Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Monkey Hear, Monkey Do

My sister commented on my Salba pancake post from last week, mentioning how she makes my Salba Banana Muffin recipe all the time, and that her morning is just not complete without them. xo sis! Well, I haven't made those muffins in quite a while, probably six months or more. But, as soon as she mentioned them, I had a hankering to make them. So, here you see my Salba Banana Muffins (from my group of foodtv.ca recipes). (reminder, if you make any of these foodtv.ca recipes, be sure to refer to my edits page here)

Do you see the background pumpkin in the pic? It's one of our Hallowe'en pumpkins that we carved. We decided to carve a few, decorate a couple others with buttons and pipe cleaners, and also saved a small pumpkin to be the special annual 'Mr. Pumpkin Head', as you see here. Here is the full shot of our big carved pumpkin. Our older girl asked to have this be the "happy mommy pumpkin" since we already had two smaller 'spooky' pumpkins. I've gotten used to all of their toys/stuffies/figurines having family units, but I wasn't expecting it for our jack o' lanterns! Funny. Kidlets love Hallowe'en. Okay, so do us big kids. :)

Back to the muffins, I decided to make them with spelt flour instead of w/w pastry flour. I made two batches, and the first batch I used almost 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour. The muffins were good, but the batter was just a little dense. The second batch I used 2 1/4 cups of spelt flour, and the muffins were perfect! Tender and moist and magically delicious! As you know from my recipes, when you substitute spelt flour in a recipe where wheat flour has been used, you typically need a touch extra spelt flour for the wheat flour measurement. It varies with a given recipe, so some trial and error is sometimes required. So, my wheat-free followers, if you decide to make these muffins wheat-free and are using spelt flour, be sure to use 2 1/4 cups of spelt flour, and not much more.

After reading my sister's comments, and almost immediately needing to bake those muffins again, I was reminded how powerful our thoughts and suggestions are... and even more, how greatly influenced we are by an image and by advertising. We all know this, but I think we forget how impressionable folks are watching an ad for a burger or ice-cream sundae. If only some of our collective food blogging photos could reach tv, huh?!

Anyhow, thanks sis for the reminder... got any other food ideas for me? :)

15 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Love the muffins and cute pumpkins!! :0)

carrie said...

Oh yes, some vegan, or even vegetarian adverising would be great!!! I'm happy to see that here in the States Silk has been doing a lot of advetising, and a lot of people I know are now drinking more soy milk

bazu said...

oh those look good. I won't feel really fall-like until I eat some pumpkin- preferably in the form of these muffins!

VeganView said...

I made pumpkin muffins today for an election night party this evening! What perfect looking pumpkins that are carved there!

Animal-Friendly said...

The muffins sound awesome and that jack-o-lantern is adorable!

miss v said...

i love banana muffins (or banana anything!) and i just bought some spelt flour. i don't mind wheat, but i was interested in trying the spelt. perfect! thanks!

mustardseed said...

Is there a replacement for salba? I really want them but I don't think I can get them..

Everyday Superhero said...

I've been craving your Apple Hemp Muffins. I think they're from TEV or maybe Vive. Can't remember. I made them a lot last fall.

Question for you...do your girls go out for Trick or Treating? Just thinking that while a lot of treats are a bit better these days they're certainly not vegan. However, plain ol' chips are and I certainly love those. :-)

aTxVegn said...

I printed out this recipe, Dreena, and I'm anxious to try the spelt version.

Anonymous said...

I love cakes very much. Your Blog is very nice. I will also try this one.

Dreena said...

Thanks kids!

mustardseed, you can try subbing some flax meal - but not as much. The recipe uses 1/3 cup of ground salba, so try about 3 tbsp of flax meal, and mix it with some of the soy milk at the beginning and let it sit while you work through the rest of the recipe. Then, add it with the wet ingredients once you reach that stage. Should work out nicely!

vegnextdoor, yes we do go trick or treating. I've always loved Hallowe'en, and do a big decorating outside, etc. With the girls being vegan, they're already 'different' enough, and I want them to enjoy the fun of childhood and not feel that they are missing out on anything. They loved trick or treating this year, and were completely fine with trading in their non-vegan goodies (which were most of them - everyone gives chocolate bars). We gave them to my nephew's friends, and they enjoyed the rest of their treats. I always give out chips and some other treats, and wonder why noone gives out chips anymore??? We always used to get some chips as kids!

Everyday Superhero said...

The girls got a few chips this year but mostly chocolate.

We got plenty of chips growing up along with sunflower seds and peanuts. No one gives those out either.

Anonymous said...

lol... i just got back from a week at mom's and check your site... well, what do you know?! And I had just made a batch for mom last night (added almonds and apricots- yum!). I left saying, Mom eat your muffins!

They really are SO good.

VegaDeli: Vegan|Certified Kosher Cafe said...

VegaDeli wrote: Awesome sweet potato and squash recipe! Great blog site too. "Eat Healthy. Live Good" --- Vegadeli.com

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