Boredom Muffins, and tonight's dinner

I tend to cook when I'm bored.  It's very counter-intuitive to weight loss.  In an extreme bout of boredom yesterday, I created Gluten-Free Boredom Muffins (and no, I didn't bother to take pictures.) 

I used this recipe as a guideline, as I had found some white rice flour at the grocery store for $2 and thought to try it. ...and then I swapped all the ingredients.  If it went wrong, what did I care?  The flour was only $2, and I had all the other ingredients in stock.   

Yield: 6 muffins

• 1 egg 
• 1/2 cup Bolthouse 100% carrot juice
• 2 tablespoons mashed banana
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup rice flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• a handful of chopped pecans
• one large carrot, grated fine

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line 6 muffin cups with liners.  
2. In mixing bowl, combine egg, carrot juice, mashed banana, applesauce.  Beat until smooth.
3. Then add dry ingredients, and mix by hand until just mixed.  Fold in nuts and grated carrot.
4. Divide batter among the prepared 6 muffin cups and bake for approx.15 minutes, or until toothpick test comes clean.

My thoughts on rice flour?  Ehh...it's okay.  I ate one right from the oven, slathered in butter, and it was alright, but despite all the carroty-goodness of the muffin, I can't even taste carrot.  They rose like a proper muffin should, which surprised me, since there's no gluten in them, and most gluten-free things I've made are usually tasty, but poor in appearances substitutes for real baked items.  I think the recipe has potential, I'm just not keen on the sugar and oil in the recipe, or the rice flour.  I've definitely made better muffins.  

The downside? Since I haven't had any rice at all since coming home from Asia, I think it's doing weird things to my body.  I went out for sushi the other night, and felt horrible afterwards (though, this may also have been due to possible sugar in my food - that whole sugar-free thing, right?) ...but after eating the muffin yesterday (in truth, I had two before I felt ill) ...my face got all hot, and I felt bloated and icky.  As a test, I've just eaten one a little while ago with a little bit of butter and honey on it, and now, about 20 minutes later...feeling a bit gross again.  

Weird.  I wish I knew what was wrong with my body. 

To placate myself, I'm making fresh bread and ratatouille tonight.  I don't have a recipe for the ratatouille, so I'll give some general guidelines on how to make it.  

Ratatouille

• Chop up vegetables of choice.  I tend to just use whatever is leftover in the fridge.  You really can use anything - beets, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, sweet potato, yam, onion, garlic, bell pepper, aubergine, zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.  I think traditional recipes were very much onions and aubergine and mushrooms and the like, but I dislike mushrooms, and I don't usually have aubergines in the house, so...
• Chop 'em up real rustic like.  BIG chunks.  
• Throw the veggies into a roasting pan with a lid.  Douse them in olive oil and cracked pepper and salt (and for your amusement, I accidently mispelled 'olive' as 'love' for a second.  Douse them in love, too.) 
• If you've got fresh basil, leave it until the end.  If you don't, go ahead and add a bunch of dried basil.  I don't measure, and I love basil.  Just add lots.  
• Cook at 350-375F for about an hour, checking on it once in a while and stirring occassionally.  Sometimes I have to add more oil, sometimes I don't. 
• If you have fresh basil, tear it up and add it about 5 minutes before you take it out of the oven.  
• Eat that shit.  Add some fresh parmesan if you've got it. 

Honey Spelt Bread (á la bread machine)

I stole this recipe from here. 

• 4 1/2 cups whole-wheat spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 3/4 cups cool (70°) water
• 2 tablespoons honey

Toss it in your bread machine, following user instructions.  I only ever make dough in my bread machine, and then transfer it to the oven at 350F for however long it takes to bake (about 20 minutes).  I like my loaves to look rustic.  Sometimes I'll brush the crust with egg whites or honey or butter before I put it in.  And I always add the little slice down the middle.  

Note: I ran out of spelt flour at 3 1/2 cups.  So I added 3 tablespoons of ground flax, filled the remainder up with buckwheat flour, and added a tablespoon each of chia seeds and poppy seeds.  Mmm.

Get some.