In Support of Crazypants Baking, and The Best Muffin I've Ever Made

What's going on in this picture?

I'll give you a hint: we have midterms starting Wednesday. 

Yes, there is serious Sabbath stress baking going on here. How I love it when the sun goes down on Friday.  Things to notice in this picture:

1. There are muffins on the rack to the right of the oven. 

2. There's a tray of something else IN the oven. 

3. That big white bowl contains dry ingredients for a different batch of muffins.

4. The KitchenAid bowl has cookie ingredients in it. 

5. There's a chocolate block bigger than my head next to the peeler. 

6. I have somehow covered every surface in this rather substantial kitchen. Katie - I apologize that you had to make dinner at the table. 

7. My computer (far corner of the island) is well within the radius of clumsy danger. I live on the edge. 

So this was Friday night. This morning brought an 11-mile run (making me feel better about the amount of sampling done last night), and then some delicious breakfast love:

Cold quinoa + 1/2 cup yogurt + frozen berries + maple syrup:

And THEN two more recipes were made (that brings us to 6 in the past 15ish hours).

I'm a stress baker. This is not a secret, I've mentioned it before. However, it is a reasonably recent development. I've just started liking to bake in the past year.

What is it about baking? You put on some music, throw things together, make a bit of a mess, and you get order and deliciousness out of it. When school brings me down, I can count on a successful adventure in baking to lift my spirits.

Exactly what I've been baking is partially secret (for now) - there's another birthday coming up, but I do have one recipe I want to share, because it's without a doubt the best muffin I've ever made. Better than Pumpkin Muffins. I know, blasphemy, but true.

Triple Berry Lemon Muffins

Made 8 full-size and 3 mini muffins, or about 9 full-size. 

159 calories each, or 53 for mini ones.

All-purpose flour: 1.5 cups (188 g)

White sugar: 1/2 cup (96 g)

Salt: 1 tsp (6 g)

Baking Powder: 2 tsp (9.6 g)

Almond milk, plain (or other non-dairy milk): 3/4 cup (6 oz.)

Oil: 2 tbsp (1 oz.)

Lemon yogurt: 3 tbsp (1.5 oz.)

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Frozen berries (used the Costco Triple Berry Blend, don't thaw first.): 1 cup (126 g)

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F-

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Just whisk it around with a fork.

2. Add almond milk, oil, yogurt, and lemon juice to the bowl, stir. 

3. Fold in the berries and lemon zest. 

4. Scoop into a muffin tin. 

5. Bake 25 mins, or 17 for mini ones. 

The best part of midterms baking?

I now have all this deliciousness around me and I certainly can't eat it all myself. I would try, but you'd have to roll me into my test next week.

So what to do?

Feed my frazzled classmates of course. These are going into the school tomorrow, and I hope they all disappear, goodness knows we all need some brain fuel. 

Truth be told I AM one of the frazzled ones this set of tests. I'm feeling very unprepared and anxious. With the rest of my Sabbath I'm going to cook up some nice healthy meals (a lasagna? a stew? a curry?) for next week when I don't have time to cook, and then spend some more time just hanging out with God, praying for Japan, and resting my brain. 

Day by day, I have to believe we'll get through this.