Because Blueberries

It will always be a mystery to me why I have such an abundance of misplaced confidence in myself when it comes to any kind of food preparation.  Such optimism!  I wonder if this is how gamblers feel.  Play and play and play until finally you hit a jackpot and the amount of money you blew getting to that point is a forgotten and tiresome little detail.

I’m not going to dwell on food wastage because regret is stupid, right?  I admit I’ve had my share of culinary disappointments.  The experience is what’s important.  I’m just going to go with that.

Reasons why I decided to make this:

1. I have liked a lot of recipe pages on Facebook so my news feed includes quite an annoying number of pictures of things people have cooked or baked or fed to their dogs, who really knows the truth behind these things, and looking at them always makes me hungry.
2. Blueberries are good for you.
3. I am really tired of eggs for breakfast.
4. This recipe looked like an easy one in which to make healthier ingredient substitutions so that a diabetic person could eat some practically guilt free.

The original recipe is here.  I will also mention that I am more often than not sucked in by the claim “best ever”.

Here are the things I changed (yep, without testing the original):

1. I used frozen blueberries.
2. Truvia instead of sugar.
3. All purpose gluten free flour with 1/4 tsp xanthum gum.
4. Butter flavoured margarine instead of real butter.  Because if it flops, what a waste of butter.

It was in the oven at least 45 minutes to get to the bubbling stage, likely because the blueberries started out so cold.

The filling was a little watery, probably real sugar would have thickened it up more.  Maybe a little bit of cornstarch mixed in with the orange juice would help.  The orange juice gave the berries a wonderful tart taste.  I wonder how lemon juice would work?  And maybe some lemon zest in the batter?  This is why I end up never making the same thing twice.  The cobbler topping was slightly dry, but still good.  A possible remedy for that problem of course would be the ice cream the recipe so helpfully suggests.  But I don’t have any, and come on, it’s already a stretch to call this breakfast.

Artistic bonus – that pretty round swirly pattern on the edges of the pan, I assume from exploding fruit.

I’m going to call this a success.   It satisfied my craving for something sweet and got rid of a partial bag of frozen blueberries that were giving me a headache trying to decide how long they’d been in the freezer.  I guess you could say I don’t have extremely high standards.

And that’s probably a good thing. Happy Friday!

What I’ve Learned From A Smoothie A Day

Yes, it’s another damn list, never mind how the beaver spells it.  This list is in my normal random scatter brained order, important points cleverly interspersed amongst the mundane and useless.

1.  I have learned that baby kale has better blending qualities in a smoothie than mature tough-as-boot-leather all grown up kale.  I freeze little zip lock bags stuffed with spinach and kale and use one in every smoothie.

2.  Avocado pits take for flaming ever to grow roots.  From now on I’m just going to toss them in the compost box and let them fend for themselves.

3.  Lemon seeds disappear in a blender, freeing one from the task of laboriously digging them out of the lemon before adding it to the blender.  Now I just throw the whole thing in there and forget about the seeds. So far no lemon trees have grown out of my ears.

4.  Don’t touch the blueberries with your bare hands.  Unless you like blue hands and stubborn blue stains under your fingernails.

5.  Cut back on the antioxidant juices or coconut water to about half and use calorie free water instead.  Yes, it took me longer than the normal person to figure this one out.

6.  A Starbucks tumbler and a straw combine to make it less likely that my lips will turn a color not normally found in nature.  For lips, anyway.

7.  A good veggie powder is better than a protein powder.  This is my opinion, based on reading somewhere that you shouldn’t mix protein with fruit.  I prefer to get my protein from other sources, such as actual chicken breasts.  Some things are better left unblended.

8. Chia seeds appear to be indestructible, which makes me wonder if and how they’re being digested.  Apparently you can grind them up, but seriously, who has time for chia seed grinding.  Not me.

9.  Cinnamon and ginger add subtle flavor, but turmeric tastes weird.  I now take turmeric in tasteless capsule form.

10.  Besides going half-assed gluten-free, I am also trying to cut back on dairy.  I no longer put huge globs of Greek yogurt in my smoothies, and frankly, I don’t miss it.  The avocado and a banana add enough thickness.

11.  I need to stop reading all those health food going green articles because every time I do there’s another ingredient I feel compelled to add to my morning blender concoction from hell.  Besides, one of these days I’ll probably come across some dire warning about smoothies being bad for you.  With all health crazes it’s just a matter of time.

12.  My skin looks better, I’ve lost some weight, and breakfast has never been more fun.  I’ve been drinking these things haphazardly for a couple of years, and religiously for about six months.  Even if the various health benefits are all in my head, I don’t care.  If nothing else, I am doing my part to keep spinach farmers in business.