Strawberry Muffins

It must be hectic when I drop off the planet and stop blogging for two whole weeks....queue music for ::LAME:: :) But I am back! After going to Boston for Spring Break, there was just so much work to catch up on, that I ended up working constantly to finish it and I may be working off just an hour of sleep. I am happy to say, though, that I am kinda, sorta catching up. Okay--maybe I should say--feel like I am not drowning anymore ;) And so I decided to start cooking and baking again. I would like to say that my life has been interesting and fill you in on all the wonderful things that has happened over the past two weeks, but sadly, that is not the case. My life is pretty much the same-- still truckin' along in graduate school, excited and eager for the semester to finish.

I do have to say that I hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday (if you celebrate it). So more insight into my life I guess. My mother-in-law died about 4 months after the hubby and I had gotten engaged (about 3 weeks before I started graduate school). She was so many wonderful things you guys, I cannot tell you how much I loved this women and miss her so. Well, one thing she used to do is make a Easter basket for all of her children, and then a joint hubby and me basket for when I came along-- even though we were all grown up! I loved it! Well, since she passed away, I like to keep up some of her traditions, both to bring a smile to the hubby's face and to just keep traditions that remind me of her. So this year, I decided to make and surprise the hubby with an Easter "man basket." I think he really loved it! 

Let's move on to the important stuff: FOOD. Well, it has been quite some time since I last made the hubby some breakfast. Since it is strawberry season, I have been buying strawberries at the grocery store and eating them up (#sogood, #lovestrawberries). I decided that for the hubby's breakfast, I wanted to make him fresh strawberry muffins. I think they came out perfect and they smelled so good! They were so fragrant they filled up our little apartment with the fresh smell of strawberries. I just know the hubby is going to LOVE them! I included almonds in them too since I had some left over from my Almond-Date Muffins, and the hubby loves almonds but you can easily go without them. I also may have added way more strawberry than the original recipe--but you can't go wrong with that! (I put the amount I added on the recipe below) These are a great way to get ready for the Summer!

Oh and can I say: I've missed posting! It's nice to be back :) 

STRAWBERRY MUFFINS

Adapted from Wendy's Food Files

INGREDIENTS

Preheat Oven to 400F Degrees

2 1/3 c. of flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 stick of butter, melted
1 c. of sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. milk 
2 1/2 c. of chopped strawberries
1/2 c. of almond slivers (optional)
Cinnamon-Sugar blend for garnish

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking soda and sugar. Set aside. In a large measuring cup or small bowl, mix together milk, egg, vanilla extract and melted butter. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and combine--folding batter rather than stirring. Continue folding batter, until all dry ingredients are incorporated (i.e., you do not see any flour any more and instead see only batter). The folding by hand rather than mixer-- will prevent over-mixing. Finally mix in chopped strawberries and almond slivers- again folding the ingredients in rather than stirring.

Line muffin pan with liners or coat with cooking spray. Then evenly divide batter among 10 muffins wells-- I use an ice cream scoop for quick and easy filling (a cupcake batter dispenser will not work so well because the strawberries and almonds create a chunky batter that will clog the cupcake batter dispenser). Sprinkle Cinnamon-Sugar blend over muffin batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 10 jumbo muffins or 12 large muffins. 

Enjoy,
Chika