every Thursday I make something for my hubby to take into his workplace for the following day and share with his fellow Airmen. It's rather like a "Congratulations, you made it to Friday!" This weekly food sharing serves multiple purposes; I get to use my talents to serve others, I get to keep my skills sharp through these weekly endeavors, his coworkers serve as my guinea pigs and give me feed back on what they did and didn't like which means when big events come around, I already have a list of tried and true recipes that I can be confident will go over well in a group, and I think it also helps make my hubby look good. (Wins all over the place!) Today it gave me the added bonus of offloading an oversupply of ingredients! Our generous landlords gave us a wee crate of apples, and I've been trying to add them to everything I make in order to use them up before they go bad.

They collected many crates of apples from the trees in our yard. Here our landlord picks some off the ground where the crate tipped. The landlady makes marmalade and all sorts with them (which they share with us!)

     I wanted some form of apple bread or muffins for my hubby to take in, because the guys need a finger/snack type of food with minimal pieces that could get taken into work and not return home... (So gooey pies in my nice pie dishes is a bad idea because chances are high the pie pan won't return home...) However my google recipe searches were depressing me. Most apple recipes called for applesauce from the store or instant apple cinnamon oatmeal packets. Really people? where is the authentic scratch made apple stuff? Many other recipes had poor reviews as being too dry or bland or not tasting like apple, etc etc. I repeatedly thought "no, this isn't what I want..." "Nope, not this either..." as I would rephrase my search hoping for better results. Then the flitting thought came dancing across the forefront of my mind and said, "Then go make what you want!" Why of course, how silly of me. I was looking for a recipe that fit what I wanted, but if I knew what I wanted, why not just do it myself? (Someone's become a little too dependent on Google me thinks...) 
      I haven't really invented a recipe before, but I decided the flitting thought had a good point, so I went for it. This endeavor was made doubly difficult by the fact that NONE of the ingredients are in my diet so I couldn't taste the batter as I went along to see how I was doing! Amazingly, they turned out SCRUMPTIOUS!!! (As told to me by others) My hubby loves them and they were approved by my friends as well. Score! I decided I can put my name in the title, since it was my concoction and all. ;) Here is the recipe I made today!!!

Om nom! You can also make this into a
bread loaf to save on muffin liners. 

Shiloh's Apple Breakfast Muffins 

Ingredients: 

-       ½ Cup Softened Butter

-       2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

-       ½ Cup White Sugar

-       ½ Cup Brown Sugar

-       2 eggs

-       1 tsp Vanilla

-       ½ Cup Sour Cream

-       2 cups Flour

-       1 tsp Baking Soda

-       ½ tsp Salt

-       1 heaping tsp ground cinnamon

-       ½ Cup Oats

-       1-2 cups worth of apples (about 2 large apples) – peeled, and grated

Optional: raisins, dried fruit, and nuts. (I added walnuts to these)
Also optional: the addition of ½ tsp each: ground cloves, ground ginger, and nutmeg. (But beware, these strong spices will detract from the apple flavor)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 175 degrees C) and prepare a baking pan or muffin tin through greasing or lining. 
2. In a large bowl, combine all wet ingredients, save for the apples. 
3. Add all dry ingredients into the wet and stir.
4. Grate the apple directly into the bowl and fold into batter.
5. Pour into prepared muffin tins. 
6. Optional: I mixed a 1/4 cup of oats with some cinnamon and brown sugar to sprinkle on top, for appearance sake. Now they look healthy even though we both know how much sugar we put in them... 
7. Bake for 20 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean)
8. Eat, share, and enjoy ^_^ 

As you can see, I have many more apples to figure out what to do with...  anyone have recipe suggestions?

This recipe makes 19 muffins. (At least, it did for me. I didn't account for those who get to sample the batter along the way, resulting in fewer or smaller muffins from the batch... ) I also added some Walnuts to the batter when I added the apples. I sent them through the food processor until they were very small, because that way they are hardly noticeable and add an overall walnutty flavor to the muffins versus a large nut people can easily pick out and then not notice it's missing flavor. Let me know if you made them and any adjustments/improvements you might have made! 

I am super excited for when my crazy vegetable/cancer diet ends and I can eat baked goods again... These may be the first things I make myself. This or fudge... 

This is what happens after hours when my little one has fallen asleep, leaving me model-less. 
I start posing my food. It's a problem... 

I had good fun simply diving in and adding ingredients at my whimsy. It was also a huge confidence booster to realize that I've finally done enough baking to be able to improvise and substitute things and have everything turn out edible! Further kitchen experimentation in certainly in my future. That is why I am thankful for the ability to be creative, and for the talents God has given me that allow me to have fun and give me the opportunity to use them to serve others.