PB&J Muffins

PB&J muffins
I found this recipe on a blog somewhere, sometime. I made a few tweaks and now I am sharing with you! Completely yummalicious. As anyone who knows me knows, before 9 AM is still the night before. Morning is not offically here until 9:01 AM. And I like to sleep in. Sooooo...I made a batch this afternoon for breakfast tomorrow morning. The muffins did not survive the hour.. I had to make more tonight after everyone went to bed!

• 1 1/3 c. flour
• 1 c. oats
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. applesauce
• 1/3 c. peanut butter
• 1 1/4 c. buttermilk
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• jelly or jam

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar and sugar. In a medium bowl, combing egg, applesauce, peanut butter, buttermilk and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Fill greased muffin cups half full. I use a larger silverware spoon and pour a heaping spoonful into the muffin cup. This is usually about half of the muffin cup. Put 1 teaspoon of jam or jelly in the middle of the muffin batter. Spoon more batter over the jelly. Make sure the jelly if completely covered. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.

Tips:

• To make buttermilk, add 1 T. of vinegar to a measuring cup and then fill the milk to the desired amount.
  
• Make sure that the jelly is in the middle of the batter and does not reach the edges of the muffin.
  
• Make sure the jelly is completely covered with the remaining batter.
  Do not use more than 1 t. of jelly. The muffin will not be structurally sound, and will collapse.

Hurry Up and Wait Beef Roast

So titled because you do everything in a flurry of activity and then wait while the slow cooker does all the hard work.

Ingredients:

one 3-pound top round roast, cut into four large pieces
flour
one onion, cut in half and sliced
six carrots cut into one inch chunks
three cloves of garlic, minced
one or two packages of whole mushrooms cleaned
2-3 tbsps vegetable oil
1/2 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Thyme
2 Bay leaves
salt and pepper

Preparation:

Heat vegetable oil in a skillet over high heat.
Dredge the pieces of beef in the flour and brown in the oil. Do not crowd the pan, you will not get good browning that way.

Put the browned meat into your slow cooker. Add bay leaves to slow cooker.

To the same pan add your onions and carrots. Saute 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and garlic. Saute another 3 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper as desired. Add paprika and thyme. Mix all the ingredients well ensuring that you've deglazed all the pan drippings (add a bit of water if you need it) and add to the slow cooker.

Cover and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours.
Serve with buttered egg noodles or mashed potatoes.