Muffins to the Rescue

I don't like to bake, it's just not my thing. It requires too much precision, makes a mess, and you can't just dive in without knowing what your doing.

The overall exception to this, however, is muffins. Once you have a basic idea of what you need, you can kind of add anything you want and it mostly works out. The worst outcome I've had while adapting a muffin recipe is that they came out too dense. But they still tasted fine and that's what matters.

So here is my overall recipe for Super Muffins, which I think Weetzie Bat would have loved as she got older, because they are healthy and packed full of good things, and can be as delicious or sweet as you want to make them.

I've only made these once, and the recipe is completely adjustable and customizable, but here's my basic idea, using a muffin base I found online. Once again, this is during my Juicing kick, so of course I'm using the fruit and veggie pulp that is leftover after I've juiced. This is mostly apple, carrot, beet, and orange, and sometimes kale that got mixed in. The obvious substitute for this would just be the same fruits and veggies chopped fine or (better yet) thrown in the food processor until ground nicely.
Again, I basically stole a Harvest Muffin style recipe as a base, and customized it. This is not vegan or vegetarian, obviously (older Weetzie is a vegetarian), but if you prefer either of these, I'm sure you know how to adapt it.

The Basics: Use your favorite muffin recipe (the one below is a little complicated, I think, but I'm goin for it) and add pie spices, nuts, oats, fruit pulp, and chopped dried fruit! So good and full of flavor!

Super Spiced Muffins

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons fall/pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc)

3/4 cup chopped nuts (I like almonds or walnuts)

1 cup butter, melted 

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/4 cups milk (or soymilk)

1/2 cup chopped dried fruit (cherries, raisins, or craisins, etc.)

1 cup fruit pulp (from juicer or processed fruit)

1/2 cup oats (or granola, but oats blend in better)

Dash of vanilla extract 

 
It has a lot of ingredients, but the wonderful simplicity that is muffins means that you pretty much throw all of this stuff into a bowl, then pour into tins and bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. This is a big recipe, so you'll get a lot out of it.
I haven't tested out this exact recipe yet, but I'm doing it tonight or tomorrow, so I'll update when I do.

Weetzie Drinks

So, since I've been on a Juicing kick this week, my mind has been on that a lot. Of course, my mind is often also on Weetzie Bat (it's an obsession, I know), so, naturally, the two came together.

As of this moment, I'm post-lunch-juice, considering a lunch-dessert juice of just apples and carrots. I'm not hungry, I'm just craving extras, like I would normally do with regular food.

Anyway, I haven't tried these out, but if Weetzie Bat and her family had their favorite drinks, these are what I think they'd be:


Weetzie Bat
Sweet and pretty!
Weetzie would want something that was delicious, crazy-nuclear-colorful, and just happened to also be wonderfully healthy.
So, for flavor, we'd go with apples and either grapes or pineapple, or other sweet fruit. For color, some strips of beets. For health, a handful of something packed with nutrients, like kale or spinach. So, I give you...

The Weetzie:
2 sweet apples
1 bunch of grapes
2 sticks of sliced pineapple
1 slice ripe beet
1 handful kale, spinach, or collards
optional: 1/2 Asian pear, large chunk of watermelon, or


 My Secret Agent Lover Man
Powerful and Practical- with a kick!
My Secret Agent Lover Man would want something that would give him energy and a boost of nutrients. I imagine a sort of Mean Green Machine drink, with lots of leafy, vitamin-rich greens, and a knob of ginger for a tasty zing. When Weetzie made if for him, she'd probably use apples as a base, to make sure it tasted good for him.

The Secret Agent:
1 apple
1 bunch spinach
1 bunch kale
1/2 cup broccoli
1 stick celery
1/2 bunch watercress
1/2 cucumber
1 knob of ginger
optional: 1/2 lemon and a few sprigs of parsley or some wheatgrass


 Cherokee Bat
I think Cherokee would love something that tasted good, like her mother, but was also a little practical, like her father. I see her wanting something very simple and classic, and very natural and earthy. Of course, I see the ultimate classic for her, then: apples and carrots. Perhaps with a zing of ginger like her dad, too?

The Cherokee:
2 sweet apples
2-3 carrots
1 knob of ginger
optional: 1 orange, tangerine, or 1/2 pear

Witch Baby
Lily would want something that represented her and the way she feels/likes to represent herself. Something sweet, but also bitter. Something dark, probably super dark purple, because she likes to feel intimidating and different. I don't think she'd care much as tall about health benefits, so it'd be all about the color-- beets and carrots for that-- and flavor-- sweet apples and pineapple, with spinach and watercress for a bitter bite.

The Witch:
1 green apple
1 carrot
1 bunch grapes
2 slices pineapple
1 big bunch spinach
1 bunch watercress
1/4 grapefruit
2 slices beets
optional: 1 kiwi or 1/2 pear



Anyone have any ideas for Duck and Dirk?
I suppose if I went back and reread Baby BeBop, it'd probably come to me. Dirk would probably be a mix of Weetzie and My Secret Agent Lover Man, and Duck might be more like Cherokees and Weetzies... hm....

Testing a Diet

Day Two of my Juice (half)fast.
So far, so good.
Day 1 was definitely a little weird. I spent the day drinking apple, carrot, and beet juice most of the time, particularly for breakfast, with some kale usually, with a Salad Juice for lunch today and yesterday (leafy greens, tomato, cucumber, lime, garlic, dash of salt). For snacks I drank small cups of apple, carrot, orange, & beet.

If you don't care at all about my "diet" attempts, feel free to skip this post. I'm making new labels/tags-- Dear Diary & Diet-- for all of these personal things, which I don't think is interesting to anyone but I'd like to keep track of it.

Rest of my so-far-success after the break.

Drink Me

Current Obsession: Korean Cinnamon Punch  (i have loved this stuff since it was served at my first korean restaurant, but recently found int in canned form. can NOT get enough of it)
Watching: Wallanger


This week has been a giant pool of "I hate my life" even though I haven't been having any actual problems. Arguing at home, not getting enough work done, being bored.
But still. There's this anger and sadness like murky lake water, soaking my insides and making my skin crawl. Nothing makes it go away and everything He does just makes it worse.

But after a crying spell I do feel better, though I wish I had something to munch on.
On that note, however, is the tiny little issue that I actually can work on: I'm gaining weight.

Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not complaining about my weight. But I come from a family of overweight people, and I've always stayed thin without trying. But I'm terrified that once I gain too much, even just an extra 15 pounds, it'll be too late to go back. That's pretty much the way it was for everyone else. So the five or ten pounds I've gained in the past six months scares the crap out of me.

So I just got back from the store with $12 worth of fruits and veggies.
Wow, that doesn't sound like a lot when I write it down.
At the international store here, that's a lot. I got about a pound of different apples, two pounds of carrots, a beet, some tomatoes, pound or so of kale, some cucumber, some oranges and grapefruit, and some mangoes (that turned out to be bad).
See, $12 = awesome.
 Next trip will include grapes, pineapple, not-rotten mangoes, spinach, and whatever other veggies I think will go with those.

I'm thinking of a two-week-long juice (half)fast. Drinking juice for the first half of the day, and making my regular meals for dinner. Then, ideally, juice as a snack afterward, though that will start tomorrow since I'm eying the popcorn box.

I've had a juicer for a while, and tend to go on kicks with it, mostly for health or cheapness, but this time I'm doing it for weight, and to try to get my poor digestive system to calm the fuck down after a full two weeks of constant discomfort all over the place.
My favorite juice is apple-carrot, though I like adding Kale now for healthiness.

Check out these really wonderful looking recipes:

HuffPost
All About Juicing
Native Juicer


They're good, try it!

Singing Your Broken Heart Out

Sad Songs from cynlady on 8tracks Radio.

When I Can't Hold It In

Excitement like starbursts in my soul. Like smiles that can't be stifled and high wild screams of joy into the night. Fireworks in my blood that make me want to dance and sing and kiss and run. Adrenaline rushing to my brain like a roaring river flooding me with thoughts full of YES and Never Stop and Just Keep Going! A world full of life that I always forget was there and suddenly I can see it and I can feel it all. I can love it all and take it all and nothing can stop me. These moments I am endless and unafraid and invincible. I want crisp air and endless nights and joy that lasts forever with music and light and love and hearts bursting with all of the potential of every single moment.



See Also:  Depression

Potential, I said

But somehow it feels like it's become a hole.
Of potential?
As if that could make sense somehow.

As if I have this promise. This depth of undeveloped-ness. And I keep trying to feed it with thoughts. With ideas. To make it grow. To give the potential its substance. But I don't know how. And it aches and yearns and hungers.
And the longer I go without giving it what it needs, the longer I let this void of maybe possibilty sit and gnaw and fester, the more it shifts.

Potential, I said.

I felt a sense of potential.

That was only days ago.