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The Secret to Inner Peace and Lazy Girl English Muffins!

June 10, 2009 in Bread, Breakfast, Muffins | 11 comments

I treated my body like a machine throughout college and a few years beyond graduation. Trying in vain to stretch out my ability to play my sport well beyond what was suggested by my doctors and athletic trainers left me with muscles and joints that knot up faster than the average boy scout could tie them.

So thus I find myself in a constant battle to keep my muscles fluid, flexible, and therefore functional. It’s not rare to see me sitting in a chair with a high back wriggling around trying to find a way to work out a knot on my upper back with a pointy part of the chair. Like I’m doing right now. In public. Oops. I should stop, I’m starting to get weird looks. I kind of look like this little guy: Pole Dancing Bear.

I’m going to let you in on one of my secrets to getting out muscle knots. I won’t bore you with the gritty details because this device is highly technical, complicated, and complex….OK, I lied. It’s foam molded into a cylinder shape.

If you’ve had issues with muscle knots and tightness and/or can’t afford a regular visit to your friendly neighborhood massage therapist then I highly recommend trying this sucker out. It costs around $20 and with regular use will help you control your muscle tightness. There’s a great article in this magazine which explains much better than I ever could about how this works and why muscle knots suck. Don’t get me wrong, using a foam roller HURTS (hurts real bad). But it feels so good at the same time. Yep call me crazy, call me a crazy foam rolling lunatic. But try this foam roller once along the length of your entire back and you’ll thank me.

Got your muscles at peace? Now share the love with your tummy with the nooks and crannies of English muffins! I’ve been seeing a few geniuses around the blog world making these bad boys and I just had to make some for myself. Trust me, after you make these you will never go back to store bought.

Lazy Girl English Muffins

(inspired by Wing It Vegan)

Makes three, but double it if you please and freeze the rest for later

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup old-fashioned oats ground into a flour

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp yeast

1/2 cup soy milk or water (nuke in microwave until it reaches about 110°F)

1 Tbsp olive oil (optional for you fat-free freaks. j/k I still love you)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl small enough to fit in your microwave (more on that later) for two minutes or until everything is well mixed.

Nuke 1 mug of water in the microwave for about 2 minutes or until boiling. Place dough in the microwave keeping the mug with the boiling water in it and close the door (now your microwave is a warm moist environment perfect for the care and feeding of yeast). Set the kitchen timer for 30 minutes or 20 minutes if you’re really important and got stuff to do.

Heat up large skillet over low heat and spray with a non-stick spray or olive oil. Divide dough into three pieces and shape each into a four inch diameter disc (hockey puck style). Put a couple Tbsp of corn meal into a shallow dish and dunk dough in corn meal, coating each side. Cook muffins in pan for about 8-10 minutes each side or until they start turning brown.

Divide with fork.

Place in toaster.

Fill nooks and crannies with your favorite toppings.

Devour.

Repeat as necessary.

Free Stuff:

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Does Your Booty Good Vegan Muffins!

June 8, 2009 in Breakfast, Muffins | 7 comments

It can be really tough eating on the road sometimes. Every so often I’ll forget to pack some food with me and I’ll end up wandering around the food court/convenience store/snack bar looking for something halfway healthy which hasn’t been processed to the point where it will last on the shelf for years (ew). I often wander around for a good thirty minutes picking something up only to end up putting it down again two minutes later in a futile attempt to find something good to eat that is actually worth its price tag.

Because you know what? I don’t really want to pay $10 for a salad. Or $3 for an over-hyped energy bar. Nope.

Pack this muffin in your bag the next time you’ll be away from nutritious food for awhile. They would also taste awesome as an after workout snack (always eat your post workout snack within 30 minutes of working out).

Please use this recipe as a template, if you are used to making quick breads you should feel pretty comfortable subbing some things out for ingredients you may not have on hand (ie. sub mashed banana for applesauce or grate up some zucchini in place of the carrot, etc). As is, this muffin is heavenly tasty and will make your whole house smell awesome. This is a really moist and tender muffin and will keep for a few days on your countertop in a plastic bag or for a couple of months in the freezer.

Does Your Booty Good Vegan Muffins

Preheat oven to 350° and grease 12 muffin tins.

Mix together dry ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cups old fashioned oats ground to a flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 cup raisins

The food processor makes shredding effortless

Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl:

2 carrots shredded

1 apple, cored and shredded

1/4 cup canola oil

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

4 oz soygurt

2 tsp vanilla

Gently fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just mixed. Divide equally into 12 muffin tins. Depending on how big your carrots/apples were you may need to use an extra muffin tin or just hold your breath and load the 12 tins to the tippy top. These will not rise a whole bunch so you don’t have to worry about overfilling.

Bake for 25-30 minutes and rotate pan halfway through. Be careful to make sure the muffins are thoroughly baked and check for doneness with the toothpick test.