You know when you’ve got leftover rice except that it’s not enough to do anything with and you’d usually throw it out? DON’T! Make muffins. It’s summer, and berries are abundant (well, maybe not yet, but they will be), and maybe you’re like me and you’ve reached the age where fibre is your friend … rice or bulgur in the muffins? An easy way to boost your morning routine. I think you know what I mean.
Last night I made fish and a little stuffed tomato salad that included just a smidge of bulgur. I made more than I needed, because I don’t know how to not make too much when it comes to grains, and I ended up with about 2/3 of a cup of cooked bulgur left over. Which is enough for a single salad, but I also had some yogurt in danger of turning on me in the fridge, a single orange, and a collection of mixed berries that needed to be used lest they turned into freezer rocks held together by gigantic stale-tasting ice hunks. So, you know. Muffins.
Berry Muffins with Rice (or Bulgur)
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2/3 cup cooked brown rice (or white rice or bulgur and if you have slightly more than what the recipe calls for, just use it)
- 2 cups frozen berries (I used 1 cup of blackberries and 1 cup of blueberries with the, like, four single raspberries I had left in the fridge … use whatever berries or chopped up fruit you like. I bet rhubarb would be good)
- 1 orange, zest and juice
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup yogurt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup melted butter
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
In a large bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Stir until combined. Add your berries and your rice, and the orange zest and juice. Mix well.
In a measuring cup, melt your butter, then add the yogurt, and if it’s big enough, the milk. In a separate smaller bowl, beat your eggs. Add the both of these to the bowl one after the other, and stir to combine. This is a thick, dense batter, so if you’re hand-mixing this, as I did, be vigorous. You don’t want to find floury bits at the bottom of your bowl.
Grease a muffin pan. Fill the cups with the batter, to the tops.
This mixture will make 12 muffins. I hate when the muffins don’t breach the top – when they’re too small they’re like muffin pucks, and you don’t get to enjoy the distinction between muffin top and bottom. Sprinkle with sugar and a pinch of cinnamon, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of one comes out clean.
Once they’re done, let them sit for five minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack.
I recommend eating one right away, slathered in melted butter and a drop of honey. Rose, my awesome MSN-buddy at work, brought me a jar of lavender-infused honey awhile back, so I will use that, and every bite will taste like summer. You could also use a touch of marmalade, or another something wonderful. Enjoy!
well fed, flat broke 
How DO you come up with this stuff?
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Unrelenting quiet genius, I think.
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*le sigh* I am now addicted to reading your blog.
I create food fusions as well (recipes sounds so ordinary) and reading yours is like going to a library full of recipes where some nice lady reads them to me. How cool is that??? Very.
Let me introduce myself.
Hello. I am Jenn. I live in Sask. and am a high school teacher on part time contract so I can sit here and read to my heart’s content.
*curtsey*
p.s…I swear lot and am horrid at grammer and my spelling sucks donkey balls, (for reals it does) but I love to write and read. yeah. I have no idea why I felt I had to put that there. heh.
HI!
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Hello! I am glad to hear you like this stuff, and it’s wonderful to be thought of as a nice lady … I’m Emily, and I live in Vancouver and write and read and edit and I am awesome at spelling and even though I am also awesome at grammar, it plagues me in my day job so I often ignore the rules here. I am terrible at math and PE. If you teach either of those, I could use a lesson or two. Not good at science either.
Nice to meet you 🙂
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haaa….Well, I do teach math, grades 8, 9 10 and some 11. But I still suck at it. My dad was a P.Ed teacher and coach of everything so basically when I just stopped being a jock, I was disowned. 😦 Naw..but you know what I mean. Nothing was as important as sports.
But then I went on to get a teaching degree and write curriculum for the province..and still nothing was as important as sports.
I try not to let it affect me. *twich*
My kids know the value of being healthy but they also know to balance it with mental and spiritual influences. They are good boys, (all four) with strong emotional ties to their mom. yay!!
I just like it that they eat my cooking. ha.
The sciences have always baffled me. It might go on to explain why I married a super duper extra weirdly smart science/computer/teacher type guy. I play several instruments, and prefer doodling in clay, paint or even just mud…I guess we balance. Who knows?
Oh and I am also bizzare, strange, and possibly eccentric although my friends refer to it fondly as bipolar. heh. silly friends.
ok at the risk of this sounding like a personal ad….ewwwww.
If its ok,…I’ll stay. I have a live journal if you want the link, but most of my posts are friend’s only. You might have to make an account, (quick and dirty)…but thats alot of trouble.
And I’d rather read your blog anyway. lol
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oh wait!!!! It was on the blogess that I found you…something about you calling your in laws cunts or some such thing. I just howled..and had to read more of you.
thats how I found you!
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Ah, yes … when I drunkenly ruined Christmas with my trucker mouth. A special family time, for sure! (Though I should point out that I didn’t call them cunts, I just shouted the word in all my playground-voiced glory.)
I’d love to see your blog, send the link my way!
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lol….ok.
I SO would love to wreck christmas with the out…erm in-laws.
here ye be:
http://brielle128.livejournal.com/
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oh and let me know if you make a profile…then i’ll friend you and you can read the ‘friend’s only posts’.
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still in the oven…. so the jury is out if they taste good… but definitely not a dozen? easily another 6 or more….i have made twelve right now.. and there is tons of batter left over.. I made it to exact specs. I also added the cherry compost I made last night to it… I think that the recipe would work without the milk and even yogurt as its very liquidy.. I will post when I actually taste them great idea though! thank you
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